How to Master the ‘Art’ of Managing Upwards and Still Sleep at Night.

We end the year with our version of the 12 Days of Christmas – a light-hearted look at some seasonal insights to help you over the festive period and into 2025. Amanda Gilbert our Learning and Development Guru attempts to keep us in order as we cobble together insights on habits, collaboration and how to behave at Christmas Do's. Thank you to everyone for listening, sharing, following, and supporting the podcast this year. We hope you all have an amazing festive period and a great 2025. If you're lucky, Santa won't be taking advice from James this year – when you've listened in, you'll know why! We hope to see you all for our next episode on January 7th.  If you want to help others less fortunate than yourself this time of year, Olio - Your Local Sharing App is a great place to start. 

Free advice from two old men, but is it any good?This week, we explore 'how to manage your career' - a subject often discussed, rarely taught, and where perfect answers don't exist. We have both had decades of experience—good and bad—trying to make the most of our careers. So, we thought we would share some of the dilemmas we faced and the insights we have gained. If our expertise isn't enough, maybe Baz Luhrmann's advice from a classic 90s song will be an adequate substitute. You'll also hear about our recent experiences at Christmas markets and how to negotiate with cranky Immigration Officers!If you want more (and why wouldn't you?), let us know by contacting James Lawther or Jimmy Barber.

This week is the second part of our conversation with Gestalt Therapist Dawn Wray. Dawn explains the "five explorations", questions that will help you deepen your understanding of yourself and improve your relationships with the world around you. She also shows how your past can affect your future. If you are 'curious' and want to learn more about the subject, please contact Dawn at the Listening Collective.

This week, we will see the first of two episodes with Gestalt Therapist Dawn Wray. We will explore how therapy can help improve performance and enjoyment at work. Dawn discusses its nature and shares how it can have a profound effect on your personal and professional life. She has helped people who have faced redundancy, been promoted, changed jobs, and many other situations. She shares some questions we can all consider that will help us deepen our understanding of ourselves and improve our relationships with the world around us.We also learn that Jimmy has benefited from years of therapy and that James would benefit from therapy. Stay tuned for next week's continuation of this intriguing and transformative subject.

Good/bad, happy/sad, success/failure—we are conditioned to fear failure, but it's essential for learning, growth, and innovation. This week, we review the research into failure and share our experiences and perspectives. Listen to help you understand and develop a positive relationship with one of life's most prevalent natural resources.If that's not enough, we also share some TV recommendations. Though we recorded this before Rivals came out; otherwise, it would have made Jimmy's list!To find out more, contact Jimmy or James.

This week, Amanda Gilbert joins us to share insights into how you can build people's capability - yours, your teams, or your organisation. Avoid some common pitfalls and follow critical steps to improve capability and results.This podcast follows the recent episode where James shared a magic bullet for improving performance: building your systems' capability. People are critical to any system, so check out Amanda's advice.We also discuss the challenges of buying and maintaining cars, and James improves his productivity by listening to podcasts on double speed—perfect if you're a fan of the Smurfs!To find out more, contact Jimmy, James or Amanda.

This week, we discuss the often shortsighted cost-cutting measures companies adopt to hit their targets and the flawed logic behind these strategies. What might appear to be an immediate saving usually leads to more significant issues down the line. Instead of superficial cuts, we will explain the catch-all strategy to fix all your operational and financial woes.Are we snake-oil salesmen, or do we know the solution? Listen in and decide for yourself.To find out more, contact James, Jimmy.

A second episode, in which Rob Wilson (Co-Founder of Service Economics) shares his insights into Systems Thinking – an approach that can help transform how businesses work. We discuss how you can change the way you think about your system (or organisation) to improve customer and staff outcomes. Rob's advice is easy to understand and pragmatic, and it's immediately apparent how it will radically improve performance. Plus, you don't need to wait for the next Apple Event (pun intended) to find out what the must-have gadget is this Autumn, as James shares his latest acquisition!To find out more, contact James, Jimmy or Rob.Or have a look at Service Economics (service-economics.com)

This week, we are lucky to have Rob Wilson, Co-Founder of Service Economics, as a special guest. Rob has 20+ years of experience leading and transforming service operations across various sectors and is an expert in Systems Thinking. This approach can help transform how you think about doing your job, and it has some stunning results. However, it has been surrounded by mystique and cynicism, as highlighted by the first rule of Systems Thinking – never talk about Systems Thinking! Rob breaks this 'rule' and shows us behind the curtain to understand more about this method and some of the challenges it can help us solve.You'll also get insights from James on Nottingham's roundabouts, and Jimmy recommends the Art of Football for all of your football attire needs (and to get excellent customer service).To find out more, contact James, Jimmy or Rob. Or have a look at Service Economics (service-economics.com)

In last week's episode, we discussed the issues highlighted in Lord Darzi's report on the current state of the NHS and concluded that many are common to other organisations and teams. This week, we share some of the solutions we've found that can help overcome these challenges, from breaking a backlog to finding the best opportunities for improvement. We also discuss how Jimmy regresses to childhood to stay mentally fit whilst James opts to do what he's told to stay healthy!To find out more, please get in touch with James or Jimmy.