Monthly Archives: April 2010

10 Steps Politicians Need to Take to Engage

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I was reading Scott Gould’s blog post My vote for sale: Price: Engagement. And it got me thinking.  What would you do if you were a politician?

Politicians are utterly petrified of a combative media, and saying the wrong thing, but what can they do to engage?

10 Things Politicians could do:

  • Admit fault – When was the last time you heard a politician do this well? Humility is powerful.
  • Be Human – Cameron engaged people with a family tragedy, but it was accidental. It showed that we want human politicians not robots.
  • Empathise – “I understand” is about the most powerful thing you can say to someone who is feeling let down by you.
  • Ask Questions – Wouldn’t you like it if a politician asked you what to do?
  • Avoid attacks – I’m not saying don’t disagree but, we need to restore that grown up respect that came from being Right Honourable. I want to respect my MP, give me a reason to
  • Explain – Policy is difficult, and complex. The public struggle to grasp that, yet there are great ways to explain complex problems. It’s called leadership. It’s there, it’s just terrified of being eaten alive by our media.
  • Kill the Press Office – Alistair Campbell made British politics less human. We need to reverse that trend.
  • Embrace simplicity – Again, taking lessons from copyblogger and social media – We want simplicity, preferably in 140 characters.
  • Support Local Heroes – “Social Enterprise” still feels too much like an election ploy from the conservatives, but local is back. Who’s doing great things in your constituency? Champion them, give them a platform.
  • Be THE voice for your constituents – We have become a presidential style nation, which is very London centric. People feel disengaged because they don’t know who their MP is, or how those local issues are being solved.

Where did this problem come from?

The 3 main parties have huddled around the centre ground, to chase an apathetic public. They had a lot of success with by being stage managed with Tony Blair… New Labour was effective in being very centrist and at not making any decision that was too controversial.  The result was apathy.  We’re not engaged because politicians became very effective at saying nothing.

Politics now lacks a “big idea” to get behind on all fronts. The most engaging message getting to voters at this time is “We’re not Gordon Brown”.  The party leaderships are reactionary, fear public opinion and fear the media instead of leading it.

Where is the Leadership?

We the public, want to get behind a movement, and want to engage at a local level.  The desire has never been missing, the mechanism has.  Politicians ducking answers, fearing the public and media are creating more apathy, not solving it.

We can make the public care again, by making politics relevant, on a local scale and engaging on the human level.  What do you think will help? Do you think there is anything else politicians need to do?

How to Change Your Life by Creating a Network

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Your response to The Lost Generation has been phenomenal, thanks to all of you who shared your experience and frustrations with the current jobs market.  What is absolutely clear is you’re not alone in the big hole between education and your career

Key Themes

The messages are coming from your experiences in industry and education are:

  • Industry wants Graduates to have a stronger grounding in experience and relevant skills
  • Students are disappointed by following conventional wisdom for starting a career
  • Graduates are struggling to find paid work, that they enjoy and where they feel useful

When you consider that working class children are less likely the climb the social ladder than any other developed nation.  It makes you wonder, what can we do?

Developing your Network

Going to a careers adviser is both scary, and very official.  Who can you tell that you actually don’t have a clue what to do, or what you’re good at?

  • You might tell your friends, but they’re in the same boat as you.
  • You might tell your parents, but they understand how the old economy worked.
  • You might tell your tutor, but how much time can they dedicate to you?

You are much more valuable than the words on a CV.  Yet how often do we share what we really care about with people we already know?

We already have a strong social network, but often don’t use it to help our career.  What if we reached out and used the Social Networking tools themselves?  This means using existing networks and finding the people who can help you develop; Helpful Networks.

Creating: Helpful Networks

You want a job you enjoy, so do your friends.  The problem is you don’t yet have to tools to find what you’re looking for.

Some of the offers of help, and suggestions from experienced experts in their field have shown that the desire exists within the business community to reach out and help you.  Would you be willing to meet attend an event, if it meant you were learning skills that could lead to your dream career?

Can you Help?

We have a communication breakdown between our Academic career and the rest of the world.  My Goal over the next few weeks is to develop a series of events, putting students, graduates and industry in the same room together.  Will you bring your network?  Please contact me if you can help.  @sytaylor via email, or via facebook.

The Lost Generation

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I was talking with a friend who is struggling to find a job after uni, sharing with her the experiences of recently being a job hunter myself.  It’s becoming an all too familiar conversation.  There is a wealth of passion and talent in the UK that simply doesn’t know how to advertise itself .

In the age of Social Media, Mobile Commerce and TED Talks, we have reached a peak of knowledge sharing… but have we forgotten how to teach the most important skills in life?

Our society has steadily created a world where younger generations cannot afford to own their own home, they can’t find work & have little real world experience with which to market themselves.  This will become a growing problem for our economy unless we address some of the key challenges.

The Key Themes emerging are:

  • Identity Crisis: “Where do my skills fit in?”
  • Hopelessness: “Nobody will give a job to someone without experience”
  • Insecurity: “I have done nothing of value so far”
  • Disappointment: “My current job is not challenging”
  • Financial Stress: “I’m in heavy debt and can’t escape”

These themes all become apparent at a time in life between the security of childhood and the uncertainty of adulthood, often called the Quarterlife Crisis.  There is a Generation of people trying to establish their identity and chase their dream but they don’t know how to do it.

What can we do?

Firstly, it is vital we recognise that Social Mobility has become worse.  The ability to come from nothing and make something of your life is harder now than it was 20 years ago.  There is a lot of experience locked up in industry, busy being productive.  Once we get on that ladder we tend to use all our efforts to climb higher.  How much could we gain by lifting the young talent around us on to the career ladder too?

Fixing the Identity Crisis

The criminal mistake of education is not making it relevant.  Perhaps you can relate to the scenario of sitting in class being genuinely frustrated.  For us to value knowledge we have first to believe it is important to us.  How do we make it important?

Universities, and crucially student placement, or first job apprenticeship roles give very little responsibility to a young talent.People learn by doing.  Education has become about passing exams, rather than gaining experience.

How would you feel about attending or contributing to an event designed to bridge this gap?  Can you help out?

Replenishing Hope

It’s a sad indictment of our society that our young people buy into an election slogan of hope, because they themselves are running low on desire at a very young age.  Desire comes from belief, belief comes from hope.  Hope comes from our peers, our parents and our society.  When did we turn off the “Hope Supply”?

Action for Mentors: Can you find someone that and needs help and give them that shot in the arm, and benefit of your experience?

Action for Apprentices: Can you find a mentor who understands your talent and is willing to spend the time to work with you?

Sometimes it just takes external validation for us to begin to believe in ourselves, enough to pursue a dream.

Insecurity, Disappointment & Financial Troubles

These all disappear, crucially, when we gain experience.  Who do you know who needs a chance?…  Two key things need to happen.  Apprentices need to look for help from their peers, but we, the employed and skilled, need to look for talented young people to lift up.  Our society needs it, and our Education System is woefully inadequate.

Starting a movement.  We’re racing towards an epidemic of unemployed de-motivated young adults, and by virtue a dying economy if we don’t fix this problem.  Can you help?  Email me sy@sytaylor.net contact me on twitter @sytaylor or via facebook

Looking for ideas, suggestions or thoughts on an event we can create to start this movement.