Visualise your ideal future

I am sure many people have had times in their career when things go wrong or mistakes are made. These setbacks often throw up roadblocks and can stop personal development or even change and innovation.

However, for many leaders, setbacks provide opportunities to learn from. Former US President Bill Clinton said: 'If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.'

It isn't always to do with age though, and Steve Jobs hits the nail on the head when talking about innovation: 'Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.'

Planning or visualisation

A way of planning for mistakes is to visualise and test them. This can be done mentally, on paper or with trusted people. This is a technique we use in PR when looking at possible negative issues or when responding to a crisis.

Visualising and testing in advance gives you the opportunity to ask difficult questions or plan responses to difficult scenarios. You can also visualise where you want to end up and hold that in mind when dealing with the issue at hand. This helps calm you in a crisis and gives you the confidence you need to handle those sticky moments.

Success

The same can be said when thinking or visualising about the success of your business or career by giving you an objective to strive for. This technique is used in sport to often great success. You can also do this through training. Why not take a look at the i-Select training services to see how this can help you visualise your way to success. Or speak to them about training tailored to your needs. 

Marcus Chrysostomou, Marketing Advisor, I-Select Consultancy Ltd & Owner Equilibrium PR

Will 2016 act as a showcase year for resilience of the UK transport network?

I recently (November 2015), produced a technical programme for a one day conference on the topic of the UK rail network resilience in dealing with severe weather conditions.

The conference programme covered recommendations from the UK Transport Resilience Review 2014, lessons learned from failure of the rail line at Dawlish by a storm in 2014, national and international case studies, data forecasting techniques and the importance of cross sector working. At the time of the conference programme production, I didn’t think that transport network resilience would again become a lesson learned with another rail line closure in December 2015.

Much of the North of England has been devastated by floods caused by record levels of rainfall over the Christmas period. Power and transport networks have been cut off and Network Rail has confirmed that the West Coast Mail Line north of Carlisle will be closed for several days to deal with the impact of the floods.

A recent research by Mott Macdonald estimated that the damage done by the storms in 2014 cut off rail links in Cornwall and Devon for several weeks, is to cost the economy £1.2bn. The cost of the closure of vital infrastructure from the recent floods is yet to be calculated but will include the impact of closing the west coast main line, the loss of power to 55,000 properties and businesses, and the impact of lost connectivity between towns and villages as bridges were destroyed by surging flood waters. The question is: were the lessons from 2014 learnt and if lessons were learnt, are the implementation of these lessons not apparent yet or are we just using these as opportunities for discussion rather than making changes? I hope 2016 is not going to be just another year to debate the lessons learned from the new floods of 2015 but to act as a showcase year and gives us a successful case to discuss and act on of "how well our transport network and infrastructure is resilient in response to severe weather”.

Wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Zeenara Najam, i-Select Consultancy Ltd

Finding The Theme to Win The Bids

Every year, contracts worth many billions of pounds are put out to tender by private businesses and the public sector. In addition, funding applications are invited for specific projects by the public sector, lottery organisations and private trust funds. Competition for these contracts and funds is tough, especially in the current economic climate.

Organisations often view bids as an administrative task, and therefore concentrate on creating bids that are compliant: delivered on time, meeting the specification and answering all the questions asked. But then they find that they don’t win and begin to get despondent.

The root cause of their poor win rate can often be traced back to the fact that such organisations are unaware of what it is that makes them special, or different, or better than their competition. But if just one bidder has put forward a bid with a strong win theme, something (other than price) that presents a strong case for why they should be the winner, then the buyer will more than likely latch on to this, and might well make the award accordingly.

Finding that elusive win theme can be tricky. That’s why i-Select Consultancy has created a one-day course to help organisations to help with this vital business development skill. Delivered by Emma Jaques, author of two books on the subject and with over 15 years’ experience in bidding, this workshop will prove invaluable to those looking for expert guidance.

This course is a practical, interactive and valuable guide to winning bids and tenders. Delegates will learn how to find opportunities, to effectively manage the process – and most importantly to significantly increase the chances of creating successful bids. Please find-out more details here.

Emma Jacques, Managing Director Onto the Page Ltd  & i-Select Consultancy's Course Winning Bids and Funding Applications Trainer

How to manage effectively with less spend?

Well, yesterday's Spending Review brought a mix of news such as 50% increase in the capital funding for infrastructure projects and rise in the NHS budget from £101 billion today to £120bn by 2020-21. But the Department for Transport's operational budget will fall by 37%, Transport for London will lose billions due to a cut in subsidies and the NHS is expected to make £22bn in efficiency savings while Department of Health resource budget to fall by 25%. The Spending Review reinforced the government's ambition for organisations and departments to spend less but manage and deliver effectively.

Each organisation is indeed now faced with tough decisions about how to best use resources to achieve the government’s ambition. The ‘new set of devolution deals’ also represents an opportunity to improve public services as well as to stimulate economic growth.

The starting point of the devolution powers was with the decision to devolve the £6bn NHS budget of Greater Manchester to a combined authority of the constituent local councils. The future organisational structure and performance of Network Rail is also under review and a consultation was launched on 12th November 2015 following a scoping report publication.
 
In principle it is a smart idea to manage with less and to regionalise the NHS, devolve powers to local councils, establish combined authorities and reform Network Rail. But the problem is that most organisations have no awareness of how to deal with change management and implement successful transformational programmes. 

Because of this i-Select Consultancy designed a workshop on change management and leadership. We are delighted to bring industry top influencers such as Tony Buzan as trainers of this workshop who will held the interactive discussions, case studies and teamwork, to expose participants to the frameworks and tools they will need to succeed in a competitive environment and to achieve thegovernment's ambition to “spend less but manage and deliver effectively”. Please see the workshop details here. We are looking forward to “Think Buzan” with you all on 15th March 2016 in London.

Zeenara Najam

Director i-Select Consultancy

i-Select Consultancy

It is a great pleasure to launch our i-select consultancy website. www.iselectconsultancy.com

At i-Select Consultancy we deliver services to our public and private sector clients by developing a tailored approach that meets their financial and technical requirements. We believe in building long term relationships with our clients through providing them with quality customer and analytical services. We are skilled in transport planning, project management, bid/business case writing, designing and organising  trainings, workshops and seminars.

On behalf of i-Select Consultancy, I'm also pleased to announce two training events in March 2016. 

• i-Select consultancy is proud to share that The Noble Prize nominee & creator of Mind Mapping method Tony Buzan, Award winning author, coach and speaker  Arif Anis are trainers of our Change Management and Leadership Workshop on 15th March 2016 in London. We are thankful to our host Bevan Brittan LLP.  
• Expert bid writer & practitioner Emma Jacques is trainer of our Golden Rules of winning bids and funding applications course on 3rd March 2016 in London. We are thankful to our host Capita. Book these dates in your diary and we see you!

I'll write soon separately about these events. Meantime you please explore the i-select and these both events at www.iselectconsultancy.com

Many thanks to all who supported us to reach here; our clients, stakeholders, customers, professional fellows and team. We hope for your continued support & look forward working with you all in the future too.

Zeenara Najam

Director, i-Select Consultancy Ltd