The world was changing a lot and I was less interested in the history we were being taught and more interested in the history that was being made before our eyes. Maybe this is where my fascination with change started, who knows, but those 11 years were defining for all of us in one way or another.

I consider myself very lucky that I grew up when Margaret Thatcher was leading our country, I’m sure it’s had more of an influence on me than I will ever really recognise, not because I agreed with everything that she did but because she was (what I now know to be) a rare leader, who said what she was going to do and went on and did it. She answered questions directly, she didn’t care for what people thought about her, she believed she was doing the things that needed to be done and she wanted a better future for everyone (even if this was a little misguided).

Most significantly for me, she was a woman who saw herself (at least) equal to those around her. She was the best role model we could have had in those days and I hope that her death encourages some more 10 to 21 year old girls to have a proper a look at what she did, get beyond the coverage about a country she divided, take an objective look at the first and only woman to lead our country, decide for themselves what an achievement that was and take a lead from the way she did it.

Hopefully then we will be closer to it happening again.

Budget day and the approach of our year-end has given me time to reflect over Cheeky Monkey and why I set the business up in the first place

I have, very unusually for me, spent the last 3 days in one place; my office. As we head towards the end of our financial year, I needed to have a good sort out – something that to be honest, filled me with dread. For the past few years I have delegated this job, which is fine. The bits that need to go to the accountant get sent, it’s the other stuff that generally people don’t know what to do with really, so they stay safe and leave things, in the main, as they are. Files (both paper and electronic) bulging, I felt the need to have a proper look at what we were holding onto and why.

Cheeky Monkey was 9 years old this month; thanks to everyone who sent messages. As I went through our stuff, I couldn’t help but look back at what we have done in that time, the silver lining of a horrible job and what a journey we have had!

I set up Cheeky Monkey because as an employee, my role was to change the companies I worked for from within. It was a job that had conflict designed into it; which I loved, and I pushed my bosses to the limit. They worked within the politics of the business and I didn’t. Politics, by definition means the art or science of governing, I constantly saw so much energy put into this and not into what really needed to be done. I was always just interested in getting the job done, politics became by my definition, the hurdle that would stop me getting there.

Cheeky Monkey was designed to appeal to people who thought the same way. Who realised that if we stopped diverting the energy of the people within the business into the crap, they would have more to give to the stuff that really mattered.

Personally, I pursue change. It keeps me sharp and it’s an energy source in its own right. Cheeky Monkey has evolved so much over our 9 years, not just the work we do but our own business model, it’s essential in showing people that we are our own test bed, and there is much more to come…of course there is, how could we stay the same when the world we operate in has changed so much?

How could we stay the same when the world we operate in has changed so much?

As I listened to the budget yesterday, these thoughts were rolling round my head. It was a budget that no-one was going to get sacked for “he did the best he could with what he had” – when I hear this kind of commentary within businesses I work with, I know we are with the wrong partner. Why do we think our country can stay the same when so much about the world we operate in has changed? It seems to me that politics is the hurdle that is stopping us solving the real problems.

I also remembered the sinking feeling I had as an employee every time one of my bosses would sit me down and say:

• “You’ve got to understand Nina, things just don’t work that way”
• “You have to look at it as if you were moving a big ship, it needs small turns and eventually it will move”
• “If you really want to change, you need to know how to work the system”

It was this kind of talk that motivated me to start Cheeky Monkey, a world where that kind of talk doesn’t exist and within our own sphere of influence, we change quite a bit.

So, as everyone is giving their view on whether the budget was good or not, for what it’s worth here is mine – it doesn’t matter. It won’t make THE difference, not even close, this government won’t… and just in case you think I am showing political allegiance, a Labour government wouldn’t either. Our political system is stuck in a rut; it needs someone to clear out the cupboards, clear heads and hurdles, particularly the system itself.

So, what do we already know about the psyche of a fan?

Fans understand the language of love:

• Familiarity
• Authenticity
• Transparency
• Expertise
• Likeability

There is still a staggering difference between the budget associated with product development and building trust with consumers who use your products and services, compared with budgets for employee development and building trust with the people who work for you.

It has always been seen as a soft investment that couldn’t really be measured. People also said that the benefits of Facebook couldn’t be measured either, but now they are and the statistics are impressive.

It’s about joining the dots in the business, seeing the links everywhere and understanding that every action has a consequence, good, bad or indifferent and putting metrics in to measure the improvements at the current point of pain, or desired goal.

Although companies are still investing for growth, they understand the potential for disruption at any time, remains real. It’s about designing products and services that allow more flexibility in supply and manufacturing, increasing long term alternative sources of raw materials, logistics capabilities and expanding outsourced manufacturing capacity – the idea of sense and respond.

Most companies have exhausted easily gained efficiencies; further improvement will require structural change. It’s now about looking at what doesn’t add sufficient value to customers and adopting strategies that get rid of the things infrequently used, aiming to deliver a level of service which is required by the customer and nothing more.

Don’t confuse this with a “one size fits all” approach to simplification; it’s in fact the opposite. The consumer is driving 3 needs:

• Cost efficiency
• Personalisation
• Speed to market

After a cycle of mass globalisation, we are seeing a demand for local responsiveness from a global core.

How much easier is this going to be if you have an army of fans for a workforce?

These demands mean that, to some degree, we are unpicking some of what we have achieved, but only the bold and brash will admit to that, so some new buzz words and objectives are appearing.

“Achieving the highest combination of operational and innovation excellence, starting with the consumer experience and working back through the design of its supply network; orchestrating an end to end value network”, for example

Its demand driven excellence in a nutshell; a business that can sense, shape and respond quickly and efficiently to opportunities that come out of market or customer demand.

The starting point must be creating the right connection with the people who are doing this for you.

So far the focus has been on external fans. Commercially, creating a fan base for your company, brand and product or service makes a difference. Social media allows the value of a fan to be measured. By measuring the activity of social media pages, Brandz saw in 2010 that fans were outspending non-fans by 4 times. In 2011, Syncapse showed that on average, fans spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not.

On top of the hard cash, fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using the brand and are 41% more likely to recommend a fanned product to their friends.

Red = non fan Green = fan Grey = the difference

Companies are not seeing this increase in value just because they have a Facebook page. They’re seeing this increase in value because they are being active with their fans. As the full Syncapse report shows, no two brand’s fan values are the same and no two fans are created equal. There is huge variability in an external fan base, understanding and working that knowledge means that the average value of a fan can be measured as $71.84 but can swing up to $270.77, or down to $0.

The effort is returned in hard cash. Imagine if you got that sort of uplift from your own staff? Let’s say you get 20, 30 or 40% more in return for you creating your own internal fan base?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded the average salary in 2012 as £26,500.

20% = £5,300

30% = £7,950

40% = £10,400

If you have 10 employees and you got just 20% uplift in contribution, it would be the equivalent of £53,000 or 2 people!

On top of the hard cash, these people are more loyal (less time off sick, more flexible, want to win) and will talk about you to everyone they know, recommending you as the employer of choice.

I was seen as ballsy, determined, strong, and focused and my career benefited as a result. I often describe myself as a child of Thatcher because it paints an accurate backdrop to the world I was trying to succeed in. I didn’t wear shoulder padded suits (thankfully never really been my style) but the iron core of a women who meant business, I carried that look pretty well.

I shunned every “women’s” initiative, anything that remotely sniffed at positive discrimination because I didn’t think women needed it and I certainly didn’t feel that I came second to any man. I judged everything and everybody against my own experience.

Thankfully, I still balanced my professional life with travel. India, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, & Indonesia are noteworthy because of the women I met there. All women like me; ballsy, determined, strong and focused, who also didn’t feel that they came second to any man but they lived in countries where history said they did, they had to manoeuvre in a world I couldn’t even start to imagine; a world where rules were pretty meaningless; where not much was black and white and your ability to be tolerant was the key to success.

It was through these women I realised how intolerant (ignorant) I was. How could I judge everyone by my own experience, when every person’s experience was so fundamentally different? How do you show tolerance for things that just shouldn’t be tolerated? I started to understand that tolerance was strength.

The battle between having tolerance for others and being tolerant of unacceptable behaviour, in order to change the problem at source, I believe, is one of the hardest lessons to learn.

In December, when the public eye wept for the rape victims in India, I thought about all the amazing women I have met in India, Kenya, Nigeria Ghana & Indonesia – who thrive despite the hostile environment they have been born into and thought about the awful realities of change.

Using India as an example, the role of women has changed significantly since Ghandi made everyone see that women should be part of the fight of Indian Independence (and not just an object owned by men; with a need for protection such that girls were considered an unwelcome addition to any family):

• India has the largest number of professionally qualified women in the world
• The largest population of working women in the world
• A higher number of female doctors, surgeons, scientists and professors that the USA
• Politically, women have excelled

Source: Maps of India

Despite the professional accolades, a global poll conducted by Reuters, shows India is the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women and the worst country for women among the G20 countries.

As the people of India take to the streets demanding tougher laws to be imposed, we know that is only part of the process of change.

“Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man presents his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.” – Albert Einstein

Of course this behaviour can’t be tolerated, but is a new law going to solve the source of the problems that exists? Who is going to pick up from Ghandi to educate those who need to exercise more tolerance and respect? Without that how many more women will be hurt before the laws (still unconfirmed to this day) start to take effect?

Why generally are we looking for laws to replace our tolerance for each other?

Today a case is being held in Strasbourg about the women sacked for refusing to take off their religious crosses and the registrar who felt that he couldn’t give sex counselling to homosexual couples. To be honest, I look at these examples and think how has it come to this?

We don’t live in a world that is black and white (thankfully) and we can’t impose rules to keep everyone happy. It is already making us numb to learning what people are really about; we are different, we believe in different things, we each see the world differently and that should be celebrated and not erased.

How will we teach our future generations about tolerance if we continue down this path and how will we ever have the strength and objectivity to teach those who do intolerable things that there is another way of coping with change if all we do is punish them?

This is something we can all change.

Think about it.

I used to spend happy times trying to figure out what the picture was and then joining the dots to congratulate myself on my achievement. I then progressed to creating my own dot to dots with pictures that I wanted to see (probably explains a lot!).

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research over the last week for some potential new projects and I’ve loved it because it’s been like sitting down with a series of dot to dot pictures with no numbers on. I have had no idea what the final picture might look like, I have had to look for the connections and create the picture.

It can be quite daunting because it’s not something we do all the time, and it gives the parts of the brain we don’t use all the time a bit of a stretch – which has to be a good thing.

Eisenhower once said “our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads” and he was so right, there are connections everywhere, in our work and in our personal lives. The magic is in how we join the dots to create the picture we want to see.

Now this if you haven’t already guessed is a mushroom, it’s an easy one because we know what a mushroom looks like.

Now think about a problem or a dream you have, it’s probably more complicated than a mushroom but go with it.

Think about all the dots that need to come together to complete the picture and where you would join the dots so that it resembles something you can see, suddenly your problem or dream has just become visible!

If you can see it, you can conquer it.

Good luck.

It was a great session because I could see what I was saying was hitting home with the audience, when I’m at the front speaking I need to feel that, if I don’t I will change my approach until I do. You see I have currency; it’s in the form of my first-hand experience of what I’ve delivered, how I have done it and my belief that I can get others to do it. I spend it by talking to people and trying to inspire and encourage them to try it for themselves.

It was pointed out by these PA’s that I needed to give this same talk to their bosses, which is probably true, but if I spent my currency wisely and effectively, these PA’s (who have the ear of these bosses) will go back and do that themselves – far more effective and first step in each of them choosing to spend their currency wisely.

Most people don’t realise the currency that they have and even fewer people know how to spend it wisely and effectively which is one of the reasons for political apathy and a general sense that we aren’t in control of what happens, when in fact we are the only people in control of what happens!

I am always looking for good case studies of how the action of an individual can change the world, this BBC documentary on the actions of Bob Geldof and Bono is a great case study, if you didn’t catch it then it will be an hour well spent – let’s face it what else are you going to do in this weather.

Why Poverty? Give Us the Money

It’s 30 years since Bob decided something needed to be done and this programme is a very interesting critique about what they did and how successful it has been. Love them or loath them, Bob and Bono have a way of reflecting on what they did which is as simple as the action they took; they knew what currency they had and spent it wisely and effectively.

No-one can say “because of what they did, this changed – fact” but they know (and so do we) that they did as much as they could do to make a bad situation better.

Can you say the same?

Cries of horror, shock and wonder echoed from the sponsors of the whole idea- the low turnout is- as the chairwoman of the electoral commission a “real concern for anyone who believes in a democracy”. Actually, it isn’t a concern for democracy at all. If this was a concern for democracy, then we would not be putting people on a post when they received less than 10,000 votes in a constituent the size of Manchester.

The error made while the £100m was spent was fundamentally poor communication and engagement with voters. Ask any one of the passers by in a bustling city centre what they think the role of a police commissioner is, how it will affect people’s lives, how much it will cost the tax-payer, and I bet 95% of them would not have a scooby-doo.

In a project review kind of way (Cheeky Monkey style of course) the backers of this project would do right to stare the failure in the face and shake it’s hand, saying goodbye, we will never ever do this again:

• fail to understand the lack of understanding voters have about the police, the role they play, and how these decisions will alter the way things are done (good and bad)
• Hold the elections at a completely unfamiliar time of year, when people are tired and more preoccupied with what they’re going to get their gran for Christmas over going to the polls
• Decide not to make any viable attempt to communicate the plan in any way shape or form
• Underestimate the backlash of the media as a result of the farce, and how it might railroad public opinion of the overall political party who backed it

At Cheeky Monkey we ensure we ensure we always bring people back to the cause, not the effect. So, Chairwoman, next time you’re thinking of how worrying the turn out at the polls might be for the democratic health of the country, try looking at the true reasons as to why this was such a shambles. Go on, it’s like ripping off a plaster…

It seems since psychologists have been able to understand what we say through our movements and gestures we have been hooked. Not surprising because if you are aware of body language, your own and someone else’s you are at an advantage. It’s not about what they are saying; it’s what they are not saying that is always more interesting.

Being aware is where it’s at though as the nurture versus nature debate confirms. Some body language is involuntary and instinctive; these are usually small movements in the eyes and around the mouth for example. Others come through conditioning and because we learn them. These vary depending on cultural background.

Charles Darwin came up with the basics when he said that there were six facial expressions recognised around the world:

1. Happiness
2. Sadness
3. Fear
4. Disgust
5. Surprise
6. Anger

These six things tie into the basic human emotions and are genetically inherited, not dependent on social conditioning or learning and are the same everywhere – amazing. So it doesn’t matter if you are leading a team of people from the different counties of the UK or representatives from each of the continents in the world, you can share the basics of human emotions.

In my experience the most useful interpretation of body language after emotion is to tell you when people are bored. When time is so precious you need to make sure that you have the attention of everyone and people are usually too polite to tell you when you have lost them. You need to know that so that you can do something about it, otherwise people will avoid coming to your meetings.

You know when people are bored when they:

• Don’t look at you when they are talking
• Doodle
• Stare around the room
• Look at their watch
• Move with constant repetition (tapping fingers, swinging feet, playing with their tie etc.)
• Yawning
• Slouching in their seat or against the wall
• Blank facial expression

Body language is not a science and is open to interpretation so tread carefully but sometimes just asking someone out right if you are boring them is enough for those indicators listed above to change or for that person to confess to being out all night. As you build a relationship with the people you are working with encourage them to tell you if what you have invited them to is of no use to them or the way you are explaining it is not engaging enough.

It can feel a bit personal and you might need a bit of body armour but understanding body language is as much about you facing how people react to you as well as understanding the behaviour.

It always strikes me as crazy how few people respond to emails appropriately, giving the information you ask for, making the whole process painstaking and sometimes (most of the time in fact) much slower than picking up the phone to speak. In a world of electronic exchange, we are still learning the art of an email conversation, establishing our own e- etiquette, as we work to get the optimum results in the most time-efficient way.

Looking on the net, it’s incredible how many articles there are on ‘how to write an email to get a response’ or ‘email writing with manliness’ or ‘email etiquette rules for an effective response’. It’s interesting to see how much of our physical conversations (using tone of voice, eye contact/body language etc) transfer over to email writing. I was writing an email the other day and I caught myself thinking ‘I’ll put a question mark here, it sounds friendlier/less aggressive’.

The top tip seems to be to imagine you are the receiver, which is very much like how we convey our point, or steer our conversations face to face- the difference is that with email it’s not as automatic. As more of our conversations are had online, the statistics speak for themselves.

Frankly, it pays to train on getting a result from an email conversation. Email marketing stats show that over 50% of the billions of emails sent out do not get an effective response- ok- so this goes for spam, selling emails etc. but in business, it’s not just about getting a click-through or a black and white response- it’s about getting the quality information you were after in the first place.

So, if you find that you get increasingly frustrated with inadequate responses to your emails, some of this might just be the pig ignorance of the person at the end of the conversation. But, there are some admittedly incredibly obvious pointers you could use to your benefit. And also some very funny ones. Happy emailing:

1. Pay Attention to the subject line
2. Create clear actions with names if you have them
3. Emotion is impossible to convey fully (sarcasm can be a big no no i.e Oh I knew you would come back to me with the absolute fountain of information I needed Harold, thanks so much)
4. Do not write in capitals…. OR COLOURED/UNDERLINED WORDS
5. Keep your language gender neutral (I thought this one was hilarious and very strange)
6. Do not send emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, sexist or racist remarks (obvs)
7. ANSWER SWIFTLY (my fave) (apologies for the capitals)
8. Promise to phone them up if they don’t respond (i.e, I will hound you like a dog for the rest of my days, scare tactic)
9. Be personal (but not too so…)