Yuup is looking for community heroes and local champions to take on a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Know someone that is a local champion? An unsung hero that gives their spare time to supporting their community and making Bristol a better place for everyone to live?
Yuup is on the hunt for local Bristol community heroes and you can nominate them to win the experience of a lifetime in the Yuup hot air balloon ride giveaway.
Community is at the heart of Yuup and the company is known for enabling positive social impact. Every day the business works closely with people, charities and small businesses that pour their hearts into making a positive local impact. It’s clear that there are a number of unsung heroes that Bristol wouldn’t be the same without.
The Bristol-born local marketplace is giving away a hot air balloon flight over Bristol to one lucky person that deserves some recognition for their hard work and dedication to bringing positive social impact to their local area.
In appreciation of people making a difference in their community, Yuup is inviting you to nominate someone via the Yuup Instagram page @say.yuup.
Head to the balloon flight giveaway post pinned to the top of the page and follow the instructions to nominate your special person.
They might be a whizz at volunteering or brilliant at fundraising, they could spend their weekends clearing rubbish or caring for animals, they might have started a community group, club, or night out that helps people connect.
The winner will be picked at random from entries with the most inspiring individuals.
Nominations are open until 6pm on 25th August. Full T&Cs can be found on the Instagram post.
“There are many people who don’t believe this actually happened. But it was real. There are the facts.”
Yuri Trush.
What makes a good story? What combination of narrative, character and place makes a story powerful enough to last? To break out of the confines of a single creative interpretation, it must be capable of jumping from one medium to another, adapting in form whilst retaining that universal seed of magic, re-inventing itself in the hands of successive authors, creating its own mythology as it goes.
I was interested in what had happened to people living in the remote forest communities along Russia’s eastern border with China after the collapse of the Soviet Union? What happens to people when the protections of the state disappear? How do they live with no work or pension?
Looking for a commercial ‘hook’ on which to hang this somewhat abstract question, I began researching the illegal tiger trade when I came across a small but epic story.
All great stories tend to be focused on a single emotion- anger, sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise and fear. These combine in subtle ways to create a colour wheel of emotion.
The potent emotion at the heart of this story was fear. That particular fear of being hunted, a fear that still lurks deep in the recesses of our primitive imagination, buried in our pre-history when the tiger was our most feared predator, and man was easy prey. Slow, deaf, blind and foolish.
Long before the ‘blog post’ was a cultural norm, the internet was still a treasure trove of fragments of personal experience ripe for creative treatment. All one needed was a keen sense of the necessary ingredients and a focused search. A local Russian journalist had uploaded an account of a very unusual series of tiger attacks on people, written from the field notes of an eminent field ecologist, Dimitri Pikunov.
Pikunov describes a dark and disturbing series of events initiated by a desperate hunter called Vladimir Markov.
To make a mistake is only human, and we hope and expect to learn from each one. But Markov made a series of mistakes, each one compounding the next, and each steadily reducing his chances of applying the benefit of hindsight.
First he stole meat from a tiger. Then he shot at the tiger. And missed.
A wounded animal is much more dangerous, forcing ‘unnatural’ behaviours that lead inevitably to confrontation. In this case, the tiger was intent on revenge, tracing the scent of the man back to his hut where it lay patiently in wait before stalking and killing him.
Markov had triggered what was to become an infamous series of tiger attacks on people. The authorities called in specialist tiger trackers, a ‘Conflict Tiger Unit’ headed up by Yuri Trush. Yuri was charged both with investigating what had happened and with finding, and killing, the tiger.
This is Pikunov’s account of the final moments of Yuri’s deadly encounter-
“The tiger, now limping badly, wandered the logging road when, in the frosty air, came the rumble of an approaching vehicle. The predator turned off into the glade where the log deck had formerly been and lay down in a shallow ditch overgrown with wormwood. The GAS-66 truck had already made its way up to the corner of the glade.
Yuri Peonka, sitting next to the driver, saw some tracks from inside the truck that appeared to be the ones that they were looking for. Jumping out of the truck, he tested the tracks in the tried and true manner: if it ‘crumbles’, then it is absolutely fresh. Rushing to get his gun, Yuri yelled out to his partners: “He’s here!” Their dog, catching the scent of the tiger, yelped in confusion and, tucking in his tail, hid behind the truck, only sharpening even more the unbelievable tension that mortally threatened all the participants in what was now an inevitable confrontation.
A quick check of the log deck, with its occasional clumps of wormwood, yielded nothing. It was decided that Trush would be the first to go along the hot trail, to the right would be Shibnev, and a bit to the rear and to the left, Peonka. In this kind of wedge, holding their fingers on the trigger, they moved forward. In a little more than twenty meters an instantly soul-numbing roar cracked the frigid air forcing everyone, as if on command, to come to a halt.
The tiger, not more than ten meters away, flew out at them as if from under the ground from an absolutely open, clear spot.
The enormous, ferocious mass of stripes, mad from pain and enraged at people, flew like a hurricane at the first of the shooters – Trush. In a half-unconscious state, he managed to get off two shots. In a simultaneous echo, from the right and the left rang out his partners’ shots on whose accuracy Yuri’s life now depended. These two experienced hunters did not let him down and the bullets hit their mark. The enormous carcass struck the barrel of the rifle and the already lifeless mass slammed down on top of Yuri, its claws, like knives, shredding his outer, winter coat and bloodying it with hot tiger blood.
The three guys immediately composed themselves. The confrontation had taken place so quickly and so unexpectedly that no one even had time to freak. Only later, when talking about what had happened, did the three of them come to the conclusion that everything had come together all too well. And especially the fact that the confrontation had taken place on a completely open spot. What if the confrontation had occurred somewhere in the thickly wooded Bikin taiga? Most likely there would have been yet another victim. Everyone seemed to agree that Yuri Trush was born under a lucky star.”
The idea of a vengeful tiger, enraged by man’s stupidity, was lure enough for me travel to Luchegorsk, a 10-hour train journey north of Vladivostok, to meet with Yuri Trush in person. Pulling into the station on a winters night, I was greeted first by the silhouette of a small back dog, followed by the imposing figure of Yuri himself. I nervously introduced myself and explained my interest in his experience. I mentioned the idea of making a film whereupon Yuri gave a broad smile, revealing a set of sparkling gold teeth. “Sasha”, he said “I have something to show you.”
Back at his flat he sat me down in front of his old TV and inserted a VHS tape. It was only at this point that I realised that he had used a video camera to record parts of his investigation of the Markov incident and I had a film to make.
The story clearly had a universal potency, playing at film festivals around the world from Seoul in South Korea, to Goias in Brazil, winning 19 festival grand prizes and audience awards.
A year after its first release, I received a call out of the blue from the American author John Vaillant. He had seen ‘Conflict Tiger’ at the BANFF Mountain Film Festival and described a ‘light-bulb’ moment in which he realised that he had found the subject for his next book. He asked for my blessing, for some help with contacts, and, by way of thanks, sent me a copy of his previous novel in the post. ‘The Golden Spruce’ dropped through my letter-box a week later and began an extraordinary 7-year creative exchange, a subject for a separate post.
The story first made public in Dimitri Pikunov’s journal had made the leap to another medium, and was on its way to wider international exposure. 3 years later Penguin Random House published John Vaillant’s ‘The Tiger- A True Story of Vengeance & Survival’.
Here is an extract from the book that recounts the lead-up to Yuri’s brush with death-
“The sun shone brilliantly on the undisturbed snow; the only shadows there were those cast by the men themselves—long, even at midday. Gitta continued darting up the trail and then back to Trush, barking incessantly, but she gave no clear indication of the tiger’s whereabouts. She didn’t know. As they walked, the men scanned the clearing, an expanse in which it would have been difficult to conceal a rabbit, and then they focused their attention on the forest ahead, which was beginning to look like one enormous ambush. With the exception of the dog, everything was calm and nearly still. Behind them, smoke rose lazily from the Kung’s chimney, drifting off to the north. Gorborukov was still standing there by the back door, holding his rifle like a broom. In the clearing, the slender stalks and blades nodded reassuringly, as if everything was unfolding according to plan. The men had gone about twenty yards when Shibnev, picking up some kind of ineffable, intuitive cue, calmly said, “Guys, we should spread out.” A moment later, the clearing exploded. The first impact of a tiger attack does not come from the tiger itself, but from the roar, which, in addition to being loud like a jet, has an eerie capacity to fill the space around it, leaving one unsure where to look. From close range, the experience is overwhelming and has the effect of separating you from yourself, of scrambling the very neurology that is supposed to save you at times like this.
Those who have done serious tiger time—scientists and hunters— describe the tiger’s roar not as a sound so much as a full-body experience. Sober, disciplined biologists have sworn they felt the earth shake. One Russian hunter, taken by surprise, recalled thinking a dam had burst somewhere. In short, the tiger’s roar exists in the same sonic realm as a natural catastrophe; it is one of those sounds that give meaning and substance to “the fear of God.” The Udeghe, Yuri Pionka, described the roar of that tiger in the clearing as soul-rending. The literal translation from Russian is “soul tearing-apart.” “I have heard tigers in the forest,” he said, “but I never heard anything like that. It was vicious; terrifying.” What happened next transpired in less than three seconds. First, the tiger was nowhere to be seen, and then he was in the air and flying. What the tiger’s fangs do to the flesh its eyes do to the psyche, and this tiger’s eyes were fixed on Trush: he was the target and, as far as the tiger was concerned, he was as good as dead. Having launched from ten yards away, the tiger was closing at the speed of flight, his roar rumbling through Trush’s chest and skull like an avalanche. In spite of this, Trush managed to put his rifle to his shoulder, and the clearing disappeared, along with the forest behind it. All that remained in his consciousness was the black wand of his gun barrel, at the end of which was a ravening blur of yellow eyes and gleaming teeth that were growing in size by the nanosecond. Trush was squeezing the trigger, which seemed a futile gesture in the face of such ferocious intent—that barbed sledge of a paw, raised now for the death blow.
The scenario was identical: the open field; the alert, armed man; the tiger who is seen only when he chooses to be seen, erupting, apparently, from the earth itself—from nowhere at all— leaving no time and no possibility of escape. Trush was going to die exactly as Markov and Pochepnya had. This was no folktale; nonetheless, only something heroic, shamanic, magical could alter the outcome. Trush’s semiautomatic loaded with proven tiger killers was not enough. Trush was a praying man, and only God could save him now.”
It’s a strange experience to see ‘your’ story through the prism of another narrator’s imagination. John had brought new depths and insight to it with the space and time a book affords both author and reader. It’s interesting to compare how different media handle the spontaneous moment, a narrative territory that is meant to be the special preserve of the documentary film. But the written word exposes different kinds of meaning, and the experience of reading, as opposed to watching, allows us to ‘inhabit’ the story over a longer time. We become immersed in it over days, slowly losing track of where the story ends and we begin. Film is a much faster burn. But what medium has the best claim on the ‘real’? Does it matter? Working together they achieve a higher, deeper meaning, refracting different shades of emotional truth.
And so the story moves on, mutating in unpredictable ways, waiting to make the next leap in the collective imagination.
A month ago I received another note from John Vaillant. ‘Did I keep abreast of the movie news’? he asked. ‘The Tiger’ was to be adapted again, this time with big money and Hollywood production values. Ukranian Director Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi is to direct Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Alexander Skarsgard.
He attached a link to an article featuring this quote from the producer Darren Aronofsky-
“As a producer, I’ve wanted to do two things for a while now: one is to make this film, and the other is to work with the brilliant auteur that is Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi. I am truly excited to be involved with a project that will allow me to do both, and cannot wait to bring this story to the world.”
Aronofsky doesn’t make boring films, and his partnership with an out-an-out ‘auteur’ (best known for his 2014 film ‘The Tribe’ set in a school for the deaf using Ukranian sign language and no subtitles) bodes well for a fresh re-interpretation rather than a dumbed down ‘Hunt For Red October’ version, with Yuri as some tooled up ‘Rambo’ hero primed to tame the wild and bring ‘civilisation’ back to the Taiga.
I pray they do the story justice, but I know it would survive even a proper mauling. Already percolating in the public imagination in multiple forms, it has already proved resilient and adaptable. We have to hope that we will fare as well as we continue to distort nature as we pursue our foolish ends.
Returning to the question of what makes a good story? A mysterious location, vivid characters and an epic battle do not alone explain its universal appeal. Its lasting impact comes more from the way it unfolds. It offers the familiar tension of a dramatic thriller pivoting our empathies from the preyed upon man to the suffering animal. But ultimately resolves as a parable, timeless and universal, that speaks emotively of their shared destiny.
Got a story to tell? Or purpose to communicate? Need some friendly advice?
Would you and your team benefit from learning about and committing to experimenting with new ways of working? If so, join my online course in July – BCI members receive a 10% discount 🤗
In a nutshell, we’ll focus on the common challenges and tensions felt by teams (the perfect inspiration for your experiments); what Harvard, MIT and Google research tells us about great teams; healthy meeting structures; helpful mindsets; power; encouraging a culture of feedback; and techniques for better decision-making.
I love delivering this course. The first seven have been full houses, the feedback has been fantastic, and I can’t wait to go again!
100% of participants “feel more comfortable experimenting with new ways of working” & “would recommend the course to colleagues” 💯
The course objectives are for you to enjoy your job more and to be an even better member of your team. You’ll learn collaboration and leadership skills, how to facilitate meetings that don’t feel like a chore, and how to make better decisions by quickly seeking and integrating the wisdom of the group. You’ll learn how to give ‘brain-friendly’ feedback, recognise what’s getting in the way of being a great team (tensions), and understand the mindset and power dynamics that help or hinder change.
To do this we’ll borrow from the best sources. These include agile, self-management, organisational psychology, and the most progressive companies on the planet. There’s more detail below in the ‘Course overview’ section of the course page, including who’s been attending, eligibility, and course feedback scores.
– By far one of the most useful, practical, engaging, interesting courses I’ve been on. Hats off to you, super well thought out, from a practical, mental and emotional perspective.
– The experimenting methodology gives me the opportunity to not only “take a course” but actually practising in the “real world”.
– The benefits to the business have been tangible and resulted in me thinking about work in a very different way.
– I loved having another colleague on the course and would totally recommend others try to do the same… I loved the organisation of the course, it all felt incredibly “slick.” … I loved Marks humble approach, he listened to us all intently and was patient with us when we needed more time on certain things.
– The experiments each week really helped me grow my comfort towards experimenting further. They gave me the perspective of how much needs to be a done, and an eye for what might be ‘bite-size’.
– I loved Marks generosity, he clearly spends a lot of time preparing and introduced me to very cool tools that we are now using in the organisation.
– The depth of experience and further research Mark has done to curate bite sized resource for us to cover weekly, in a number of mediums, was incredibly satisfying to absorb and kept me engaged over the 5 weeks.
– As a facilitator, you do add quite a bit of magic sauce to holding the space, and your curation of materials is unbeatable.
Your New Ways of Working journey will be more impactful if you have colleagues along for the ride, so you are advised (and incentivised) to bring one or two along.
To secure your place please double-check the eligibility criteria on the course page then send a note to confirm ([email protected]) and that’s it, you’re enrolled!
Most of the time we wander around trapped in our own heads. Left to its own devices, our sense of self is remarkably resistant to change.
But stories offer a way out by ingeniously diverting us via someone else’s experience, disarming our defences by temporarily altering our point of view.
Released from the confines of our delusions, we are able to make fresh insights about how the world works and our place in it.
And the greater the jump the story can make away from what we know, in culture, language, environment and experience, the more we are confronted with the inadequacy of our preconceptions.
Take for example the act of killing. Most of us tend to think that the act of ‘murder’ is only committed by ‘murderers’. It is not only outside our experience but beyond our frame of reference for what is even possible.
But what if the capacity to kill exists in each and every one of us? What if it’s our circumstances alone that can define us ‘in the moment’?
And by circumstances I don’t just mean the immediate circumstances over which we might expect to have some measure of control, but also the larger forces at play in our family, community and society over which we have no control at all. The two can work together to insidiously bring us to the point of no return.
This was the question that I wanted to explore in ‘Arctic Crime & Punishment’.
Transported to a totally different context, a frozen village at the end of the world, could a story still provide the bridge to understanding our own capacity to kill?
And Arctic Greenland is a very interesting place to ask such a primal question because their code of justice is founded on this same principle of good storytelling. Those called to stand in ‘judgement’ of a crime must first step into the shoes of the ‘criminal’- they are required to give priority to the circumstances of the crime over the act itself.
This apparently tolerant view was not born out of some high-minded nobility, but from the necessity for survival.
“We cannot just expel people from society. We need all the people we have, and we have to accept those that we have been given. In Europe you can afford to sweep people under the carpet.” Judge Jens Kjeldsen.
Furthermore, as small, mutually dependent communities, they are able to judge from a position of knowing the defendant’s shoes very well.
But what about for the outsider? Cast into a completely different world, across the chasm of language, culture and environment, could a story persuade the viewer to step into the shoes of a killer too?
And what purpose does an understanding of such extremes of behaviour serve?
“Among all the miseries, there’s one that pierces our hearts most deeply, that wrings the bitterest tears from our eyes. It’s the awareness that we have committed a mistake that we can’t go back and fix. When we look back on our actions, I’m afraid there’s nothing quite so painful as thinking, ‘What have I done?’”
from ‘How Do You Live’ by Genzaburo Yoshino.
We met Naalu 3 days after her arrest. Our Greenlandic translator knew her and her parents. Over the course of the 3 months it took for her case to come to trial, we got to meet her family, and the relatives of her husband, the man she had killed.
If story can be a path for shared understanding and self-knowledge, it can also be a path to redemption and forgiveness.
“It’s truly painful to admit one’s own mistakes. Most people think up any excuse they can to avoid it. However, when you have made a mistake, to recognize it bravely and to suffer for it is something that in all of heaven and earth, only humans can do.
For error has the same relationship to truth as sleeping does to waking. I have seen that when one wakes from error, one turns to truth again as if revived.
We have the power to decide on our own who we will be. Therefore, we will make mistakes. However— We have the power to decide on our own who we will be. Therefore, we can also recover from our mistakes.”
from ‘How Do You Live’ by Genzaburo Yoshino.
Got a story to tell? Or purpose to communicate?
Need a partner in crime?
Employee engagement is an efficient business strategy. Happy, engaged, and resilient staff is the ultimate goal, but it’s easier said than done.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to employee engagement. It’s a mix of rewards, recognition, wellbeing, and community-building. Yuup provides a bespoke solution to each of these concerns surrounding employee engagement:
Employees are the heart of your business and the reason you exist. They’re also a significant investment, so it makes sense to invest in them as well.
Yuup offers a solution for employee engagement that goes beyond traditional perks such as free lunches or flexible working hours.
Based on research into what employees want from their employers, Yuup provides businesses with an innovative way to engage their teams by giving them recognition and rewarding them with things to do that are enriching and personal whilst stimulating the local economy and supporting small businesses.
Yuup is an online marketplace that offers a range of experiences that are perfect for businesses both big and small.
From team-building days to performance rewards and from staff wellbeing experiences to ways to celebrate big wins. It’s a way for businesses to engage their staff in ways they may not have been able to before.
A lot of people ask me where to start with their #newwaysofworking journey. The answer is often frustrating to hear – there is no ‘one right way’ – sorry! It is something that teams need to figure out for themselves and build on through constant experimentation, doing more of what works, and less of what doesn’t. You are closest to the information, so I cannot tell you where is best to begin, nor can anyone else.
What I can share with you are the patterns found in progressive organisations, and this is what I’ll do with my new series: Do try this at work. I’ll be sharing just one at a time, with the hope that you give it a go in your team before the next newsletter arrives in your inbox. First up we have the wonderful circle meetings which are a definite favourite of mine (and the perfect training wheels for consent decision-making!).
Imagine a meeting with no interruptions and no one voice dominating… 😍 Well, you don’t have to imagine…
There is a pretty broad consensus that most meetings are a drag at best and a waste of time at worst – it needn’t be this way! Circle meetings offer us an alternative and are super simple. They teach us to become better listeners and to be more vulnerable. Vulnerability requires candour, and people trust this. Good relationships are built on trust, and circle meetings help us to build this. You’ll hear less from the usual suspects and more from the quieter voices, whose fab ideas and contributions will surprise you.
Given that most of us are fed up with meetings, most groups are open to trying a new meeting structure when it’s suggested. So pop a brave pill (I know this is scary stuff!) and try a few circles meetings where you work. I bet you’ll be surprised by how powerful such a simple structure is.
The more you talking you do in meetings, the more you need to try these!
Below, you’ll find step by step instructions on how to hold a circle meeting and underneath those, you’ll find an awesome how-to video demo created by my friend Tim Shand.
I’d love to hear what you notice after trying these in your team. And don’t forget to ask your team what they noticed after using the circle meeting structure. If their feedback is positive – and I’m sure it will be – then do more!
Good luck! And head here to signup for receiving these by email: https://newwaysofworking.substack.com/
In a world of everything is potentially ‘fake news’ where can we find meaning?
We depend on our own finely-tuned radar of ‘emotional resonance’.
What feels true?
‘Truth is stranger than fiction” because it can’t be contrived. But how do we tell the difference?
Much of the power of non-fiction storytelling lies in its claim to ‘authenticity’. And with authenticity comes the potential for ‘emotional truth’ and ‘meaning’, what stories are supposed to deliver.
Documentary’s promise of ‘authenticity’ rests in its unique ability to express the spontaneous. That moment of revelation might be an action. It might be spoken. It might be in silence. But it’s always unexpected.
In the midst of Russia’s material collapse in the 1990s, ‘A St. Petersburg Symphony’ explores the power of music in a time of crisis.
After 2 weeks of filming inside The Russian National Library, the brilliant Ukrainian conductor, Vasily Zvarychuk, invited us back to his home.
This excerpt, from the first film I made in Russia, shows the film’s emotional turning-point, an unplanned moment caught by DoP David Katznelson.
This chance moment reveals Vasily quite unexpectedly, in all his vulnerability, beauty and love.
It shows not only how we use story to find meaning, but more specifically how story works as a means to discover who we are.
In the words of Matt Hague’s alien explorer from his book ‘The Humans’-
“It takes time to understand humans because they don’t understand themselves. They have been wearing clothes for so long. Metaphorical clothes. That is what I am talking about. That was the price of human civilisation – to create it they had to close the door on their true selves. And so they are lost, that is how I understand it. And that is why they invented art: books, music, films, plays, painting, sculpture. They invented them as bridges back to themselves, back to who they are.”
With 81% of people in the UK today saying that creating a well and healthy world is the biggest challenge of the 21st century and 52% of people in the UK saying that they have felt more unwell since the beginning of the pandemic, the immense scale of the task ahead is very clear.
To further explore this growing challenge, last week (April 28th), McCann Bristol and McCann Synergy hosted the second Talks on Toast event of the year, Truth About Wellness.
Hosted by Kathryn Ellis, Managing Partner, Strategy at McCann Bristol alongside Rodney Collins, Director at McCann Worldgroup Truth Central and Chloe Foy, Behavioural Strategist and ACC Coach at McCann Synergy, the event uncovered research based on 10 years of trended global data about the shape, role and meaning of wellness in consumer lives across 26 global markets – uncovering insights around mental, physical, emotional, financial wellness and much more.
Focusing on wellness both today and tomorrow, the research timeline demonstrated huge shifts in consumer behaviour from before the pandemic through to now. A large emphasis was placed on how far wellness has come in the last decade and the importance that is now placed on this for both customers and workforces.
With 74% of people saying they’re definition of wellness has evolved in the past year, what does it mean to be ‘well’ in today’s world? The insights uncovered suggest wellness remains multi-dimensional, however the definition of wellness we are familiar with needs to expand. Rodney talked through the eight dimensions of wellness including; emotional, financial, spiritual and social, with the focus drawing more now on how a sense of lack in one area can negatively impact another.
Rodney commented: “We’re really noticing that in the past 10 years what has shifted is that each of these dimensions appeared to exist in a silo, there was no mention about how ones mental health could impact ones physical health, how the bacteria in our stomachs affect how happy we are, how loneliness increases our chances of developing heart problems, or how the hitting costs of urban ride sharing is increasing environmental pollutants, which in turn are driving higher rates of Asthma. So the wellness conversation today has really become expansive, interconnected and networked.”
The discussion continued by identifying the erosion of this siloed approach, delving into the evolution of the wellness conversation and addressing five key additional shifts brands and businesses should foster and strive for to ensure a positive wellness evolution in the workspace.
Talks on Toast is a quarterly event hosted by McCann Bristol, delivering insight and global research at a local level based on key global topics.
📣 Introducing The MUZA Collective for Bristol & Bath-based Creatives 📣
Did you know the Creative Industries is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the UK economy, contributing over £111 billion every year? That’s almost £13 million every hour! But despite this impressive growth, work in the creative sector can be extremely precarious… especially for freelance creatives.
Sick pay? Holiday pay? Income security? IR35? Taxes? etc.
As part of our fourth-year innovation project at the University of Bristol, my co-founder and I (Harry Ellis) set about changing this narrative. We immersed ourselves in the region’s vibrant creatives communities, collaborated with experts from Nesta, The RSA and Creative UK, and have developed a solution that provides the necessary securities that freelancers typically miss out on. Introducing… The MUZA Collective.
🚀🚀🚀
The MUZA Collective is a social enterprise concept to support Bristol and Bath-based creative freelancers by combining cooperative principles with the protective salaried status provided by a formal employment contract. Importantly, while our freelance members benefit from improved social security, automated tax/insurances and statutory employment rights, our shared enterprise does not sacrifice their autonomy as they are still in control and work on their own terms.
Our unique offerings:
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sound interesting? Please register your interest today (it’s free, quick & easy!)
In order to move this project from concept to reality, we’d like to invite your support. By expressing your interest today, you can provide us with a valuable proof of desirability, which is vital for the next stage of our project: development!
Please express your interest at: https://www.muzacollective.uk/expression-of-interest (simply your name and email!)
If you have any questions or would like to find out more, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
– Harry and Frankie
Having a flexible working policy is one thing and providing real flexibility for employees is another. As we head into Ramadan 2022, what can agencies do to offer true flexibility to their participating staff?
Ramadan is a time for us to reflect, connect and better ourselves. It is an important and sacred practice, and it requires a great amount of dedication and patience. During Ramadan, Muslims experience a complete change of routine and schedule. These changes have a big impact on our daily lives and will inevitably affect us at work. Agencies need to understand that during Ramadan, Muslim staff will need a greater level of flexibility to ensure they are performing as best they can.
It starts with communication
We’re in advertising, and so we should be good at communicating, right? Agency leaders need to be communicating with their Muslim employees and hearing what each individual will need from them during this time and beyond (a prayer space will be needed throughout the year by some, for example).
Not only should leaders have a good understanding of the challenges and nuances of fasting for Ramadan, but so should the agency as a whole. It’s not about singling anybody out as the lone educators but creating an open environment where Muslim staff feel they are given the space to express their faith.
I have found in the past that colleagues will express feelings of guilt when eating in front of me during my fast. This isn’t necessary. I’ve been fasting for Ramadan since I was a child and I’m very used to it. Having conversations with my colleagues about this at Armadillo has really helped and knowing I have the support of agency leaders is incredibly valuable.
Understand it goes beyond abstaining from food
Most people seem to understand that Ramadan is a religious practice that includes abstaining from food. Fewer people, however, understand that the celebrations go far beyond that. Ramadan is about togetherness, kindness, self-improvement, and faith. During Ramadan, we try to be better versions of ourselves. We try to avoid negative habits such as complaining or using bad language, and many will use Ramadan to give up bad habits.
In many ways, it is about a fresh start and the opportunity to do better. Ramadan is a time to be grateful, give to others and come together with community, family and friends. Much like a celebration such as Christmas, Ramadan includes big family gatherings, presents and celebrations.
Understanding Ramadan as a whole is key in enabling agencies to better support their staff. Many people don’t realise how difficult it can be to book time off work for Eid, for example. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan and is a day of celebration with loved ones. Typically, the day starts with prayers and a big meal is usually the main event but there’s lots of other ways people celebrate too. The reason it can be hard to book off from work is that the date changes every year!
Because Ramadan and Eid are based on cycles of the moon, not only do dates vary, but different people celebrate on different days. Some will follow Saudi Arabia’s example (where Mecca is) and others will go off of the moon stages seen in their country. So you may have two different Muslim employees celebrating Eid on two different days.
A changed body-clock is going to have an impact
Eating at sunset results in the body digesting food well into the night, disrupting our natural sleep cycles and body clocks. The increase in energy that is gained after “iftar” (the breaking of fast), combined with Ramadan being a very social practice means that most people stay up a lot later than they usually would, leading to us getting a lot less sleep than we’re used to.
As we are no longer following a traditional 24-hour cycle, changes in demeanour are common. I find that my energy levels can drop, and it is harder to maintain the consistent level of concentration and patience that I usually have. In terms of work-life balance, patience is a keyword as it is required from both parties, those who are fasting and for others to be patient around those who are fasting, some tasks may take longer for example.
Having a truly flexible schedule works wonders to combat this. Having the flexibility to work around these dips and spikes in energy allows me to continue to produce work of the highest quality. I know some people prefer having the ability to leave early and take a shorter lunch break, for example, which allows them to work at their best.
Real flexibility is, well, flexible. This Ramadan I encourage industry leaders to reflect on their and ask themselves if true flexibility is being prioritised. Adland is changing; this Ramadan is a chance for agencies to be an integral part of positive change.
Agencies and brands can also communicate their support publicly. Over the years I have seen many campaigns launched in aid of Ramadan and Eid. For example, leading up this month, you will see supermarkets advertising and stocking up on dates as this is what a lot of Muslims open their fast with. As each new month is determined by the new moon and looking for the crescent, you may have seen the moon and star logo feature quite a lot. Coca Cola used this crescent and created a moon logo with their brand.
Not in the UK, however McDonald’s did a sand time concept (waiting for time to open fast):
A lot of brands use Ramadan/Eid to show diversity and reach out to different religions/cultures.
Tesco also launch Ramadan recipes: https://realfood.tesco.com/ramadan-and-eid-recipes.html
The article was first published on Campaign in April 2022