Finding the ‘Happiness Factor’

Wednesday 16th May 2012 – 3:04 PM

I recently came across an interesting article, based on an economic journal study about happiness in life.  The article observes that: ‘Staying in education longer does not necessarily make someone happier, according to new research.’  The research was based on data from the UK and Germany and found that teenagers spending more time in education generally did better and achieved better jobs but that they weren’t necessarily happier with their lives. Is this a surprise?

Only if you think that a good job equals more money and that money equates to greater happiness. 

A good job can be demanding, stressful and take us out of our comfort zone into challenging territory.  Add to that questionable management, colleagues you don’t relate to and a growing realisation that you’re on a treadmill until you retire or fall over and is it any wonder that there’s no guarantee of happiness?  Much has been written on the subject and interpretation is subjective, according to our own attitudes and beliefs, but for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts:

“The concept of ‘work life balance’ is a fallacy” – Not because it isn’t important to consider both but because I think it’s more about ‘life’ – some of which includes paid activity and some of which we choose to do. We have one life and to enjoy it, we have to find satisfaction in all that we do, whether at work or at play.

“You do have the power to change your life for the better” – I like the expression, ‘you get what you tolerate’.  We have a tendency to blame others for our lack of success, failure on the job, missed promotion, etc. One thing we do have control over is ourselves, how we behave, how we respond and whether we choose to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to something or someone. Realising that we have this power and choosing to exercise it can be liberating!

“What is my purpose?” – Not a trite question in any sense. Being clear about what we want our lives to look like, what our values are, what principles we live by and where we belong are key to having a sense of direction.  How many people sit down and explicitly describe this?  Few of us know we want to be the proverbial train driver when we grow up but what we can do is define what sort of things we’re good at, what sort of environments we work well in and build on this knowledge to actively direct our lives.  Often friends, family or colleagues can provide objective insight – why not ask for it?

Okay, I could go on to list a hundred factors and there will be a hundred more but the point is, do you know what matters to you, how to live with integrity and direction, and what you need to do to make things better rather than accept the status quo? 

Everyone is different but there are some common themes, which apply to us all and these tend to include direction, focus, freedom and autonomy.  They have to include doing things that we value, with people who support us, and share some of our values.  We usually need some variety in our lives.  We also need some certainty.  Each of us sits at our own point on a spectrum. The trick is finding and recognising our own preferences, then actively working with what matters to us to move forward.

Back to the survey on happiness then, is it any surprise that more education doesn’t equate to more happiness?  Not unless school, college, university or apprenticeship includes some of the above (which to the best of my knowledge it rarely does).  So if you want to be happier, how do you go about finding your direction then steering an appropriate course?

My suggestion is play to your strengths – if you are a reader then there is plenty of guidance in print.  If you are more of a listener, or you learn better by doing, look for courses or coaches or seek a mentor.  If you just need to get on and do it yourself, then enlist the help of friends, family and colleagues, and make a bold statement about what you are going to do.

Then do it, reflect, learn and adapt again.  Remember, you get what you tolerate so the only question is, what will you tolerate in terms of happiness in life?

Jaime Beckett, Principal Organisational Practitioner – jaime.beckett@icecreates.com

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Finding cancer rates hard to swallow?

Thursday 10th May 2012 – 12:43 PM

Preventable cancers come under the global spotlight next week, with the World Cancer Research Fund’s Cancer Prevention Week 2012 (14-18 May). But how can you support local people to recognise – and act on – the symptoms of cancer and tackle its prevalence in your community?

Take oesophago-gastric (OG) cancer. Are people in your communities ignoring persistent incidents of heartburn, indigestion and difficulty swallowing? At ICE, we’ve been working on the national pilots to shift public and professional awareness of OG cancer, using a ‘Push and Pull’ strategy which is getting both external and internal partners involved in interventions that really resonate with target groups.

We’ve also used this ‘Push and Pull’ approach to deliver real outcomes around lung cancer:

  • Improved quality of life (in some our most deprived communities)
  • Higher footfall into secondary services
  • Sustainable stakeholder engagement

So, what’s the thinking behind a practical ‘Push and Pull’ strategy?

‘Pushing’ bespoke interventions – Working with stakeholders to develop insight-led interventions which meet local communities at a time and place that suits them. In this way, local NHS teams can engage people at their greatest point of need and ‘push’ them to make appointments sooner. That’s enabling earlier diagnosis and getting higher footfall into secondary care services.
‘Pulling’ stakeholders into the process – Getting sustainable buy-in from all partners has proved essential to driving people to see their GP and signposting them to secondary care. It’s all too easy to lose focus on stakeholder communications, but we know if they don’t sign up to your objectives, hitting your KPIs will be an uphill battle. Keeping them involved at every stage builds sustainable momentum for the future.

Other crucial elements of this people-centred approach include:

  • Demographic profiling: focusing on areas of highest prevalence and developing key interventions in cancer ‘hotspots.
  • Heath professionals: drawing on their role as ‘community connectors’, as well as their clinical expertise.
  • Robust evaluation: not only evaluating your work, but also being prepared to adapt your approach in conjunction with stakeholders to achieve the outcomes you need.

Of course, this is just a taster of the outcomes-driven programmes we’ve developed in this challenging area. Tackling the prevalence of cancer in our communities is a major concern, so if you’d like to discuss or share any aspects of our work, contact me direct:

Sarah Love, Principal Social Marketing Practitioner – sarah.love@icecreates.com / 0777 999 3783

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Pinterest: Flash in the pan or the next big thing?

Tuesday 8th May 2012 – 11:45 AM

There’s been a real online buzz around Pinterest, the latest social networking sensation, in recent months. But what exactly is Pinterest, and what’s propelling its rise?

For the uninitiated, Pinterest does exactly what it says on the tin – with members able to ‘pin’ things that interest them in their personal and professional lives onto their own virtual pinboards. Users can create manage online images collections, alongside videos and other objects. Just take a look at ICE’s newly created Pinterest site as an example, where we’ve created boards such as ‘Things that excite us’, ‘Our world’ and ‘Perspectives’ to creatively showcase our work and interests.

Pinterest users can also interact via both their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and through an iPhone app. (A dedicated Android app is also said to be in the pipeline).

Its rapid growth is unprecedented. Time magazine listed the site in its ‘50 Best Websites of 2011’ article and it quickly broke into the top 10 largest social networking services. Then, earlier this year, it became the fastest EVER standalone site to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark in the US. Between January and February alone, online analytics reveal 52% growth. So, there’s no doubt Pinterest has been gaining momentum and capturing our imaginations!

Interestingly, 83% of American users are said to be women in the 35-44 age bracket, although there’s a role reversal in this country where users are predominately male – and slightly younger too.

What’s really striking about the Pinterest phenomenon though is its business potential. One recent article in Retail Week suggested that the site is uniquely placed to directly drive sales.

In fact, Pinterest is already claimed to be driving more referral traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+.  Mashable also cites the experience of Wayfair (the 2nd largest home goods retailer by revenue in the U.S.), which says shoppers referred by Pinterest are not only 10% more likely to make a purchase than visitors who arrive from other social networks, but also spend an average of 10% more as well.

So the early indications are that there’s plenty of scope for companies to turn Pinterest to their business advantage.  Time will tell, but with Pinterest already said to be worth as much as $500 million in a sale, this “new global platform for inspiration and ideas sharing” looks poised to grow and grow….

 

Heather Sewell – heather.sewell@icecreates.com / 0845 5193 423

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Writing web copy that really works: Top five tips

Thursday 3rd May 2012 – 4:15 PM

“79% of web users skim rather than read,” according to the so-called ‘king of usability’ Jakob Neilson.  So why do so many organisations still treat their websites as a marketing ‘push’ rather than gearing their web copy up to ‘pull’ in web users?

Web users are fundamentally goal-oriented and want to control their online experience for themselves. So the trick for any online copywriter is to satisfy these needs as fully as possibly – and then some.….

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1.    Start well: Establish your brand by creating an instantly understandable, content-rich (not wordy!) home page. Keep it topic-focused (after all, does the end-user really care how your organisation is structured?) and include lots of meaningful links and short descriptions.

2. Stay people-focused: Who are your target groups? What are their key characteristics? Question your assumptions by developing online personas and real-life scenarios to keep you on track with your users’ wants, needs and accessibility requirements. (And keep on revisiting this with usability testing). Keep it real by using personal pronouns like “you” and “we” to show that your organisation contains real people!

3. Create clear pathways: Users are on a mission to find the information they need, so don’t make them think! Remember lots of people land inside websites (via search engines or email links), so stop them from using the back button by giving them somewhere useful to go.

4.    Think information, not documents: Presenting information in manageable chucks (with lots of topics & sub-topics, headings & sub-headings) will help you give your users the right amount of the right info at the right time – and make key words more searchable. Eye tracking research has shown that users tend to skim web pages, so use an ‘inverted pyramid style’ rather than a traditional narrative style. Also, beware of uploading paper-based pdfs, which may pose accessibility issues for some users.

 5. ‘New rules’ for press releases: The internet’s changed the distribution and lifespan of press releases forever. So make your news releases dynamic, up-to-date and searchable with lots of keyword-rich language, links to related content (like video, blog posts and e-books) and social media tags.

And it doesn’t stop there: keep reviewing, revising and adapting – working in a true partnership with your end-users……

For more advice on making your web copy come alive in the eyes of your customers, contact us direct: Richard Forshaw, richard.forshaw@icecreates.com / 07540 412304.

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To Shwop, or not to Shwop?

Thursday 3rd May 2012 – 1:56 PM

It’s been interesting to see Marks and Spencers’ new ‘Shwopping’ initiative this week – a clothes shopping and swapping scheme which will see all M&S stores accepting unwanted clothing of any brand, all year round. With clothes being resold, reused or recycled through Oxfam, the thinking is it will help reduce landfill.

Looking at it dispassionately, the behaviour change principles of Shwopping are good. It doesn’t take people too far too fast. It’s easy and convenient (all in one place, with at least two Shwop drop boxes per store near cash registers), and makes it real for people without being too demanding on their time. It also makes recycling fun (don’t underestimate the Joanna Lumley factor!), plus Shwoppers can even enter monthly prize draws via a Facebook app or by text.

Crucially, Shwopping is part of a long-term relationship with Oxfam and positions M&S as authentic and ethical (although some commentators have argued it doesn’t actually go far enough). As part of the ‘Plan A: Doing the Right Thing’ campaign, there’s clearly a long-standing commitment to being a truly sustainable retailer, drawing on a collaborative partnership with a globally renowned aid and development charity.

It’s certainly encouraging to see retailers and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) firms taking a closer look at sustainability and behaviour change. There are also parallels with Unilever’s campaigns, which cleverly encourages behaviour change while promoting use of their products. In fact, it’s a fundamental part of the Lever history. However, authenticity is essential for people to place their trust in these organisations. Unilever still suffers from bad headlines generated by pay and pensions disputes, for example. Do employees feel able to walk the talk?

That’s why we advocate using our SO Change model, which combines social change and organisational change methodology – to recognise the the essential links between companies, their cultures and the communities they serve. Traditional agencies don’t understand behaviour change, they understand preference change. We understand that if you need to change behaviour of consumers, you MUST change organisational behaviours as well.

What about you, what do you think about the concept of Shwopping? I’d love to know your comments….

Richard Forshaw – richard.forshaw@icecreates.com / 0754 041 2304 

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Listening to young people – Innovation, creativity and engagement

Wednesday 25th April 2012 – 4:23 PM

What does it take to truly engage young people – and drive sustainable changes in their behaviour? Ask yourself, are you listening to their wants and needs? Do you understand what makes them tick?

The truth is, there is no ‘one size fits all’ and ensuring young people are at the heart of any intervention is easier said than done. But some key trends and tactics have emerged from working with these target groups, which we’d like to share:

1. Make it young-people led -‘Nudging’ positive changes in behaviour is all about designing appropriately targeted services with young people at their heart – and with full participation from young people themselves. Take the Asgard programme, where insight from 16-19 year olds was essential to developing this award-winning approach to support young people engaged in risky behaviours.

2. Use a peer-to-peer approach – Young people don’t want to feel judged or preached at. Time and time again, we’ve seen that they want to hear about things that matter to them from people they know and trust. One recent programme helped tackle the issue of 13-15 year olds binge drinking by recruiting peer mentors who could spread key messages much further and faster than any health professional.

3. Get interactive – 73% of young people watch videos online each month, while 55% log onto Facebook as soon as they turn on their computer. So using digital communications like viral video can deliver high impact results. Just look at Bad Nashers, the viral video we developed to encourage greater take up of dentists among 16-24 year olds in Coventry.

4. Keep it real! – It sounds obvious, but brief, targeted communications will prevent information overload. Talking ‘with’ young people and not ‘to’ them – in language they use and understand – will help you deliver lasting results. Take our work on Cut Films, which challenges young people to make two minute films to communicate the harm of smoking to their friends using cutting edge digital technology and social networking sites. In just 12 months, entries to the competition were viewed almost 30,000 times on YouTube. (Again, all peer-led!)

5. Use non-traditional settings – Provide innovative ways for young people to access services. For instance, the national ‘You’re Welcome’ initiative underlined the importance of providing flexible services in comfortable, non-traditional settings, at a time and place to suit them.

Find out how you can transform this advice into action by speaking to us direct: Richard Forshaw – 07540 412 304 / richard.forshaw@icecreates.com

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Building a great website in three(ish) steps

Wednesday 25th April 2012 – 11:31 AM

So what is the “right way” to create a new website? Well, it’s not always an easy process – but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be simple.

When it comes to creating that new website that will help people to engage with your service more effectively, help you sell more of your product range, or widen access and participation, we believe it’s as simple as 1-2-3. Or more accurately, as simple as How, What, Why.

Last week, we were really pleased to be asked to talk at the FACT Connects event, hosted by Liverpool-based arts and digital media organisation (and ICE partner) FACT, to an audience of arts organisations, small businesses and social enterprises, where we outlined this simple approach.

You can view our presentation or see the live blog here.

It’s all about answering the What, the How, and most importantly of all the Why about your new website.

So often, people think very clearly in terms of the “What” of their website. It’s easy to think that you want your website to look great, and to have good links to social media channels, and to allow you to sell your product.

It’s also pretty easy to think in terms of the “How” of your website. So you know what your deadlines are, you know what you’ve got to spend on it, and you know you want to make buying stuff or getting in contact with you easy.

However, far too often, that’s where the thought process can end – leaving you with an incomplete picture as you move towards creating the online presence that will define you and be your primary method of audience engagement for years to come.

Before you even consider, the What or the How, it’s imperative to ensure you have a clear articulation of the Why of your website.

By answering the Why first, the How and the What should become clear naturally.

The Why of creating a website is at once the most overlooked and the most important question you need to answer when you decide to embark on the new journey of creating your website. The Why of your website relates to the fundamental values of who you are, who your audiences are, your reason to exist, and what your organisational priorities are.

Without understanding the Why, you won’t know your audience, their aspirations, their needs, or what the true objective for the initiative is in the first place. When you consider the investments in time, people, and money organisations put into creating their websites; the fact that this simple question is so often not answered should cause real concern!

So the Why is what it’s all about, and the single most important question that you need to answer before doing anything, before figuring out the What or the How.

It is however, also, probably the most difficult question of all to answer.

Thankfully, we have a set of values, and a way of thinking, that runs through everything we do.

It’s called our people-shaped approach. We take it with every challenge. And we see time and time again how it can help to answer and articulate that Why for organisations large and small.

By approaching your website by taking the approach of gathering insight from your audiences, co-creating solutions with them, and putting together a production plan that is both detailed, and contextualised with the overall objectives and values that underpin your entire organisation, the people-shaped approach will provide you with that platform that is fundamentally grounded in the user experience – meaning that you’ll have a website that continues to work for you and your audiences.

Once you’ve done all this and you’ve answered the Why, What, and How through this process, you might then think your  journey is finished.

Well unfortunately not.

The bad news is that you’ll never be finished – just as people change the way they interact with each other online, you’ll need to ensure you keep abreast of the latest development in technology and constantly tweak your site to meet your audiences in their spaces.

The good news however is that, wherever your audiences are, whether they’re still clinging on to Myspace, or are fully geared up members of the Instagram and Pinterest generation, you have the right platform to continue to engage with them. You know them. You understand them, and you’ve worked with them right at the beginning to help establish the terms of your relationships with them.

This means they’ll continue to love you, to engage with you, and to advocate for you online – all resulting in your organisation being at the forefront of people’s lives, and the inevitable growth for you being the main outcome.

So wherever you are in your journey in creating your new website, whatever your priorities are, and whoever your audiences are – get people shaped.

It’s as easy as Why, What, How….

 

Ben Capper, Principal Marketing Practitioner, ben.capper@icecreates.com

& John Walker, Web Developer, john.walker@icecreates.com

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How to overcome fear of change: Five steps to empower your workforce

Thursday 19th April 2012 – 1:52 PM

The only constant is impermanence. We often have to change, either at home, at work or our social lives to adapt to the new situation or environment we find ourselves in. A few people welcome change but most can be a bit wary of it, to say the least.

So, given that change is inevitable, how can we best prepare ourselves and people around us to overcome the fear of change?

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1.  Be clear about the problem:  You need to be clear about what you’re trying to improve and why change is needed. How will the stakeholders or customers benefit? How will you know when effective change has occurred? It’s all about giving clarity and purpose.

2.  Communication is key: For change to work well and be as smooth as possible, it’s vital your team are informed and have fully ‘bought in’ to the idea. Involve them from the outset and ensure they know who, why, what, where and when change will occur. A fully engaged and informed team will work together to help you achieve change with as little disruption, unease and upheaval as possible. Create open two-way channels for communication and make sure your door is always open!

3.    Don’t do it ‘to’ people: Unless you have absolute authority and are a direct blood descendant of Genghis Khan, it’s better to work with people and help your team to a place where they’re telling you what needs to change – to do this you need a clear method. ICE uses ‘co-creation’ to open up discussion and feedback involving all stakeholders. It’s also an extremely powerful process for creating new ideas and shaping how the new future may look – together.

4.    Method: How are you going to get to where you want to?  There are more models, methods and techniques on the market than you can shake a stick at. Find one that works for you, test it, make it your own, make sure you have factual data. ICE’s proven 5 Es model (Establish, Explore, Envisage, Experiment and Embed) forms a step by step journey through change (i.e. where you are now, where you want to be and how to get there).

5.    One step at a time: Remember,  effective change is often in many steps – some small, some larger. You can’t change the world overnight (see Genghis Kahn reference!)

And, finally, believe in your people – they’re your greatest asset!

 

If you’d like to help dispel the fear and prepare you and your organisation for change, why not contact me direct?

Jaime Beckett, Principal Organisational Change Practitioner – jaime.beckett@icecreates.com / 07764 635472

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Behavioural support: the key to smoke free futures?

Wednesday 11th April 2012 – 2:17 PM

The latest NICE guidelines highlight the delivery of brief interventions as a high impact change which encourages more people to smoke less. Typically taking 5-10 minutes, brief interventions offer opportunistic advice, discussion or encouragement – and are having a big impact on communities.

For instance, our Stop4Life work in the Midlands focuses on meeting local citizens at their greatest point of need, reshaping social norms and supporting sustainable behaviour change around smoking cessation. Our service delivery begins in the community at the point of opportunistic brief intervention.

Brief interventions may include one or more of the following:

  • An assessment of the patient’s commitment to quit
  • Simple opportunistic advice to stop
  • An offer of behavioural support and/or pharmacotherapy
  • Provision of self-help material and referral to more intensive support such as the NHS Stop Smoking Services.

So what are the key elements of making this approach to smoke free futures work in practice?

  1. Maximise outreach and community engagement – Stop smoking advisors can target groups on their own terms and ‘on their turf’ – in non-traditional settings ranging from leisure centres to tanning salons and workplaces. This is underpinned by strong local relationships with statutory, voluntary and community organisations.
  1. Harness appreciative inquiry and motivational interviewing – These techniques examine behavioural patterns around smoking to maximise the impact of the brief interventions, focusing on a benefit-led journey, to reduce the possibility of people not following up.
  1. Use trained staff, with an underlying philosophy of coaching – Ensuring all staff are fully trained in effectiveness, together with a practical coaching skills, is essential. Smoking cessation professionals can combine the use of cognitive and behavioural techniques to help clients to modify their performance interfering thinking (PITs) into performance enhancing thinking (PETs) – changing their self-defeating behaviour, thinking, attitudes and beliefs.
  1. Maximise latest technologies to engage citizens – Managing relationships is key, so using electronic tools to capture data and manage smokers through their journey is hugely beneficial. SMS text messages can be sent automatically to remind people of their appointments and to motivate people to stay smoke free.

DOWNLOAD THESE HANDY HINTS AS A PDF

If you’d like to know more about our proven framework for change and how it could work for you, contact me, Simon Dudman, (Director of Health & Lifestyle Services) on 07740 252144 or simon.dudman@icecreates.com

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The ICE Fitness Challenge: Week Five

Thursday 5th April 2012 – 9:15 AM

With Easter just around the corner and supermarket shelves stacked full of chocolate eggs, you’d be forgiven for thinking the efforts of ICE’s 12 fitness buddies have slacked over the past few weeks.

However, the team taking part in the ICE Fitness Challenge are just as determined (if not more so) to get fitter and healthier in 2012. We have literally ‘upped’ the pace and the results show that all our hard work is paying off.

Together we have completed 262 exercise sessions of 30 minutes or more – our lunch breaks have been taken over by super power walks, fruit salads and water and our evenings no longer include a glass of wine but instead include jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing…you name it! Some of us have even started walking to the office when possible in the mornings, clocking up almost 8000 steps each!

Everyone at ICE has supported and encouraged the team to continue and the ladies of ICE have even been inspired to put our new fitness levels to the test and take part in this years’ Race for Life 5k run!

There are 30 weeks still to go before the challenge is complete but we are still feeling confident and with an amazing weight loss of 117lb in just five weeks, the team are feeling happier and healthier.

 

Danielle Dixon, Marketing Practitioner

danielle.dixon@icecreates.com

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