To break new ground and make transformational change we need to look well beyond our normal field of vision. It has become too culturally acceptable to stay within the confines of role, organisation and sector. That is far too comfortable, it limits our knowledge and experience and stifles innovation. To embrace the new, we have to expand our sphere of influence and create new forms of collaboration – bringing together totally different perspectives. In New York a pizzeria and a bookshop joined forces to create an added value retail experience and it worked – buy a book get a pizza meal. Whacky? Yes, but it works. As the motivational speaker that talks of approaches to leadership I often show a short clip of a playground shaped by children, designed by design students and engineered by engineering students. The result is a children’s playground that generates electricity with each activity. How magic is that? When we start sharing ideas and resources with people we would not normally associate with we discover new concepts and paradigms. Habitual behaviours and towing the party line narrows rather than broadens ideas and that’s simply not good enough any more. You only have to listen to party politicians to see how blinkered people can become. To frame a better future for all of us we need to climb out of our boxes and see a wider world. It really is abundant.

My mother is just shy of her 90th birthday. She is homebound, has dementia and told me last night of her unquenchable thirst for humour and laughter. I am considerably younger and share her love of fun. Children are at their best when they shriek with laughter. It is true to say that we all feel better when we find humour – however desperate we may feel. We know of the therapeutic quality of humour, yet even those organisations with a mission to alleviate misery are given to use an austere language. The effect is to compound people’s sense of despair – hardly the kind of skills in leadership to which organisations would want to aspire. Advertisers use humour to grab our attention and make us think – interest in the product follows the feelgood. I look at annual reports, brochures and websites produced by organisations with a great message but which will never be read. I like to illuminate communication with stories, quotes and a sense of fun. People are funny and leadership in management involves embracing this. In Glasgow’s South Easterhouse, I asked a group of locals if they could sum up life on the estate. One older women quickly piped up: “Well son, see if you want a sun tan or a lawyer, this is heaven on earth but if you want a banana you have to jump on a bus to buy it.” That elusive banana became a central part of our campaign and it worked a treat. Here’s my message to Scotland. Let’s put Calvinism to bed and start to use humour in communications – from training for leadership that includes everyone, right through to customer service.

You couldn’t make it up could you? Two capital city teams meet in the national cup final for the first time since 1896. One has not lifted the trophy for 110 years, despite at one time inspiring the sport’s greatest ever superstar with its unique brand of attacking flair. Add the clamour to have the match played in a larger sporting arena, home to another sport and in the Capital city and we have a scenario that could have been scripted by Disney.

Hibs v Hearts is surely the only final capable of raising Scottish Football from its sleepy hollow. A film made of this story might well feature the Boer War, Billy the Kid, Queen Victoria and Pele in its narrative. Yes, it is Pele who described the Hibs side that toured Brazil in the 50’s as an inspiration to a generation of Brazilian footballers. This occasion is a real blessing for Scottish football. It will attract more column inches than any other and potentially draw a whole new set of fans back into the game. That has to be a good thing and with Thinktastic’s connections to Disney perhaps we work on a film idea.

I am a Hibs man and, critical as I have been of the club’s lack of vision and ambition in recent years, I’ll be there, cheering them on. If they win, it will be for the first time for 110 years. Now that really would be a story.

Alex Ferguson is 70 and still going strong. I have years of busy, active, creative and productive life ahead of me and with each passing day I see a fresh opportunity to pursue. Why then do people insist on asking me when I intend to retire? I’m only 61 and I have no intention of retiring: I want to be the motivational speaker who continues to learn and be inspired, and, I hope, inspire others in turn whatever age I happen to be. I don’t see myself as on a ‘treadmill’ and I don’t think of myself as slowing down or losing it. Why are we so obsessed with categorising people by their age? I have more to offer now than ever and as a motivational speaker with a focus on inspirational leadership I use my experience in a positive way. How many other people out there have similarly gathered life-skills of diamond value to others?

A project in the USA brings together small schoolchildren and older people in a nursing home over the road from the school – older people read to the children and help them develop their language skills. The result is a new lease of life for the nursing home occupants and better performance by the schoolchildren. We need more of that. Yet we work so hard to keep people apart because of their age category? Inter-generational events, and I have run many, achieve so much more because there is always a dynamic chemistry and young and old learn from each other.

Hail Sir David Attenborough (82) who is still inspiring millions on TV and Sir Alex Ferguson (70) leading his Manchester United side to what would be an incredible 13th Premiership title under his stewardship. They are as passionate and as enthusiastic as ever and continue to inspire, demonstrating the skills of leadership to audiences of millions all over the globe.

If, like me, you see yourself as improving with age – shout from the rooftops. “I am Older and Better.”

It is so easy to lose a sense of who we really are. The influence of parents, teachers, siblings, peers, partners, workplace colleagues, the media and the emotional impacts brought about by major incidents – all shape our personality and behaviours. But, all that buffeting can create a person we feel ill at ease with. As a motivational speaker and someone who helps to develop skills in leadership, I meet many people who know they underachieve yet don’t know what to do about it. They have lost sight of who they really are.

After delivering a keynote speech recently a woman approached me. She told me she felt she was: “Living in a stranger’s shoes … presenting different faces for different people and events.” She was not happy with what she had become. She had created a survival persona at odds with who she really was. That was an epiphany moment for me. I realised that I had reinvented myself many times over – each time getting closer to the core of what I really am. I learned to turn experiences (good and bad) into a positive addition to my toolkit. That’s when I decided to turn what I know into a powerful learning experience for other people. Launched soon will be a workshop carefully designed to help people to develop their most vital leadership skill – the ability and confidence to lead themselves, unleash their true strengths and package them into a new life force.  These are the fundamental skills of leadership.

It is said we only use around 10% of our brain’s capacity. Imagine how little of our true potential we get to realise? I will help people to reveal their authentic self, sharpen their understanding of what and who they are, practise being that person and then unleash that revitalised person on the world. Call it personal branding or unleashing the real me – this is an exciting development.

I get to speak all over Scotland to business, public and Third Sector leaders and to people in some of our most maligned communities. I sense that we are not just at a stage in evolutionary change but at a point where there has to be a complete rule change. Business as usual simply won’t do. In Scotland, there is a determination to create something new. Aside from any discussion on independence the Scottish Government’s agenda around health, economy, education, social justice, enterprise and carbon reduction is one that most people regard as being on the button.

The challenge they face is in delivery. A culture of managerialism still exists at every link of the implementation chain.

Too many of our public services are still driven by internal priorities. That must change. Public consultation, social inclusion and partnership working are now discredited concepts because we associate them with people and processes that prevent rather than spark progress. I have organised community ambition events in different areas of Scotland where young and old come together to set out a new vision for their area and then look at what needs to be done to get there. Many of these ideas simply make more imaginative use of existing resources – we are talking here of people who know better than anyone how to make more from less. Resourcefulness exists in spades around us yet remains largely untapped. That is daft. I use fun, positivity and creativity and people respond. Tired of the constant drone of negativity they hunger for a confident and optimistic voice and they want to make improvements happen. The naysayer, the incrementalist and the bureaucrat have held the reins for too long. If you feel their force around you, let me help you challenge it.

I meet some extraordinary people on my travels around the country. These are people that believe in the power of people, turn adversity into a positive force for change, use each day to give others a chance to shine and put the needs of others before their own. They ask for nothing in return yet, without them we would see impoverishment on an unimaginable scale.

We rarely hear their stories. Instead, we are fed a diet of celebrity. What does that say to our young people? Have we now created a culture, so shallow, that we are in danger of a human drought? Are there people more likely to intrigue, excite and inspire me? You bet there are.

Tomorrow, I will hear Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the concept of micro-finance in Bangladesh – a financial model that has lifted millions out of poverty, could now be pioneered here and may drive the future of Scotland. It’s a model that contains totally new approaches to business and represents real community innovation.

People like Muhammad are real celebrities and it’s time they became alternative role models. As a motivational speaker and keynote motivational speaker, I always tell inspiring stories about people who are literally changing the world for the better, often, but not exclusively, through business innovation and business creativity. They are powerful and motivating and I see people stirred to act; that’s real community empowerment. We have remarkable people with remarkable stories – their worth to our nation is incalculable. Let’s do more to celebrate their achievements and the power of thinking positive.

That’s the choice facing many of our most prominent companies in the months and years ahead. We are in an age in which only brands able to show business in a new light and make a positive contribution to the wider community will prosper. Others will fall because they are too slow to react to the new imperatives. Disillusionment at business behavior has reached such a stage that it will take much more than a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy to win back confidence. 85% of consumers worldwide expect companies to be actively involved in promoting individual and collective wellbeing, while only 28% believe they are doing enough. Transparency and humanity are the keys to future brand success.
Consumer power is about to assert itself like never before. Social networks will ensure corporate misdemeanors penetrate consumer consciousness faster and more effectively than any advertising or PR campaign. Lost trust is difficult, but not impossible, to restore. I did a staff session with one organisation in Glasgow this week. I asked how they’d like their brand personality to be described. “Bubbly, happy, dependable, adventurous and open” they said. If the wealth of knowledge, creativity, connectivity and resources corporate Britain has at its disposal is deployed imaginatively we will tackle many of our nation’s current ills and put our recovery into gear. Business can take a courageous lead in repairing damaged confidence and damaged communities but it needs to rediscover its humanity first.
Adam Smith said: “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” What would he have made of today’s version of ‘Capitalism?’

Aren’t we in real danger of disinheriting too many young people from the future – stunting economic growth and guaranteeing future high public spend on the wrong things? Social mobility in the UK is too low. The fact that where you are born and to whom is the main determinant of your future is absurd. It also squanders much of our greatest potential. On top of that we still educate our young people to fit into existing roles and jobs – we know little of the future except that many of the skills and roles we value now will quickly become obsolete. The current pace of change means that creativity and innovation are going to be our most prized assets.

We need young people with ambition, diverse and adaptable skills and the ability to think differently. When our focus is solely on employability and jobs are short, we hit a brick wall. Inventiveness and creativity is what will unlock new opportunities – meeting employability targets is not enough. As Ken Robinson says in his brilliant book ‘Out of our Minds:’ “Education and training are the keys to the future… Turn the key one way and you lock resources away, even from those they belong to. Turn it the other way and you release resources and give people back to themselves.” Invest now in creativity in schools and we shall reap returns. The alternative? Lives on the dole and perpetuation of the old order. Now that would be monumental stupidity.

This little girl’s health, wealth and all round prospects will be determined by where she was born. Will you join me to change that? You see, I have an idea. It is bold, simple and far-reaching and could lead to the transformation of some of our poorest communities. The bottom line – if we don’t bridge the growing chasm between our poorest and richest communities we seriously damage all our future prospects. Yet, I see in all communities talents and skills that if realised will help propel our nation into a new era of success. What we need is courage, vision, resourcefulness, targeted support and new connections.

I have identified a community in Glasgow, where I have connections with a learning hub and local people on a learning journey. It is in an area of real deprivation where low horizons, low confidence and poor educational attainment are the cultural norm. Local enthusiasm we will find – I guarantee that.

I ask leaders to join me in an effort to reverse this community’s prospects. We need new role models, new connections, some targeted financial investments and highly creative ideas. Get it right and we create a model of inspiration that will open up new prospects for millions of people who at the moment lack any.

Up for that challenge? Want to hear the vision? Call me on +44(0) 7778 781846.