Andy's Blog

TCD is ‘Time Constraint Disorder’... the inability to meet deadlines. Invented by Michael Foley as a joke.

But then he found out that a professor at DePaul University wants procrastination recognised as a clinical disorder. Check out some of the disorders that have already made it into the tome that is ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’...

I’ve just read a professional journal aimed at personnel managers. And my attention was drawn to an article where they were asking eminent thinkers what they thought the future of leadership would be. Cool. That’s right up my street, so I read with interest what the top people in the field of leadership had to say.

And, oh deary me...

My mate Mick is unlucky. Or so he says. Mick says that nothing ever works out for him. He’s recently divorced and his job is under threat. And the job he does have doesn’t pay particularly well. And recently his car engine packed up and it cost him a lot of money. Oh, and he nearly always loses at cards and snooker.

Maybe he’s got a point?

I recently got into a conversation about a lady named Julie. It turns out there were two Julies in the same office so the person asked me which one I was talking about. ‘Smiling Julie’, I answered. And they knew instantly which one I meant.

Hopefully not! If you do find a few then my advice is to have a good scratch and, if that doesn’t work, change your underwear (reminds me of a mate of mine who bragged about how many pairs of pants he owned. Twelve! Imagine! We were amazed that a bloke needed that many pairs. Until he explained, one pair for January, one for February, etc (I digress...sorry).

This blog isn’t about ants in your pants. It’s about ANTs in your head...

You have to be of a certain age to remember ‘Jim’ll Fix It’, a slightly creepy programme where an ageing DJ in a white shellsuit had loads of kids sitting on his knee, while puffing on a fat Havanna cigar. And Jim specialised in making their dreams come true. Mmmm. Not sure that’s going to work in the modern era?

Anyway, the point was that Jim would organise for things to happen. He’d read out a letter and, hey presto, some child’s ambition would happen. Sometimes it was big stuff that only Jim could organise, like a ride in an F1 car, or to take part in a West End show. Or to have Showaddywaddy playing in your school assembly. Fair doos. That’s proper telly. And Jim always fixed it for you and you and you-oo-oooo.

Cast your mind back to the olden days (ie, 5 years ago). If ‘change’ was a dog it would have been a Labrador, all friendly and comfortable and licky. Sure, it had teeth but it wouldn’t dream of sinking them into you! You could throw ‘change’ a ball and it’d come back and drop it at your feet in a beautifully predictable and well-trained way.

We’ve been delivering our messages in schools for a while. Being positive doesn’t mean that you deny the fact that some workshops have failed. I remember driving back from the south coast after battling with some 14 and 15 year olds, wondering why I had even bothered to make the journey.

But the vast majority of ‘Art of Being Brilliant’ school sessions have been very well received. I’m really proud of some of the results we’ve achieved and, to be frank, we go where other training companies fear to tread. Not only are school gigs 10 times tougher than corporate work, but budgets are much tighter so we often end up making a loss...

I’ve just finished writing ‘The Art of Being a Brilliant Teacher’ with Chris Henley and Gary Toward (if you attended the last 2%ers you will know them and their fab school). Fingers crossed that it’s a half decent book that connects with its intended audience. But one thing it has forced me to do is think about the issues faced by educators.

As always, I ask for your patience while I make my point. Please hang in there. This could be the most awesome 5 minutes of your day!

No folks, not Buzz Lightyear. Buzz Aldrin, world famous for being the...ahem... 2^nd man on the moon! Poor Buzz. Never got over it you see. Some of the following may be urban myth, but please bear with it anyway.

(I received this today, an irreverent view from Joey, aged 14)

God created the world. Crikey! He’s achieved some good stuff. And we look up to him (in all senses of the phrase, the great dude that he is, sitting loftily in the clouds).  He seems to be a decent role model what with all those commandments and stuff. I mean, ‘thou shall not steal’, etc all makes good community sense...