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Christmas truce

Hang in there dear reader. It’s Andy W here and I’m attempting to cut between 1914 and 2014. Hold tight, we’re going in…

The First World War was called, for reasons unbeknown to me, the ‘Great War’. I’ve seen Blackadder 4 as well as all those poppies in London and it doesn’t look so ‘great’ to me. But I digress.

Cut to the present day. Have you ever been on the receiving end of one of those corporate presentations? You know the one; when the speaker’s opening gambit is, “There’s too much information on this slide, you won’t be able to read it at the back”, but they show it anyway? And a little piece of you dies because you’re in for a whole morning of it. You’re almost certainly going to have to ‘think outside the box’ and feed something back on a flipchart. Eek!

1914 again. I reckon the soldiers did what they had to do, when they had to do it and I can’t help but be filled with gratitude. It’s impossible to fully imagine the horrors of trench warfare but I’m guessing their only thought was about staying alive. And, of course, that legendary game of football on Christmas day. Yes, they called off the hostilities and had a Christmas truce. Despite their differences, human spirit shone through and the enemies shook hands and enjoyed a game of footy!

Unfortunately, the milk of human kindness turned out to be semi-skimmed, because they went back to their trenches and started bombing seven bells out of each other again.

Back to present day. Please, anyone giving a corporate presentation remember the guys in World War One and what they went through to keep human spirit alive. And stop destroying it with your PowerPoint presentations and corporate drivel. If you know it’s a rubbish slide, don’t use it! Look, I know you have to keep your employees informed but tell them what you really think. What are you passionate about? Employees need something to believe in. They don’t care about graphs, interlocking circles, ladders to success, protocols or a ‘triangle of winners’ (I could go on).

They care about what you, as a leader, believe in and how they can help you achieve that. So let’s call a Christmas truce. Take all the money you were going to spend on something ‘important’ (like marketing) and take your team out. Yes, yes, I know times are hard. That’s exactly why, if I was in charge, I’d take everyone for a drink and game of bowls. And if the company wouldn’t pay, then I would.

I don’t think any of the soldiers in the ‘great’ war stood in a trench and thought one day, just one day, my great grandson will be able to beam a graph onto a wall. Or worse, have his spirit killed by one.

And, come the new year, don’t go back to your trench and start bombing them again! Inspiration is like a puppy, it ain’t just for Christmas.

Thank you

AW x