This year’s ESSA Conference tackled how we can embrace the challenge of change to fuel a passion that can best influence our surroundings for the better in an ongoing, transformative, positive and collaborative manner.
The supply chain is no longer about individual influence, but rather a synergy we can create when uniting towards a common goal to tackle change head on. But where do we start?
Opening the conference in a session titled ‘Be More Pirate’, which took place at The Warwick Conferences, Coventry in conjunction with headline sponsors beMatrix and Abraxys Global, author, coach and expert in organisational culture change Alex Barker discussed how hundreds of years ago, a crisis was the catalyst for pirates to create change. Being forced to live and work in squalid conditions with poor pay prompted pirates to rewrite the rulebook. Pioneers and innovators of their time, they created ‘The Pirate Code’, a set of rules with accountability and trust which all pirates voluntarily signed up to; it was their manifesto. By operating together, they created change.
“Pirates had a blank slate, an opportunity to rewrite the rules of how they did things,” explained Barker. “They were incredibly collaborative, operating in large, agile networks, teaming up to work together when appropriate. Their new ideas and rules created a massive ripple effect across the western world because change happens when you are moved to feel something.”
Barker concluded that change is inevitable so when tackling it, the trick is to start before you are ready and get comfortable being uncomfortable.
The conference also highlighted the importance of proactively changing your story at a time when you can most effect positive change. As writer and presenter Ian Hawkins explained: “If you are at the end of your story, change is impossible. If you are at the beginning, change is inevitable,” so that is the time to strike.
Closing the conference, entrepreneur, adventurer and television presenter with an astonishing track record of facing up to major challenges, Amar Latif OBE, urged us to push our limits because by doing so, our world becomes bigger. Losing his sight at the age of 18 forced Latif to reconsider the limits of his capabilities and concluded that: “an obstacle is just an opportunity with a grumpy face on it. The trick is to see past the disguise with the right positive mindset.”
ESSA director, Andrew Harrison, said: “To positively move forward, not just on a personal level, but in our businesses and the wider industry, we’ve got to get better at refining how we ask those difficult questions. Essentially, we need to be more pirate by taking control of the narrative and owning our stories from the outset, not being afraid to push the envelope into areas that make us uncomfortable.
“Let’s look for the opportunity to influence change. It’s no coincidence that this is a pillar of what we seek to improve upon within membership at ESSA. Our growing membership has a real sense of community and that’s partly down to us owning our story - whether it be our work around Brexit and government, Accreditations, training – we’re making decisions and driving them forward so that we can continue to influence positive change.”
