Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

January 20, 2008

Presentation Summary

A speech to the UK State Boarding School Association outlining challenges and ideas to take the industry from being Liked to Loved. This presentation illustrates the path to becoming a Lovemark with Mystery, Sensuality, Intimacy and sisomo and looks at creating Peak Performing schools with dreams, inspirers and flow.


Diamonds

Britain’s future will be built school by school, leader by leader, teacher by teacher, student by student. It will be raised up by you. It’s your challenge.

I’ve been asked to talk about taking State Boarding, your schools, and therefore Britain to the next level.

British education is an underachiever being bullied by global forces. In the OECD Premier League of overachievers, the Bulldogs face relegation.

This is boarding’s day and hour… more mums working and fewer dads sticking around. The future of productivity is Work / Life Integration, and boarding is trainer, playmaker and world changer. No wonder boarding is the new black. No wonder demand for places has gone north…

  • Wraparound teaching / pastoral / social provision.
  • Flexibility around days a week kids can board.
  • Technology eliminates distance between family and loved ones.
  • Some kids say the distance brings them closer to their families.
  • Attitudes towards boarding are changing. The stigma of ‘sending your kids away’ is dissolving.

The Tom Brown school days of cold showers and roasting fags are ancient history. Phase One of boarding’s evolution was Loathed to Liked.

  • Boarding infuses independence, responsibility, exploration, pride, intense diverse friendships, mentorship, and pastoral care.
  • Boarding means mates, clubs, societies, sport and music on your doorstep.
  • For alumni it’s like with rugby, a global fraternity.
  • Talk to boarding school students or alumni today, most tell you the same thing – it’s an environment conducive to making incredible friends and having fun in the process.

Phase Two is underway. We have to shift boarding from Liked to Loved.

At Saatchi & Saatchi we call this Lovemarks. The reward is Loyalty beyond Reason. Beyond price, format, range and renovation.

Think Apple, Harley Davidson, Harry Potter, Monty Python, Ben Sherman. Think Tesco, Lucozade, HP Sauce, Heinz baked beans. Do not think Man U!!

The premise is simple. Humans are powered by Emotion. Donald Calne: “Reason leads to conclusions, emotion to action”.

  • Brands are built on Respect. Lovemarks are built on Love and Respect.
  • Brands create loyalty for a reason. Lovemarks create Loyalty Beyond Reason.
  • Brands are owned by managers, marketers and shareholders. Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them. 
  • Great brands are Irreplaceable. Lovemarks are Irresistible.

The Love / Respect axis is a kind of Golden Compass. It tells the truth. We can see anything / anyone / anywhere on it…. Including boarding:

Love Respect Axis Lovemarks

 

Low Respect. Low Love. Commodities and disappointments. Bullying, abuse and failure. STDs, NEETs, Nanny States and Climbié scenarios.

High Love. Low Respect. Fads and infatuations. From the latest cell phone rings to Whitehall’s latest brain spark.

High Respect. Low Love. Where “er” words rule: faster, bigger, better. Helpful, sometimes critical, not transformational. Ofsted inspections and public funding to policy around Every Child Matters.

High Love. High Respect. Lovemarks. Sustainable differentiation. Big ideas, Visionary heads, Top teachers. My school.

Our challenge is twofold: Make Boarding a Lovemark and turn your schools into Peak Performing Schools.

FIRST, MAKE BOARDING A LOVEMARK

Idea #1: Attract With Mystery

People live for what they don’t know, not what they do. Mystery is dreams, icons, stories, where past, present and future are fused as one.

For Aborigines, it’s the “Everywhen”. For Maori, there is Whakapapa, genealogy merged with mythology, spirituality and sustainability.

Mystery is a power play for State Boarding. You are infused with tradition, diversity and today, currency.

Boarding is fun, connecting, enhancing and inspiring. It’s a life-forming story, so let’s tell it is as one.

Don’t squeeze out Mystery with too much information.

First change that name!! “State Boarding” sounds like Fletcher doing cold porridge. Make the association’s website about revelation, not just information.

“The highest-paid person in the first half of this century will be the story-teller.”
– Rolf Jensen

Idea #2: Pulse With Sensuality

Lovemarks excite all five senses. Sight, sound, smell, touch and taste are portals to the emotions.

Starbucks was built on sensuality – and became the fastest-growing retail story of all time. Apple sold its original iMac with tangerine taste. Yum!

Between the rules and riots, boarding life is a sensory odyssey. If you want boarding to be deeply loved in the wider world, sharpen and share all five senses.

Raise the temperature.

Idea #3: Compel With Intimacy

Intimacy is empathy, commitment and passion, which is all that boarding life should be. It’s the small touch, the perfect gesture that takes Loyalty Beyond Reason.

Idea #4: Sizzle With sisomo

The future is about people, ideas and creativity. More and more these are on screens – computers, mobile phones, TV. We call this new world sisomo for Sight, Sound and Motion on Screen.

The shift is from one-to-many to many-to-one. Internet to YouTube to Facebook…this is just the start of it.

SISOMO FACTS: 65,000 videos are uploaded daily on YouTube. In 2007 Facebook grew to more than 57 million+ active members.
Engage with Big Ideas that people love to share, and they’ll bring the world to you.

The possibilities for “sisomotional” connectivity are fantastic. Technology is a tool. Emotion is your key.

Close the space between pupils and parents.

SECOND, TURN YOUR SCHOOLS INTO PEAK PERFORMING SCHOOLS

Peak Performance is about hitting the highest levels of performance imaginable. About being the best you can be. I wrote a book on this and I teach it at Cambridge. Let’s fly across the top.

Idea #5: Have A Dream

I’ve been rich and poor – rich is better! At age 14, the teacher had us share our dreams. I wanted to be a millionaire by 30. Everyone laughed. I was serious.

Martin Luther King did not say: “I have a Mission Statement,” nor does Saatchi & Saatchi, and nor should any State Boarding School.

The Inspirational Dream is at the heart of all great endeavors. It takes your past and expands the horizon of possibilities to create the future. Without it, none of the planning and infinite steps add up.

JFK knew this when America planned to put a man on the moon. And so does every young kid.

Idea #6: Unleash The Inspirers

We’ve all had Inspirational teachers and marveled at Inspirational students. My English teacher Peter Sampson inspired me.

EXAMPLE: Andrew Jarman – “A sweaty blue-shirted teacher who taught me maths on a Thursday afternoon” inspired me to apply for Oxford. Runner Roger Black cited Andrew Jarman as “My Best Teacher” in the Times Educational Supplement.

Inspirational Players lift organizations from High Performance to Peak Performance. They are the “go to” people, who catalyze, coach and connect inside and across and outside any organization.

Find, unleash and inspire the inspirers. Tomorrow’s leaders are looking for 4 things: responsibility, learning, recognition, joy.

Idea #7: Flow

Flow is the secret ingredient of Peak Performance.

Flow is about focusing passionate energy together on Purpose driving activities. By increasing the time people are in “in the zone”, organizations energize dramatic increases in productivity and creativity.

Get into Flow through Harmony from shared purpose and Passion as emotional connection with the Dream.

Secrets to Flow: Rhythm of work-life; Pointing not leading, Hot-wiring, RASCI, 100 Day Plans, Envision.

Framework for Flow: FREDA. Focus, Reinvention, Execution, Delivery and Accountability.

So inspire against the Dream, and go for Flow.

Filter Speeches

Subscribe to our newsletter

To stay updated with the latest workshops & speeches

Subscribe Now