Category: culture

Our 2020 resolution is to always give our best

The Trussell Trust , working to combat poverty and hunger. Throughout December it received a huge surge in supplies and they needed volunteers to sort through four tonnes of food donated by the local community so that they could offer nutritionally balanced packages to people in crisis. Here’s why four members of our team jumped at the chance to get involved…

Rebecca

Poverty and hunger are still a huge (and growing) issue in the UK and Wandsworth Foodbank is helping more people than ever with emergency food supplies. In fact, between April 2018 and March 2019, they provided 5,770 three-day emergency food supplies to local people referred in crisis – more than any year since it opened and a staggering 78% increase from five years ago. I was excited about the opportunity to volunteer because I find the need for foodbanks in 2020 shocking and unacceptable. A report by Wandsworth Foodbank states that the two top reasons for referral to the foodbank were income not covering essential costs and social security delays or changes – 70% cited the five-week wait for their first social security payment as a reason for referral – which means that people simply do not have enough money to eat over those weeks. In their report, Wandsworth Foodbank has a number of recommendations that address this issue and reduce the need for foodbanks. Having seen first-hand the incredible job that Wandsworth Foodbank is doing in creating a safe and welcoming space for incredibly vulnerable people, I can only hope that these recommendations are being given the attention they deserve. In the meantime, while the numbers continue to rise, I would urge anyone in a position to do so to give what they can in 2020 to support their local service – whether it is time, money or food provisions for people living in poverty.

Sarah

A few years back I volunteered with Crisis for Christmas at a homeless shelter and it struck me then about how easily someone can fall into poverty and homelessness. Donating to and volunteering at Wandsworth Foodbank allowed me to help people before they reach crisis point – taking away the worry of stretching the weekly income to cover food, as well as the rent and growing bills. Being part of the Wandsworth Foodbank was a huge honour and I was grateful for how welcome and relaxed the core team of volunteers made me feel. I know that this warm welcome is extended to the clients they serve. The team really cares about making people feel worthy and valued. Because of this, my takeaway from the day was always give your best. Yes, I did find some dry spaghetti that was out of date in 2011 and someone had donated some horrid-looking damson preserve that was older than the first episode of Friends – but these sorts of items were few and far between. What I witnessed was people giving their best to people in need and this translates into something much deeper to the receiver. It means that they are worthy. If the damson preserve is not good enough for you, it’s not good enough for those in need either. So give your best donations, as this feeds more than hunger—it feeds the soul and can mean the difference between poverty and homelessness.

Tom

Last year I noticed an increase in poverty in London and felt helpless. Apart from handing over spare change when I could, I didn’t feel like I was helping the wider community or contributing to the bigger picture. Volunteering at Wandsworth Foodbank was an opportunity to change this, and as a team we worked together to label, organise and manage the food that was donated and distributed to those that need it most.

Kirsty

Having the opportunity to volunteer at the Wandsworth Foodbank was a real privilege and I’m so thankful for the time we got to spend with their team. It is so easy to get caught up in our day-to-day lives and to take what we have for granted. However, seeing the foodbank in action, the dedication of the regular volunteers, and the power of our community, it was a stark reminder that we must make time to reflect on our privilege and ask ourselves: What can we do to help?

What can we do throughout the year to make sure others have sufficient food? Could you donate food at your supermarket each week? Could you pledge some time to volunteer? Maybe you could donate some spare change to your local foodbank?

It is particularly poignant at the start of a new year ,when we are flooded with expensive diets and meal plans and pricey gym memberships, to consider those who do not have access to even basic nutrition. Could your new year’s resolution include protecting others’ health as well as your own?

If you would like to donate to your local foodbank in the UK or become a volunteer visit The Trussell Trust to find your nearest centre.

Cannes or Canned? New recommendations to stimulate braver and bolder communications

HCA website, are the result of an initiative, Cannes or Canned? that was started in 2018 after pharmaceutical communications missed out on a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity for the second year in a row.

“Given that the pharmaceutical industry is powered by experimentation and discovery, healthcare should be leading the way when it comes to innovative communications,” said Edel McCaffrey, an HCA Executive Committee member and one of the driving forces behind Cannes or Canned?“That isn’t always the case, so we set up this initiative to find out two things: what is holding back our creativity, and what can we do to set it free?”

Cannes or Canned? brought together UK and internationally based senior communicators from seven pharmaceutical companies. With input and inspiration from innovators in industries including banking, fashion retail, artificial intelligence and toy marketing, they identified four key forces stifling innovation in communications and five recommendations for overcoming them.

The five key recommendations discussed in the report are:

  1. Create a culture that embraces innovation
  2. Empower and value brave, innovative people from within and beyond healthcare
  3. Strip back processes and streamline activities to enable communications that are agile and responsive to customers’ needs
  4. Get up close and personal with customers
  5. Put learning at the heart of healthcare communications

“As healthcare communicators we help to put the pharmaceutical industry’s life-changing discoveries into patients’ hands, but healthcare is changing fast and unless we think creatively and embrace innovation, we risk losing our voice,” said Peter Impey, Managing Director of 90TEN’s Communications division. “These recommendations are a recipe for making our communications braver, bolder and more creative, and I’m very excited to see where they take the healthcare communications sector.”

Healthcare communicators are invited to join the movement to open up creativity and innovation in healthcare communications:

Further press information contact: 

Mike Dixon at the HCA

email: mikedixon@the-hca.org

call: +44 (0)7799 865794

About Cannes or Canned?

Cannes or Canned? is an HCA initiative in partnership with 90TEN. It brought together UK and internationally based senior communicators and included representatives from seven pharmaceutical companies:

  • Philip Atkinson, Global Head, Scientific Communications – Oncology & Haematology, Roche
  • Paul Dixey, Multichannel Lead, Novartis UK
  • Lilianna Husseini, Director Communications, Oncology, Pfizer Global
  • Heidi LaPensée, Brand Lead, CNS, Sanofi UK
  • Catherine Priestley, Head of BioPharmaceuticals R&D Communications, Global Corporate Affairs, AstraZeneca
  • Mark Reale, Director of Corporate Affairs, UK & Ireland, Celgene
  • Bhavin Vaid, Head of Global Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Ferring Pharmaceuticals
  • Edel McCaffrey, Independent Communications Consultant

How to stop your brain putting the brakes on your next big idea

  • Loss-aversion bias – this bias can see us hang onto an idea for dear life, even if it’s not the right one. Our unconscious aversion to feeling that our time and effort has been wasted on developing an idea or strategy can make us ignore a nagging doubt that it isn’t as good as it could be. Listen to what that doubt is telling you. The best idea – the right idea – may be just around the corner but you’ll never know if you settle for what you have now.
  • Anchoring bias – this bias can see us latch onto the first idea we discuss or home in on something we’re already familiar with and close our minds to other – potentially better – approaches. The only way to manage this is to challenge and re-challenge your thinking: what is it about this idea that makes it better than the one that came next or the one after that?
  • Status quo bias – this is the bias that compels us to shy away from uncertainty and to favour the tried and tested over anything new. While this can make sense in some circumstances, we all know how the saying goes: if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. If you’re aiming for something different – something bigger, better and bolder – you need to be watchful for this bias and question whether what you have done before is really what you should do again.

    • These are just three of the many cognitive biases that shape our thinking and play a part in our creative processes. By recognising these biases and others we can develop strategies to open ourselves up to exploring and embracing ideas that push us out of our comfort zone. These are the kind of ideas that will get our clients excited and make our plans for 2020 fly.