Background

Talking UP for a Change – Defined

Talking UP for a Change was set up in 2006 as a catalyst for businesses and organisations to shift to a more positive outlook and begin the change for a more successful and forward-thinking Scotland.

Mike Stevenson, its founder and managing director of Edinburgh marketing communications agency Design Links, said: “Scotland can be all we want it to be. No nation in the world has made more of itself in the past – but now it is time to make our future even more illustrious than the past.

A real change is happening right before our eyes, and Scotland’s huge contribution to the success of Team GB at the Beijing Olympics is testimony to just what we can achieve with vision and belief.  That’s embodied in Chris Hoy, Scotland’s triple-gold cycling champion.  At just 10 years of age, he was asked to to set himself a long-term objective.  He wrote:  “Become Olympic champion”; it wasa goal he was to realise at the Athens Olympics of 2004.  Twenty-four years on from his original goal, he’s now realised that ambition a further three times over.  It’s an epic story of hard work, great talent, immense self-belief and real perseverance.  It’s also the story of all the people who encouraged, supported and helped him along the way. 

Doing something extraordinary requires great self-belief.  All too often though, we are the first to break faith with ourselves and talk ourselves out of success, or, worse still perhaps, to talk others out of theirs.  Talking UP for Change is borne out of the conviction that we need to work against this all too human tendency.  The change starts within ourselves and our thinking. 

Rugby stars Gavin Hastings and Gregor Townsend, along with cycling bronze medallist James MacCallum and a host of business and public service leaders were among the first to launch Talking UP for a Change back in 2006.  They have continued to back this new movement to the hilt and pledged their ongoing support.

Major events organised since then have seen exciting exchanges around language, values and organisational change.  We’ve seen hundreds of people at our events and have influenced thousands more.  Individuals who have attended events have gone away brimful of energy and ideas to take their organisation forward.

Calls have followed from schools, teachers’ organisations, sports bodies, political parties and business networks for Talking UP for a Change workshops and strategies. At the same time the movement seems to be capturing the imagination of the Scottish media with the Daily Star, Daily Record, Sunday Express, the Edinburgh Evening News and Real Radio singling it out as an organisation likely to make things happen.

Taking Scotland forward as a nation in all walks of life – including business, politics, sport and the arts – will happen by acting on new ideas and being positive and motivational in our outlook.

Mike Stevenson has been delighted by the wholehearted backing he has received from business, sports and political leaders. This response has been more than encouraging but most importantly we are seeing more and more organisations move to a more positive and ambitious approach – inside and outside.

Because of the tools Talking UP for a Change uses we are now witnessing real change, but driven from people within organisations. By tapping into the culture of each organisation and by identifying and focussing on the talents and skills they have within, we have seen a succession of conservative and self-limiting ideas and beliefs being overturned:

• an accountancy firm taking on the customer service approach of Seattle Fish Market

• a sport body’s handbook going from a prosaic list of rules, regulations and events to one packed with motivational information and with a clear rallying call

• a university radically changing its language to students from the instructional to the warm, welcoming and informative
  
  

• a major housing provider reinventing its approach and using a reward and incentive approach

• a number of organisations taking a totally new, more impactful and less costly approach to annual reporting

• a school using motivational and colourful communications to galvanise parental and community support

This is what Talking UP for a Change is all about. We want to provide the culture for people to begin this change rather than preaching to them about change.

The aim is to create a social virus and momentum for positive change that cannot be halted.

Mike Stevenson said: “I am confident Scotland will be a wholly more confident, positive and successful place in 10 years and we are fast approaching the ‘tipping point’. If Talking UP for a Change has played even a small part in that revolution it will be a job well done.”

 

Mike Stevenson, Founder

 

Throughout his working life, Mike’s been fascinated by other people’s views, motivations and talents, both from the standpoint of being one of Scotland’s communications specialists and as a private individual.

Now Managing Director of Design Links of Edinburgh, a leading marketing and communications agency, Mike has had a broad experience of life – from steelworker to wine bottler, hospital orderly and retail assistant.

It means that Mike has seen and understood the reality for people in all walks of life and recognised how much potential remains untapped. It’s this realisation that is behind Talking UP for a Change and the reason why he is passionate about his work with others to create change.

Mike’s an inspirational and compelling speaker. Using his own rich and varied experiences and drawing on those of others, Mike brings humour, creativity and radical thinking to involve and enthuse his audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Talking UP for a Change - Mike Stevenson 2007