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World leading expert on persuasion, member of the magic circle and writer for the Royal Opera House: Lee Warren, one half of Invisible Training with James Harwood, taught us how to persuade anyone to do anything.

Well, by his own admission he could not expect the sharp-witted JCI audience to believe that. Instead, he delivered an evening of applicable, real-world techniques through entertaining anecdotes, relevant tips, a memorable ‘ham pie’ acronym and the occasional magic trick.

Before you move on from reading the rest of this blog entry, just do one thing for me – think of a time when you just could not get what you wanted. Think of the different strategies you employed, the people you approached and the mental effort in attempting to get your result.

What went wrong? It can seem such a psychological and political minefield. At this event I learnt that the ways and means of persuasion are, far from being manipulative or brain-washing, so simple that they really could lay claim to having some magical quality.

Afterwards I heard comments amongst the audience like ‘wasn’t that useful’, ‘some great tips’ and ‘I can apply this immediately’ – as could you. Invisible training will be presenting No. 2 in the Business Magic Series on the 22^nd May. JCI will benefit from another attendee and you will undoubtedly be left with the same unforgettable impression that this event left with me.

Have I persuaded you?

Anyone who attended the session will recognise the four steps that Lee sprinkled into our minds – I’m credible; I’m fallible; work with me on this; a mutually beneficial outcome.

He convinced us of his authority and the rarity of his pearls of wisdom; he told us the weakness of his strategies just before their compelling strengths; he engaged that little bit of commitment from us by offering the session reading in return for our email addresses: the dark art of persuasion or practical steps? Either way it certainly worked on me.

Maybe in a few days the thrill of new learning will fade and the key points forgotten, but the fact remains: what better session to attend than one where it is so enjoyable to be persuaded.

See you at the next Business Magic event.

Written by Julianne Ezra (Guest Attendee)

Gripping scene of tension, engrossed in the art of persuasion.

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It is a fact of life that most people in their working lives have had to face some kind of conflict situation. It is also a fact that most of us don't know how to deal with these situations and try to avoid it as much as possible.

The conflict resolution workshop with Jai and Louise from Lambeth Mediation Center highlighted that not only is it costly for businesses but also stressful on a personal level to deal with conflicts. But on a positive note it can be a key skill in the workplace that can enhance your career!

We engaged in many practical exercises understanding how people have differences in perception or have different work manners (organized vs spontaneous) that can lead to underlying conflict situations. We also discussed how it is difficult for managers in a work environment to be impartial and sometimes it may be better to bring in a mediator to resolve conflicts more efficiently. Overall a great experience to be more aware of conflict situations and learning about the right skills to face these situations head-on.

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On Wednesday, March 21, Darren Fell founder of Crunch.co.uk gave an insightful presentation to JCI members on a "Guide to the Disruptive Business World".

Darren's first company Pure 360 an email marketing firm which he sold for 8 million dollars succeeded in disrupting  online marketing.  However, it was his newest venture Crunch.co.uk,  an E-business that is hoping to disrupt the traditional accountancy model that his presentation focused on. It even has one of the founders of eBay and Skype as an investor!

Darren  provided  JCI members with a great account of the trials, tribulations and barriers to entry I might face when starting up my own company. From evil accountants trying to smear his name to the overwhelming need for it to succeed, especially when a lot of his own money was riding on it.

It was a delightful,inspirational and thought provoking evening tracking Darren's journey, and his expansion into disrupting the accountancy profession.  He even came down afterwards for a drink at the pub... You can't get much better than that!

Blog written by James Schirn (JCI London Member)

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As a member of the JCI business team, I had the great pleasure and opportunity to invite Polly McMaster from The Fold to JCI for a unique event. It was an evening all about business fashion!

Polly has a diverse background working in various roles in the “City” before going on to do a MBA where she co-founded The Fold which specialises in business fashion for women. It was a great opportunity to listen to Polly’s story of starting her own business and the challenges she faced with no experience in the fashion industry and how she got to where she is today.

We had a very interactive session with lots of questions from the group around Polly’s experiences. I was particularly positive about the honest and frank responses from Polly  on her motivation to start a fashion business to the challenges she faced. We all left the session with lots of practical tips and suggestions on what to look out for when opening your own business (not just in the world of fashion).

Polly went on to provide some very interesting insights into the importance of dressing for work and how this can have a direct impact on how your managers and colleagues perceive you at work and ultimately how it can impact your future career.

The fun (especially for the ladies) started after this informative session. Everybody had the unique opportunity to browse and try on the latest collection of The Fold in a very relaxed atmosphere and maybe even negotiate a bargain. Something you won’t get in regular shops!

All in all it was a great insightful evening for all, even for the few men in the room. Some fantastic gift ideas for partners and friends as well!   

For more information on The Fold – www.thefoldlondon.com

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Happiness! Does being intelligent make it harder to find happiness? Blog by Trang Tran (JCI London member)

I used to think that happiness is just simply each person’s state of mind. It is your choice to be happy in your life or not. But an evening with Andrew Stead, CEO/Founder of Vibrant Energy and Perfect Happiness Org, has broadened my mind about happiness. Andrew Stead was our special guest at the recent JCI business event. And he proved to be an excellent choice with his insights in corporate world – Banking with Goldman Sachs to Entrepreneurship with a start-up and now the development of Happiness in the workplace. 

He started with an interactive session on meditation, helping us to relax our minds and bodies after a long working day. I personally could feel the differences after following his instruction. From there, we moved on to his interesting journey on finding the ideas on happiness at workplace.

Thanks to his wide experience and many interactive questions, he drew a bigger picture on causes and consequences of happiness, relating to individual, society, economic, etc. He is truly a very insightful and entertaining speaker, giving us further food for thought around finding happiness at our workplace and personal lives.

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JCI invited Spidergap® entrepreneurs Alexis Kingsbury and Paddy Mann to present and discuss their lessons learned at a recent evening event attended by over 40 JCI London members and guests. Attendees have said that this was a highly informative and inspirational talk, covering the presenters’ experiences from deciding to set up through to their exciting current activities - tweaking the solution and model to turn a great idea into a great money-making business.

Alexis and Paddy are the creators and owners of Spidergap® - an easy to use online tool for gap analysis (gap analysis works by comparing two views - for example 'where we are at' and 'where we want to be; the results allow you to prioritise actions and measure improvement). They also run a management consultancy as a way of funding their goal of creating scalable products (such as Spidergap) that will support their shared vision of a better quality of life.

Paddy and Alex presenting some of their lessons learned from starting an online business. You can watch a video with highlights from the first 20 minutes.

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The last JCI London business visit of the year took a group of dedicated members to a West London Underground depot on a freezing December Friday morning at 8.30am, but boy was it worth it.   Living in West London, I had no idea that there was a huge manufacturing facility just 15 minutes walk from my house.

The work the team do there is simply incredible.  When an ˝emergency˝ occurs somewhere on the network, i.e. something that could cause major delays or line closure, the team at the depot can manufacture a replacement part in just 12 hours, something that would take a commercial company 12 weeks.  The team deals with on average three such emergencies every week!

From the smallest sign to the largest rail junction, they are all manufactured on site.  There were machines for all types of processes (some invented and built on site!) and the skills of the workers there were obviously varied and complex.

Everyone on the tour was left gobsmacked by the fascinating facts about and enormity of the task of taking care of London's tube system.  For example did you know...?

• The London Underground was built by American mobsters in order to launder money.
• There are over 900km of track on the London Underground and each kilometre is walked by a member of the London Underground team checking for faults every 48 hours!
• The majority of day-to-day repairs and maintenance have to be done in a window of just four hours overnight between the last and first trains. This includes the time it takes to walk the engineers and all their equipment to and from the site of repair between stations, often over a mile.

A huge thank you to our guide Dave Banks and Business Director Simon Bucknall for organising such a unique and captivating visit!

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By Niraj Shah, JCI Business Team Member

In early July, we hosted a business seminar where 25 JCI members and guests gained a unique insight into the world of a successful, serial entrepreneur. Tony Craddock was our special guest and he proved to be an excellent choice as he regaled tales from his entrepreneurial life which spans over 20 years and 5 businesses. 

The format of the evening was slightly different to the usual seminar. To mix things up, we began with an extended interview where I acted as host and proceeded to ask Tony about what prompted him to start his first business. What were his early experiences and feelings? What lessons has he learned along the way?

Tony proved to be a very insightful, entertaining and captivating speaker and little guidance was needed - in fact it's fair to say that at times he took full command of the discussion - and proved far from shy in challenging the audience directly!

From here we moved on and the tables were turned; it was now Tony's turn to interview JCI Business Director and fellow entrepreneur Simon Bucknall. This brought a new twist to proceedings and gave us further food for thought around getting a business off the ground successfully. Tony's choice of questions yielded further insight into the sorts of issues you need to explore in getting under the skin of a business - in this case Simon's!

We finished the evening with an extended Q&A session and then as usual continued with networking and drinks at a local bar. I am sure I am not alone in my sentiments that the only thing that could have made the evening even better would have been an extra hour or two to glean as much as possible from Tony! 

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They say there's no substitute for the benefit of quality, first-hand business experience. But as an attendee of our recent 'Women in Leadership Roundtable' that's exactly what we gained.

JCI London members put their questions to a splendid 'triumvirate' - executive image consultant, Lynne Cantor, top corporate recruiter, Kate Butler, and Head of Christian Aid Africa, Esther Stevenson.

Topics discussed included handling the emotional side of team dynamics, managing the difference between male and female leaders, the challenges faced by female leaders as well as how to raise your profile without seeming arrogant or self-serving.

Rather than run a standard 'speaker format', each speaker hosted an informal small group discussion - so members could get to grips with what it really takes to succeed and prosper as a female leader in business... Although as the comments below might suggest, many tips and insights proved entirely applicable to male leaders too!

From the outset the tone of the evening was open and engaging. The high calibre of speakers mixed with the interactive nature of the event gave me a valuable and unprecedented insight into the lives and careers of three very inspiring women. - Euan Gillies

A very personal, thought provoking evening with exactly the right profile of speakers. A great opportunity for us to have one-to-one conversations with each speaker and to make sure our questions were answere, while also learning from other JCI members given the mini-group structure of the event! - Stephanie Zammit

Where else can you have that sort of intimate access to outstanding business women and leaders willing to share their personal stories and advice?  I was inspired by each of the three speakers and have come away with much to think about.  More fool those who did not sign up - they missed a treat! - Sarah Beckwith

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Roy Sandler, who recently delivered an impressive JCI London seminar on Import and Export, has organised an event that any budding entrepreneurs or recent graduates simply should not miss. In his capacity as Organiser of the London Entrepreneur Meetup Group, Roy has arranged for Elisabeth Scott of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation to be the guest speaker on the evening of Wednesday 25th May at a fantastic Central London venue, The Yacht London (www.theyachtlondon.com). 

The aim of the Foundation is to create a new generation of outstanding entrepreneurs who will play a role in Britain's future growth and prosperity and create new market leading businesses. The new Entrepreneur Foundation is supported by a number of leading business leaders including Sir Richard Branson, Sir Nigel Rudd, Charles Dunstone, Jon Moulton and Brent Hoberman.

Further details of the event including how to register can be found at http://www.meetup.com/entrepreneur-952/events/17443467 and further details of the Foundation are at www.newentrepreneursfoundation.com. 

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