Power Up With The Productive Pessimist

Image shows a surfer in the path of a large, powerful wave. The image is in black and white.

Negative is also a charge - and it may just be the power your business needs to get future-ready, and move forward at pace.

Negativity can destroy a project - but, if it's applied before the project starts, pessimism can create a project with so much momentum and collective will behind it, it genuinely is unstoppable.

How many of your projects have been brought to a crashing halt by governance challenges? And hasn't that, if you're honest, made you hate governance, and seek to avoid it? What if you could get the insight of a productive pessimist during scoping - someone who would help you 'fail fast', and work with you to destruction-test project plans in rapid succession, so that what you eventually submitted to governance was so spot-on, so aligned with your organisation's values, that it couldn't fail?
The Productive Pessimist offers a three-day 'rapid response' consultancy for project teams, by the end of which you're guaranteed to have the best possible iteration of your initial project idea ready to present to your Board, or your governance channels.
This service is priced at £1000, with £500 payable on booking, £250 due within 7 days of our work with you completing, and £250 due when the project we helped you design is fully implemented.

For individuals or teams who are feeling 'stuck', whether creatively, intellectually, or just generally, Productive Pessimism can be a powerful antidote to the all-too-common feeling that "negativity is toxic", and we have to "just find a way to be happy".
Our consultancy services start at £50 for an hour's support, up to £350 for a full day working with you or your team. This is payable in full on booking.

The Productive Pessimist also offer retained services for instant interventions for companies, CICs, and social enterprises: our fee schedule for these services are:
. 3 month retainer (our minimum retained service length): £12,500
. 6 month retainer: £24,000
. 12 month retainer: £45,000
Registered Charities receive a 25% discount on these fees.

The Productive Pessimist is available remotely world-wide, and for on-site visits within mainland UK.

Reach out:
Email: theproductivepessimist@yahoo.com

Feeling negative? We can work with that!

Comments

Cheese Graters, Suitcases, and Cover Letters

Hi - my name's Ash, and I'm the co-founder, Director, and lead consultant for The Productive Pessimist. (And, as you can probably tell from my 'Resting-What-Fresh-Hell-Is-This?-Face, the reason why the company is called The Productive Pessimist in the first place!) Apologies for the face, by the way - I'm not that good-looking at the best of times, and I hate doing selfies! I also don't take very good selfies anyway, owing to significant visual impairment. (I'm registered blind, and losing what sight I have - left eye only, currently around 45% - a bit more rapidly than I'd like.) However, the terrible selfie that starts this blog post sets us up nicely for a segue into the main topic; How the heck do these rules work, anyway?! The 'rules' for succeeding at interviews, in work, when you launch a company, in the first three years of running a company, are basically the equivalent of riding a bike. Except the bike is missing three gears. And the chain

What's Love Got to do With It?

Do you love your job? Do you love your life? What would you most love to do? What's your heart's desire for your business, yourself, your family? Other coaches talk a lot about 'love'. Every other piece of professional advice tells you to 'find a job you love.' What do they actually mean when they use 'love' like this? Clearly, no one's suggesting you get into the same mindset around going to work Monday morning, sitting through yet another PowerPoint presentation, or organising the kids and arranging the online grocery deliveries as the thought of a hot date with someone who hits all your buttons, or a weekend spent in the company of your best mate puts you in. And we're definitely not advocating that 'married to the job' should be a literal matter of legally-validated fact. You're not going to be serenading your office block, or sending a dozen roses to your project teams. You're not going to be inviting your new hire out

What's Wrong With You?

One of my personal frustrations is when people or companies say they want a slice of an absolutely huge pie, that's showing itself very well in just about every class - eg, a business sector that's romping all over the board, and bringing in profits with barely any effort - but then seem to find any and every reason to take as long as possible actually getting round to even picking up a plate! I go bodyboarding when I get the time. One of the key facts in that world is that, by the time EVERYONE is able to see a wave breaking, if you're not already riding it, it's too late. The same is true in business. Whether it's an individual or a company being a hesitant wallflower in the face of the ride of a lifetime, the motivation seems to be the same: they'll waste time on business cases, business plans, and, if they're an organisation, corporate governance. The prevailing attitude, certainly in the UK, often seems to be that business cases and business plans hav

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