The Productive Pessimist

Along with  co-production , lived experience has become something of a buzzword in recent years, and, as with all 'trends', people are moving from engaged curiousity to wary suspicion. At The Productive Pessimist, we work exclusively from a position of lived experience - but what does that mean, and what, really, is  lived experience? What Working From Lived Experience Means For Us Working from lived experience means everyone on the Productive Pessimist team has been through what they're guiding others towards understanding of.   We didn't just take a 5hr course, watch a couple of YouTube videos, or read a bestselling book. For example, I (Ash) have the following lived experience: . 22yrs lived experience of managing all aspects of rural living, including travelling 30+ miles for work, without a car . 19yrs lived experience with serious pyschiatric conditions . 16yrs lived experience in trans masculine experience and identity . 9yrs lived experience of kinship care, ...

  Here's your eyes back - you rolled them a little too hard at the mention of 'trauma'. And I get it. I really do. It can seem as though everyone is "traumatised" and "triggered" these days, and, as a business leader, it can feel like something that's definitely not  your problem. The thing is, you're going to be very lucky as a business if you encounter anyone  who hasn't  experienced at least one traumatising event - most of us don't make it to adulthood without encountering trauma at least in passing. A 'traumatising event'? What's that when it's at home?! One of the primary aspects of becoming trauma-informed is recognising the distinction between a traumatising event, and a traumatising stimulus. A traumatising event is what happened to you - it could be something as huge as being assaulted, or caught up in a terrorist attack or natural disaster, or as small as someone shouting at you at work, or not being able to buy...

  “I don’t want your face looking like that while I’m talking.”  (Face was ‘bland neutral.’) “People here don’t like you, because you’re too negative.” (Used very light sarcasm to defuse workplace tension.) “I think it’s a bit inconsiderate to overshare the way you do…everyone is struggling here, and they don’t need to be worried about you.” (Had responded to “How’re you doing?” with “Okay, I think…it’s been a bit tough at home, but I’m getting through. How’s everything with you?”) “We need happy, bubbly team players here - if that’s not how you feel, every day, then I’m sorry, but we’re just not the right place for you to thrive.” (Person was behaving normally, being professionally welcoming, supporting their colleagues.) Employers don't want to employ people with "mental health problems" (or disabilities), but the government don't want those people claiming welfare. Yes, depression and anxiety are natural, normal responses to life, especially life as it is current...

Lord Sugar has always presented himself as being of the 'fake it 'til you make it' school - a street-smart kid with more nouse than people twice his age, better at business than the people running companies he briefly worked for in his teenage years.    And appearances would say it paid off - he didn't have the exam results, the MBA, the network of friends and family to give him early opportunities, but, by every indicator, he's 'made it.'  It's understandable, therefore, that the Apprentice  candidates frustrate him so much - he faked it until he made it, they're much better off than he was, what's their problem? The problem is, you CAN'T 'fake it 'til you make it.'  It , whatever 'it' is - nouse, a boldness that borders on the offensively entitled, a daring that goes beyond normal risk tolerance, the kind of lateral thinking that sees an opportunity three years before its wave crashes in to shore, and thus has enough tim...