The Productive Pessimist

  BBC Panorama Life School Wirral   (trigger warning for physical and verbal abuse, discriminatory language) prompted us at The Productive Pessimist Ltd to reach out as a matter of urgency to Life Wirral.   While the school has, rightly, been closed by the local authority, we have identified serious risks for any situation any of the leadership team from Life Wirral may enter into in the future, and for any attempt to re-establish the brand if re-education around both effective support and education for SEN children, and effective and appropriate management practice generally, is not provided or engaged with. The problems of Life Wirral aren't isolated. They are problems that are entrenched in British ideas of management, whether that is management of adult members of staff in a business, management of students in a school, or management of behaviour.  Britain is a nation built on conquest and control, and the Protestant concept that people 'earn' compassion, and their nee

  At The Productive Pessimist Ltd, we're proud to say that, in all the areas we offer coaching, training, and consultancy , we do so from lived experience. That means when your organisation books autism awareness training with us, that session will be taken by our Neurodiversity Lead, Morgana, who is autistic herself. It means any training course around autism, ADHD, and neurodiversity more widely you book through us will have been developed in consultation with Morgana, as her autism is co-present with ADHD (as is the case for an increasing number of individuals, particularly women and girls.) What does it mean to 'Work In Acceptance?' When we say that we work in acceptance, we don't just mean 'one of the remits The Productive Pessimist holds is the acceptance niche of diversity training.' We mean we work in  acceptance, the same way a professional swimmer works in  water. Acceptance determines what we do, and how we do it. So - what is 'acceptance'? .

  "I think you'd benefit from some personal development." "We need to develop ourselves as an organisation." You've probably all heard at least one of these, or, if you haven't, you're likely to have had occasional thoughts - probably around the 1st of January! - about 'self-improvement' or 'personal development'. But how do you know what you need to develop or improve about yourself, your team, or your organisation? Well, what is guaranteed to make you absolutely furious? What is the recurring focus of your bad dreams and Monday-morning blues? That's your brain telling you, in its unique, sideways way, what you need to work on. If you get furious about the fact that your team never seem to do anything they're asked, and, to all appearances, just sit there in between project check-ins twiddling their thumbs - your development needs are motivational communication, resilience, and adaptability. (Yes, your team likely have develo