Do Not Adjust Your Focus Blurred

In Episode 14 of Do Not Adjust Your Focus, the podcast from sustainability and communications consultancy Blurred, Stuart talks to award-winning author, Ray Nayler. Ray is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Mountain in the Sea, which The Washington Post called "(a) poignant, mind-expanding debut." The Mountain in the Sea is a finalist for the Nebula Award and for the LA Times Book Awards' Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction.

The novel dramatizes what happens, in a post-climate-crisis, AI-centric world, when humankind discovers super intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture. It prompts us to question, what is intelligence – human, computer, animal – and what kind of intelligence do we need to thrive on a fragile planet?

In this podcast episode, Stuart and Ray explore the climate crisis, how humanity is responding and might respond better and how the emergence of ChatGPT heralds the coming of true AI. Ray also reveals his creative approach to writing and storytelling and shared a lesson that is relevant to everyone in comms: communication must involve the audience, who, as Ray puts it, are “curled into the narrative”. Storytelling is about “building a place where you ask questions.”

​​Born in Quebec and raised in California, Ray Nayler lived and worked abroad for two decades in Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, and Kosovo. Ray works for the US Department of State, and previously worked in international educational development, as well as serving in the Peace Corps in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. In Vietnam he was Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Ray currently serves as the international advisor to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Beginning in August, 2023, he will take up a residency at the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at The George Washington University. He holds an MA in Global Diplomacy from the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, the University of London. 

In episode 13 of DNAYF, the podcast from ESGP advisory firm Blurred, founder Nik Govier talks to designer and creative consultant Greg Bunbury.
 
Greg is a British-born, award-winning Graphic Designer, Creative Consultant, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant and public speaker of Caribbean heritage.

He helps mission-led, purpose driven businesses and organisations, build brands, connect with their audience, and engage diverse communities.  Greg also curates and designs the Black Outdoor Art project, and hosts the Design For People podcast.
 

After a Covid hiatus, DNAYF is back! In Episode 12 of Do Not Adjust Your Focus, the podcast from strategic and creative advisory firm Blurred, Blurred CEO Nik Govier talks to PR icon and spokeswoman on women's issues Lynne Franks OBE. 

Lynne founded a public relations consultancy in the early 1970s and is an advocate, communications strategist, writer and spokeswoman on women's issues, sustainability[2] and consumer lifestyles.

Throughout Lynne’s long and successful career, she has influenced awareness of many societal shifts and trends both in the UK and internationally.
She positioned the UK as a world fashion leader by initiating London Fashion Week and the British Fashion Awards.
Her wide breadth of influence in the business world includes developing McDonald’s UK women’s leadership network; working with Tesco on engaging their women’s customers through media partnerships; launching high fashion home shopping with NEXT and motivating the public towards responsible consumerism when advocating John Elkington’s trailblazing Green Consumer Week.
Lynne also initiated a wide diversity of awareness campaigns for social causes including the creation of Fashion Cares, taken over by Mac Cosmetics to become the world’s biggest fundraiser for HIV/Aids; working with Amnesty International on global awareness of human rights through music and collaborating with Bob Geldof and Harvey Goldsmith on the production of Fashion Aid at the Albert Hall.
She was a major UK advocate on the global situation regarding sexual violence to women and girls, working with her friend Eve Ensler to bring attention to women being used as weapons of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She chaired Viva, the UK’s first women’s radio station after selling her eponymous PR agency in the early 90’s and put on What Women Want, the major festival at the South Bank in ’95, stimulating dialogue on the situation of women in the UK and beyond.
Lynne then attended the UN’s 4th largest women’s conference, held in summer ’95 in Beijing, where she worked as a radio journalist sending home the voices and issues of women worldwide.
While living in California, she founded and ran the new marketing agency GlobalFusion, representing many consumer brands and retailers across the US from her offices in LA and San Francisco.
Her books and workshops, including The SEED Handbook, published worldwide in 2000,  pioneered a more feminine approach to business, combined with personal empowerment, inspiring thousands of women to join a movement of sustainable economic independence. Since establishing the SEED (Sustainable Enterprise and Empowerment Dynamics) women’s empowerment platform and body of learning materials, she has championed women’s leadership from post-war Bosnia, to rural South African villages and for women in prisons to women in the corporate boardroom.
Lynne continues her journey, consulting, writing and speaking on societal shifts, women’s empowerment and a more sustainable, peaceful world for all.
You can listen to this and previous episodes here, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE

Leadership under fire: a decorated officer’s take on leading from the front, decision-making under pressure and the importance of autonomy and resourcefulness 

Justin Featherstone is a former Major in The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment who was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in Iraq. 
Today, Justin is a leadership consultant who is a Fellow at the University of Exeter Business school as well as a part-time member of the faculty.  He is also is an annual lecturer at the University of Llubljana, Slovenia and an expedition leader who has led more than thirty overseas expeditions to the mountains, rivers and rainforests of the world. 

During the peak of Covid-19 earlier this year, Stuart spoke to Justin about leadership in a crisis. They discuss the invisible enemies of ‘cabin fever’, isolation from family,  and depression, as well as what creativity means in the military: genuine problem-solving, as opposed to just ideas.

Justin also gives his opinion on the lazy comparisons between Covid-19 and "The Blitz".

In Episode 10 of Do Not Adjust Your Focus, the podcast from strategic and creative advisory firm Blurred, Stuart talks to BBC journalist Dhruti Shah. 

Dhruti is one of the tiny number of people to have been awarded both the prestigious Ochberg fellowship for journalists working to report on traumatic events, and the Rotary International Peace Fellowship for her work exploring peace and conflict resolution. 

Stuart and Dhruti discuss journalism as a profession today - from mental health and the difficult art of listening, to the quest for balance and the double-edged sword of social media.

Dhruti also  tells us about her brilliant, informative and entertaining new book, "Bear Markets and Beyond: A bestiary of business terms", which explores how and why the language of animals is so prevalent in modern day business discourse.
You can listen to this and previous episodes here, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

HOW DO WE PRESERVE BRITAIN AS A TOLERANT PLACE?
In Episode 9 of Do Not Adjust Your Focus, the podcast from strategic and creative advisory firm Blurred, Stuart talks to business woman and campaigner Gina Miller, who twice initiated legal challenges against the government standing up for Parliamentary democracy… And won.
Her first victory came in September 2017, when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of giving MPs a say over triggering Article 50 - the legal mechanism taking the UK out of the EU.
Her second victory came in September 2019, when the Supreme Court ruled that Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.
Consequently known as one of the most prominent names and faces of Remain and somewhat of a figurehead of the pro-EU camp, Gina and Stuart discussed some of today’s major battles: Europe, ESG, ethics and education, highlighting why we must preserve Britain as a tolerant place, now more than ever.
You can listen to this and previous episodes here, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.