Winning the World Cup – the JMS way

At an early stage, Daniel Staines, Managing Director of JMS, implemented and created a company culture that has allowed the business and team to flourish and grow.  Here, Daniel talks about the JMS environment and why employee engagement is a must for any business…..

In Mathew Syed’s latest book, Rebel Ideas  (https://www.matthewsyed.co.uk/resource/rebel-ideas-the-power-of-diverse-thinking/), there is a chapter on how David Sheepshanks created a diverse Management Board to address the woes of the England Football Team. The concept of advising our National Football team by an eclectic collection of people such as a Ping-pong player, a solider and a rugby player had the football pundit’s apoplectic in their view on what a shambles this would result in.

In the build up to the 2018 Football World Cup, the negativity was felt everywhere, in living rooms and pubs up and down the country.  Gareth Southgate then did the impossible and proceeded to take us to the Semi-finals for the first time in 28 years.

Many companies, (both big & small) are often led by either single-minded individuals, or like-minded Management Boards which, if not stifling ideas and off-the wall thinking, very rarely encourages them. Mangers/owners of Companies often are quoted as saying “it is lonely at the top” and many small to medium Companies have a governance Board of 4 people or less – usually with concurrent views, knowledge and outlooks. These are Companies with 50, 100, 200+ people – all of which have their own take on life, work, experience and – their own ideas.

At JMS, we tap into those people. We encourage them to bring forward their ideas and views. Yes, we have a Board of Directors, but this is guided by the ideas put forward by a ‘Ghost Board’ consisting of a wide cross-section of our colleagues. Their ideas range from the implementation of new software through to Death in Service insurance and can be as simple, but effective, as stick-on approval labels.

These engineers also design projects, buildings, roads and sewers with the same outlook and cross-pollination of ideas.

At JMS we may not be winning the next World Cup, but we will definitely come up with creative solutions to our client’s problems, as a team.