When we came back after the Christmas break, like many we all had our New Year Resolutions fresh in our minds and the general consensus was to be more active. Now, personally, I thrive off competition. but more than that, I tend to stick to something more when I’m accountable to someone else. Something we’re really passionate about at Layers is achieving things as a team not just as individuals. We genuinely believe we’re better together and so was born our 2021 challenge.

The Challenge

The aim is to cover (walk, run, cycle, surf, swim or anything else self-powered) 2021km for every member of Team Layers. At the start of the year, we had 5 people on the team (James, Chris, Niall, Jonny and myself – Paula) so our collective total for the year was 10,105km (2021 x 5). That was until Daniel joined the team at the beginning of February. We’ve pro-rated his contribution for the year based on the month he wasn’t with us and his total comes out at 1850km, hiking up our total (pun intended ????) to 11,955km to collectively hit before the end of 2021.

To put that into perspective we’ll have done just shy of 48 marathons EACH by the end of the year, or collectively we’ll have gone to the North Pole and back, and then back to the North Pole again. Luckily we won’t be stranded there at the end of the year ????

The Reason

Most people fail their new year resolutions by February, but we don’t want to be most people soooooo we threw down a challenge that doesn’t seem too difficult when broken down into daily targets (it works out 5.5km per person per day) BUT with this challenge consistency is key. Sticking with it past February is necessary (especially for those who thought it was too cold to go for a walk in January ????).

Although this is a collective goal rather than an individual challenge, we all have our own reasons for doing it. As part of our efforts, we’ll be fundraising for charities that are near and dear to our hearts.

The Charities

James – Chron’s & Colitis UK

Chris – Macmillan Cancer Support

Niall – The Haemophilia Society

Paula – CLAPA (Cleft Lip & Palate Association)

Jonny – Music Venue Trust

Daniel – CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably)

Take a look at our Team page on Just Giving, have a read of our individual pages and find out why these charities are so close to our hearts:

www.justgiving.com/team/Layers2021challenge

Stay up to date with our efforts here: Layers.studio/2021km-challenge

We appreciate any donations, shares and encouragement along the way.

Layers turns 5!

‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’

 

It was Einstein that said ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’ and this is the ethos on which Layers is built.

Layers was born out of a belief that things could be done in a better way, so we challenge ourselves, our clients and our partners to explore the possibility of a better way to reach our goals rather than simply the way we know.

The way we achieve this is by involving our entire team from the offset and throughout on a project, so the solutions we implement and the advice we give is truly holistic in nature.

In keeping with this, our birthday series will feature insights from all 5 members of the team…

Hello, I’m Jonny. I am the Junior Designer and newest member of the team here at Layers Studio, however, my journey to this position has not been straightforward. You may have heard of this little thing called a global pandemic that’s affected many things, including my journey. 

From Intern to unemployed Graduate to Junior Designer, this is my story.

Span back to March 2019, I was in my third year of studying ‘Design for Industry’ at Northumbria University and was looking for placements. After tens of applications, followed by being ignored, being rejected, being accepted…and then falling through, my call was finally answered and I was invited to join the small but mighty team of Layers. 

My placement with Layers was my first taste of working life. I worked full-time for three months and from the start was working on a number of client projects. From branding, designing websites and apps, posters and brochures, all the way to…drum roll, please…designing PowerPoint templates (aka the stuff James didn’t want to do).

I was fully involved from the start and learning a lot along the way. My placement ended after 3 months, as that was the minimum amount of time required to pass the final module of my third year, however, my Layers journey didn’t end there. 

After an extremely impressive 3 months at Layers (definitely their words, not mine) I was asked to continue offering my services over the summer holiday and throughout my fourth year of University on an ad-hoc basis. I accepted and carried on working with Layers helping out in the office most weeks. I was even invited to the staff Christmas party! ????????????

After working part-time throughout my fourth year and nearing the end of University I was excited by the thought of finishing my final major project, graduating and the possibility of being offered a full-time position at Layers, the place I had grown to love over the past year. However, those thoughts came crashing down and a big COVID shaped wall was put in my path.

I was sent home from uni with the task of finishing my course remotely, and a return to the Layers office was far from sight. 

After submitting my final major project from my bedroom, receiving my graduation certificate through the post and watching a pre-recorded congratulatory video from my University, getting a job seemed like an impossible task. However I was informed that my contribution to Layers was still welcomed, and I was very happy to oblige. After the severity of the first wave and the start of a second, I was fully expecting to be waiting well into the new year to be able to find a job anywhere, never mind in the design sector. 

Fast forward to November I was made aware of the possibility of a full-time role here at Layers and after interviewing, the 16th of November was to be my start date, I gladly accepted the role.

That is where my 1st blog post ends, but my story with Layers (and as a designer) has just begun!

Thanks for reading!

Jonny

When it comes to strategy, a lot of businesses use their year-end as an opportunity to reflect and set out their plans for the following year. While I agree that this is a great time to reflect and plan for the year ahead, I want to explain why a one-off exercise isn’t gonna cut it as well as highlight some useful building blocks for creating a solid strategic plan to get you closer to your goals.

Set SMART goals

Strategy drives decisions. Every decision made by businesses should take into consideration whether it takes them closer to or further from their overall goals so it’s important that you have clearly defined goals. I’m not bringing anything new to the party when I say be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound) about the goals you set but it is still worth highlighting. 

The main one for me here is measurable! If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. 

By focussing on measurable metrics, you can essentially work backwards and understand what output is required to hit your targets. 

For example, if I currently get 1 new client for every 10 proposals sent, to get 10 new clients, I either need to send 100 proposals or I can look at ways of improving my conversion rate.

Write them down

This one is short and sweet. People that write down their goals are between 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to achieve those goals than those that don’t write them down. Please please please don’t just internalise your ambitions. Write them down, shout them from the rooftop and you’ll be more likely to realise your goals.

Break it down

So you’ve set your goals. Now what? Well, these goals can feel intimidating given the magnitude of what you aim to achieve and this is often the reason why many fail. Set yourself up for success by reverse engineering your goals into smaller more manageable milestones.

Then break each milestone down into daily tasks and habits. It takes an average of 66 days for an action to become a habit so start small and add one at a time. Small differences elicit great changes when they are repeatedly performed so be consistent.

| “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

Revisit your goals

Revisiting your goals is important but so too is the frequency with which you do this. There is little point in setting annual targets and then only checking in on them in a years time. Reflect on a quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. 

When you revisit your goals, it gives you an opportunity to celebrate the little wins, evaluate your current strategy and assess how to move forward. Be honest with yourself and ask, have you been doing what you said you would? What could you improve? Are your daily actions taking you closer to or further from your goals?

Remember that your current position is less important than your trajectory so if you’re doing a lot of front-loaded work and you believe it will pay off in the long run then stick with it.

Don’t fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy though – just because you’ve invested a lot of time, effort and money into your current plan shouldn’t be reason enough to stick with it. If it’s not working, adapt the plan. You’ve already lost that time, effort and money so don’t expend even more unnecessarily.

| “If the plan doesn’t work change the plan but never the goal”

Be accountable

Humour me for a minute and think about a Formula 1 team. A Formula One driver is only one member* of a huge team (*there are 2 drivers in every team) employing hundreds of people, including the Team Boss, Aerodynamics team, Design team, Engineers, Commercial team and many more. A standard Formula One season will comprise of 20 Grand Prix races (+/- a couple). I’ll not mention the 2020 season! ????

Sure, they’ll have a plan for the entire season but they’ll revisit their plan regularly and assess how they are doing against their goals and what needs to happen in order to achieve them. From qualifiers to practice laps to the race itself, the ‘back office’ team are in the driver’s ear (literally) advising on what is happening on other parts of the course, when to make a pit stop, how their competitors are doing etc. That constant feedback loop is everpresent even when things are going to plan, or maybe everything goes to plan because of the constant feedback. 

Regardless, this means the success of the driver and the wider team is not down to the driver alone. To execute their plan, an F1 team requires a huge amount of teamwork and every individual is accountable for the overall success of the team. Likewise, in a business, a specific department or individual person isn’t the sole reason for the success of the business. Everyone has their strengths so by playing to them and striving for a shared company-wide goal, everyone is accountable and more importantly, everyone is valued.

| “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack”

Make adjustments

Every call, every meeting, every project you complete, take a minute to evaluate the good and the bad. What did you do well and what could you improve? Get your wider team involved in this too – a fresh perspective could prove invaluable. 

The same way that Lewis Hamilton (other Formula 1 drivers are available) will receive feedback throughout every race, every lap, every corner he turns, we too should be evaluating our performance and making adjustments as we go.

Basically, what I’m saying is in order to execute your strategy well, you need commitment from the entire team. So, this year when you plan for the year ahead and set your goals, make sure everyone in your organisation is aware of them. Write them down so you and the team are reminded of them daily. Revisit them often and don’t be afraid to change tact if your original plan doesn’t work.