What makes you feel secure? What influences those responses?

First and foremost, Make Me A Plan believes that everyone is different, so we’d love to hear your gut responses to those questions. Chat, comment, chew the cud with us.

We also pride ourselves on taking a unique perspective on the questions and challenges that this wonderful life presents us with. So, over the next few minutes, as you progress through this edition of the Philosopher-In-Residence blog, we’ll proffer some thoughts On Security, taking cues from the British Field Army Manual, Brexit, and of course, Mary Poppins.

An Antidote to Brexit in Ten Principles

(with particular thanks to Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, Theresa May and Julie Andrews).

Selection and Maintenance of the Aim

Lesson Number One. You can be the most powerful chap or chapesse in Britain, have benefited from (arguably) the best education and breeding money can buy, and perceived insecurity can override all these assets and lead you to selecting, and subsequently maintaining, an aim that will ultimately fry most of the security you would never have lost otherwise.

Maintenance of Morale

Lesson Number Two. I could basically sum up everything about Make Me A Plan in the inimitable line from Baz Luhrmann’s Wear Sunscreen; “The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.” Feeling secure and maintaining one’s morale are interchangeable and drawn from the same learned fears and strengths. Ignore your weaknesses, repeat your strengths, even (especially) when you don’t believe them yourself.

NB We recommend applying this to something like leading your team or family through a tough time, running your first half marathon, rather than leading your country to the sound of visa fees.

Offensive Action

Lesson Number Three. We at Make Me A Plan, shock horror, just LOVE planning ahead. Think about what the other players in the scenario might be doing – imminently; tomorrow; next week; next month; next year. Think about what you would do if what you expected to happen next year happened next week. Take action that puts you in the best possible stead in relation to these stress tests. Whilst we are huge fans of gaining customer feedback here at Make Me A Plan, also NB that having a referendum may not fulfil the fullness of time offensive action tests set out above.

Security

Lesson Number Four. That Maslow chap had a bit of mileage in that hierarchy of needs thingy. Your island/brain/nation/business will never truly be secure while it guzzles energy fighting itself. There is a direct correlation between conserving energy and maximising security. Always.

Surprise

Lesson Number Five. This weird and wonderful world often presents dichotomies, which we philosophical types spend much time debating. If you’ve never really reflected on how secure you feel in yourself, you’ve probably had it pretty good.

Learn to appreciate the security you have the good fortune to possess, through being mindful of the unpleasant surprises your peers (other humans) face on a daily basis.

Being turned down for a job because you didn’t get a C in Maths 20 years ago.

Getting a job and working full-time but still being dependent on foodbanks to feed your family.

Marvelling at how much time some people can spend debating Leave and Remain when you’re dealing with those other situations.

Concentration of Force

Lesson Number Six. The Mary Poppins prescription. Mary taught the babes in her care that the biggest word they’d ever hear or need, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, could be deployed in any situation, to ameliorate one’s position. Cheers, Mary.

55 years after Julie Andrews graced our screens in the original movie, Make Me A Plan is routinely making up words, helping all of Plankind to Feel Plantastic in this splendid United Plandom of ours. Zero referenda at a time.

Economy of Effort

Lesson Number Seven. Minimum effort, maximum reward, security-ometer boosted, oui? Being brave enough to walk away from a deal is the first rule of sales, ne c’est pas?

NB in point 72 font, walking away from something that’s not right, even making a volte face, is not the same as no deal.

Flexibility

Lesson Number Eight. These principles On Security are interlinked. See Lesson One on Selection and Maintenance of the Aim. If the secure outcome you thought you’d isolated moves out of the crosshairs – maybe even by a fraction as slim as say, the margin between 48 and 52%,

BEING FLEXIBLE MAY NOW BE A REALLY GREAT OPTION.

Co-operation

Lesson Number Nine. Your individual security is dependent on others. Being nice is free. Co-operation is stronger together. Co-operation is not the same as having to agree all the time.

Also see: Peace project.

Sustainability

Lesson Number Ten. We hear the word sustainability bandied about as linked to the security of the planet, business decisions, personal pathways chosen.

We don’t yet know if there’ll be another Brextension from October 31^st, we probably feel the current wargaming isn’t sustainable, we may not have thought outside the Leave or Remain options that frame the Brexit spectacle.

I reckon pretty much everyone could agree that stability, security and being settled would be on the wishlist of a business, individual, or nation.

So whilst in the context of the Brexit dialogue thus far, the concept of settled status usually makes me want to vomit, I hereby suggest that the British Government has an option to hand that doesn’t haemorrhage cash, provoke insecurity or favour conflict over co-existence.

Apply to the European Union for settled status and the topic of Brexit or Bremain can be revisited at such point that the people struggling to get food, warmth or shelter thing has been covered off.

Here endeth the lesson On Security.

I’ll be musing On Pride & Humility next fortnight – get in touch with any particular aspects of that topic you’d like me to write about.

Happy Planning.