Podcast: There Is No I in Team
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2018
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Army captain turned MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher compare notes on leadership and teamwork - presented by Rana Mitter with an audience at Sage Gateshead. There is no I in Team .. but there's a ME if you look hard enough”, joked David Brent in the BBC sitcom, The Office. But for individuals with a proven track record in leadership, how do you get the best from your group while handling the demands of the individual?
Johnny Mercer served three tours of Afghanistan during his military career before retiring from the army to pursue a future in politics. He was elected Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View in 2015.
Elizabeth Newman is the artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Previously she was an associate director at Southwark Playhouse. In 2014, she was awarded the David Fraser/Andrea Wonfor Television Directors’ Bursary for experienced theatre directors to work with top UK broadcasters and production companies and has recently completed filming an episode of Doctors for the BBC. In 2017 she was named ‘Bolton’s Woman of the Year’.
Paul Fletcher played as a striker playing for Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and the England Under 23 team before leg injuries put paid to his playing career. He has been Chief Executive at Huddersfield Town masterminding the building of the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, at Bolton Wanderers when the Reebok Stadium was built, and CEO of Burnley. He has just collaborated with the writer Alastair Campbell on a novel depicting a football manager called Saturday Bloody Saturday and with Ken Sharp he has written The Seven Golden Secrets of a Successful Stadium
Producer: Zahid Warley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.0 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter. |
| 0:33.7 | Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
| 0:41.5 | If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. |
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| 0:50.3 | It'll help other people find us. |
| 0:52.3 | This is the BBC. |
| 1:01.8 | Thank you. It'll help other people find us. This is the BBC. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, |
| 1:06.1 | whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, |
| 1:09.4 | who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, |
| 1:14.5 | because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds. |
| 1:21.5 | The words there of US President Theodore Roosevelt in 2010, and today he surely would have talked about the woman in the |
| 1:28.0 | arena as well. But how true was that sentiment? When it comes to achievement, how much really |
| 1:34.2 | is down to the leader and how much is a collective effort by the team? Well, to sort out the answers, |
| 1:40.2 | I'm delighted to have a stageful of leading lights. Johnny Mercer served as an officer in Afghanistan, |
| 1:46.0 | an experience at the heart of his best-selling memoir, We Were Warriors, and he's now a conservative |
| 1:51.0 | member of Parliament. Elizabeth Newman is artistic director of the Bolton Octagon Theatre, |
| 1:56.7 | and the youngest ever appointee to that post, as well as the first woman. |
| 2:02.6 | Paul Fletcher also has a Bolton connection. |
... |
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