Keir Starmer is not the problem.
When I started my consultancy back in 2021, I used a jar of gherkins to help demonstrate why what I do matters at networking events*.
On showing the jar, I would ask the group, “Would you like a gherkin?”
“Before you decide, there are two things you should know:
1. These are the best gherkins.
I spared no expense in finding the right ones, from the right supplier, at a high price; and
2. I didn’t clean the jar.
I just put the gherkins into the same old, slightly murky, oddly-smelling brine.
So. Would you like one?”
The point was to demonstrate that even the best people become shaped by the culture, environment and systems that they are a part of.
If we’re not taking care of that brine, our investment is wasted.
(It’s a particularly useful analogy for Recruiters, who regularly place “gherkins” into other people’s jars – then get judged and paid based on those individuals adapting to the new brine)
Starmer is a gherkin.
So is Andy Burnham.
So is Wes Streeting.
Their apparent individual differences, viewpoints, ways of working, decision making, appetite for risk, or a myriad of other attributes are no match for the brine.
But many of us are so focused on what we think is a juicy, delicious gerkhin, that we’re blind to what that brine is actually influencing.
Swapping out a gherkin – regardless of how big, influential and recognised they may be – rarely changes the overall brine.
Especially one that has been established over decades.
The moral?
Clean the jar.
* I still have this jar. This is it today – nearly 6-years on.
However, I don’t tend to use it as a prop, as I feel the metaphor is now very much owned by Stephen Shedletzky, after the fanastic articulation in his book: 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬-𝘶𝘱 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 (well worth a read)
