Joanna Mee, Design Manager (Project), John Lewis Partnership
Joanna Mee is Design Manager (Project) for John Lewis Partnership and was a participant on Common Purpose Navigator 2002. Here she describes how she recognises commonalities between the sectors
I wondered what on earth I would have in common with this group made up from voluntary, public and private sector employees.
"My expectation of the Common Purpose programme was that I would learn to broaden my perspective and be taken out of my comfort zone of the retail sector. These expectations were met, but what I didn't expect is that this would be done in equal measure by the course content and my fellow participants. Furthermore, I had underestimated how challenging and enjoyable this would be.
On walking through the door on the first day and participating in the introductory session with my fellow participants, I wondered what on earth I would have in common with this group made up from voluntary, public and private sector employees. Being employed by the John Lewis Partnership in the private sector instils the importance of community and employee ownership in you, which is unique within its field, but sales and profit are still very much in our vocabulary. How would this relate to workers in a refuge for women or an organisation funded by the taxpayer
However, despite the differences in our vocations and backgrounds, I discovered that many of our day-to-day challenges (both business and personal) are the same, as are the skills that we have developed to overcome them. This gave us great strength during our time on the course, allowing us to share thoughts and feelings from day one. This undoubtedly helped us to get the very most out of the programme, which included visits to a variety of organisations and sessions with key speakers. In fact everyone we came into contact with during that week was equally willing to open up and share their experiences too
