Forget Tom Peters, Charles Handy and Stephen Covey. Those hungry for ideas on how to manoeuvre their way carefully up the greasy corporate ladder might consider ditching the management books and looking no further than TV’s Love Island, which has just ended its latest eight-week run on UK screens.
Career guidance and thriving in a new hybrid working model may not have been front of mind with ITV2’s sub-34 year old audience, as viewers ogled the bronzed and buff bodies of contestants vying to form a ‘couple’ that would share the £50,000 prize (we’ll leave the ‘love’ angle to other social media platforms). Nonetheless, for lateral thinkers, there were more than a few parallels with getting ahead in a corporation.
The executive summary will, for some, make depressing reading. It appears to discourage the extraordinary, the brave and the original; it tends towards a consensus of acceptability, a lowest common denominator.
That’s not to say that Love Island’s winners were not worthy champions. Merthyr Tydfil bricklayer Liam Reardon and new girlfriend Millie Court, a fashion buyer’s administrator from Essex, were certainly…er…nice. Nothing wrong with that. Nice works. It often goes a surprisingly long way when beating off the competition in all sorts of scenarios. Nobody else in the ‘villa’ seemed to have a bad word to say about this attractive, down to earth couple. Unlike most of their rivals, both Liam and Millie were loyal, relatively sensible and consistent. No real surprises – apart from Liam almost allowing his head to be turned by a second blonde, but he clawed his way back into coupledom soon enough.
Their key to success could also be yours. Here it is, in a nutshell:
Be uncontroversial: don’t split opinion and go with the flow
Allow yourself a mistake along the way – but make it a small one and fix it quickly
Package yourself well, make the best of what you’ve got and look ‘normal’
Don’t be arrogant and overtly pleased with yourself – slightly smug seems to be OK
Behave well at all times and control yourself
Be self-aware and consider your impact on those around you
Always perform on the right side of average
Never p*ss off your colleagues or bosses
If this seems like a recipe for an enhanced level of mediocrity, then maybe it is, but you won’t go far wrong and might get close to the top, if not all the way. You, too, could rise without trace – and good luck to you. If you can’t handle any of the above, perhaps you’re too interesting and entrepreneurial to fit the corporate mould. Go for it!
Writers who keep a close eye on the world of TV are asking if, after its seventh series, Love Island’s honeymoon is over and the show, with falling ratings, should walk off into the sunset for the last time. It’s probably too early to tell whether it will make a case study for organisational behaviour on an MBA course, but it would be fun to think that some young viewers have noted action points to help navigate the corporate maze as day-to-day work gets back into full swing.