Paul Archbold is one of our co-founders and works closely with our clients to guide them through their transformations, establishing cross-functional teams, fostering healthy environments and promoting better working practices. He’s always looking for smart ways to ensure the brands we work with are able to do great stuff for themselves.
He’s an innovative design leader with over 20 years of experience working inside large and complex organisations, but at heart, Paul likes to build stuff and in fact, his lifelong ambition is to build a farmhouse in Umbria (we’re working out how we can all go as a company and make this dream a reality).
We wanted to know more about what makes him tick.
What’s your work background?
Zoom wise – Mostly my young children being creatively troublesome in the background.
Career-wise – I spent most of my working life in large, generally messy retail organisations, building and leading experience design teams with a constant desire to make my role redundant.
Why did you found &us?
Because I’d been dragged through way too many badly orchestrated “Transformations” by large consultancies, where on the whole the people, strategies and commercial position ended no better off. So I decided to create a different type of consultancy with Robert Isaacs (my lovely co-founder).
What does your morning routine look like?
Starts with a reminder of what my calendar looks like, followed by being dragged out of bed to make a plethora of breakfast goodies for my 3 girls, then shower, alternating school drop off and starting with work work by joining our company stand-up to talk about rather random and wonderful non work related topics.
What does an average working day have in store for you?
At the moment a real mixture of scoping out multiple new existing client opportunities, planning ahead for new projects, looking ahead a little at the numbers and workload, and no doubt at least one Miro session.
What’s the best thing about your job?
Working with such creative people who are genuinely striving to do the right stuff which really makes a difference to companies, teams and individuals.
How has your work day changed in the last year: What new things will you be keeping? And what can’t you wait to go back to?
I’d like to hang on to a lot of the meal times with my kids, this last year has helped me see how much I’ve previously missed out on.
I’m looking forward to those unplanned opportunities to go for a walk with people at &us and Poke (I miss Poke a lot).
Predictions for the next year? What will clients want most of in the next 12-24 months?
I think not hugely different to what most have needed for the last 5 years, they need help getting clear on where to focus their energy, time and investment and some practical coaching around how to create the right playgrounds for teams and leaders to create quality output constantly.
What is the most random thing on your desk?
A bluetac die which I’m constantly smushing up and re-creating.
Who was your last email from?
Zak, our Junior Growth Manager. He sends out a super useful growth update every week which gives a sharp account of where we are with new client conversations. This week has been my favourite as he started with an update on how Zorro, his cat, got on with his first steps outside his flat 🙂
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
If you’re feeling paranoid about not doing a good enough job or having f**ked something up, before spending too long worrying start by looking for the evidence that it’s real, most of the time it’ll turn out to just be a feeling, not something which is really going on.
What did you want to be when you ‘grew up’?
A pro skateboarder or illustrator, now that I’m grown-up I’d like to be a builder.
How do you relax outside of work?
Relaxing on the beach with the family, drinking red wine anywhere or building stuff.
What would be your super power if you had one?
Replication.
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