Below is the opening section of the book, which has the working title “We Get the Work Done Together”.

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s weblog (www.sethgodin.com ) for a few years now, and as well as reading his free books which are on the internet, I have also bought a couple of his books to read. I really enjoy the free flow of provocative ideas that he puts together. It really gets you thinking about things in unconventional ways.

One of his recent books is called “Linchpin” and it has become one of the group of books which the team I lead is working through as part of the Creative Learning Academy which I have developed.

A free e-book by Seth Godin, “The Insubordinates”, is an add-on to the Linchpin book. It sets out the people who Seth feels have influenced his thinking, or helped him to achieve what he has. He gives a bit of a rant and storyline on each person. I read it the other day, and it inspired me to pull together my own summary of the key people who have really shaped my thinking over the last few years.

At the time of writing, I am in the midst of developing a new approach to learning as a team. The Creative Learning Academy takes a set of ideas around personal development, co-creation and creativity. Using an organic approach, a set of workshops and learning tools have been used to take the team through a shared experience.  The focus is on encouraging everyone to see learning as an essential part of work and the life that surrounds it.

I’m not sure, as I write this, who I am writing it for. I guess to some extent that I am doing it to clarify my own thinking, but it may also help to explain the broader context for the Creative Learning Academy and its ongoing development. Either way, here goes…

The book we are working on at the moment is ‘Do More Great Work’ by Michael Bungay Stanier. I wrote to Michael a few weeks ago to see if he would be interested in working with us. He lives in Canada so there were some practical difficulties to overcome. However, thanks to the wonder of Skype we managed to plan and deliver a 1 hour workshop at the end of last week. The technology worked beautifully thanks to a team with plenty of bright ideas. In the end 12 of us worked with Michael and we had a small camera crew in the
space with us to capture the event. This will be online soon on the work website along with a few small clips on YouTube.

One of the interesting things about the workshop was that we invited in some of the freelancers who work with us on various projects. It was a great opportunity to recruit the wider team to work together – and the
feedback from the freelancers was incredibly positive. “The first time in years I have had the chance for any personal development” said one of them.

All in all, it was an incredibly positive experience. Michael’s input was really helpful and very focused, and as a team it was a really productive experience. One of the team commented that it was as though Michael was in the room with us.

The Development Academy will continue over the next few months.  I will post further feedback on its progress.

At the last team meeting before the summer break, I introduced 6 books which have had a particular impact on the way in which I work:

• Michael Bungay Stanier – Do more great work
• William Bridges – Managing Transitions
• Tom Peters – Re-imagining
• David Allen – Getting Things Done
• Robin Sharma – The monk who sold his ferrari
• Stephen Covey – The seven habits of highly effective people

In the meeting we discussed the best way to work with these as a group. We decided that a form of ‘book club’ would be the best idea. So, we will each read one of these books over the period of a month and then have a discussion about it at the next meeting, looking at implications for the way we work as a team.

I guess you could call it a learning academy. I intend to further develop this academy idea as the months go by. I am also keen to look at ways in which we can use videos and other materials to build the learning. Hopefully this will help us as a team to build in a strong value base to our work.

Watch this space….

Vision On - TV series from the 70s

Vision is what drives leadership. We need to feel a passion for what we do so that we can motivate others to work on it with us. That passion comes from deep within – down at our core. For that is the place where we find the drive that moves us forward with a crazy sense of purpose. And that drive comes about when we work hard at finding the vision.

Describing vision is like taking something that is achievable and then pushing it just a little further so that it takes us out of our comfort zone and into somewhere that is deeply seemingly beyond reach. Pushing this far out beyond the boundaries and underpinning it with core values that we have unearthed, is the way to find vision and create passion.

Go and look for your own deeper passion within. Find it and then talk about it to everyone you speak to – fashion it with the reactions you get until you see the energy shine in the eyes of those you share it with. Then you have a vision which can draw people in and achieve amazing things.

I am looking for the point of balance between head and heart. It’s the dance between the known and the unknown. I have written before about the way in which so much of the work that we do is a performance. Well, that has made me think more about the nature of the performance. Sometimes we work from a very scripted place – at such times it might be a meeting with a formal agenda, clear goals and a project plan. There is little space for innovation or creativity. This is the head space.

Then, at other times we are drifting in creative space, looking for ideas. Perhaps we are brainstorming or generating new ideas in other ways. This is the heart space.

The place between head and heart brings these things together into a creative tension. The closest of comparisons would be with improvisation. Especially with musical improvisation. If you haven’t listened to a CD of one of Keith Jarrett’s live improvisations, I would recommend that you do. He goes onto the stage with the parameters of the live event as the only boundaries. Beyond that, he empties his mind of pre-conceived ideas and creates new and fresh music on the spur of the moment. It is remarkable to hear and incredible to watch.

It is this space that I am thinking about. Thus, somewhere between head and heart, we find a creative space of improvisation. It can come in giving a presentation, running a workshop, in a coaching session. When it arrives, we find that the words springing from our mouths are a surprise. The ideas that come forward are new, they form in the interaction with others. We find a completely new perspective in the connecting with others.

There is a huge literature on the idea of the charismatic leader. Some argue that this charismatic nature is born into the person and manifests as they show leadership qualities. Others believe that it can be nurtured.

I want to go for a very different take on this. But first, let’s think about the idea of the leader as performer. In fact, let’s look at the idea that we are all performing in the world each day as we get out of bed. The day is a performance – we are projecting ourselves on the world, having an impact on those around us. So, we have the idea of life and living as a daily performance.

Thus, it can be useful to develop similar skills to those developed by an actor. However, that is not to say that we are trying to mask authenticity and develop a false front for the world. If you sit in a theatre and watch an actor who puts on a false ‘front’, there is no authenticity to the performance. An actor has to learn to get into a part, find an authenticity in it and really convince the audience that they are the person that they are playing.

And this brings me to the point. Yes, in order to create real impact and have presence amongst those we work with or lead, we need to develop a performance. But the performance needs to come from a place within. We need to dig down into ourselves and find our authentic passion. What is it that drives us to do the work that we do? Once we are clear what it is, we can tap into it, find our inner passion and work from a place of authentic conviction. Then we are able to have a massive impact because anyone who talks with passion about something will have a significant impact on others.

Time passes, and I am nearly ready to send out the next instalment. It will comprise 10 of the 30 tips / ideas developed from my coaching practise. The distribution list is growing. Let me know through the contacts page if you would like to be included. What does that mean? Well, I will send you the pdf of the 10 tips and ask you to give me feedback on it – not a lengthy review, just your reaction and any useful comments you may have. I also ask you to send the pdf to anyone else who you think might find it useful.

So, do get in touch if you are interested.

1. Connect
2. Be active
3. Take notice
4. Keep learning
5. Give

The more I mull over these factors, the more I realise that they are the key principles to an active and engaged life. Try it yourself. Think about times in your life when you have felt at a low point. What a difference it would make if you connect with others, exercise, take notice of the things around you rather than being self-absorbed, keep learning and being curious, and give to others.

Interestingly, the New Economics Foundation has as its strapline “Economics as if people and the planet mattered”. In the current political climate in the UK, it would be useful to apply that message! Understanding the value of everything rather than the cost of everything.

The first one I wanted to mention is called ‘Great Work Interviews’ . This podcast is an interview series put together by Executive Coach, Michael Bungay Stanier. He is Australian and lives in Canada, having also spent some time in the UK in the past as a Rhodes Scholar. He interviews really interesting people, and the focus of the interview is getting them to identify how they do ‘great work’. There are many insights and useful ideas in the interviews.

I’m also reading his book at the moment. Called ‘Do More Great Work‘, it’s a really practical guide which explains the difference between busy work, good work, and great work. There are plenty of exercises to do in it.

The benefit of the podcast is that it brings a lot of the thoughts in the book to life. Each interview is about 30 – 40 minutes long. Michael is a great interviewer and has chosen some fascinating guests to speak to. Give it a try here.

Over the next few weeks I will recommend other podcasts which are worth listening to. Watch this space, as they say.