First a comparison:

When we take a walk, and we don’t know the route – the walk out always feels slower and longer than the walk back. Of course it isn’t, it’s the same length. Because the route is unfamiliar and there are no points by which to judge how far we have got, it can seem like an incredibly long way. Sometimes we do the walk – and just before we reach our destination, we feel like we can’t go any further. There is an overwhelming desire to give up. Only when we actually get there do we find that we could have given up so close to our goal.

The analogy is clear for something like a walk. But what about the goals we set ourselves? What about the dream we have, something we really want to achieve? We push away at it. To misquote Robin Sharma, we need to take small steps each day which add up to something huge over time. But just before we get there – and of course, we don’t know we are nearly there – we feel like giving up on it. It feels like a futile effort – too much time being spent on something that may ultimately come to nothing.

 This is the critical spot – the point where we need every resource we can find to persevere. How do we do that? What will help?

• A support network to help us with perspective
• Revisit the reason why this is a goal – find the passion again
• Think again about the effort that has got us to this point
• Just do it – just stay with it and find a small reward to keep going

Then, as the summit appears, we can stand on the top, hold our hands above our heads and feel the cold air on our faces as we look the furthest we have ever seen. And feel the soul rush of being on top of the world.

Pictures on the wall were all taken with this new camera
Living in a world where every second can be captured as a
Perfect digital image. Still or moving images
Everything caught as a series of digital code
So that every trace of every life can be saved for future viewing
If only we had the time to review everything
At least then we might learn something from the mistakes of history.

Coming soon – ‘November Suite’ - a booklet produced (not surprisingly) last November.

I’m keen to keep building this circle of support, as well as building a readership for the finished book so if you would like a copy of the booklet please do get in touch using the contact form and I will send it to you.

Well, I was thinking about this the other day. I was in conversation with someone about how to best market oneself when looking to change jobs . (They were looking to change jobs, not me, I hasten to add). There is no doubt that the Knowledge and the Skills that you have are important attributes to describe. But if you stop there, the CV ends up looking very dry, just like everybody else’s. Sure, we need to describe our Experiences, the depth and breadth of it. That helps – but there is one more dimension to ourselves which really helps us to stand out from the crowd.

Deliverables – the things we have achieved in the jobs we have held. In some cases deliverables might be actual products – a report, publication, a new innovation. Sometimes it might be a significant change in a service. Identifying these deliverables – perhaps, 5 or 6 key ones – and setting them out clearly in your CV will really help to differentiate you. Above all else, it shows that you can really deliver in jobs that you do.

So, perhaps we should be talking about Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Deliverables.

The model which follows was developed in a coaching session with a client who was experiencing a process of massive change for the organisation that she was leading. 

At these times it is often difficult to see ‘the wood for the trees’. One can easily feel overwhelmed with the volume of work that needs attention, and confused as to the priorities. The model identifies three pillars of activity – business as usual, transition, and self care. The model applies equally to issues relating to the organisation as a whole and to the individual working within the change process. 

The first pillar is the essential activities which the organisation needs to address to keep going whilst change is taking place. It is important to stay focused on this if organisational and individual performance is to be maintained. 

The second pillar addresses the activities that need to take place to create the transition to the new. This may involve setting up time limited task groups, a wide range of organisational development activities, helping people to adapt to the change, offering key support. 

The third pillar is important because it acknowledges the fact that it is all too easy to forget our own needs as leaders of change. Addressing self care ensures that needs are met, and resilience during the change is maintained. 

Above the pillars sits ‘Legacy’ – the need to ensure that the organisation looks at the things which it has been doing in the past that need to be retained – either as activities or as tacit knowledge. Ensuring that we capture the legacy is a way of maintaining respect for the work that everyone has been doing. 

Below the pillars sits ‘Values’. We work from a value base which determines how we function on a day to day basis, how we make decisions. It is important to stay in touch with our core values as we lead people through the change to ensure that we maintain integrity and are able to take people with us on the journey. 

So, that is the model. How does it work? It helps us to see that there are activities in each of these boxes that we need to give attention to. In order to take things forward with balance we need to be mindful of activities in each box, so that we do not neglect any particular area. 

The model builds on the work of William Bridges in his book ‘Managing Transition’, and on the work of Stephen Covey in ‘The Eighth Principle’ which looks at the importance of leaving a legacy. 

The coaching client I worked with on this model found it really useful to orientate herself as she worked through the change process.

It helps to keep looking at the model and ensure that each of them is being given the appropriate attention.

The following poem was created using a phrase which I stumbled across – this became the title of the poem and was then put through google. This is an early draft, but I like the direction it follows:

The Voice of Wittgenstein

 “After several attempts to weld my results together
The best I could write would never be more
Than philosophical remarks

My thoughts would soon be crippled
If I tried to force them on
Against their inclination”

An anti-systematic attitude
Like John Cage’s music or Stockhausen
A permanent condition

Numbered aphorisms, as though
The world of existence could be reduced
To a set of interwoven statements

 Everything succumbing to the power of language
Different voices in dialogue
The first of the post-modernists

 Voice 1, then Voice of Tradition
Voice of Perplexity
And the Voice of Clarity

 These voices are inside my head
All at once, they seize language
Mess with it, precise but dissective

Taking objects and making of them
A contradiction, a complexity
Confusion that removes sense of self

Uttering a word, a phrase – I love you
Lost in translation, in perplexity
A permanent condition.

[20:30]

Now, unless I am much mistaken, some detailed research suggests that Lulu is probably a better service if you are based in the UK, because the other service (which is owned by Amazon) only prints in the US.

There is also the option to produce books through both services, although this might be somewhat cumbersome. Any views on the two services are welcome – just post a comment on this post.

I’m going to use this service in the next few weeks to produce the first couple of books. This is a real move forwards for my publishing press (bluewater books), which until now has only produced hand-printed chapbooks. I’m looking forward to experimenting, and will blog about the progress with it over the coming weeks.

I have just used a quote from Bartok:

“What is new and significant must always be connected with old roots, the truly vital roots that are chosen with great care from the ones that merely survive.”

In striving to produce something startlingly different which pushes into new territory we always need to help the process of communication by creating hooks for the audience. Bartok did it by pushing music into new soundscapes whilst drawing heavily on the folk and ethnic music of his homeland, Hungary. He and Zoltan Kodaly were active musicographers – generating a growing archive of the history of Magyar music. This simultaneous exploration of the historical context with the pushing out into new territory is key to charting new territory.

So, complexity for its own sake, working against the conventions just to be obtuse is counter-productive.

I read a book a few a few years ago by an academic from Warwick University, Gibson Burrell (now at Leicester). The book was called ‘Pandemonium’. It was about a post-modernist approach to organisation studies. In keeping with the subject it was laid out in an unusual format with the text working from front to back for the top half of the page, then from back to front for the bottom half. It was an imaginative approach which worked well. A departure from the norm – but there was a clear guide to get the reader through the book.

So, the point of this post is to remind me that if I experiment, I need to ensure that the communication is not lost because of the lack of cues or clues for the reader. In the words of the title, by all means explore complex issues and enjoy the journey – but remember the acronym KISS – keep it simple stupid!

I’m hoping to have it finished before the end of this month. As soon as it is finished I will be posting a pdf for free download – and it will be possible to buy a hard copy of the book too, very soon.

I have also begun work on Collected Poems: Volume One which covers 1985 to 1996. More news on this very soon.