Heartaches, hopes and high fives - Day 18

Tuesday 18th December 2018

18 - the number of chapters into which James Joyce's modernist novel, Ulysses,
is divided. It was initially published in installments in an American journal, but was then
released as a complete work on the author's 40th birthday. The novel's stream-of-consciousness
technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose—replete with puns, parodies, and
allusions—as well as its rich characterisation and broad humour, have led it to be regarded
as one of the greatest literary works in history

The Christmas silly season has arrived - lunch in Cambridge yesterday followed by supper at the RAC. I will need to pace myself. (I say that to myself every year and I seldom manage, but I am exhausted - this year has been more demanding than any I can remember). But enough about me, onto the blog...

In many ways, today's post is a perfect follow-on from Niall's of yesterday and Nick's from the day before - it considers our world, how small we are within it and has hope for our future. It has been written by David Head. David is a highly respected executive coach and mentor; he specialises in supporting people through periods of change and career transition. Just over five years ago David decided to move down a slightly different branch in his own career, away from senior search within the IT sector and qualified as a coach. Since 2013 he has worked for the award winning, London-based business performance and leadership consultancy, Accelerating Experience, as an executive coach and mentor. David for many years has been a keen sportsman (tennis and golf) and is also well read and an erudite writer - you would probably enjoy his articles posted on LinkedIn. You can follow him on Twitter - his handle is @DavidAHead2. It is a pleasure to have him back in the series this year. 

****************

This image of the Northumberland coast (you can just see Bamburgh Castle in the background), recently won an amateur photography award and was taken by a friend, John Chappell.  I chose this image because the sea is significant to most of us on these small damp islands. It is somewhere we go to have fun, reflect and take stock. Significantly, it ‘delivers something the soul loves too’.

I love gazing out to sea, particularly at this most moody, evocative time of year. 

Looking at this image you can sense the eddies, currents and flows going on under the surface, rather like our own thoughts, feelings and emotions. The sunset in the background represents a sense of hope to me, or is it the fading of the light?

It is this sense of ambiguity which draws our wandering minds and souls in, like mariners navigating the unseen flow of our unconscious.

‘We are tied to the ocean..and when we go back to the sea, we are going back to whence we came’John F Kennedy

From dry land the sea becomes restorative and nurturing, soothing our deepest heartaches and fears. Stand silent, gaze out and sense the darker and unknowable, yet instinctively known forces of life, and death.

The sea is the most primal force of nature, unpredictable, wild, ragged and untamed. It reminds us that whilst we can damage nature, we can neither tame it or destroy it. We are insignificant, small, vulnerable and therefore ‘at sea’. Shakespeare reminds us of that;

‘We to the gods are as flies to wanton gods, they kill us for their sport’

To look at this seascape reminds me of the turmoil of our times and of the sea’s transcendence. It also reminds me of our own relative insignificance, for better and worse.

Like a goldfish bowl our own world is often too small for us, and we are drawn to the sea.

‘The world is too much with us late and soon…Getting and spending we lay waste our powers’

From the same poem Wordsworth reflects;

 ‘ ..I’d rather be a peasant suckled in a creed outworn; so that might I standing on this pleasant lea. Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn.’

The sea, through Wordsworth, or Wordsworth through the sea reminds us of deeper wisdom...

This is a time of year for reflection and If gazing out to sea is a reflective exercise, then ‘taking it on’ and entering the waters’ domain requires great courage and resilience. It may also be equally cathartic. I am reminded of the Yachtswoman Susie Goodall who was recently rescued from sea after capsizing. I don’t doubt that she will go to sea again. Not just for the high fives but like the mountain, because it is there.

I am struck by how many leaders and adventurers are passionate about sailing, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. When I asked a friend why, she replied that it was ‘the spirit of adventure..not knowing what the next day would bring’ that draws her in. Compare this to Susie Goodall’s text when her 12 meter boat was taking a pounding in the middle of the Southern Ocean;

‘Wondering what on earth I’m doing out here’

And yet still we come, and still she goes...

If we can overcome our fears and risk all at sea, what more might we achieve? What would we do or take on if we knew that we could not fail? In this sense the sea challenges us, drawing out our deepest hopes and fears, whispering its siren call to set sail..

‘Time in the sea eats its tail’Ted Hughes

A Chance Encounter

Day 40 (Saturday 9th January 2016)

40 years - the time it takes the planet Venus to return to its original position in the sky.
It has a pentagonal orbit, requiring 8 years to complete. Venus retrogrades (appears to
travel backwards from our perspective on Earth) for circa 40 days once every two years -
due to being such a bright object Venus was considered an important planet in many ancient religions -
it has been proposed that the 40 day retrograde period influenced times in the Bible and other religious records
Noah's flood lasted 40 days; Moses wandered in the wilderness with the  for 40 days;
Jesus was tempted for 40 days and nights; Buddah fasted for 40 days before attaining Samadhi.
Photo: Venus (brightest), Jupiter (second-brightest) and star Regulus make a triangle. The comet C/2014 is to their left. Composite image – created from two images (sky and landscape) – taken on July 22, 2015 by Marco Nero in New South Wales, Australia.

This post is by Jacky Hilary, an HR professional based in West Sussex, in the south of England. (A perfect location for her as she loves walking the beautiful South Downs). She and I met via Twitter, her handle is @JackyHilary. She is a cultured lady (speaking excellent Italian and French as well as English) with an appreciation of the Arts (especially theatre and film) as you will see from her post below. Jacky is a true HR generalist with expertise within the not-for-profit sector. She is a Board member of Aspire - a recently founded social enterprise running adult and community education in West Sussex. She is currently seeking her next work challenge - those who have had her as a colleague commend her for her professionalism, efficiency, knowledge, resilience and integrity.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Comet tails and coal dust"

While I love the sound of this advent blog theme curated by Kate Griffiths-Lambeth, I couldn’t think of anything appropriate to write – and I have been ill since she and I discussed it.  Starting to feel better, a memory came back to me in the shower that seemed to sum up the weirdness and wonder of life.

I was driving home from work last summer, south along the M23.  It had been a hot day and it was a beautiful evening.  And then the coal dust.  Ahead of me, near Gatwick, cars were backing up and starting to form a traffic jam.  We slowed and slowed until finally we were at a complete standstill.  

Clearly there had been an accident ahead.  Some cars around me were taking their chance and going the wrong way up the adjacent slip road.  I toyed with the idea, but became alarmed at the anarchic behaviour which nearly caused another crash as people did random U-turns, and decided not to follow.  In true British fashion, we all sat there for some time.  I listened to the radio for a while, realising with relief that my husband would not be worried as he was away.  Eventually, you get hot and bored.  I got out of the car and ventured to speak to the man in front.  As soon as I moved towards him, he got back in his car.  I think this was coincidental!  

I turned and walked the other way and was greeted by a jovial man in a military-style uniform.  He turned out to be a police officer, also trying to get home, same as me.  I learnt that he did a desk job based in Surrey.  

The police officer and I stood in the middle lane of the M23 in the stunning evening sunshine and discussed our children, work, driving, Shakespeare.  One of his children was taking part in a Shakespeare play.  I am a Bard enthusiast so this proved a fruitful topic.  

He told me about driving courses he had done, about how you learn to check your environment very carefully when you are doing over 100mph, how many drivers behave on the road as if they’re in world of their own, and what he could tell about the crash from our considerable distance away.  

Surrey Police

He also told me a lot about policing in the 21st century.  It was one of those rare, wonderful times when your comet trail coincides with that of someone you would never normally come into contact with.  

Half an hour later the traffic started to move.  The police officer and I shook hands, said goodbye, smiled warmly at one another, got back in our cars and went our separate ways – me with more driving awareness and he maybe with more enthusiasm for Shakespeare.

To my knowledge, there was no loss of life on the M23 that evening, as I saw no related news coverage whatsoever afterwards.  So much for the coal dust. 

Oddly, looking back, this impromptu meeting is one of my best memories of 2015 – the comet tail.

Chance Encounter by Stasia Burrington

Horse Play

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

I am struck by the fact that a man famous for voicing his need for a horse, when “His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights” (Richard III, William Shakespeare), has been confirmed as the most likely identity for a body buried in a car park in Leicester, UK  http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/.  At the same time horses in various guises (burgers, lasagne, pies, etc…) seem to have been given to many people who do not want them…well at least not in that form.  You couldn’t make it up! 

Horse & rider at San Bartolome de Pinares, photograph by Daniel Ochoa de Olza, 
Guardian Eyewitness series January 2012

There are numerous lessons for the workplace that can be gleaned from both pieces of news.  Here are five for starters (perhaps an unfortunate choice of phrase):   

1    It’s easy to damage a brand.  The 15^th century was a turbulent time, fraught with political and civil unrest.  However, Richard III was a popular monarch; according to David Grummit, a War of the Roses specialist based at the University of Kent, he was "regarded by most of his contemporaries, especially during the 1470s and early '80s, as a paragon of chivalric virtue and an accomplished soldier... in death, Richard was doing nothing more than he had done for most of his life." Despite being unseated from his horse and losing his protective headgear and coronet, he bravely remained fighting on foot, even after being deserted by a number of his followers.  He became the last Plantagenet monarch of England when he died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.  As is usual when a new order commences, the arriving dynasty, in this case the Tudors, need to cement public approval to ensure their future.  Artists, eager to gain patronage and secure their own safety, often stress the benefits of the “new regime”, denigrating the former.  Shakespeare’s demonic depiction of Richard III, as a nephew-killing and physically deformed man, can be considered a powerful piece of propaganda on behalf of the Tudors http://www.richard111.com/richard_iii__shakespeare.htm ; this would have helped the playwright to receive a warm reception with Elizabeth I and her court.  Research into the unearthed body shows that the King neither had a hump nor a withered arm, so the pictures made of him during his lifetime were probably more accurate than perhaps some had thought.  

Richard III circa 1480

There is an interesting book I read as a teenager, called “The Daughter of Time”, written by Josephine Tey (the nom de plume of a respected detective story writer from the middle of the last century, Elizabeth MacIntosh).  The book presents evidence that seems to vindicate Richard III of the murder of his nephews – in the 1950’s this book helped inspire the creation of the Fellowship of the White Boar, an international  society dedicated to clearing Richard’s name.  The organisation was renamed The Richard III Society and has, since the mid fifties, fiercely campaigned to shift public perception of the potentially maligned monarch – it was part of the collaborative group of organisations responsible for the research into the corpse in the car park – along with the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council.  Despite the pro-Richard campaigners, public imagination over the centuries has been captivated by the image of the deformed, wicked uncle who murdered his own nephews in the pursuit of personal ambition – the Tudors gave Richard a compelling, but not attractive, brand. 

As a side note, in my experience it is common practice for a new leader to blame the old regime for issues he/she is trying to overcome (as is so often demonstrated in politics as well as business).  The responsibility for economic woes and tough decisions is often laid on those who came before.

Today, in the horse meat scandal, leading retailers and manufacturers are looking for culprits (other than themselves) and taking expensive measures to protect against the adverse impact of being seen to have lied to their customers/the public, and for not having been in control of produce – Findus plans legal action against its suppliers (despite the obvious damage to their corporate brand, I must confess to smiling at the joke doing the rounds on Twitter about how "staying in with a hot Italian stallion" sounds cooler than "heating up a ready-meal lasagne"); Tesco’s sales losses, due to the crisis, are anticipated to be in excess of £1 million; to mitigate further damage, the retailer has harnessed the power of various media channels to circulate a statement aimed at reassuring customers that it is taking the issue seriously.  Individuals and organisations need to be aware of how they are perceived, both internally and externally, and be seen to be responsive. 

2    Technology is significant.  It would have been impossible to ascertain the identity of either the body or the ingredients of suspect processed food without DNA testing (or "DN Neigh" as Baron Prescott tweeted).  The corpse’s DNA was a close match to that of a known descendant of the King's sister and even miniscule amounts of horse meat can been identified in various products – although in some instances it is clear that no meat other than horse was used in the so-called “beef” processed meals.  Both stories have become international phenomena, in part due to the numerous websites, blogs and social media commentaries.  Without the use of modern technology, neither incident would have become news.  Increasingly, leaders will need to consider the impact of technology, to ensure competitive advantage as well as its ability to enable rapid and effective communication (both planned and unplanned).

3    Evidence based decisions are required to support proposals.  Researchers at the University of Leicester undertook extensive analysis to determine the identity of the corpse http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mfi6gOX0Nf4#!   The curvature of the spine and the slender frame indicate a physique similar to that described by the contemporaries of King Richard III.  Forensic knowledge was used to determine the cause of death – almost certainly a severe blow to the head with a sharp object, that sliced through the skull, this would be consistent with battle wounds and accounts of the King’s demise.  Regrettably, more and more evidence is coming to light in the “horse meat scandal”, which seems to indicate that inappropriately described ingredients have been used in processed food that has been distributed right across Europe (and that it might have links to known criminal rings, who arbitraged the cheap price of horse meat in Romania against Western European markets, after a change in legislation in Romania resulted in large quantities of horses being killed and the price dropping).  To avoid inappropriate actions and to enable better decisions to be made, organisations need to use all the facts and information available to them to support the decision making process.

4    Honesty is crucial Consumers trust food producers to provide the product as described on its packaging.  Although horse meat is popular as a food in many countries (notably not the UK), that does not excuse retailers and food manufacturers from passing off equine produce as minced beef.  Misled members of the public will avoid producers and retailers whom they know have lied to them.   King Richard III was viewed with mistrust by a number of his subjects, which contributed to his demise - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd7476e2-7119-11e2-9b5c-00144feab49a.html#axzz2KQsHnpMz. 

At exactly the same time as the academics were breaking the news to the press about their extraordinary discoveries, another story was unfolding: that of the former UK MP, Chris Huhne, who unexpectedly plead guilty to perverting the course of justice.  Huhne’s persistent lying and willingness to pass the blame for his actions onto others has done much greater harm to his reputation than the fact that he was caught speeding.  He would have been well advised to have heeded Shakespeare’s words in the play, Richard III

                “An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told”.

In these days of Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest and Facebook, word spreads as fast as people can hit the share button and, as former RBS traders and other banks now know, ill advised words and actions are easily uncovered.  Authenticity and honesty are prerequisites of good leaders and employees.

5    People are emotional as well as rational.  As the success and national support of the dressage teams in the Olympics last year testify, the UK is a nation of horse lovers with strong equestrian roots.  Horse meat is not dangerous to eat (unless the animal has been treated with drugs, such as “Bute”, which is potentially harmful to humans); however, many people are repelled at the thought of horses being used as a food.  An innate repugnance at consuming an animal that is loved and admired, combined with a dislike of being deceived (especially by big businesses that are seen as having a huge influence over our lives) results in a powerful combination, inflaming public anger and distrust (the media fanning of the blaze with emotive writing only serves to intensify this reaction).  It is clear that Richard III inspired and still stirs up strong emotions in people.  Some of his defenders are almost evangelical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgr94xGp1DM and his enemies clearly loathed him - there is evidence that Richard’s body was stabbed and mutilated after his death (e.g. puncture wounds to his buttocks) – this was probably to humiliate his corpse and as an act of retribution.  Similar to the events surrounding Gaddafi’s death in Libya, where his death was slow and his battered body was paraded through the streets, it appears that the mob took advantage of his capture to vent their frustration and anger.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/23/gaddafi-last-words-begged-mercy    A leader should never underestimate the power of emotions.  To inspire people to action, you need to engage on an emotional level as well as presenting a compelling, well reasoned vision.