The choice is yours

Day 46 - (Sunday 15th January 2017)

46% of the UK's electricity was generated by clean energy sources,
according to a report released in July 2016 - this was the first year
when power generated by low-carbon sources outstripped coal.

Richard Westney has one of my favourite job titles (although it sounds onerous - Director of Humankind (OK, perhaps the 'of' should be 'at"). Richard lives and works in New Zealand - on the North Island - in the cultural and legislative capital Wellington and the rolling vineyards of Wairarapa. Quite a contrast to where he started his HR career - in the smog and grey of London.

I have met him in person at Tweet-ups in the UK, when he has been over visiting family and I can vouch for him being a delightful companion and a very decent fellow to spend an evening with. He is an experienced HR professional and tries hard to give back to the profession (mentoring and advising others) as well as continuing to learn and grow himself. He established the Wellington HR Meetup and is involved in the Association of People Professionals. He is active on social media - you can hollow him on Twitter (his handle is @HRManNZ) and he writes an excellent blog: Up The Down Escalator. 

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The choice is yours

The end of the year is always a time of great reflection as these series of personal posts prove.

We often get carried away looking back and thinking too much about the bad things, the learning, the regrets and the heartbreak that shaped our year and not enough about the good things. 

So as you look back, I would suggest there are three questions to ask yourself from both a personal and professional perspective. Effectively your heights, hearts and hollows.

1. What did I achieve these last 12 months? 

2. Who/what did I waste my energy on? 

3. What didn't I achieve that I should have done and why? 

Once you've answered these you can plan for the coming year.

I don't personally believe in new year's resolutions. They are just bland statements with no accountability. Think poor performer saying "yes, I'll be much better" who then goes off and does exactly the same thing. 

I am a fan of goal setting though. Not targets or numbers that can be ticked off a list, but big hairy audacious ones that can be broken down into smaller components. In order to achieve A, I need to do X,Y and Z to get there. 

• So what is it you want to do differently or change in your work or personal life?
• What is the BHAG you are working towards that may only be partly realised?
• What are the knowledge or skills you are lacking to get there?
• What obstacles could get in the way that you need to overcome? 

My advice is to think of your life as a project. It's always a work in progress (the scope constantly changes) and you need a project plan, some risk management and resilience to keep going.  But you have lots of choices in how you live your life.

You also need an element of bravery. How we treat other people says so much about us.  As I've grown older I have realised that it's not what you say to people that you end up regretting the most, it's what you don't say to people. Good and bad. For those of us who have lost close family and friends this year I am sure we will all have things we know we should have said that we never got around to saying. 

If you care about them, are proud of them or they have really pissed you off, then say so. Don't be left with that hollow feeling when suddenly they aren't there and too much was left unsaid. 

I came across a JK Rowling quote while writing this which I thought was the perfect way to finish and summed things up nicely. 

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, not our abilities."

On that note I hope you manage to have an amazing 2017 and not an average one. The choice really is yours to make. 

The Hollow Man

Day 23 (Friday 23rd December 2016)

23 shipwrecks, dating from from 1,000BC to 19^th centuryAD, heretofore 

undiscovered, were found and explored off the Fourni archipelago in Greece 

in June/July 2016. The team were co-directed by a University of Southampton 

archaeologist and a member of the Hellenistic Ministry of Culture and Sports. 

Many of the ships were carrying amphoras and the find illustrates importance

of easter Mediterranean trade networks passing by Fourni across the ages,

connecting the Black Sea and Aegean to Cyprus, the Levant and Egypt. 

Some wrecks carried goods from North Africa, Spain and Italy.

We have reached the end of the week leading up to Christmas and I am sure you will agree with me that the blogs so far have been stunning, today's is no exception. It is written by Niall Gavin. Niall lives near Worthing on the south coast of England. You can find him on Twitter (his handle is @niallgavinuk). Niall writes a charming blog: A Little About a Lot. He has suffered considerable ill health over the past couple of years (he had a coronary bypass last year) and hence it was so good to see him in more robust health when we met at a CIPD event a little earlier this year. Niall has had an amazingly varied career; he has been an actor, a fruit-picker, and a postman, to mention but a few of his roles, but then he found his metier: helping others to learn and grow. I have learned much from talking with him and reading his blog.

After many years of public and corporate work, culminating in being responsible for FirstGroup's Learning Technology team, where he developed, facilitated and delivered Technology assisted learning solutions, Niall has branched out on his own as an Independent L&D and Learning Technology Consultant. Neil is a very decent, down to earth fellow. He is a loving husband and father and a delightful friend. he is very popular with people on social media, partially due to his willingness to support others and collaborate - witness his involvement in #LDinsight every Friday morning on Twitter. When enjoying some peaceful time for himself, Niall is a keen walker and also an "armchair astronomer". I'm sure you will enjoy his post below. 

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The Hollow Man

When I first thought about contributing again to Kate's wonderful annual Advent Blog series, this year's theme, "Heights, Hearts & Hollows", initially had me ruminating on last year's cardiac bypass, my recovery, redundancy and further reflections thereon. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I had kind of done that to death, in a series of blogs, tweets and Facebook posts. I'm on a continuing journey here, one that I'm being supported on by friends, family, my personal and professional networks and, critically, paid for - and revelatory - professional counselling. So that's 'Heights and Hearts' taken care of. I'm not going to revisit that stuff here.

Instead, I've let the Universe slowly draw me towards the "Hollows" element of the theme. It's niggled away at me for a few days. I don't really know why. Maybe it's the onomatopoeic quality of the word. It conjours up dark, empty, echoing places for me, and not necessarily in a bad way either. There's a weird attraction in it. Something to explore.

And a particular phrase kept popping into my brain; an evocative, elusive, seductive whisper - 'The Hollow Man'.

I've been sitting with him for a few days now, not knowing who or what he is, or why he should be so insistent on being seen. I've conjoured images of scarecrows, robots (Westworld?), the Wizard of Oz (Scarecrow again, "If I only had a brain", 

and Tin Man, "If I only had a heart"). I remembered the 2000 film with Kevin Bacon, an alternative and darker modern take on HG Wells's "The Invisible Man".

Now, these are all fairly empty manifestations of The Hollow Man, suggesting something missing, something not whole. Something sad. So why was (am) I so taken with the name? I even Googled 'The Hollow Man' to see if I was digging up some long-forgotten or buried memory that would explain his presence. I wasn't.

But then, up popped TS Eliot's poem, "The Hollow Men".

I'm not good with poetry. Never really got it. Still don't, to be honest. Funny that, for someone who claims to love words and takes pride in good use of vocabulary, grammar, spelling, tries to write well and reads a lot. I kinda get Burns and Shakespeare, but most other poetry tends to leave me cold.

So imagine my surprise when, in the first few lines of Eliot's poem, I was presented with a vivid scarecrow image again, in the voice of one of his Hollow Men...

We are the hollow menWe are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glassIn our dry cellar

There's more and, to be honest, it's not the most uplifting read. I had to search further to get some academic insights into the background and some suggestions as to the themes and meanings of the work. But slowly I've started to understand why "the Hollow Man" has been clamouring for my attention - a) there's a lot of them about and b) I don't want to be one myself!

Men - OK, people, but for the most part, it is men - with a hole where their heart should be. With little or no compassion, no respect or feeling for 'other', no capacity to empathise, afraid to see or hear a different colour or opinion. Bigots, trolls, abusers, cowards - psychopaths, even. And then there's the passive, purposeless, complacent people, happy to go with the flow, devoid of ambition or desire to learn and experience new things. Heads full of straw. Stuck. Sad.

We've seen - and, in some cases, been - both types of Hollow Man this year. And next year we will have to live with the consequences. My challenge for 2017 is to not 'wallow in the hollow', but to be braver, to stand up and speak up, to challenge divisive, lazy, anti-intellectual intolerance, both professionally and personally. I posted a tweet in a recent #LDInsight tweetchat - "On this journey, have realised I could have been braver, am still carrying anger, am impatient & now I can do anything".

I shall try.

Speak-out by Marcel Witte

We Need To Talk...

This is a repost, but with pictures, of the piece I wrote for the LinkedIn UK HR Group blog http://discusshr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/we-need-to-talk.html.

Brain fibres enabling communication and neuron connections

At the start of February I attended an inspirational HR-focused event.  It was refreshing to be surrounded by people who had made a conscious choice to be there, who came in their own free time because they shared a genuine interest in the topic and they wanted to learn and be involved.  There was a buzz and a sense of camaraderie, in the way you hope there will be at a learning and awareness session.  My fellow attendees were willing and active participants - honest and authentic.  At the end of the evening there was a mutual conviction that, between us, we can improve the world in which we live and work.  

Neurons

The event was organised in response to reactions to an extraordinary and powerful online blog post published on 12th January – if you have not read it, I urge you to do so now: http://thehrjuggler.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/day-43-courage/

These courageous words resulted in people around the globe talking and tweeting on the subject of Mental Health in the workplace.  With HR interest rising and numerous individuals asking what they could or should do, it was clear that the dialogue needed to be brought into the off as well as on-line arena.  Alison Chisnell, HR Director at Informa (and host of the blog on which Jon, the author, posted his piece) offered a meeting space.  A number of people worked together at speed to determine the format and experts, including Mind, the NHS and various individuals who have been or are impacted by mental health issues, agreed to be speakers and be involved.  Jon went public at the event and wrote about doing so on https://projectlibero.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/it-starts-with-a-conversation/.  There is a simple and well written blog about the evening that is more eloquent than I on the impact of the evening http://treacletiger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/start-conversation.html.  I hope that by talking here about my own thoughts on the evening and by sharing some of the recommendations made, that I can encourage you too to think about how you should approach this issue in your workplace and with the organisations and people with whom you do business.

According to ACAS Mental Health problems cost employers in the UK £30 billion a year through lost production, recruitment and absence http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1900 .  I suspect that the hidden and non-financial costs have an even more severe impact on work, employees, their friends, families and business.  It is a sad fact that the approach towards Mental Health by the majority of employers is woefully inadequate and the time has come for that to change.  I am not advocating that we form a militant group and campaign, there is an easier solution – to dispel common fears and misconceptions, to remove the stigma and to enable us understand so that we can do the right thing... we simply need to talk.

Despite the fact that one in four of us will suffer Mental Health problems in our lives, there is still a social reticence about admitting to being a victim, and/or living with and supporting someone with Mental Health issues.  It is clear that this reserve is partially rooted in fear.  People don’t know how to start the conversation and they are embarrassed and don’t want to say the wrong thing.  Mental Health is seen by many as a dark and complex issue that, by its very nature, is private and should be hidden from others.  Certainly it is personal – the reasons why people suffer from Mental Health issues are complex and varied and each victim is an individual, so there is no simple, standard approach or treatment.  However, I think we should take a step back and consider ourselves and those we come into contact with. 

Humans are wonderful.  We are sentient and expressive beings – we would all be the poorer for not being able to feel and think about the world around us.  However, there are times when our emotional and mental reactions are overwhelming and uncontrollable and can prevent us from being the person we like and feel we are, or can make us antisocial and potential dangerous (to ourselves or others).  Mental Health is a broad term that encompasses a range of issues such as clinical depression, Bi-polar disorder, anxiety, phobias and Schizophrenia; unlike emotional problems, these cannot be resolved swiftly – they require treatment (often medication and therapy) to control the symptoms and to lessen the impact on the individual and others.  It is probable that a number of Mental Health sufferers are also suffering emotionally and often not just because of their own health but also because of the way in which we, the people they work and interact with, treat them.  The stigma of Mental Health is so strong that people avoid talking about it and hence they exacerbate the problem, because they isolate and alienate individuals who are already suffering.

There is often a fine line between Mental Health and emotional health.  Each one of us is who we are due to the environment in which we have grown up and the circumstances impacting our lives at any moment in time.  I am not naturally tidy, but I have friends who are fastidious; they say it is because of the spotless households in which they lived as children, where even an ornament out of position was viewed as unacceptable – regimented neatness is their comfort zone.   I know others who close in on themselves and cease contributing to discussions whenever voices are raised - they have told me that they were deeply disturbed by arguments between their parents when they were small and that the increased volume of colleagues, enthused or trying to stress a point in an argument, is sufficient to make them feel uncomfortable.  I love films, but potentially I am an embarrassing companion, as I can easily be reduced to a weeping wreck when watching characters show how much they care for each other - I know that this is partially due to my own insecurities, my devotion to my friends and family and my own desire to be loved.  Many parents find news footage depicting suffering children immensely disturbing, because they transpose themselves into the scenario and can imagine how awful they would feel if it was their own offspring.  Each of these people, me included, is reacting emotionally –although emotions can induce some symptoms that are similar to those experienced by a portion of Mental Health sufferers (such as sleeping disorders, anxiety and sadness) these responses tend to be short-term and can be treated and resolved swiftly.  However, many people suffering from Mental Health issues also have to contend with emotional pain, either because of their condition or induced through the reaction of others around them.  Many sufferers feel isolated due to many others’ desire not to bring matters into the open.  By appreciating the impact our emotions have on us, it is perhaps easier to start understanding how others may be feeling.  Empathy is a good step towards trying to support and be helpful.

On a moral and social level we have a responsibility to be considerate towards others.  Even without that, employers have a legal duty of care to employees.    We in HR need to devise strategies to promote well-being and to ensure that we and others are equipped to support when an employee has a problem.   BUT strategies and policies will not solve a problem.  Good managers and colleagues are attuned to those around them – if you know your people and how they are, you can spot when they aren’t themselves.  You must foster a culture of trust and understanding where management and employees are comfortable having non-judgemental and open conversations.   We need people to be able to ask with ease:

                “What do you do to look after your health and well-being? And what can I, your manager, do to help?” 

If managers invest in their people, by talking with them, their team members will in turn be more engaged and committed to their employer.  If employees feel comfortable talking about Mental Health, awareness and understanding will increase and colleagues who are suffering will no longer feel so isolated or ashamed – everyone can be a winner.

Progress won’t happen unless we make an effort.

We have started...come and join us.

As Jon says in his original post: “here’s to 2013 and a change in attitudes...”