Forked Tongues

“Liar, liar, your pants are on fire” – so goes the childhood chant and, if the words are true, there must be a few bankers, pharmacists, journalists and politicians with hot posteriors at the moment.  Deception does seem to be a predominant theme in many of the current big stories in the media.  I am not going to wade into the rights and wrongs of bankers’ behaviour, nor the honesty and integrity displayed by News International journalists, nor even the conduct of persuasive representatives of GlaxoSmithKline.  Given that the majority of public eyes seem to be focussed on the woes of Spain and the Euro Zone, I must confess that I was tempted to write about the current issues in the Middle East, especially between Syria and Turkey – all is not necessarily as it seems.  The internet is rife with articles speculating as to why a Turkish plane was in Syrian airspace and the possible agendas of various countries with interests in the region. (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31766.htm is particularly interesting, as it is one of the first to be published by a leading Turkish academic and raises some provocative hypotheses as to what various countries are hoping to achieve through conflict and regime change in the Middle East – the sentences “Other agendas are easy to see.  Saudi Arabia wanted the US to attack Iran during the George W. Bush presidency and ‘cut the head off the snake’” set me thinking – in modern times, why is the snake so often the bad guy?)

Snakes have played an important role in myths and legends from the ancient stories of Hercules strangling serpents whilst still in his cradle to Harry Potter – I suspect that the inspiration for Harry’s ability to speak and understand reptilian language originates from Bulgarian folklore.  There is a story that when a young shepherd saved the daughter of the Snake King (a creature “as big as a century old pine with wings and an enormous head”) the king gave the youth a magical ring, that the serpentine monarch had stored under his tongue, which could fulfil desires and enable humans to understand the language of the animals. 

In Bulgaria snakes were viewed as dangerous and unnatural creatures that lived in a huge cave “in the lower world”.  According to tradition, they would crawl out of their holes on the Day of Annunciation (March 25) and hide again on the Day of the Transfiguration and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in August.  Spring cleaning is a tradition in many parts of the world, but in Bulgaria there is an extra twist – the refuse produced during the ritual cleaning is piled up and set on fire.  All the family are encouraged to jump over the flames – for health and as a protection against snake bites.  It was believed that snakes would try to bite a victim in the heel and hence, by jumping over the smouldering garbage, an individual could smoke their heels, thereby making them harder to bite.  Snakes weren’t always viewed as bringers of harm – if a snake was killed on the day of The Annunciation and its head successfully used as a buried fertilizer for basil or garlic, it was believed that the gardener would gain almost miraculous powers of healing using these herbs. In addition, each home had its own Guardian Snake which the household actually cared for in return for its protection.

Clearly, snakes are not always viewed as evil – many early legends grant them the power of forming life and even making the earth itself – this idea perhaps originating from the snake’s ability to appear to be reborn after sloughing off its old skin.  Tribes in both Africa and Australia have creation myths about a Rainbow Snake that was mother to the creatures on Earth or the provider of water.  In Chinese mythology the woman-headed snake, Nüwa, made the first humans out of clay.  Her initial creations, constructed with care, became the high-class populace from whom the royal line, scholars and aristocracy were descended, as she began to tire; she conserved her energy by simply flicking clay with her tail to form lower-class people.  Ancient Egyptians believed that, before the world as we know it was created, there was a many-coiled serpent named Amduat from whom arose Ra the Sun God to form the world.  Like many ancient people, the Egyptians revered snakes for their healing properties; there are hymns recorded from workmen in Thebes in honour of Mertseger, the snake goddess, thanking her for curing illnesses.  Similarly in Sumerian culture the healing god Ninazu’s son is depicted with a serpent and staff (the image of a snake entwined around a pole, known as the Rod of Asclepius, is still used today as the symbol for a large number of medical organisations including the British Medical Association, the Pakistan Medical Corps and the American Medical Association.  A similar staff is also described in The Bible in The Book of Numbers, chapter 21, verses 6-9, when Moses is instructed to create a rod with a fiery serpent wrapped round it to use to cure the Israelites dying from snake bites).  The Rod of Asclepius, the representation of the ancient Greek God of Healing’s staff, is not to be confused with The Caduceus, the rod carried by Hermes, the messenger of the gods.  Hermes’ baton is represented as having two snakes twined round it and is surmounted with a pair of wings.  Hermes was responsible for commerce and travel, famous for his silver-tongued eloquence and powers of negotiation...perhaps a symbol more appropriate for a purveyor of snake oil than a medical practitioner.

Sadly lies and deception are a recurring aspect of the human condition – from Eve succumbing to the sweet-talked words of the subtle serpent, encouraging her to give Adam the apple in the Garden of Eden, to us in our daily domestic lives.  How many of us haven’t occasionally grunted to indicate that we heard what someone said, when our minds are in fact on other things?  I did it on Sunday afternoon when asked a question during the Andy Murray vs. Roger Federer final at Wimbledon. We tell lies to “make life easier”, but easier for who?  Genuine relationships need to be based on trust and it is hard to trust someone who continually lies to you.  Shakespeare’s words in Macbeth about people not being what they seem springs to mind:

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't”

The world seems to be full of people making false or misleading claims.  Often those whom we trust most are exposed as being “snakes in the grass” – hence the public outrage at the recent scandals we have witnessed concerning the media, the police, and our politicians.  Things are often little better within the corporate environment.  The traditional “command and control” approach has relied on a “need to know” mentality, where only a select few are privy to certain information.  This often works upwards as well as downwards – Bob Diamond, as CEO at Barclays, was in a position where he could expect to be privy to all data pertaining to the Bank’s performance, but it is probable that individuals lower in the trading hierarchy felt that there was no need for him to be bothered with the intricate details of their teams’ day-to-day transactions.  Part of the frustration that the self-named 99% have with Big Business is that they are not party to information and feel dominated by the controlling but secretive corporates. 

The world is often easier in the longer term if people cooperate and share information before problems occur.  I spotted a possible problem yesterday when thinking about snakes for this post.  There is a sinuous and attractive lake, named the Serpentine, located in one of Central London’s major parks.  Following its being granted a clean bill of health – well almost, it’s waters were deemed “good and sufficient” as opposed to “excellent” by the European Environment Agency - The Serpentine was announced as the venue for the London Olympic Triathlon swimming, with a slight proviso that this rating could be adversely impacted by severe weather and heavy rain in the lead up to events (The Serpentine is fed by water from the Thames, the main river that runs through London)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/23/london-olympics-watercourses-bill-health. 

I am sure that most people in the UK are aware of the current weather, as will be those of you who have been following the tennis; it has been foul with many areas suffering severe flooding.  I checked the ten day forecast and it does not bode well for The Serpentine, and hence perhaps for the Triathlon... 

10 Day Details

Date	Temperature	Conditions		UV Index	Precipitation	Wind
09 July	N/A /13°		Showers Early	7	40%	From West South West at 16 kmph
10 July	18° /12°		Showers	6	60%	From West South West at 16 kmph
11 July	18° /11°		Showers	7	50%	From West at 23 kmph
12 July	16° /11°		Showers	4	60%	From Southwest at 24 kmph
13 July	17° /13°		Showers	4	60%	From West South West at 18 kmph
14 July	17° /12°		Showers	6	60%	From West at 18 kmph
15 July	18° /12°		Cloudy	6	20%	From West South West at 18 kmph
16 July	18° /12°		Partly Cloudy	7	20%	From West South West at 21 kmph
17 July	19° /14°		Cloudy	6	20%	From West South West at 18 kmph
18 July	19° /14°		Few Showers	6	30%	From Southwest at 19 kmph

I hope that my sharing of this information is not viewed in a negative light.  On the subject of light, I was fortunate to be invited to a wonderful party in The Gherkin last Thursday – it was full of people from global businesses and it was a pleasure to be able to chat with some of them and to gain their news and views.  It is amazing what people will tell you if you ask them nicely.  Thursday was also the night of the official opening of The Shard (a massive Arab investment towering above the British capital.  At 310 meters, The Shard is Western Europe’s tallest sky scraper).  The event was celebrated with dramatic music and laser light shows.  As I made my way home over London Bridge, I could not but smile at the placard carried by James Bridle.  In many ways it says so much...

Secrecy and the withholding of potentially powerful information is a common theme in both fiction and the real world.  It is regrettable that in many businesses there are still interdepartmental rivalries, where specific data is deliberately withheld from others elsewhere in the organisation.  I worked once in a business where individuals in one part of the firm were banned by their head of department from even setting foot on the floor where a “rival” team were based – this resulted in a significant loss of business and opportunities, to the detriment of all.  HR and Finance are often cited as examples of divisions that should not get along, as, supposedly, one is focused on verifying current performance against forecasted figures and hence is backwards looking and numbers driven, whereas the other is focused on the future, devising what can be done to enhance performance, using tools such as Learning and Development, which are not exact sciences (the tangible prediction of anticipated returns on training and L&D investments are hard to quantify). With such different outlooks, it is easy to see why misunderstandings and even suspicion can arise.  In my own employer I work hard to ensure that there is cross-divisional comprehension and support.  At my team's recent offsite in London, I deliberately included representatives from various departments and areas across the Group, thereby encouraging better understanding and cooperation.  We had a wonderful day, with help from http://www.changecontinuum.com/, http://stirringthesource.com/ and http://trainerskitbag.com/. Photographic evidence below: 

 

It is impossible in the modern world to be all-seeing; we need to work together to enable mutual success.

Well Grounded

It has been a long, hot day and I am sitting in an airplane on the tarmac at Geneva airport, waiting to fly back to the UK.  We’ve just been told that our flight to Heathrow will be delayed for at least half an hour, due to air traffic control in Brussels needing to “find us a suitable slot”.  The flight has been scheduled for months, so it’s a frustrating excuse.  I do find the centralised control of Europe by shadowy people in Brussels at times amusing (I still fail to understand why human hair in the form of L-cysteine, used as a dough conditioner in industrially produced baked goods, has been classified as a food http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/390.pdf ), but, when I am tired and want to get home, it is easy to find dictates from afar unnecessarily restrictive.  There are few things more unpleasant than feeling helpless to impact a situation and being at the mercy of the whims of others.  To make matters worse, after a day of sitting in a small room full of increasingly hot electronic equipment, where the temperature was over 40 degrees, I am sitting in the first row of the “cheap seats” and the passengers in First have been given hot towels and cool drinks to help soothe them.  Us lesser (or at least more frugal) mortals can only sit and watch.

Hmmm – we are soon to take off and the stewardess has seen fit to draw the curtain between “Us and Them”; there is a small strip of pleated material like the ruched pelmet of a boudoir’s bed or a very short kilt-style gym skirt, which is attached by Velcro to the ceiling and the rear of the seat immediately in front of me, concealing our view of the “First Class Cabin” in front.  It is a while since I have been made to feel that I must be kept behind the Green Baize Door (where only servants should be found) or below The Salt (and hence beneath the concern of the lords and ladies).  It reminds me slightly of when I was a young teenager.  My father worked in Hong Kong, but our family, being of British origin, was allowed a paid trip back to the UK once a year to see family and friends.  Because of his status, my father automatically travelled First Class, as did my mother and younger sisters, but, being a teenager, I had to fly Economy.  Between you and me, I had much more fun than the rest of my family (but less sleep).  It was in the days when the flight to Hong Kong really was a long haul – the first time I did it it took over twelve hours and we had three stops en route to refuel.  That’s plenty of time to get to know others on the plane and most times we ended up having a marvellous impromptu party.

Being “privileged” is not always a privilege.  My sisters hated the stuffy confines of First where they were expected to be seen but not heard.  When you are “on show” there are often expectations on you and how you should behave and these can prevent you from enjoying life.  In Edwardian times upper class parents seldom spent time with their children (their offspring were banished to the Nursery with Nanny) and hence many parents missed out on the joy of seeing their family learn and grow.  Even today, working or wealthy parents are often too busy to be able to spend time with their children.  I am sitting next to a delightful teaching assistant who works at an international boarding school in Switzerland.  Fees at the school are over £60,000 per annum and the children come from around the globe.  Undoubtedly, amongst the children friendships will be forged that will last a lifetime and those fortunate kids will have a global network to pull upon should the need ever arise.  However, those benefits have been gained at the loss of other things – the school’s half term break was only two days long and hence the last time both my neighbour and most of the pupils have been home and spent time with their families was in April.  That’s a long time ago.

Before I progress with this post, let me stress that I have no axe to grind against the affluent and the successful – in fact quite the reverse.  People with deeper pockets than I have helped me and many others to found successful businesses, to the benefit of numerous parties, and much of the philanthropic work that I have had the privilege of being involved with could not have happened without generous sponsors and wealthy individuals with vision.   My concern stems from the at times out-dated assumption that people want what they have always been given.  We live in a socially enabled world where, courtesy of Technology, there are fewer boundaries and hence greater opportunities for collaboration, resulting in mutual benefit.  I am neither a conservative traditionalist nor an anarchist, but I do appreciate that the world is changing and success will be dependent on people grasping the new opportunities available and adapting.   Technology clearly brings benefits – some less obvious than others. Collaborative sites such as Wikipedia have enabled the enhanced access and sharing of knowledge, the internet has also increased people’s ability to learn swiftly – for example, by playing with and learning from peers of similar calibre, gamers, such as chess players, can reach high standards faster than through the conventional master pupil teaching approaches.  The people individuals communicate with and play with online come from all strata of society – research has shown that 42% of professional women in the UK are avid players of games on Facebook – the boundaries of class are being broken as Technology unites like minded and skilled players on sites such as Words with Friends, regardless of income, race, sex or creed.

It would be foolish for ambitious individuals to rely solely on horizontal networks going forward.  Look at the impact social networking has had on world events and sentiment, through viral communications, including the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement.  However, we should also note that in many incidents, where viral communicating has occurred, desired outcomes have not been achieved (the election of the newly appointed Egyptian president was perhaps not the candidate most protesters had in mind when they stood demonstrating in Tahrir Square and as they saw their colleagues being shot on the Qasr al-Aini Bridge in Cairo and the Occupy Movement has yet to provide a compelling philosophy, cohesive ideology or articulated strategy for addressing the economic issues confronting the world).  Direction and leadership are required as well as the ability to spread and share ideas and information.

 

Those with the means, integrity and the ability to lead need to step forward, rather than remaining concealed “behind the curtain”.  The current interest-rate fixing scandal is a case in point.  Not every banker is evil, indeed the majority of people who work in Financial Services are not, but to date a dangerous few have been able to get away with highly inappropriate and probably illegal conduct. Libor (the London Inter Bank Offered Rate) has a knock on effect on a wide section of the community.  Technology enabled a rotten, but small, number of traders to rig prices to suit their own ends and their emails make offensive reading.  Where was the required leadership and control?  Marcus Agius, the Chairman of Barclay’s resignation (under pressure from shareholders and the Media) is clearly a reaction to appease after the event.  The current situation reminds me slightly of the Barings scandal in 1994, when Nick Leeson was able to take advantage of the system because the “leaders” above him did not understand or even try to comprehend what was going on.  True leaders are informed and in touch with people, as well as being effective communicators.  I want a pilot who understands the dashboard in front of him/her, is in two-way contact with air traffic control, remains alert to their environment and acts appropriately according to the circumstances.  And with that, I must sign off, as we have been given the all-clear to taxi down the runway. May your week ahead enable you to achieve new heights...

Fan Mail

The longer I work the more convinced I become that the roots of almost all employee related issues come down to communication.  There are always two sides to every argument and frequently each side has failed to appreciate the point that the other side was making, until it is too late and an area of conflict has developed.  Sometimes poor communication and misunderstanding come about as a result of unconscious bias.  We make decisions every day that favour one group to the detriment of others and often we don’t even realise that we are doing it. (Did you know that, according to the research findings published by Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable in “The Effect of Physical Height on Workplace Success and Income” in the “Journal of Applied Psychology, less than 15% of American men are over six foot tall, yet almost 60% of corporate CEOs are over six foot tall and that less than 4% of American men are over six foot, two inches tall, yet more than 36% of corporate CEOs are over six foot, two inches tall? I am sure that the job description for almost all these CEOs did not specify their needing to be above a certain height.)

We will never fully eradicate bias (it’s a fundamental part of human nature and necessary to enable us to make choices – all recruitment is a form of discrimination, provided that there is a selection of candidates to choose from) - but we can take measures to try to avoid unconscious and inappropriate bias, that might adversely impact on our futures, as there is often little point in accepting the status quo and expecting permanent growth.  

In my opinion, successful individuals and organisations are the ones that actively seek people’s opinions, rather than simply relying on their own perceptions.  Take Griffin Health Services (Griffin), as hospital and healthcare provider/consultancy in the USA, as an example.  It might have been easy for the hospital to accept the fact that it was destined to be “an also ran”, as it is surrounded by six successful, larger and better funded hospitals that, on the surface, appeared to have the advantages that would attract the majority of patients.  However, Patrick Charmel, the CEO of Griffin made the best of what many would have perceived as a bad situation.  He appreciated that Griffin’s survival depended on the hospital’s ability to differentiate itself from these other neighbouring health providers.  In an attempt to better understand patient requirements, he and his team went out and spoke with expectant mothers to find out what they actually wanted from a hospital.  Their market research told them that “they did not want giving birth to be treated like a medical emergency or illness care event.  Mothers did not want to be exposed to sick patients or the traditional hospital environment.  They did not want the visitation rules that were standard protocol in hospitals.”  Armed with this knowledge, Charmel and his team oversaw the transformation of Griffin - they built a special entrance solely for mothers and their families and changed the décor of the maternity area to make it feel more like a home than an institution; they introduced queen-size beds and Jacuzzis (to ease during early labour) and changed the way that doctors interacted and cared for patients, rejecting the conventional one-size-fits-all approach and involving the broader family, to enhance the patient experience.  By Charmel’s own admission, the changes did not suit everyone – a number of traditionally minded medical professionals chose to leave.  However, Griffin is now recognized for having industry leading patient satisfaction ratings and has branched out into being a specialist advisor for other medical and healthcare institutions that wish to enhance understanding and their relationships with patients.  Communication has proved the foundation of Griffin’s lauded success, as Charmel says:

“At the outset of my career, I knew intuitively what I now know empirically: talk to the consumer.  The consumer is the inspiration for innovation.  If you probe, and if you listen, the consumer will tell you what she likes, dislikes, her concerns.  The consumer usually won’t give you the answers.  Getting the answer is the job of the problem solver, not the problem of the sufferer.” 

Charmel is right, but I know from my own experience that it is unwise to always take statements at face value.  When I was still a student, my mother lived in a beautiful little cottage on the outskirts of a village in Oxfordshire.  She invited me to spend some of one summer with her and my sisters and I brought a couple of friends from university along to join us.  During the time that we were there, the village had decided to hold a dinner and dance in one of the local barns, to raise money for charity.  My mother bought tickets for the six of us and was told that it was going to be a themed evening - everyone was going to turn up in 1970’s attire.  My mother’s cottage was slightly out of the village, surrounded by fields and, as she grew her own vegetables and had a well-stocked freezer, she was quite self-sufficient.  Time passed and we had no need to go into the village to buy things and hence we did not hear the local news. 

My mother is a hoarder - she has copies of magazines from the 1950’s, dubious jars and cans of food collected over the past five decades  (many of which I suspect could be used as explosive devises, should the need ever arise for a self-armed Home Guard) and wardrobes full of wonderful clothes.  We all spent a blissful afternoon on the day of the village party riffling through kaftans and vibrant floral shirts.  Eventually, dressed in clashing colours, with flowers in our hair, we set off to stroll over the fields to the barn.  1970’s footwear is not ideal for traipsing across rough farmland; the walk took us longer than expected.  By the time we arrived the other attendees had already gone into the barn for supper.  We made an unavoidably dramatic entrance in our outlandish clothes and were greeted by a stunned silence.  All heads turned to towards us, some mouths agape.  Word had not got to us that there had been a change of heart and that it was now a normal community party with no 1970s theme.  If we had made an effort to confirm details, rather than simply relying on what had been said, we could have avoided our embarrassment.  Mind you – I suspect the party would have been less memorable - we all had a wonderful time, even if we were viewed as part of the evening’s entertainment.

It is worth remembering that things are not always as they seem and that a bit of research and confirmation often pays dividends.  Mind you, even when accurately noted, comments and signals can be confusing.  When Richard Nixon’s mother said to him “Dick, don’t you ever give up?!”, shortly after the  Watergate scandal broke, what did she mean?  Was she encouraging him or condemning?  Words can be confusing.  So can signals.  Many of us are familiar with body language, indeed there is a lot written on the subject – I don’t deny that it can prove a good indicator, but visible signs need to be used with caution, as the reason a person has their arms folded when talking with you may not be because they are defensive, it might be because they are cold or are embarrassed by a stain on their shirt.  I have a mortifying memory from when I was a lactating mother that proves my point.  An effective communicator should be able to “read between the lines” to appreciate what a person really means.  I am sure that we are all familiar with people who make comments such as “I hear what you are saying” that seem to imply agreement (and are often interpreted as such by a person who wants to hear affirmation), but could be a polite way of expressing disagreement.  Words are often ambiguous.

I sometimes wonder if our lives would be easier if we used pre-agreed phrases or actions with mutually confirmed and unambiguous meanings.  In the centuries before air-conditioning, when polite ladies in society were considered unsuitably dressed unless they carried a fan, women were able to communicate secretly using their fans.  Depending on which hand the fan was held in, whether it was open or closed and where it was touched, a person could communicate a multitude of messages without speaking a word, for example:

Action	Meaning
Waving the fan with the left hand	They are watching us
Touching the edge of the fan with your fingers	I want to talk to you
Opening fan and then fanning using left hand	Come and talk to me
Holding it closed against the right cheek	Yes
Holding it closed against the left cheek	No
Opening and closing fan several times	You are cruel

It must have been fun, although many a message could have been conveyed in error, by those simply holding their fans whilst others presumed that they were saying something significant. As stated earlier, to be effective communication needs two parties to understand what is being said.  Last night I went to see some amazing dance, by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, at Sadler’s Wells.  The performance is part of the Festival 2012 - an artistic precursor to the Olympics – and is one of a number of pieces about World Cities to celebrate the people and countries coming to London.  Last night’s presentation was called “Nefes” and depicted Istanbul.  It was a mesmerising and evocative performance, with cascades and pools of water and extraordinary lighting.  One image has stuck with me in relation to this post: a dancer continuously leapt, to exchange kisses with a girl on a high platform on wheels.  As he jumped, the platform was slowly pulled across the stage, whilst he continued springing up and down where he was.  Eventually, he was left leaping and kissing the air where the kiss had been.  Don’t let your communication fall into the same trap.  Be careful to ensure that your message is received and that you appreciate the stance of your counter parties.  If you don’t the world will pass you by...

Painting Over The Cracks

When I was a little girl I lived in Wimbledon.  We had a modern house with a wonderful garden.  My cousins and I spent hours building camps in the rough scrub and climbing the cedar tree – its branches were easy to scale, almost like a ladder, and wide enough to lie on (provided that you didn’t wriggle too much).  Nothing grew under the cedar, its aromatic scent filled the air and the ground was covered in its fine pine needles which produced a crumbly soil, easy to dig into.  One year, when my sisters were very young, a delightful Swiss au pair girl came to stay; she was with us to help my mother, whilst improving her English.   I liked her a lot - she was fun and caring and we soon developed a strong bond, playing hide and seek in the garden, making things together and I even helped her with the housework. 

Now, being a parent myself, I can sympathise with my mother, who was newly out of hospital after a particularly gruelling caesarean.  She was short tempered and easily roused to extremely vocal outbursts of anger and frustration.  Both the au pair and I were quite nervous of her.  My mother was (and is) a wonderful cook and she had a few unusual kitchen gadgets to help her.  One of these was a “cream maker” – a small hand-plunger operated device that re-amalgamated butter and milk to make cream.  It was made of sky blue and white plastic and my mother was very pleased with it.  After each use it had to be carefully dismantled and washed.  One piece, like a tiny white Enoki mushroom, acted as the lynch pin, connecting the pump handle to the main device.  After lunch one day, the au pair put all the cream maker pieces in a washing up bowl and, when she had finished cleaning them, she tipped the sudsy water down the drain.  It was only when she and I commenced reconstructing the appliance that we discovered that the vital connecting pin had been flushed away.  We were horrified and knew that my mother’s wrath would be fearful.  In panic we placed the remaining pieces in a plastic bag and buried them in the soft soil under the cedar tree. We hoped to buy ourselves some time to source a replacement piece, by ensuring that the Cream Maker was out of sight and hence hopefully out of mind.  We failed to secure a replacement (we had to buy a whole new one) and I suspect that the original cream maker is still in its shallow grave.  With hindsight, we could have created a replacement piece from a paperclip and hence not lost the ability to make cream.  Mind you, my mother would still have been angry, even if we had repaired the cream maker with an ingenious solution.

The au pair and my reactions were very human.  We wanted to avoid having a difficult conversation and we concealed the problem in an attempt to ensure calm.  At work people often adopt a similar approach, either ignoring or concealing undesirable occurrences and behaviours.  In a previous post, just after last year’s English riots, I talked about the impact of the “herd mentality” that discourages individuals from speaking out against the majority view (http://www.kategl.blogspot.co.uk/2011_08_01_archive.html).  I noted that the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster could have been avoided if some individuals had stood their ground against the commercial view.  People not speaking out usually occurs when people desire to conceal an issue that could impact on their own personal gain, despite having a moral duty to do so (as occurred in the Challenger incident and this is also one of the main themes of Arthur Miller’s play “All My Sons”) or out of a reluctance to share something that an individual fears will be ill-received (it took Darwin twenty years to publish “The Origin of Species” and some people say that this is due to a reluctance to upset his wife and/or to face ridicule and criticism from Society).  So called Doubting Thomases can thwart innovation – the inventor of photocopying, Chester Carlson, invented the process in his spare time in 1938, but it took him ten years to find a company prepared to turn his invention into a commercial product.  

Often over the course of the past week, I have contemplated how people respond to errors and things that we find unappealing.  I saw an excellent and moving production of “The Suit” at the Young Vic.  In the dusty heat of a 1950s South African township a husband finds his wife in bed with her lover.  The man escapes leaving behind his suit.  The husband then insists that the suit is treated as an honoured guest and member of their household.  The public humiliation of his wife, their sad attempts to maintain a normal marital facade and the husband’s final remorse, when it is too late to rectify things, is heartbreaking.  As was the backdrop and brutality of apartheid.  Despite the fact that we all learn from making initial mistakes and slowly improving – look at how we learn to walk or read - as we age we become less supportive of experiential learning and hence of potential innovation and resolution.

Earlier this week I took a friend to see the filmed version of National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature and Jonny Lee Millar as the Doctor.  Prior to the actual film, there was an introduction in which Cumberbatch explained how he had studied stroke victims to learn how they regained the ability to walk, whilst Lee Miller had learned much from observing his young son becoming mobile and, sponge-like, absorbing information about the world around him.  Both were inspired to create their performances of the Creature’s birth and learning to move and the outcomes were amazing.  I had seen the staged version of Frankenstein at the National Theatre last year and I was nervous about whether it would translate to film – actually in many ways it provided the best from both media to maximise impact.  If you can, I urge you to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=axL7sKzrYtw

One of the themes in “Frankenstein” is the Creature’s desire for companionship and Frankenstein’s aspiration to improve on his prototype, because he is ashamed by the appearance of his Creature.  Why do many adults today, especially in Western society, seem unwilling to show and share something marvellous that they have created?  I suspect it is because they anticipate ridicule or worse, especially if their initial effort is functional but not attractive.  By being scared of disseminating fresh knowledge (and hence seeking to perpetuate the established ways of doing things) we lose out.  Often the initial iterance or the solution produced is quite ugly, but the thought and effort that has gone into its production should be lauded.

In Japan there is the practice of “Kintsugi” (golden joinery) – i.e. mending broken objects and deliberately making a feature of the damage by filling the cracks with gold.  There is a belief that when something has suffered and been damaged it has a history and hence it becomes more beautiful.  According to legend, the practice commenced in the fifteenth century when a shogun tried to repair a Chinese teapot. He wanted a more aesthetically pleasing effect than traditional repairs that tried to conceal what was perceived as unsightly cracks and chips.  The gold celebrates the effort that has gone into the repairs, makes a feature of the history and patterns and increases the value of what were once mundane objects.  We can all learn from this approach and should consider applying it in both our work and private lives – not just to enhance cracked plates but also to acknowledge people.

Back to the burial of the cream maker...we hid it because we were afraid of the reaction the loss of the little pin would provoke.  Much in the same way that employees will try to disguise mistakes when they work in a “fear and blame culture”.  If we had anticipated a different response from my mother it is probable that our behaviour would have been different, to the benefit of all.  She might have been understanding and have praised us for providing an innovative solution - the cream maker would have been that bit more valued in all of our eyes because, by mending it, we would have shown that we cared and that we knew how much she appreciated it.  Perhaps I should go and dig it up...