Raising a Glass

Day 25 (Christmas Day - Friday 25th December 2015)

25% of humans are dichromats according to Prof. Diana Derval. The colour nuances
we see depend on the number and distribution of cones (colour receptors) in our eyes.
Look at the above spectrum, if you see less than 20 colours you are a dichromat, like dogs,
which means you have 2 types of cone (and probably like wearing black, beige and blue).
If you see 20 - 32 nuances you are a trichromat with 3 cones (in purple/blue, green and red areas).
50% of us are trichromats. Seeing 33-39 colours makes you a tetrachromat, like bees. You have 4 cones
(in purple/blue, green, red and yellow areas. You are likely to find yellow irritating.
If you see more than 39 you are making things up - there are only 39 colours in the test
and your computer/smart phone probably only translated 35.

Like last year, in honour of her founding the Advent Blogs series back in 2011, the Christmas Day post is by Alison Chisnell. Alison is an inspiration to many of us - courageous, ethical, knowledgeable, compassionate and warm. She is an exceptional HR professional (in September she became the Head of HR for the Risk Consulting division of KPMG) and a devoted mother, a valued friend and an inspirational runner and trainee triathlete. She was one of the first to welcome me into the Twitter HR community (her handle is @AlisonChisnell) and I responded when she asked for contributors for the first Advent Blogs series. We are friends and I have huge professional and personal respect for her. She is an excellent, but sporadic, blogger - you can read her words on her blog - The HR Juggler.

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Can you see me? Can you see what I’ve done? My hands are dark with toil,

Coal miner's hands by HayNateHaywood

my brightness lights up the sky. 

Hale Bopp in 1997 - Credit Bob King

I persist, I endure, I inspire, I remember.

We are all authors of our own stories, we all choose how we want to remember our year. Comet tails and coal dust, beautifully juxtaposed, fleeting brilliance and relentlessly hard graft. Tangible progress others can see, incremental achievements visible only to ourselves. How human that we want to tell about them, to share, reflect and relate. This is me doing just that, knowing that they may only matter to me alone.

Time heals. If last year was dominated by redundancy, this has been the year of in-between, of embracing the not knowing what is coming next, of pushing some of my personal boundaries further than I thought I could. Ambiguity, uncertainty, discovery, adventure, pride.

This year I’ve had the gifts of time and of uncertainty. It’s been the only year I can remember where I have held three very different jobs and generous gaps between each, which have enabled me to reflect, savour, enjoy and grow. 

There has been coal dust, of course there has, moments both passing and persisting of self-doubt, apparently promising opportunities fading to grey and impatience for change to arrive.

What I choose to remember though, is this:

• Sitting in the morning sunshine of Sydney harbour, drinking coffee with my husband while my children play around me, savouring the sense of freedom and contentment, knowing that this moment has made the journey to that point entirely worthwhile. That without the personal upheaval and change, we wouldn’t have taken the leap of making the trip and that our horizons have grown as a result and that they will not shrink back.

• Running the London marathon in pretty much the form of my life, (almost!) effortlessly pacing 9.5 minute miles to well over 20 miles, the joy and excitement of crossing Tower Bridge with my good running friend, the enormity of crossing the finish line, knowing that I’d given it my all and achieved what I was capable of, the best version of my running self. It seemed impossible until it was done….and already, only a few months later, it starts to feel impossible to replicate!

• My first foray into triathlons, pushing myself out of my comfort zone, persevering with front crawl until I can finally now regularly swim well over a mile without stopping; plunging myself into a cold, slightly murky lake and discovering I love the freedom of open water swimming.

These are my comet tails, my marks in the sand, my experiences this year that remind me that I am capable of so much more than I think, that pushing boundaries holds its own rewards.

And yet, there have been quieter moments during the year that have changed me and my perceptions too. Those that don’t leave a trail of stars, but imprint their memory on my consciousness just the same. I struggle to articulate the power of the in-between, the glorious terror and freedom of declaring myself between roles, in transit, open to opportunities… the simultaneous sense of being rudderless and yet also liberated from being hemmed in by labels, restrictions, expectations. 

The power of choice, of self-control, of holding my nerve, of going with the flow, of trusting that things will work out, the understanding of what is within my control and the many things that are beyond it, the gradual emergence of a stronger, more resilient personal and professional confidence. Rather like the memory of the Sydney sunshine, that makes the journey fully worthwhile and one that, in hindsight, I would not change.

So, this Advent, may your comet tails shine brightly and illuminate your hopes for the year to come. May the coal dust shape our thinking and experiences, enabling us to find the diamond within that hard, dark, uncompromising rock, providing us with the energy and enthusiasm we need to move forward. May this Christmas time, this New Year be a happy, healthy, positive and prosperous one for you and your loved ones and let’s raise a glass to ourselves and each other. 

Merry Christmas!  

Advent Invitation

Twelve months have passed since I sent out a message similar to this, asking for contribution posts for the 2014 Advent Blog series. Over the past couple of weeks I have made requests, via social media, for people to come forward to be this year’s curator. I must confess that I have been humbled by the response, so many people have complimented me on the job that I did last year and suggested, with surprising insistence, that it would be good if I was prepared to host again. Thank you! I was happy to pass on the baton, and will be doing so next year, but I am flattered by the kind words and am genuinely pleased and honoured to host the series again in 2015.

It is such a privilege being the curator, you get to: 

• encourage hesitant new bloggers to publish their first post;
• catch up with friends and make new contacts, many of whom are globally respected bloggers and well known experts with a huge following;
• share the trails and tribulations of others’ years before the wider audience read about them;
• be able to congratulate people on amazing achievements and see the celebratory responses when their post becomes public;
• post certain pieces anonymously, as certain individuals wanted their thoughts known but dreaded repercussions if others knew that they were the author;
• have a chance to interact with friends and contacts from around the world; and
• sustain what has become an annual, treasured tradition. 

All credit and thanks to Alison Chisnell, the Advent Fairy, who was the original creator of this amazing series, and who retains an active interest and involvement. I proposed to her a selection of potential titles/themes for this year. We have agreed on one that we both hope will give people sufficient scope and which might spark imaginations and memories.

So, here I am, calling all you High Fliers and those of you who have toiled hard or even felt yourself trapped in the dark over the past year – people from around the world enjoy the Advent Blog series every year. I know that they would like to read about your experiences or indeed any post that you choose to write based on this year’s theme: 

”Comet Tails and Coal Dust” 

Comet Hale-Bopp (1997), which possessed two distinct tails -
a dust tail (white) and an ion tail (blue)

Traditional Advent calendar windows start being opened from the 1^st of December, with a new surprise being revealed daily. The Advent Blog series is the same, in that a new blog is published each day. However, despite being called the Advent Blog series, these blogs are not a religious countdown and the series is not limited to just 24 posts. In recent years the contributions have continued well into the New Year, with people contributing posts from around the world and from a mixture of backgrounds and outlooks. All authors are welcome. Please check out the posts on my blog for December 2014 and January 2015, if you want an idea of the kind of things that people write. I will provide introductions and illustrations as I did last year. Contact me if you have any questions. I very much hope that you will decide to join in.

I know from people’s comments that the Advent Blog series has become a treasured tradition but it doesn’t happen without your involvement and help.  Please spread the word and encourage those who are nervous. It is fun and it brightens up the end of the year for so many of us. I can’t wait to see what this year brings.

Please send your blogs to me, as soon as you can, my email address is kate@kategl.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Possible Paths - Day 25

Day 25 (Christmas Day)

25 is the transmission rate of pictures per second (FPS) used for television
anywhere but in the U.S. or Canada (where the power grid does not run at 50hz).
British photographer Eadweard Muybridge created slow motion photography
that enabled "moving pictures" using his zoopraxiscope, after being
 asked to prove that a horse could have 4 feet simultaneously in the air.
His work was published by Stanford but not credited to him.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London, A galloping horse and rider, 1887.

Welcome to Christmas Day - as I am sure you know, a traditional Advent Calendar stops on the 24th December, but there have been so many excellent submissions that this series will continue well into 2015. I am delighted to provide you with some special reading to enjoy today during a moment of calm.

I would like to take the opportunity of wishing you a very happy Christmas, regardless of your faith. May you enjoy a day filled with love and laughter.

Antique postcard

It seems appropriate that today's post is by the lady who founded this series in 2011, Alison Chisnell. Alison is an exceptional HR Director, mum, wife, friend, marathon runner, mental health champion, role model, inspiration, and a host of other things. She was one of the first to warmly welcome me into the Twitter HR community (her handle is @AlisonChisnell) and I responded when she asked for contributors for the first Advent Blogs series in 2012. We are friends and I have huge professional and personal respect for her. If you have not read her blog, I suggest you read this post before galloping on to her comments below.

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Thank you to Kate for running the Advent series this year, I'm genuinely honoured and delighted to be peeking out from door number 25, Christmas Day...and am enjoying the series immensely so far.

"The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination" - John H Schaar

It turns out, I rather like certainty, or at least, more accurately, the illusion of certainty. It hasn't always been so, I was never one of those teenagers who knew exactly what they wanted to do - far from it, I was determined to study something I enjoyed and that was intellectually interesting at University, rather than focus on what my career would be at the end of it. I figured it would become clear nearer the time....and, with a few well-chosen summer placements along the way, a bit of help from friends and family and a fair dollop of luck, it did. 

Mist clearing - painting by Lauren Johnson, 2012 

Until recently I've always shuddered at the idea of a 5 year plan, resisted inclinations to impose certainty where there was none, other than a fluid sense of direction and intuitive instinct. Relying on instinct and intuition is fine as far as it goes, but when the when the landscape shifts dramatically, as it did for me earlier this year when I found myself unexpectedly facing redundancy, I rapidly ran out of road on that pathway. Temporarily I floundered, unable to envisage a path different from the one I had been on, in hindsight realising I could have done more to lay the foundations of a potential new path, plan more for where I wanted it to take me, who might help me to get there, how I could create bridges to different paths. 

Foundation stone programme for laying of Foundation Stone of the Victoria & Albert Museum

It takes a surprising amount of energy, patience, determination and resilience to create a new path, as well as the ability to accept and live with the complete lack of certainty....or indeed the removal of the illusion of it. At times it can feel like a game of snakes and ladders, when on a good day I move a few spaces forward with an interesting new opportunity to look at, an interview or a new, promising connection; on a less good day I slide down a slithery snake as potential roles come out of scope. Sometimes, it's a case of chip, chip, chipping away at where I know I want to go and trusting that the path will open up. Trying to be patient and accepting I can't dictate the pace on much of this journey, trying to avoid that fact becoming a source of frustration and irritation. I'm reminded of some yoga classes I did years ago, when the teacher encouraged us to still the monkey in our minds, to visualise training it to climb up and down a very tall tree, to occupy that wildly distracting, disruptive force to enable us to focus better in the here and now. Simply that could easily take a lifetime’s work…!

1930's Brooch of monkey climbing a palm tree

And yet, there are so many new possibilities, so much adventure to brand new paths, so much permission to try different things, to invest in myself in new and different ways. I'm thinking creatively about what I want for a change, where I want to be, how best to get there. I'm forming new, valued connections, stretching and challenging myself more than I have done for ages. I'm learning, I'm planning, I'm exploring and discovering. In the process of reassessing, somehow I emerge stronger, surer, empowered. 

I'm also trying lots of new things outside of work that I have wanted to for ages, but never made time for: learning to swim better so I can attempt my first triathlon next year; one to one pilates coaching so I counterbalance the impact of running and strengthen and improve as I train for next year's London marathon. Planning a memorable family trip to Australia that we have always talked about doing someday and making that someday a reality in early 2015. Seizing the moment, in the realisation that there may never be a better time than now and feeling genuinely excited about what's ahead, treading an unknown path, allowing the exploration and creation of it to change me and my perceptions. 

The illusion of certainty continues, of course it does: I think to all intents and purposes we need at least a little bit of that to function effectively as human beings. My Mum often quotes a lecture she listened to as a young woman, where the speaker proclaimed that “if we knew what lay ahead of us in our lives, none of us would ever have the courage to live them.” Perhaps that’s true, perhaps said gentlemen was simply a "glass half empty" kind of person, given to dramatic statements. What I do know is this: we can’t predict the future, none of us truly know where our paths will lead, which ones will stop abruptly and which ones will lead to unimagined wonders. It’s no life at all to be so caught up in the “what ifs” that we neglect to make the most of the opportunities that come our way and close our minds to the endless possibilities that lay ahead, forget to simply look up and around us.

Sunrise - endless possibilities ahead

 

So this Advent, I'm thankful for the unpredictability, the preciousness of the pathways that we consciously choose and the life-affirming adventure of those that we find ourselves unexpectedly on. Thankful for courage, for determination, for positivity, for choices, for luck, for new experiences, for friends, for family, for connections, for health, for laughter and support. Thankful even for the uncertainty, that I still occasionally inwardly rail against, which I know holds depths of unexplored possibility and opportunity. It is, after all, a very small price to pay when weighed up against what is at stake.

Wishing you joy, peace and wonder as we move into this festive period, tread familiar pathways of seasonal traditions and make a few new paths too. 

I'll raise a glass of mulled wine and drink to that!

Happy sad, young old, stupid wise - Day 1

Day 1

Illustration by Simon Heath

Happy 1st December and welcome to the Advent Blogs 2014! The theme this year is Paths and Perceptions…

Before I start, I would like to thank and acknowledge the wonderful Alison Chisnell for coming up with the concept of the Advent Blog Series and for curating it with such aplomb and sensitivity since 2011. You can read former years' posts on her blog, TheHRJuggler. For this year, and this year only, she has loaned her wand to me. I have received some wonderful pieces. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. I will be sharing one per day over Advent and into the holiday period.

It is an honour to curate these writings. From its first year onwards I have been a participant in the Advent Blogs series and have always been astounded and humbled by the experiences and outlooks that individuals have shared. This year is no exception. It is clear that people have trod some very varied routes and have exciting vistas ahead; come join me and we can explore some of their paths and perceptions…

Number 1 - this number is sometimes referred to as "unity", 
which is appropriate, as that is what the Advent Blog series is all about:
A collection of individuals, each with a voice, who collectively produce 
something unique

We are getting off to a hot start. The first post in the series is written by the talented Megan Peppin. Meg is a well known and much loved personality on Twitter - you can follow her via @OD_optimist or else read her thoughtful blog, Halls are Made for Madness, which was listed by People Management magazine as being one of the top 10 HR blogs worth reading. Meg was one of the first members of the Twitter community to welcome me into its ranks. She has been involved in the Advent Blogs series since its inception, so it seems appropriate for her to be the first voice this year. Meg is a specialist in organisational effectiveness. After an initial career in HR and OD, Meg founded her own business, which has gone from strength to strength since 2003. She helps a wide range of organisations and people to achieve their goals.

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This is my third contribution to this advent series, and I have undertaken each previous piece of writing without a plan.  Stare at the screen, touch the keyboard, close the laptop, go away, and think.  Think, think, think.  In past years, something good has arrived for me; when I clear space, the writing flows without effort or design.  This time has been harder, but now that the thoughts are flowing in, I’m seeing how our perceptions create our paths in everything.

One of my maturing processes has been an acceptance of “being”.  I see that being with negative emotions increases peace, rather than battling with them which increases angst.   I can be happy sad, old young, wise stupid, they all exist in me.  I am not one thing or another.

Paths open themselves up when I allow myself to “be”, particularly when I feel uncertain or vulnerable.  I accept my uncertainty and my vulnerability, and I walk alongside them.  I feel less desire to know, and more inclination to explore.

This is the path that appeared…...

I’m curious about the need for certainty, where it comes from, how it helps us make sense, and what it offers.   The desire to quantify “human capital” for example is an area in which so much is being invested.  I’m genuinely puzzled at how much proof we need to trust in our judgement. 

• Don’t we already know that being treated with respect, being expected to be resourceful intelligent and responsible will lead to good things, good relationships, trust and in turn these will very probably lead to high performance? 
• Don’t we know that arrogance, leader distance and greed distort reality and contaminate purpose?  What more do we need to know?
• What else do we need to give us certainty?

We can’t quantify potential, love, power, respect – human qualities; much of the work I and many others do are about creating the conditions for our potential to be released.  Creating time, space to think, to be, to connect with no other purpose.    When we are looking for certainty, we look for evidence to support our particular truth – I wonder, in what way are we limiting ourselves when we search to validate our perceptions?

limited perception

Here’s a short story about something that regularly happens, which I think illustrates how powerful our perceptions are and which makes me really curious and sometimes tips me into irritation.  My surname is Peppin.  I’ve never met anyone else called Peppin apart from my own family.  So that might mean it’s an unusual name (my perception?).    It’s not unusual enough though; there is a familiarity about it I think which results in a perception filter kicking into action, and what happens is that my name regularly gets remade into Pippin.  This doesn’t happen occasionally, it is a frequent occurrence;   I might write an email as Peppin, but documentation gets addressed Pippin; I’m asked what my name is, I spell out the E but it gets remade into an I; name badges, invitations…. I could go on.  (I did once get called Meggy Poppins by one organisation, but that’s another story!).

I’m torn between mild irritation and as I progress through life – curiosity, you see, I also haven’t met anyone else called Pippin. But in the lexicon there’s an apple and a character from the Hobbit that are Pippin.  So the perception filter makes sense and remakes my name.  Somehow whilst uncommon - Pippin is more familiar.

I wonder what this means; it appears to be unconscious reconfiguring of the letters to fit some sense making need. 

A redesign of a name – it’s easy to see what’s happened.  I can correct it.

This is making me very curious about all the other reconfiguring we do that is outside our consciousness; reorganising, relabeling – people, situations, experiences, to fit our perceptual expectations.  We can’t correct those.

What are our perception filters protecting us from?

What is buried in us that we don’t know informs how we perceive each other, what truth we see and a flood of other questions?

What are we making in organisations when we talk about leadership, when we talk about talent, when we talk about management?

Where is this leading?  I don’t know.  But I’m curious, and I learn that the more we seek certainty, the more we are somehow rejecting important truths.   There are things we can never know; but there is something at play that substitutes an I for an E to make sense, or a you for a me to feel safe.

Substitution
(with thanks to Japanfanzz for image)

I was telling a friend how much this irritated me, when I’d recently been to a large event where everywhere I was a Pippin for a day, and a life for those who met me once.  We had fortune cookies – know what mine said?

“Write your name on your heart, not on marble”.

Oh what a lovely coincidence.

What you call me doesn’t matter.  It’s what I know about me that matters.  That was my interpretation. 

But I’m still left with an I for an E and wondering what it means.

Old postcard from 1904