Deeper Appreciation

Day 51 (Wednesday 20th January 2016)

51 percent of live TV is watched live. Betraying my age, when I grew up we all watched the
same programmes at the same time (or missed seeing them). Live television viewing was at 81%
in 2008, according to research by NBC Universal, but increasingly people now view TV via
streaming on demand at a time when it suits them - digital broadband is rapidly changing our lives.

Today, the Advent Blogs and Post Advent Blogs series come to an end, and what better way to end than with a post based on appreciation? I am so grateful to all of the wonderful writers who submitted pieces for this year's series. What a breadth of topics have been covered under a theme that many found difficult to tackle. The pondering and effort has paid off - I think that this year has been the best yet. Thank You! I will provide a more detailed breakdown of themes and views later this month.

David Goddin is the author of today's excellent piece. Having initially met David via social media (his Twitter handle is @ChangeContinuum), I have worked with him on a number of occasions and it comes as no surprise to me that he has written an encouraging, celebratory piece about what makes people great. David has a talent for making people see things in a constructive light and for enabling people to achieve more than they believe they are capable of. David is the founder and Managing Director a Change Continuum, a specialist consultancy that focuses on business performance and enabling positive change for both individuals and the organisations in which they work. He is a wonderful husband and father and lives with his wife and two sons in Norfolk.

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In thinking of both “Comet Tails and Coal Dust”, I’ve been struck by how culturally each seems often to be seen in a singular view. There are deeper meanings beyond that are perhaps commonly missed... appreciation that is the understanding of the worth, quality or importance... appreciation of that full awareness or understanding.

“Comet Tails”. Our immediate appreciation is perhaps for the existence of a comet, its apparent beauty and perhaps connections and time beyond our own mortal reach. I wonder if we appreciate that the decay of the comet is what creates its tail? I wonder if we appreciate that it is only through the comet's long slow, and perhaps lonely death that we may see a comet's tail pass us by for a time?

Comet Lulin

“Coal Dust”. Dirty, useless remnants to be discarded perhaps. I wonder if we appreciate the 300 million year journey that brought coal dust to us here today? I wonder if we appreciate that its existence at all is a sign of the value we’ve obtained?

Appreciation is something we see written about quite frequently and it’s often beautifully given in the sense of gratitude. Appreciating what is good. Appreciating the help & support of others. Appreciation.

Yet, in the “Coal Dust” sense there is often little or no appreciation given to that which we perceive to be useless or troublesome. In the “Comet Tail” sense there can be appreciation but perhaps with some superficiality.

It’s naturally human behaviour. We can choose to take what value and appreciation that we find immediately useful to us. And I wonder if that’s enough?

We love the new, the shiny, the sexy, the appealing... often without an understanding of what sacrifice, trouble or consequence may lie behind.

1996 making of balls for Nike in Pakistan

We dismiss what we immediately see as useless and troublesome... often without understanding that it is a very limited and limiting lens that we look through.

Yet we can forgive the failings and failures of those nearest and dearest to us... We can catch those who need our help when they fall, without question... We can find abundance of friendship, love and support without asking. That appreciation is the deepest in every sense and we can all show it.

I think that capacity is where we are brilliant as humans. I think it also demands us to seek a deeper appreciation more often than we may be inclined to.

"What a Wonderful World" sung by Louis Armstrong

A life lived well and true - Day 12

Day 12

12 months of the year, depicting rural tasks
in the Salzburg manuscript, early 800s
One of the oldest calendars of its kind
in Vienna's National Austrian Library
Image from Wikimedia Commons

I am honoured to count David Goddin as a good friend, as well as a highly effective professional expert whom I value and enjoy working with. He regularly blogs on business related matters (www.peopleperformancepotential.com) and actively uses Twitter (@ChangeContinuum) as well as other forms of social media. He has a quick, dry wit, a calm intelligence and a depth of compassion that combines with his genuine interest in others to make him stand out from the crowd. After a successful career, culminating as a COO, David founded his own business which helps others thrive, particularly during times of change. David is values driven and brave, as the following post demonstrates...

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It's funny. Trying to think about what I might write on the theme of "Paths & Perceptions" I realise just how far from "the path" I have wandered. It may not be perceptible to you or others but I see and feel it. Thinking back I see that my wandering means that I've been following many paths.

Our English Coasts, 1852 ("Strayed Sheep") - William Holman Hunt
image sourced from the Tate Gallery, London

That makes sense of the unsatisfied feeling I've had on and off. Being on many paths is clearly both stretching and unfulfilling...

Aerial view of Colarado River delta
Found on scienceclarified.com

I know that over the last year or so I've been consciously and deliberately shutting doors. Things I won't do, places I won't go, people I won't be with. It's been important and liberating. It's allowed me to focus more on being me. My perception though was that these doors were on a single path that I've been following. However, I realise that perception was not entirely true - some of those doors I had to shut weren't even on my path... bloody Twitter!

Closed Doors by Estonian artist Miraccoon

Don't get me wrong. This isn't an existential crisis. I know who I am. I know what I need. I know what I value. I know how I can create value. However, this tension can't be sustained anymore. It's ridiculous to even try. I just need to maintain a good perception of my own path.

Is that the challenge of a life lived well and true?

Leaving behind some of those other paths I sense that in liberation there is both a perception of danger and opportunity. A perception that it will test friendships and relationships. I could fail or fall... It's testing my faith and my confidence. There is no other way though is there?

Brave Steps
(bridge in Northern Pakistan)

So I'm saying goodbye and in some cases good riddance to the other paths. I'm sharing my path freely with those important to me, to help them have a truer perception of it and of me. I need their support. It's probably testing how others perceive me - that's good. It's certainly testing my own resolve - that's good too.

It's still a tense time but I know that uneasy tension will pass and change into something better. My path will change and evolve with the landscape of time. I think longer term that is perhaps what I'm looking forward to the most. I trust in it. Perhaps that's the truth of the matter?

A life lived well and true comes from knowing your own path, perceiving it well and trusting it to lead you into the unseen and the unknown.

Path through Happy Valley, Orkney
from www.allfivesenses.com

Free Bird

A little earlier this year a well-known and respected HRD commented that consultants and contractors do not have the same “skin in the game” as permanent employees and hence do not put in as much effort as their established colleagues. Although I think I understand the logic behind his statement, and perhaps I am just lucky, my experience of self-employed individuals during the past year has been the exact opposite. Without exception, the itinerant and contract members of the team have put in as much thought and effort as their permanently employed co-workers.  Indeed, without their help we would not have achieved significant, desired and beneficial change across the organisation where I work.

Last week the Independent published an article entitled “Is this the death of the traditional employee?” It highlighted some significant changes that have occurred within the UK since 2010, one striking fact is that according to data released and celebrated by the coalition government, 2/5 of all new jobs have arisen as a result of a significant growth in self-employed workers. 15% of the UK workforce (circa 4.5 million people) are now freelance workers. The article goes on to ponder whether these people have been forced into self-employment (perhaps as an alternative to retirement, having been made redundant following the economic collapse in 2008, or because of a loss of income support but still needing to provide for themselves and perhaps a family).  Similar points about the rise in the self-employed sector are made by Barrie Hopson, the co-author, with Katie Ledger, of “And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career”, on his blog.

Many hats are required for a successful portfolio career

I am aware of the issues for many people on zero-hour contracts (as indeed are many more of us, now that Ed Miliband is planning to use it as his calling card to persuade the Scots to remain united with England and Wales).

A better blogger than I, Rick, who writes Flip Chart Fairy Tales, has been raising the matter of self-employment and the poverty trap for over a year now – if you want data on the subject read his recent post on the self-employed – the nouveau pauvre. I don’t in anyway wish to seem to be supporting the increasing divide between the affluent and the poor.  It is a matter of concern that the median self-employed annual salary is only £12,000 per annum. The Independent’s piece questioned whether, as the employment market picks-up, these people will seek permanent employment.  Perhaps the recruitment firms, or the websites such as LinkedIn, Monster and Jobsite are best placed to answer that, as they will see the number of job seekers in relation to opportunities. However, in my experience, the people who are self-employed and currently working with me (and who admittedly are not on incomes of £12,000) have no desire to resume employment with a single business.

Rich/Poor Divide
King George V driving to Epsom Derby, 1920 
with a beggar running beside his carriage

I like the fact that I can bring in particular expertise, such as an artist and corporate observer or a great coach and L&D expert, or a truly smart OD specialist, as and when I need them, but that I don’t have talented individuals, on my payroll but not using their specialist skills, when an internal requirement is not there. Talking with the freelancers I work with, they love the variety of multiple challenges that their choice of career provides and they find the diversity of projects and organisations enjoyable. I learn from them and they gain skills from doing stuff for my organisation. We all have fun and it is rewarding. I am fussy and believe in working with people I like and respect and whom I know will do things better than I could. When I returned to work following maternity leave I only did so after I had hired a nanny who was significantly better at looking after children than I was. I apply a similar approach to hiring self-employed specialists.

I am probably the biggest winner from the arrangement. In a fortnight’s time I am co-facilitating an industry leading Leadership Development programme in conjunction with the Professional Services team at Judge Business School of Cambridge University.  In addition to the academics, I have brought together a number of experts – how lucky am I to be able to assemble a dream team with complimentary skills? Doing things like this in real life beats any fantasy football game and I learn from and thrive on the diversity of thinking and approach.

Super heroes - a dream team

In some ways, I am a good example of a portfolio careerist.  However, I started enjoying the benefits of variety long before the term came into common parlance. The author Erin Albert who wrote “Plan C: The Full-Time Employee and Part-Time Entrepreneur” says that individuals who are trying to decide whether they should stick to working for a sole employer or to become a freelance entrepreneur should look at the patterns of their earlier life and what they enjoy/have been successful at doing, especially when at college or university.  I deliberately immersed myself in a broad gamut of areas when a student, from acting, debating, rowing, painting, cooking, rugby, academic studies, running a fly fishing school, belonging to societies, organising balls and charity events, socialising, holding down a job and I was vice chair of the JCR and president of the Law society, as well as being captain of the first boat for my college. I have always been fond of personal freedom and variety it brings.

Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynrd 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np0solnL1XY&feature=kp

Much of the secret of success is being able to understand yourself and to appreciate what you enjoy and are good at.  As well as capability and desire, you need a degree of self-discipline and focus and possess the skills of a juggler, to hold down multiple roles. 

Marc Chagall, The Juggler (1943)

If you are unsure as to the kind of environment that suits you best and what you should look for from your work environment, this simple quiz might aid your thinking.

In my career, I have been so fortunate to date, in that I have been able to cross successfully between different roles and sectors. I am a lawyer who has worked as a derivatives dealer within the financial markets, before deciding that I find people more interesting than numbers or contracts (although I can do both). I have worked in corporate psychology and founded and lead successful businesses, before moving into HR. Everything I have done has added to my knowledge and skills and I bring bits together to help me solve problems every day (both at work and in my broader life). My Twitter self-description of being a “creative connector” applies to how I work, as well as to the opportunities I am able to provide by connecting people I know.

Variety is the spice of life
Spices in the market in Marrakech, Morocco 

How fortunate I am. I thank you for being the people I interact with and with whom I have done and I am able to do interesting and varied things. If I can help you or if you need someone to bounce ideas off, I would be delighted to hear from you.

I'm Lucky - Live performance by Joan Armatrading