Archive for August, 2008

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Many ways to skin a cat

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Having never tried, of course, I wouldn’t know!  Today I was preparing for a business meeting which had the possibility of being a little difficult; it involved bringing together  a number of parties all with different needs and interests.  I had anticipated it foundering on the rocks of some of the ‘demands’ of the participants despite the fact that it appeared to me that there were wins for everyone if agreement was reached. 

I was called by one of the parties and had a meeting with one of the others, when a whole new way of looking  at this opened up and suddenly a rather neat, if somewhat different solution begun to present itself.  Obviously we won’t know till the meeting is held, but it is interesting that sometimes the solutions to our problem pops up in unexpected places, and of course, we can easily miss them if we always look in the same old places.

So if today you are wrestling with a problem, try looking somewhere new for your answers….

“Good questions outrank easy answers.”

“If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem”  Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Free!!

Monday, August 18th, 2008

What a powerful word.  We all want to be Free.  If something is ‘free’ we grab it, whether we want it or not. People die in the name of Freedom; they torture and maim in its name.  Today I discovered that my mother, a very shrewd and canny lady, had been conned by the lure of a ‘free’ holiday.  Some shysters told her that she had won a free holiday and then asked her for her card details just to cover taxes and registration.  Next thing she knew they had charged her £400!

What is it about this word that disarms our critical faculties?  I can think of few words that are more powerful.  The thing is that our words are packed with layers of meaning, only some which can be found in the dictionary, and some which are more emotionally based.

Although we can all buy and use the same dictionary, but that doesn’t mean that words mean the same thing to different people. Small wonder that communication breaks down.  I wonder just what fall out will come from English becoming a virtual world language when  it is so tough even within the same country.

If a conversation is important, you not only have to say your piece, but also to check that the other person has received it ‘in clear’ rather than scrambled.  (The picture is of an enigma machine that the Germans used to send and receive coded messages.  The key was you had to have two identical machines and the code key to understand the message.  Cracking this system was a key step in defeating the Germans in World War 2)

“The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”  Joseph Preistley

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”  Rudyard Kipling

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Tuning in

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

Yesterday I wrote about some of the joys of Internet radio and someone wrote a comment about the importance of tuning in to those close to us.  I thought it would be interesting to develop that thought.  The thing is that we all broadcast information all the time on both the visible and invisible, or should that be audible and inaudible levels.  Much of the really important information is on lower frequencies.  In an office environment a good boss will be tuned into his people and pick-up these infra-frequency messages.  At home it is a little more complex. Many a working partner comes home to switch off and that often leads to these sensitivities also being powered down.  The trouble is that this means those nearest and dearest to us don’t get the best of us.

So perhaps this might be a good time to ‘turn your radio on’….

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Internet radio

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

I bought a nifty little gadget which looks like and performs the function of a radio, but uses the functionality of the Internet to collect the ‘signal’, so you can pick up over 10,000 stations.  It is a bit like a DAB radio in as much as you have additional functionality, so that you can access services like the BBC’s listen again service.You can search for stations by location or by genre, so for example you can listen to a Cuban station or an Australian one or a Blues one or a Talk one.  I have found stations dedicated to solely the Beatles or Queen.  I can listen to the control tower at JFK or the Miami police radio.  It is an intriguing window into so many strange worlds.

One of the the things I have been listening to is series of stations that broadcast non-stop stand-up comedians, mainly American.  The interesting thing is the insight that one gains into how others see and experience the world.  These people talk in the most uninhibited way about all sorts of things that are normally regarded as deeply private.  It is extraordinary to have this ‘window’ into others brains / lives.

The thing is that people, who though superficially similar to us, are much more complex than they appear.  They can be motivated and interested in very different things. If we explore, if we listen, ask questions, we can gain insights into what motivates and inhibits those people we work with or live with. Realising that others have hidden depths that we need to explore if we want to understand them is half the battle.  After all, you can’t motivate people you don’t understand.   So take the time to tune into the people around you and see what you can pick up… I guarantee it will be fascinating! 

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”  William Morris

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”   Marilyn Monroe

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Pressing the "Pause" button

Friday, August 15th, 2008

We have hit a point in our refurbishment plan where for the first time in weeks we have no workmen here, no mess, no noise, no strangers… Not only that but it is that time in our business cycle where many of our clients have gone off for the summer, it feels as if some great cosmic digit has pressed my ‘pause‘ button. That is no bad thing.  It is a bit like the amber traffic signal, which gives us a moment between the two binary extremes of Stop & Go.

The Buddhists believe that one can experience God in the gap between breathing in and breathing out. Winter can be considered the time between Autumn’s fruitfulness and Spring’s new growth. 

Just being in this paused state is quite restful if one doesn’t feel obliged to fight its energy and try to make things happen. 

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”   Mark Twain

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”   Guillaume Apollinaire

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If Life gives you lemons..

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

..make lemonade so says the American proverb, and there is certainly something in that.  So often we make plans and then find that the ‘weather’ is against us.  Then with our plans stalled, we sit, wait and move into ‘if only’ mode.  The thing that farmers and sailors really understand is working with the prevailing wind and weather. 

Many change programs start with a fancy plan, but like General Patton said “no plan survives encounter with the enemy”, at that stage you have other forces to deal with and react to, other peoples’ wishes, needs, strengths & weaknesses.  Your ability to change your plans, and adapt your strategies to take account for the prevailing ‘weather’ is what sorts the successful from the tryers and the happy from the moaners.

If it is raining today, what is it a good day for?

“Truths are first clouds; then rain, then harvest and food.”  Henry Beecher Ward

“Weather means more when you have a garden.  There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.”  Marcelene Cox

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Mamma Mia!

Friday, August 8th, 2008

We went to see Mamma Mia the movie yesterday and I have to say, despite not being an Abba fan, I loved it. It was a wonderful, joyous creation full of imagination, humour and creativity; a real celebration of life and the art of movie making. It was great to see three 50 something actresses having such a good time. For those of you who, like me, had no idea of the plot, a young girl is about to be married and wants to meet her dad. She has found her mother’s diary and has worked out that it could be one of three men who haven’t seen the mother for 20 years and she invites them all to her wedding. She naively believes that she will ‘know’ her father on sight, and of course does not. The film follows the consequences of this impulsive action.

It is interesting to examine this a little more deeply because what she has done is pull the cork out of the genie’s bottle and unleashed a force of chaos and randomness into her life. Regularly readers will recall the impact of this on my computer the other day. The thing is, both she and I thought we knew what we were doing, and once the sequence was initiated we rapidly lost control. In the movie, as is their wont, it all ended happily, real life can be somewhat messier. On the other hand if we try to retain control all the time then not only is life a little monotone, but we bar the door to serendipity. Periodically it is good to take a chance and do something that you can’t control, to surrender power to someone or something else, and then see where that takes you. Today might be a good day to take a chance…

“To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” Richard Bach

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Still fiddling…

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Sometimes life imitates art in a way that is truly scary. You know that moment in the horror film where the music changes and the camera angle tells you that something nasty is coming from behind, and you maybe shout at the screen “For God’s sake, don’t go out there!! Look behind you!!” So last night, having taken another, clean back-up of my operating system and programmes configured just the way I like it, I thought “Why don’t I have another go at creating that partition…” I even shelled out for the latest version of the partitioning software. Should have been a doddle; and even if it wasn’t, I could now recover in an hour or so…. [cue the spooky music ….]
This was around 7 pm, about an hour later I knew it wasn’t working. I had clicked something that that was interfering with my MBR file (this is like the front door lock for your computer, and without it you don’t get in.)

The next hour or so was spent restoring my MBR. I managed this okay. But like in the horror movie, each step towards apparent safety lures you deeper and deeper in to the swamp. So my horror story took me via somehow changing the drive letters so that the C drive was now the restore partition and the operating system sat on D. I could handle that …. NO I couldn’t! This meant that my backup software couldn’t now see my drives properly so I couldn’t restore to my safe copy. Around 2 am I decided that I was going to have to restore the machine to delivery condition in order to allow me get a clean disk to restore to. By 4am I knew that the restore partition was corrupted… I went to bed.

Never mind I have a 3 year warranty with those nice Dell people, they will help with the restore then I’ll be fine. So this morning I have spoken to 4 very friendly, very polite Orientals who were very helpful. They explained that due to some dispute about licensing with Microsoft et al that I was not able to get another copy of the delivery image. This is a little like losing you car handbook and Ford telling you that they won’t give you another one. So here I sit 3 hours later, I think I have restored my operating system, but my backup software (which worked perfectly 2 days ago) seems to be taking forever to offer me the chance to restore to my clean system image. [I think that music might be playing in the background round about now…]

I’ll let you know how this gothic tale ends up but the crazy thing is, even if I succeed in being back to where I need to be I still won’t have the partition that I want. Do I try a third time or should I leave well alone. As you settle down with your coke and popcorn, I’m thinking that you must be wondering how dumb one person can be…

PS>> The restore software is now telling me that in only 9 hours I’ll know if I get killed off or am the blood-soaked survivor

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Are you a fiddler?

Monday, August 4th, 2008

I think that the world probably divides into two sorts of folks, those who like to leave well alone if something is working, even if it isn’t quite perfect “It’s good enough isn’t it?“ and those who will take the same system and think “I could make this just a little bit better..” I have to admit to being a compulsive fiddler. I like things to work the way that works for me. So in the last month I have been ‘playing’ with 2 different laptops and managed to have to render both inoperable! Luckily, I was able to recover from both potential disasters without having too much grief. I guess this is one way of testing your disaster contingency plans… by precipitating the disaster: though it is a bit like testing your sprinkler system by setting fire to your house!

Some people are happier with self-induced change, others feel that Change will find them soon enough without going looking for it! A lot of people certainly feel safer when they have some degree of choice about the issue, and in a business environment giving choice wherever possible is an important element in engaging people. Some decisions need to be reserved for the ‘bosses’ but there are many non-crucial ones that are important to the staff and are neutral to the overall program. Allowing people this element of self-determination helps reduce resistance and usually improves the overall result. Also the more people you ask, the more likely you are to spot things that could go wrong, and to tap into hidden expertise and enthusiasm.

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” JK Rowling

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Life is like a game of Bowls?

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

I was having a conversation with my wife this morning that got me thinking about Lawn Bowls, an old and rather civilised English game that can trace its history by to the 12th century, and craved into English history when Francis Drake claimed he had time to finish his game of bowls and then defeat the Spanish Armada. For those who have never played, you roll a very heavy ball down a very smooth lawn to try and hit another smaller ball called the jack. The art of the game is compensating for the fact that the balls have a small off-centre weight inside them called a bias, which makes it impossible to roll them in a straight line. If you watch this game played by skilled practitioners, you will be amazed by their skill in using this bias.

That got me thinking about our own biases, which of course we all have. The lawn bowlers, are very familiar with the bias of their bowls, but we often keep ours hidden from everyone including ourselves. We are always fair and objective aren’t we? The things is you can’t start winning at bowls till you familiarise yourself with and compensate for your own bias. I wonder if Life isn’t a bit like that too. Until we understand where our biases are, and accept that we need to ‘bowl’ a curved line to compensate for them we keep landing wide of our mark.

There are people we don’t like, places we don’t feel safe, activities we find challenging and all of this may well be based on sound reasons, but those same judgements and stories divert the path of our thinking just as surely as the little weight in the bowl. Be honest with yourself about these things, own them and share them and you maybe surprised just how directly you get where you want to go…. Good luck!

“To know the true reality of yourself, you must be aware not only of your conscious thoughts, but also of your unconscious prejudices, bias and habits.”

“He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice” Anatole France

 

 

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