It’s the Vision Thing

I’ve recently been working with several clients on their vision statements. It’s been fascinating work, remarkably hard graft, but hugely energising too. One client in particular had been struggling to capture the essence of their business; we had tried multiple times. Then finally, one of the owners said, “You know what, it’s actually such and such that really gets me excited, that’s what my real passion is about.”

This wasn’t actually a new discovery, this sense had been shaping their work already, but getting a really sharp focus on it, gave huge energy and purpose. They have revamped their marketing and sales strategies in the light of this perspective, and have seen improved results already in just 6 weeks!!

In another client, we were discussing the possible purchase of a new business; in many ways it looked very attractive, competitively priced and would add some functionality the business would need. But, it would also have diluted his strategic focus on a particular market; so in the end the decision was niet!

Someone once said you haven’t got a business plan till you have said no to something and I think there’s a lot of truth in that. I’m involved in another very different organisation, which is also revising its vision, for the next 10 years or so. Again, this has sharpened up people’s thinking and has set us off down some new and interesting avenues. Trouble is, it also means saying no to some things and steady as she goes to others; I guess it wouldn’t be much of a vision if it didn’t. But of course for some members of the organisation, that’s not such good news and so I guess it points up the need to keep on explaining and communicating the vision, to bring as many people with you as you can.

Trade or Aid?

There has been a certain amount of debate in the press about the effectiveness of aid I read this, provocatively titled, article a while back now Do Starving Africans a favour and don’t feed them. The general view is that aid projects simply have not helped people as much as we had hoped. Rather they have enabled corrupt regimes to ignore the real problems of their people and in many ways it has created a dependency culture. If you think this article is hard core, I have read others by Neo-cons that were far more forth right about it.

I don’t personally think that we can seriously walk away from people in real need, if people are starving we have to do something toi help. But it does make you wonder. So I’m was really interested to hear a lecture by Lord Griffiths, he’s a big cheese at Goldman Sachs and before that was an academic economist. He was saying that despite much research, there is no causal link been found between the amount of aid poured into a country and the eradication of poverty. At the end of the day, it’s business that will ultimately fix that problem.
What’s more he reckons that pound for pound of investment, economies get more wealth and job creation from investing in small Medium Enterprises – SME’s as they say in the trade. It seems the world over, banks won’t lend to them and it’s tough to raise finance, but when they do things can really happen. Makes you think what you should really be doing with your charitable giving!?

You can find out more at www.tbnetwork.org

Smashing Time!!

The talk this Sunday was about kindness and focused on the story of the Good Samaritan. Peter Harwood, our Vicar, was making the point that in essence we are often too busy to be kind. Seems Daniel Goleman, he of emotional intelligence fame, has done some research on this, and the main reason people passed by on the other side, was that they thought they just didn’t have enough time to stop and help. Those who didn’t have the time pressures were much more likely to assist the person in distress. To emphasise the point Peter then set about a clock with a hammer – so he literally had a smashing time!!


This seems to chime in with my recent experiences in Cornwall, people seem much friendlier and willing to help there than in the South East or elsewhere. It’s not an innately Cornish thing; many of the people I meet are incomers, not natural Cornish. I think one of the reasons is that people in Cornwall feel under less time pressure.

The other factor Peter highlighted was considering the other person’s point of view, so do let me know what you think about this.

As time goes by......

It seems to me that time does fly by; some argue this is getting worse over time and often cite the relativity theorem. By this I mean the idea that as we get older, each day is relatively speaking a smaller percentage of our total life and so must go by quicker. I ‘m not sure about that; I personally think that it has more to do with the fact we have got better at doing more in a day and secondly due to the increasing pace of communication in recent times.

When I first started as a national accounts manager, I carried a bleeper, which was used to summon me to call head office in emergencies. Now I have a mobile phone with me constantly, I don’t take emails on it, though many do, I do have a laptop with a dongle and so I am pretty much in continuous contact and life can get hectic.

It also seems to me that because my day is broken down into a series of meeting and planned activities this too seems to speed up the passage of time. For example I periodically help on a leadership course , the programme requires 84 hours of work over 5 1/2 days and I am given a document that virtually has my every waking minute is planned out; I’m rarely more than an hour or so away from the next change of activity. Time just seems to zip by.

For me, making the most of time seems to be about having some plan or job list for the day and being able to get on with it; preferably, it will be a list of small jobs, so I can tick lots of things off, and I need sufficient self control to tackle the “worst jobs first” which makes me feel very virtuous. It seems for me, being able to be pro active rather than reactive is best! It is more than just having a list though. A good day time-wise for me would involve a bit of work-life balance so I would want not only to be productive but have sufficient time that I could fit in a walk or a swim.

In terms of slowing time down, I have found a number of things that work from me. First, if you have the opportunity, I think it does pay to take an occasional break away from the workplace. It seems to be like a comma or a full stop in the day a chance to pause and take a breath. I am fortunate that generally my work requires me to travel out to visit clients in their premises, so it is usually possible to pull off on the journey in between and a take a break. I am such an activist that it is hard during the working day to just stop and , so I have found it useful to take this time to read the Bible or to pray. This seems to give a focus to the time, and yet still lets it be a break from the daily grind.

Having said that, of late I have been using public transport a lot more, mainly the train, but also buses; this form of travel does give me some substantial chunks of time when there is not so much I can do work-wise, and I have tried to use these times as a break to reflect and simply enjoy the pause.

Finally, I know swimming is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I do find it both good exercise and a good time to pray and reflect. The exercise is repetitive, rhythmic and does not require much thought. Well not at my level anyway. So my mind is free to be available to anything God might want to say. I always come away from the pool more peaceful and refreshed.

Sins of Omission

I‘m sure you’ve heard of Russell Akoff, the architect who became a business guru, No, well neither had I until listened to a programme about him on the radio. He was a contemporary of Peter Drucker and spent most of his career at Wharton College in Pennsylvania.
Though he had spent a career teaching on MBA programmes, he believed 95% of what managers learnt was on the job training and most of that came from making mistakes. So in his opinion, it was vital not to discourage people from making mistakes, or they would stick to what they already knew and never try anything new.

He went further and suggested that there were two types of mistakes; some were mistakes of commission and others were of omission, and the later were by far the worst. They cited examples such as Western Union saying no to getting into telephones and Kodak saying no to digital photography. His argument is that our financial accounts quickly pick up and high light mistakes of commission, but not mistakes of omission. To avoid this, he suggested that companies log the things they decide not to do and review that decision later, say at 12 months. Sounds complicated, but some companies have tried it and they find it does improve their strategic decision making.

I think a similar set of principles apply to churches, people are more focused on what does get done than what doesn’t. It’s not so much about the finances, but if the worship isn’t right, the prayer time too long or heaven forbid the pews have to be moved, then there are serious questions in the house. On the other hand, I don’t suppose a Vicar has ever been taken to task for not attempting a church in the pub or in Asda’s etc. SO it’s not surprising that the full time clergy quickly get focused inwards.

In the person sphere, we also talk about sins of commission and omission; and again I have been wondering if sins of omission are perhaps the worst? Clearly if we were to steal or murder, these would be dreadful sins of commission, but they are on the one hand mercifully rare, and on the other they are often detected. But what about what is not done. A while back I was working with a management team who simply could not work together anymore; and it seemed to me that was as much to do with what they were not saying to one another as what they did say. The anger and rage had gone and all that was left was silence and resentment and no one was willing to break it. A sin of omission?

Through The Mirror Dimly

Last Wednesday was a lovely day; clear blue skies, bright sunshine and freezing cold, walking down through Truro to the bus station en route to the office was a joy. Seagulls were screeching around overhead and I grabbed a mug of soup along the way and was able to leap straight on the bus to Greenbottom. As we drove out of town, I was reflecting that travelling by bus or train does provide an opportunity to well reflect, a comma in the hustle bustle of the day in a way that driving just doesn’t. I then thought why on earth didn’t I take 5 minutes to sit quietly and drink my soup in peace rather than rushing on? I could even have prayed for the people around me so I didn’t feel I was “wasting” the time.

I have been doing a lot of reflecting at the moment; I’m taking a coaching qualification which requires me to do regular reflections and I’m trying to restart the habit of a review of the day to sustain my relationship with God. In fact this blog is, in part, a tactic to encourage me to reflect more. And in broad terms, it’s worked, I have certainly been doing more reflecting, now I need to get better at applying the learning’s!!

Someone shared an approach called “In a nutshell”, which is designed for reflecting on a specific activity like a training course, I’ve found it’s very good for boiling things down. http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B3eLr9eSkTNRMmZlMzUwMWItMTE4MC00YWFlLTk1M2QtNDk2ZTI2MmNhODJj&hl=en_GB Another approach that has worked for me is the heptagon shape from Life Shapes. It’s based on the anagram MRS GREN – you need to read the book really or give me a call. www.lifeshapes.com/shapes.cfm Anyway it does take some time and self discipline, but reflection has helped me to keep a better focus on God’s agenda, even to see him at work around me, so bring it on!!

Snow Snow Quick Quick Snow

Well on First Great Western’s website it all looked pretty organised, even South West Trains site committed them to run two trains an hour to Bournemouth etc. But when I got to Woking station it was a whole lot more chaotic, even the reduced schedule had not survived contact with the snow; trains were running late, others cancelled, most of the screen lists simply said delayed with no suggestion of when they would run. Understandable really given the weather conditions and chatting to people, most seemed to be making their way OK, just slowly. Actually, there weren’t many people about, most had been sensible and stayed at home and this just added to the air of unreality.

Struggling against adversity seems to bring the best out in people in some ways; we talk about the Dunkerque spirit and so on. As I was staring blankly at one of the monitor screens at Woking, someone from SW Trains stopped and asked me where I was trying to go, then pointed to platform 4 but stressed the need to listen out for announcements as things were changing fast. (He was definitely right about that) Later on I saw him running up and down briefing people on the next London train; he was really trying hard. On the train to Basingstoke the train manager took one look at my ticket to Reading and grimaced – “Phew I think you’ll be lucky to get to Reading” – I didn’t like to say actually I’m trying to get to Redruth!! “I tell you what I will give them a call and get you a heads up” and he did right there and then and blessed relief a cut down service to Reading was on the go.

I hesitate to mention I got on the wrong train at Reading, got all settled down, coat off, lap top on, then I noticed it was going to Paignton not Penzance oops! Actually the Trolly Lady pointed it out to me and suggested where I should get off, in the nicest possible way; we had a nice little chat and asked me about it after the Train Manager had spoken to me; nice of her considering how worried she was about how she would get home. Random acts of kindness or did the adversity draw us a little closer to God?

The train people I spoke to all felt they had done much better than in previous snow bursts and so do I, thank you First Great Western and South West Trains for getting me there

Trust me I'm a Business Coach!

Recently a colleague and I visited a client, it was our third or fourth meeting and we were making good progress in tackling a particular technical issue. This appointment was going pretty much as previous ones had, until I asked him to consider some of the wider implications of the question we were dealing with. He stopped and thought a moment, then decided he was willing to discuss the more fundamental business issues with us. The office door was closed and off we went. Growing trust had enabled us to move our relationship onto a higher and deeper level. We spent the afternoon discussing his vision for the future and some of the key issues that would need to be addressed. After some time discussing a more factual area, he now felt he could trust us.

It was striking because it was such a definite change of gear in the relationship, In my experience, this is one of those things that varies enormously, some people are very open from the start, while with others the relationship develops more gradually.

A colleague at OI has suggested there are three stages in the process of building trust; first the contracting – e.g. the nuts and bolts of what we will be doing in the relationship, in our case providing business advice. Secondly we have to establish a level of competence and then finally there is the relationship dimension; how are we going to get on at a personal level. In the case in point, simply explaining how we could work together had been necessary, but really did not build much trust. It took a number of meetings to establish our credibility or competence and establish some rapport. Secondly, we had also assisted him in a number of different ways, and so I think he could see we genuinely wanted to help.

This whole issue of meeting with new clients and building up a level of trust has been a regular topic of discussion at work and it got me wondering what a biblical perspective might add. A key point is that it is God alone who is really and utterly trustworthy, while people are much less reliable; a sobering thought. On the other hand, I guess when we find someone who can be trusted we see something of God in them. Being able to have faith in someone does feel good and I wonder if part of it is getting closer to God. Proverbs seems to suggest it is “Like the coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the spirit of his masters.” Proverbs 25:13.

Secondly, it is clear that we are all in positions of trust; that we have our God given talents and abilities and hold these in trust and will be held accountable for what we have done with them in due course. The parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke is clear about this and Paul says the same to Timothy. No pressure then peeps. Happy New Year Everyone.