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.