....as a practising millionaire....

My daughter made me laugh out loud yesterday. At 16 1/2 she has just secured her first part-time job, working at a local garden centre. She went off to interview quite nonchalantly so I was interested what sort of questions she was asked.

Picking her up yesterday after she had slept at a friends I took the chance to enquirer how the interview had gone.

She told me she was asked what she wanted to do at university, to which she answered, "English and drama". She was then told that she would like the questions as they has been set by a psychologist friend of the interviewer.

The first was about what she thought of people who had good fortune? This was when she creased me up. She sincerely and genuinely said, "Well, as a practising psychologist I knew what the questions were getting at".

This was from the girl who has completed just six weeks of her psychology A-level. When I laughed and questioned her positioning as a practitioner, she said that was what her teacher kept telling the class.

I guess this is how we build confidence in our youngsters and it is no bad thing as long as it has a balance and does not create unachievable expectations.

In this instance my daughter smiled and was able to laugh at m challenge in a friendly and positive way. It will be interesting to see where psychology features in her future.

Meantime I am wondering how best to engender these words from my own mouth, ".......as a practising millionaire....."




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Fabulous Autumn Colours

 

This autumn has been unusual.....unusally warm and pleasant such that last Friday, mid-october, I was playing golf in shirt sleeves. 

In our garden we have seen a second round of pollen in late September and the leaves seem to be late to fall. Now the maple tree in our garden is a beautiful and rare shade of red. I hear that there is a scientific explanation for the colours, but I thought instead we could just record and share them.

The pictures here were taken this morning and are a sight to behold.

Beware Greeks Shopping!

On the day European leaders "agreed" a plan to resolve the Eurozone financial crisis and write off Greek debt (hence my poor headline)  I had a look in the new Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London. It was on my way home and I just made a small detour.

It is impressive! I realise that it still has huge novelty and "shiny" value and that it is half term, but at 4:30 pm on damp Thursday afternoon it was BUSY. Not uncomfortably busy in that you cannot move, but commercially busy. What double-dip recession?

Having visited a number of impressive malls in the US, I would say that this new one is up with the best of them. It is maybe not quite s spacious, but the layout and finish inside and out, across three or so floors is very good. Many of the brand names are ones you would see in the US eg Hollister, Forever 21, etc, but with many of our own.

Two things struck me though. The first was it was like walking around a united nations, it felt like most if not all nations of the world were represented in the people there, far more than you would find in the US , even in New York I think.

The second was that the food offerings were on another level to US malls, variety, number and maybe quality. In a US mall there is usually a fast food, food court (does what it says on the tin) and a handful of other usually chain restaurants. In contrast this Westfield seems to have loads of food places and food concessions, spread amongst the shops.

We will see how well it fares and if the other Westfield in west London suffers, but from yesterday's viewing it would be hard to know there was any financial hardship around.

What will your epitaph say about you?

Many coaches and trainers will ask you to draw up your own eulogy, what you would like to be said about you at your funeral. It is a common way to try and give perspective, especially around emotional aspects of ones life. Others look for your obituary, but not everyone finds it easy to do this. There is the old adage that no one will wish they had spent more time in the office and this is undoubtedly true in 99.99% of the cases, but it often provides humorous cover for more important issues

It may be the challenge of introspection or British humility, so I suggest that you look at your epitaph, what would be carved on your headstone if/when you are buried. This is likely to be short, pithy and probably based on something someone has already said to you. It is also useful to keep in mind as a regular guide to achieving better outcomes. Of course you may not always pay attention to it, but being conscious of the content is more than half the battle.

I raise this as a good friend said something to me recently that has stuck in my mind. Before I address  that I will admit that I have half jokingly, half seriously said before that my epitaph should be:

"Never knowingly without an opinion."

This reflects my curiousity and propensity to think (sometimes maybe too much?) about things and a willingness to put that into words, especially if someone asks what I think about a subject. What comes out is usually a mixture of knowledge, instinct, and prediction, looking at the wider and future consequences of something happening now. It is just what I see, how my mind works. It is not always in line with common thinking, but is genuinely what I think.

What happened was a friend said to me that one of the challenges I had was being too honest, hence the epitaph that is now in my head:

"Sometimes too honest for his own good."

On one, very important, level I am not unhappy with that in that honesty and personal integrity  are very important to me, but there is a truth in there. His comment was that I do not always think enough about the immediate personal consequences for me when I share my thoughts - and that I must agree is true. I tend to speak the pure truth as I see it (I know that sounds pompous, but I am struggling for better words - please see the intent and not a bombastic statement) even when it is against my personal interests.

It is a useful insight and in these challenging times, one to keep very much in mind. This does not mean I will become untruthful, because I won't! I couldn't live easily with myself if that were the case, and it would show. Instead I will just keep it in mind when when engaged in those 50:50 conversations, and maybe promote my personal interest more than I have in the past.

My new target is:

This, I feel, is a betterone for success in these troubled times.

Out of curiousity, does anyone else want to share their future epitaph?

Form is temporary while class is permanent!

This is often said about sportsmen and came flooding to my mind as I watched TV last night. I chanced upon, not knowing it was on, a BBC2 documentary on the 1971 British Lions Tour to New Zealand. This was the first and indeed the only British touring side to register a series win in test matches against New Zealand. That made them special.

I am old enough (just) to have started playing rugby that year and the programme was littered with legends; Barry John, Gareth Edwards, Gerald Davies, David Duckham, JPR Williams, Colin Meads, Ian Kirkpatrick, Sid Going.....and the list goes on. These men all demonstrated huge presence and no little humility in the show, I wonder if this comes because of the events they were part of, or it helped create the events? Either way it was a pleasure to watcha nd Eddie Butler presented it with some style.

Of course this is relevant with the Rugby World Cup final coming up in just a day or so in New Zealand. New Zealand have always been at or near the top of the rugby tree and to beat New Zealand is something to savour.

What struck me though was the quality of the running rugby and teh tries scored. Yes, the programme was able to pick and showcase the best, but there seems to be no shortage of quality from that tour. It was an old style 24 match (I think), something like 8 week tour with continual movement between hotels and a balance between playing and social - it was still very much an amateur game back then.

We saw scything runs from Gerald Davies and David Duckham, sublime side-steps from Barry John who just seemed to own the field when he had ball in hand, bullocking runs from Gareth Edwards, and a 45 yard drop goal with an old style heavy ball from JPR Williams. Of course the All Blacks had their moments too, but the programme did not dwell on them.

In the intervening 40 years the rugby authorities have tried to make the game better, but in light of what I saw last night I think any perceived or claimed success must be questioned. That team, those tries (only 3 points for a try back then) and the whole experience stands the test of time and I would suggest it is a testament to class, not just form.

It is probably still available on BBC iplayer at the time of writing and I commend it to any rugby fan (well any Britsih rugby fan anyway)  as a good investment of time to watch.

The clueless and the stupid! Time to come out of retirement?

What a week! Respecting chronology, I will start with the England Rugby team, or at least a number of it's members. Manu Tuilagi's dive from a docking ferry capped a sequence of dwarf tossing (well attendance at least), kissing strange blondes soon after you are married and making lewd remarks to hotel staff. These were stupid for otherwise intelligent men in a public spotlight, supported by goodness knows how many advisers. This was all on top of some pretty clueless and inept performances in the Rugby World Cup. It makes me consider coming out of 25 years of retirement, Seriously, could I do a worse job?

Then we have the bruhaha(?) around Liam Fox and his best friend/best man. It initially sounded as if it might have been a faux pas and that the quick apology could redress matters. But as the week has passed we have seen a systematic misrepresentation of Mr. Werritty's role and involvement in an unelected, unauthorised position, with cast doubt about elements of their private lives too. The last straw are the revelations of how Mr Werritty has funded his luxury travel through contributions routed via a not-for-profit company. That it has been going on so long makes it hard to believe Mr Fox did not know. If he truly didn't know then he is stupid beyond belief, if he did know then he obviously think he is above the normal rules expected of mere mortals and is obviously clueless about a) public opinion, and b) the resourcefulness of the British press to unearth wrong doing.

The cap comes with Oliver Letwin discarding parliamentary papers in a water bin in Green Park. I think this behaviour is both stupid and clueless. To try and explain it away by saying he likes to take papers and work in the park, official papers to boot, and that he only discarded non-sensitive ones is incredible.

Do these politicians have no idea how to behave or do they feel they are gods and beyond reproach? I wish I knew how to fix this, but if my daughter decides not to vote, when she gets the right, I truly could not blame her. Not only are they all as as as each other, they do not deserve our respect or support.

I once stood for JCR president on a one week, late entry campaign on what you see is what you get. I came a credible second and was able to concentrate on my other interests, but I am thinking that when I come out of my rugby retirement I will also stand as an MP.


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Kotter's 8 Steps - An epiphany.

Yesterday I listened to a webinar by John Kotter and colleagues from Kotter International ( Click for webinar ) on "leading change through turbulent times". It talks about his experience and insights into how leading companies have successfully achieved transformational change and offers a 8 step process. ( Leading Change ).

I first encountered this work at a previous employer where although not explicitly stated it was clear the new(!) CEO was trying to use it with his new (!) executive team. Not only was a Harvard Business Review article used at an executive offsite, one could, with a little knowledge, spot the attempts to address each step. It was as if the hope was that if one could do a little of each, tick all the boxes so to speak, then it would work.

Personally I would say that history will judge that it did not work and it was certainly an uncomfortable ride for those who experienced it. I sensed that something was missing, but could not put my finger on what - the webinar has now provided that insight, but I will come to that later.

I will confess to being critical of the book as I felt it allowed the reader to gain the impression that transformational change is easy, something of a predictable formula. This sense of ease has contributed to the poor results. One correspondent on a discussion board stated that they found Kotters 8 steps useful, but primarily to assess what was missing / went wrong after the fact; not before.

The parable version of the book ( Our Iceberg Is Melting ) looks at how a community of penguins reacts when it finds that the iceberg that is its home is melting. It shows how they deal with the change, individually and collectively, and has proved useful in my work by providing a new vocabulary or language to talk to and influence leaders of change.

Now I am sure I won't do full justice to John Kotter's words, so I will try and summarise here and commend that you listen to the webinar; an hour well invested for those leading change.

My summary is that the 8 steps are the sythesis of what Kotter discovered successful companies did to deliver transformational change in an environment where the pace of change, by any number of measures, is increasing exponentially. Kotter however recognises that the eight steps needs something other than the typical hierarchical organisation structure of business. While this structure has grown and been very effective in running and changing business until now, it reaches what he calls a "wall" beyond which it fails to deliver effective change. The "hardware" or structure that is needed is one of linked networks of committed people. These break traditional strata and work outside traditional control mechanisms.

This was the insight I needed. It makes a lot of sense, but still lacks the "how" in relation to creating the new structure. Indeed I wonder how well it can be effected in a regulated line of business where there is an ever increasing focus on control Typically I am thinking about financial services where I work and am very interested in how the FSA or indeed SEC would react to a regulated firm that embraced Kotter's thinking.

I am feeling re-interested in Kotter's ideas and will look at how this new structure can be created and sustained in the type of firms I work with/in. I will also look at my own behaviours in relation to leading change, I am sure I can embrace the new ways.

Scary Symmetry

Original Picture (straightened)

My daughter has plans to act and in support of that we have agreed for her to go on the books of an agency - one linked with her school.

In order that she can be put up for jobs she needed a head and shoulder shot so on Saturday we took her to the photographer. The picture on the left is the one that has been chosen as her "image" in the online catalogue. I love the eyes, but would have liked at least a little smile, but one has to trust the judgement of professionals.

I was curious about the picture, having seen how people often have two different sides to them, so have just played a little and thought I would share it here.

I took the photograph as delivered and straightened it using Picassa. I then used a couple of pieces of software I have to split it down the middle and create two images.

Picture split down the middle of her face.

I then took each side copied it and inverted the copy to create two new images, one of her left side and its mirror and another of the right side and its mirror.

Left side and mirror image joined as one

Right side and mirror image joined as one

I was then struck that she looked pretty much the same in each other that the obvious hair element.

I then took each picture gave it a 50% transparency and overlaid one with the other (see below)

Left and Right overlaid with 50% transparency.

It is spooky how well the two matched, even the eyebrows! She must have an almost symmetrical face! I wonder how common that is?

I guess now we will see if that look is in demand?

Precision, Pace, Performance and .............. Passion. A quick corporate health check?

A few years ago an incoming CEO asked staff for comments/suggestions on how to improve the company. I took the opportunity to raise the 3 P's, ie precision, pace and performance. In retrospect I think I should make it 4 P's and add PASSION.

Of the original three, precision could be read as "focus". At the time the company was trying to do way too much, change and BAU, and failing to do much of it properly. Ironically this increased the pressure to start more. Because only a fraction was expected to succeed one needed to start more, right?

I had previously worked in a place where we would say "not yet" and focus on a smaller agenda. The quid pro quo of saying "not yet" was a fanatical focus on delivery, on meeting our committed dates/targets. Once achieved we moved quickly on to the next piece of work.

I would suggest that in the latter situation we delivered as much if not more to a stakeholder community that had confidence and trust in our ability. To me this was preferable, but has to be earned through delivery.

Pace, could also be read as "appropriate empowerment" ie an ability to execute what is needed when it is needed or best addressed. The opposite is a fear culture where no one moves until everything has been "signed off" by everyone else. This is to protect oneself from criticism (sometimes known as CYA) and just drags out timelines. I saw a quote on a board the other day that said "Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible." This is a manifestation of lack of pace.

A loss of pace starts affecting everything the organisation does and can be crippling in the current climate.

The last, performance, was actually more about poor or a lack of performance. This needs identifying and dealing with quickly. At a leadership conference, Colin Powell, ex US Secretary of State, said that a persons peers spot poor performance ahead of any one else, and when they do they look for to seevwhat the leader does about it - this then sets the tone for everyone. If poor performance is tolerated it will spread!

So now to the last "P" that knave added, passion. There has been a thread on a Linkedin discussion about whether an interim resource needs passion to succeed. Not surprisingly the consensus is "Yes", and not just interims. I missed this when I wrote to the CEO because my passion was high and overall it was at worst mixed in the organisation. That said and looking back,the lack/loss of passion spread like a contagion and is definitely worthy of inclusion.

I offer you the 4"P's" as a quick personal health check list when looking at or walking into a work situation.

Precision
Pace
Performance
Passion

Do let me know if this resonates or even better if you used it and it was useful?

An Interesting Day At The Rugby World Cup

Today the Northern Hemisphere stepped up.......well most of it did!

By way of background this RWC has delivered a North vs South finale. Part by design, part by luck the knockout stages have pitched four Northern Hemisphere teams (England, Wales, Ireland and France) on one side of the draw, and four Southern Hemisphere teams (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina) on the other.

Today the northerners played. Wales and Ireland put on a great contest in which Wales outplayed Ireland and sent them home early. This was something of a surprise, but well played Wales and they seem to be peaking at the right time.

In the other match England were outplayed by France. A French team that has been largely indifferent to appalling in this competition so far, but today the showed passion and flair and left England in their wake. Sad, but true. England have definitely under-delivered this time.

On the plus side I will not be tempted to try and make a last minute dash to New Zealand to see England in a third consecutive final - it would have been hard if they had made it. I managed Paris last time, but New Zealand!!!!

Another plus is that we have credible Northern contenders now and the South will not walk it as some had suggested.

The final plus is that maybe this is the wake up to sort England. Where is our passion? Where is our flair? Let's hope we find it soon.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? Could Argentina get through?

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Quality persists!

I have today enjoyed 27 holes of golf among old friends. My golf was my usual mix of poor, indifferent and adequate, but the rain stayed off and I enjoyed another Flemings golf day.
This was the latest of our twice yearly meets. It comprises past members of Flemings, the British banking and asset management group that was sold to Chase in 2000. What makes it special is the mix of the day. It is an easy combination of some very wealthy individuals and some less wealthy, many now retired, but others still working. Every facet is represented from holding board directors to members of the building management team, front and back offices, finance and HR.
It is a tangible reminder of the environment and team that was Flemings and that quality persists. It is not often found and takes a lot of effort and a long time to create. I feel privilege to have been part of Flemings and to still enjoy the company of these old colleagues and friends. As I said, quality persists!

Well worth watching if you are interested in education in the UK

As a parent of a teenager, questions about how they are educated often dominate life. At the same time one is often exposed to television of questionable quality. It is therefore very interesting to come across an informative gem on Channel 4.

This discovery was the result of a brief conversation with my daughter's deputy Head Master who told us he had been watching "Educating Essex", a new documentary about an Essex Secondary School focusing on Year 11. His interest hinged on the reported parallels between the main character and himself; both are well-liked, history teaching, full characters.

I was curious to check the parallels, but also fearful that this would be another low-quality, docu-drama like "The Only Way Is Essex". I am very glad to say that "Educating Essex" is, in my opinion, good TV.

In the two episodes I have seen, the Deputy Head Master, Mr Drew, comes across very well as he enforces uniform rules, deals with bullying (cyber and personal), while engaging with the pupils and, in large part, gaining their respect. I know that aspects of the show have drawn criticism from parts of the media and educational purists, but it feels to me as a viewer that the staff have found an appropriate balance for the population they are serving. Education is a very different game from when I and other parents were in uniform and while we can try and hold onto how we were taught, it is clear that children these days are rather different, being better informed, less fearful of authority, hooked on mobile phones and more materialistic.

As a result the way we parent is different and so does teaching need to be. The senior staff show they are strong when they need to be, dealing with issues with skill and sensitivity, yet can also relax when that is more suitable. Knowing this is TV and subject to editing in hindsight, I certainly watched with admiration as the issue of bullying was dealt with.

I do like the Head Master's mantra about every child leaving with the necessary qualifications for their next step. It sets a tone upon which everything else is built.

The programmes are currently available on 4OD ( www.4OD.com ). If you are a parent of a teenager, as I am, I commend investing a few hours to watch this show.

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