Sun, beer and not here!

With my annual holiday fast approaching I find I am looking forward to it more each day. I joke about "sun, beer and not here", but there is certainly a large element of truth in it. A change is certainly good for you as is a dose of what you enjoy; I count sun and beer in that mix.

I guess it is becoming more poignant as my daughter grows up that this will probably be one of our last family holidays. It is always a challenge to find a way to keep everyone happy and we have had our share of success and failure, but, as we go along, I find I truly treasure magic moments with my family, especially my daughter.

I was reminded of this last Friday when I took her, just her and me, for an evening of golf. It is school holidays and she had been promised some golf, but so far that had not happened. She looked a picture dressed up in her golf gear, borrowed some of her Mum's shoes as she has grown out of her own, and off we set.

We played 18 holes into the early evening on a largely deserted public golf course. I am not sure I have the words to describe how good it was to watch her smile when she hit a "sick" (sic) shot (that means a good one I am told) and how she accepted and bounced back from some less good shots.

She was so chuffed when she lost a ball, having hit it so far that when it ran into the rough she lost sight of it and could not find the ball. Similarly when on a tee shot she managed to fly two ditches and land running on the fairway she was beaming. Overall she has a nice little swing and with practice will have a fair game.

We spent four hours together and I don't think there was anything, but smile and fun between us. I let her play her game, encouraging where I could, taking the jibes she gave back, but everything was in the best humour.

It reminded me of an entry I submitted to The Times a couple of years ago when they wanted 300 word stories about love. My contribution is found below. I never did find out if they published it, but  that was not the point; the point was that I wrote it.

We won't play golf while we are away as we find the aggravation of trying to arrange it all, then detracts from the enjoyment. We will undoubtedly play minigolf and do plenty of other things as a family. If I can recognise and enjoy a few more times like that golf game then the holiday will be so much richer. They will give me something to reflect on and smile about as I enjoy a beer, which I will surely do at some point.

Supernova Good
============
(written a few years ago)

"Come on, admit it. I am better than you!"

This had been her cry from the very start, but it was not a competition – well not for me. Instead this turned out to be one of those happenings, more than a moment, but less than forever; something that feeds the soul and nurtures love, more than making up for other troubled times.

Nothing can prepare you to be a parent. Love just appears and is irrevocable, no matter what happens. The challenges you face are unique in the same way that you and your child are unique. As they grow it does not become better, just different.

When they are young you live for those good morning smiles as they open their eyes and the spontaneous hugs that reach inside and grip your heart.

As they grow older and more self conscious you need to find other moments. Teenage years can be barren, but a time when you see a new, fuller person emerge. It can be much harder to love your child as they test themselves and you, but still you do and when it is good it can be supernova good.

To others this was simply a father and child playing 9-hole golf. To me it was a magnificent afternoon. We talked, we laughed, we helped each other, we kissed at the end and we reflected over a drink. Yes there was a frisson of competition, at least in her mind, but that just added to it.

I was so proud that she was my daughter and privileged to have spent such time with her. I doubt it meant the same to her and she will forget it quickly, but I never will. It will remain one of those treasures I draw upon to balance the challenges ahead.

What do you want from life (and soccer) ?

In the late 1970's I saw a West Coast satirical band called The Tubes when the played the New Theatre, Oxford. Their best known track/single was probably "White Punks On Dope", but there is another that has been running around my head for the last day or so, called "What Do You Want From Life" - and yes, I do have a very eclectic music collection to which an iPod Touch has given new life.

But I digress. The reason it is going around my head is that recently I was asked by friend what I wanted from my work. I came back with my usual and honest response about a challenge, being trusted and respected, about having enough freedom to do what I do well, etc.. These are all true, but did not satisfy my enquirer as evidenced by him asking me the same question a couple of times more.

In truth this is not the first time I have been asked the questions, or answered in that way, or, in all probability, left the person who answered the question unsatisfied.

As I said my answers were all sincere and true, but kept niggling at me until, as I walked home along the river last night, I had an epiphany - or at least I think that is what it is. The things I have vocalised are what I need from a job in order to perform at my best, but needs are not wants! What I want is accountability and responsibility for a piece of a business; people, processes and relationships. I want to be able to make and learn from mistakes. I want to be recognised and rewarded for the outcomes I deliver and not have my every word and nuance microscopically dissected. I am good at what I do, I know that. That I don't always do it the way someone else would does not make it wrong.

This is something I had in my earlier career when I built, fixed and indeed dismantled business units. These were exciting and rewarding for me on many levels, but I had forgotten quite how much and how I miss them.

I also recognise that in the last 10 years I have moved much more to roles of influence or solo production. In addition these have nearly always been subject to considerable consensus oversight and minimal personal authority. 25 years ago I owned and managed a $2m budget, now I can sign of on £50k! A lot of this is to do with the changes in the way business is done in the financial sector, but there are other infrastructural reasons. For example, increased regulation has manifested in so many checks and balances that have impinged on individual authority in so many ways. The professed need to document and evidence every decision has created its own industry, but debating the real value of this is better addressed elsewhere and not the intent of this post.

Instead it made me realise that what want is not a safe, cover your ar*e, compulsively consensual role, but instead to live closer to "the edge". To be able to take calculated risks (not to be reckless as that is something else), to be able to act with courage, passion and pace excites me.

This brings me to the soccer connection. The No Fear brand was, I believe, closely associated with soccer in the US. Some years ago I liked the brand and two things stuck my mind, but have only just resurfaced.

The first was the slogan on my first No Fear T-shirt which was "The edge is a dangerous place to live". While this is true, it is also exciting and makes life worth living.

The second was the No Fear slogan which is "Face your fears, live your dreams". Not a bad motto for life!!

So where is this going? Well, it was a welcome and timely reminder to me about remembering the difference between wants and needs. If you equate this to Maslow's hierarchy, needs are the lower level items, essential to survival, but not ultimately fulfilling. The wants are the higher level items and the source of fulfillment.

Losing sight of what one wants is not a good thing, but it maybe a situation I now find myself in after the (necessary) survival efforts of the last few years. So it is time to lift my head and recognise my wants AND then endeavour to fill a few of them without sacrificing my needs..

I know I am a man!

......It's not the arriving....it's the journey that counts

Last week I headed up to North Wales from London for an annual sojourn playing golf with some mates. The main events were Thursday and Friday tho' some decided to squeeze in a round on Wednesday too. For my part I decided to take a leisurely drive up on the Wednesday with no pressure and with time to relax and enjoy the drive.

As a back drop I should say that for the vast majority of my commuting life, which is almost 30 years, I have not had to rely on a car, but instead used trains, the tube and walked. As a result when I do get a chance to drive I view it as a pleasure. This has pretty much always been the case with me. I am not a petrol head or a speed freak (my first car was a Ford Escort 1100, which was already 7 years old when I bought it), but I have always enjoyed driving.

I am not quite sure what it is that appeals. In part I think it is that I get out and see so much more of this country than I do in my normal life. I do find myself looking around as I drive, spotting buildings and scenery. Another part is that it offers me a time to listen, more particularly to listen to music in the old days and radio more recently; often for a few hours. These were and indeed activities that my normal daily life rarely permits (or is it that I don't make the time?).

Normally at home we listen to LBC which is a London Talk radio and interesting in its own way, but this trip (as with others) I listened to BBC Radio 4 and Radio 2. It is easy to admire the craft of good radio productions; they can do things that no other medium can, mixing content and changing style effortlessly. Additionally for me there is the surprise element as I have no idea what I will end up listening to. In this case the bits that stick in my memory were an interview with Tony Benn about a book he has written of advice to his grandchildren and a Tommy Cooper joke I had not heard before.

For the former I am not sure if/how/when I would otherwise listen to Tony Benn. I may not agree with his politics, but he is an interesting man. For the latter I will let it speak for itself though please do try to read it Tommy Cooper style for the full effect.

      "My wife wanted to know if I was a man or a mouse.

       I know I am a man ............... because my wife is afraid of mice!"

As I crossed the border into Wales I had a Blue Peter moment. Readers of a certain age will recall the phase when they were forever making farmyard and country landscape models from papier mache, sawdust, foam and paint. As a child they never looked any good to me, but as an adult looking on the same hillside and farming scenes they were pretty much spot on, well as good as my memory can tell. It is funny how we see things differently as we grow old (or is that up?).

There was a touch of the bizarre as I passed a herd of grazing bison, but I am sure there is a good reason for that !

I also managed to stop for lunch at a pub overlooking a canal running across an aqueduct. So as well as a pint and something eat I was able to exercise my eyes and my legs. I would always rather stop somewhere like that than a service station or a chain restaurant. Unfortunately the evidence of this trip suggests that it is getting harder to find a good pub on a main road, but I will presist.

As I crossed Snowdonia, from Bala to Harlech, I then had a Top Gear moment. The roads seem much better than I recall and now you can often see a good stretch of deserted road, winding across and around the contours of some beautiful contryside. These are moments when, if flying were possible, you could fly in a car. The next best thing is to put your foot down a bit and just enjoy the exhiliration of driving.

Nearing Harlech the roads narrowed and became more demanding of my attention until upon arrival at my destination I was brought back to reality the modern challenge of finding reasonable parking.

In no way detracting from the enjoyment of subsuquent days this journey was certainly one I enjoyed; arriving was just the end of that episode.

Size makes a difference and does matter!

I was recently reminded that size does matter. It was a lesson I had learnt some years ago, but was reinforced during work with a communications consultant. It is also an area where I fear techology is little help.

Size in this case is paper size and it matters because it can hugely change the way a production is received. I became aware of the power of A5 a few years ago and have used it a number of times since. The use of A5 can and will give an aura of professionalism to almost any document, but especially for manuals or large volumes of information. I have used it when creating and launching project and change methodologies. We have drafted the various pages in A4, ie normal size, and as such they look like and are received by a reader as any other ordinary office document. If, however, you print them as A5 and even better if you bind them or put them in an A5 binder suddenly, as if by magic, they take on a more authoritative air.

I am not sure why it happens, but it does. Try it and see. Find a procedures manual or an instruction manual and print a copy in A4 and one in A5. Now test and see how they are received.

The recent reminder was actually the converse of this and relates to the power of A1 (ie 8 x A4). In this case we want to represent a major change programme as a "big picture" on a single page. Instruction from senior management was that the audience should not see it as a "selling" tool or another Powerpoint slide. We used an experienced consultant to help with this and his first draft was sent through as a PDF file. The immediate reaction from almost everyone was disappointment and the observation that it looked just like a Powerpoint slide.

For the formal review session the consultant brought in hardcopy ie an A1 version. While not quite a "wow" moment, everyone acknowledged that it looked so much better as A1 even though we all knew it was the same we had seen on our PC screens as a PDF file.

As we discussed this the consultant said that his firm had done some research about this and it was at A1 size the audience started looking at the product as something different, as a poster and not just a large slide. Interesting, eh?

I do think this is an area where technology is disadvantaged. A big computer display is largely just that ie a bigger version of a small computer display with little or no other perceived difference or value. I think this limits the power of display screens as delivery mechanisms and leaves power in hardcopy.

I truly do not know why this should be, but empirically and reportedly it is the case so when you are looking to convey a message don't forget the power of hardcopy and more importantly remember that size makes a difference and does matter.

The way of a "corridor warrior" or...

Life between the desks!

So what is a "corridor warrior"? Well it is a term I coined when I became deskless in an environment that is not really ready for hot-desking. As a result I effectively "desk squat" where I can, when I can, and plan my day to try and make the best use of my own time across the two main buildings we have in London.

This situation came about recently when I took on a new role. I needed to to free my old desk for the contractor covering my previous role, but there were no desks free where I was going. I could have waited until a desk came free, but instead I decided I needed to exit my old role and start working with my new teams so I just accepted the situation and adapted. Overall it is working OK for me and shows you can teach an old dog new tricks. There has certainly been a liberating element and I have looked at my habits and the functioning of my organisation with fresh eyes. It has also created more changes for me than I expected.

So what is a typical day? Well there is no typical day, well not right now. Some days are full of meetings end-to-end so not much need for a desk anyway. Some days, though few, I can work totally from home. Most days though find me working some of the time from home and the rest in either or both of the main buildings. This works for me as I have what I consider a reasonable commute, around 45-50 minutes door to door.

Work from home can be either at the beginning or end of the day when I have no meetings that need me in the office; instead I can work from my home office on emails, phone calls, drafting or reviewing documents. Strangely my wife was relatively accepting of me leaving the house at 7:30am and rarely being home before 7pm, but is less understanding when I got to my office at 7:30am (then leaving later in the morning) or (having returned early) being in my office up to 7pm.

As I travel by train this makes a number of my journeys fall outside peak travel times and thus a more pleasant experience - that is a good thing.

My adaptation has included having my old desk extension redirected to my Blackberry and I am learning the realities using laptop technology when mobile or of "no fixed abode". The Blackberry has become my mainstay of communication though being a man with big hands and fat(?) fingers I find that if I cut my nails operating my Blackberry is so much harder with all the mis-typing. I have kept a personal phone alongside my Blackberry. While this means I carry two devices during the working day it does allow me to switch off the Blackberry in the evenings and weekends - it is not a Crackberry.

There are some concerns that the diary function on the Blackberry seems to miss some of the updates to the server version of Outlook accessed by my laptop, but I have not yet discerned a pattern. As a result I treat my Blackberry calendar with at least 5% suspicion.

I am using a laptop that has mobility enabled ie access to a reasonable, but limited function set via a 3G or Wifi connection and a security token. In truth I find this painful, the time to fire up a PC is long enough without the added security aspects and the often reduced connectivity. I find I tend to use it most when I can connect it via cable to my home or office LAN. The rest of the time I use the webmail access to Outlook - works fine - and OpenOffice software on my home PC (Windows 7, etc, ect). When in the office I much prefer to find a desk with a desktop I can use albeit temporarily.

I do find that I use the intranet much less - maybe a note for the Communications Departments who see an intranet as the answer to everything. Accessing the intranet via the Blackberry is no use and when I am conencted I am much more focussed on what I do and rarely browse the intranet to pull down information. It is OK to expect that when people have "always on" (well within working hours) PCs they will take time to browse even when on a break, but that does not seem to be my life. When I am not working on something specific I am not connected. Maybe I should schedule specific time to browse the intranet?

A big plus is that I am meeting loads of new people. As I find various desks I find I am speaking with many more people, not just old friends - but then I guess I am an extrovert so you might expect that.

Lastly I find my attitude to paper is changing. I have been someone who found it hard to review a document on screen. Instead I would print most everything I had to read and comment on. Now I have no desk and have to carry everything with me, my interest in carrying paper is dwindling. I do not feel I have the answer yet, but I really hope that the Ipad or something similar will soon offer a real solution as well as replacing the laptop. Instant on, 10 hours battery life, like and easy to carry and read as portrait as well as lightening fast. Well, we can but hope.

All in all, this is working for me, but I think that is down to a collection of factors, not least being my outgoing nature, the location of my home base and my experience of personal change over a number of years. It will be interesting to see how others adjust and adapt and indeed how the organisation will support that. I think the biggest challenges are cultural and technical, areas of change where few company's track record is outstanding.

Maybe more in a few weeks.......

I'd like to meet my Headmaster again....

....but alas that won't happen as he died a few years back. This is the man who described me as an intellectual philistine when I was 17 and took it as a personal challenge to open my eyes to poetry, philosophy and the arts in general. I remember well the extra tutorials and homework for the summer holidays.

I can't say that he was my hero; he wasn't. I think we tolerated each other, with a bit of respect and thus co-existed without too much aggravation in the envionment that was first a grammar school and then a sixth form college.

I have forgotten much of what he said to me, but a couple of things have stayed with me and resonated through the years.

The first was his statement that "if you can't write it down you don't understand it!" I have often quoted that to other members of the change community and indeed to stakeholders and it has held true every time. The mere exercise of writing it down forces the deliverer to slow down, organise their thoughts and then leaves them open to critical review the way that a verbal presentation can often avoid or obscure. It also tends to highlight contradictions and critical gaps in the material presented.

The second thing I remember he said to me was after a few months of coaching (or was that forcing me) to write poetry, essays and creating precis of highbrow newspaper articles. He told me that I had no style (in terms of writing), but that when he read my work he heard my voice in his head, something he did acknowledge as having value.

The relevance of this wander down memory lane is that I have heard reference to finding one's voice as a blogger and wonder if this the same sort of thing.? Certainly as I write this Blog more it is becoming easier. That may be because I writing about things that stimulate me, but there will also be an element of practice.I also keep the pressure off, by writing when I feel like it and only then. I have not set myself a routine for posting with targets I can then beat myself up over. Instead this still has an element of fun about it and I suspect that as it was with my rugby career, when it stops being fun I will retire my pen/boots.

The other thing that would make him smile (or maybe grimace) is to see how often I have found myself helping colleagues craft documents. I am the man who works with numbers and pictures and patterns and has always struggled to write a letters, but at work, while not the best by far, I seem to be amongst the leading craftsmen with words.

So if he were alive I wonder what he would say about this blog? Wonder how he would categorise me now? Would he see any improvement after all these years? I am not out to show him he was wrong, just interested in a recalibration and maybe a little acknowledgement that a few things he said to me made an impression and have travelled with me ove 30 years or so.

Identifying good judgement should be invaluable.

Towards the end of last year I was attracted by an update on Linkedin that asked the reader how useful it would be if one could assess the judgement of project managers? This intrigued me as good project managers are always making decisions and the better the decisions they make the better the outcome, or so one would hope.

While one can review and assess elements of experience amd skills, I was not aware of anything that purported to assess judgement. This caught my attention and brought me into contact with "The Judgement Index".

The Judgement Index, or JI, is new to the UK and built upon the Hartman Value Profile which looks at assessing how a candidate views and values the world, themselves and their place in it and how this can affect their reactions and decisions. Although wrapped in a mathematical wrapper fundamentally this comes from the world of philisophy rather than psychometrics. Hartman worked on this since the 1940's and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize before he died in the 1970's. His work has been continued by one of his students.
The JI is being developed with the American team and promoted by a company based on the south coast; I soon had a meeting arranged.

The meeting was fascinating in showing how JI is being used to assess the likely success of officer cadets at Sandhurst, to profile alpha project managers, to identify construction site workers who present the greatest accident risk, to profile "best of breed" performers in order to isolate the critical factors and create development plans and hiring filters to build successful teams, to find leaders in a number of fields from sport to business, and much more.

One thing that sets it apart from many other tests is that it is situational and not fixed. Situational means that an assessment reflects the multitude of stimulii we all face, eg someone who has a sick partner will almost certainly view the world differently from someone who has just become a parent, some who is comfortable in the work role and with their employer will have a different take on life from someone facing the threat of redundancy. I have seen the JI identify these things and allow them to be understood and where appropriate addressed.

Very quickly they offered to let me take the test, a "Try for yourself" approach. The input seemed unduly simple, just putting two lists of 18 statements into an order that made sense to me. Compared with the pages and pages of endless and often seemingly repetitive questions required for Meyers Briggs (MBTI) or similar tests this was dead easy and quick to complete.

What stunned me was the breadth of  insight and accuracy that came out of it when presented to me. As an analytic and a rational I wanted to understand how it worked, how the input drove the output. While I was offered a number of papers and opportunities to discuss mathematics behind it all, I have now come to the conclusion that I do not need to know after all. I say this as I have now seen upwards of a dozen people take the test and get feedback and everyone has been surprised by the accuracy of their assessment and no one, in my hearing, has rejected any aspect. This is building my confidence that it works, no matter how it does it.

I am not qualified to nor intending to try and explain this further, but instead I commend it to the reader to consider if and how an insight into the judgement of yourself, your team and potential recruits could be used.

• How could it help addressing performance issues identifying problems and creating remedial plans?
• How useful to isolate and screen for the critical factors found in top performers in a role?
• How useful to have insight into judgement and values as an aid to intervieiwng and hiring key players?

If you are interested then please do have a look at the website or alternatively you can contact Rob Coulthard via rob@judgementindex.co.uk

I will say I have no vested or financial interest, just a feeling that there is something of value to be found in the JI and I am fascinated to see how it can be used successfully. I am also happy to discuss my thoughts and experience to date if that will be of any help.