I was at Stirling Management Centre the other week to facilitate a two day Team Development Workshop with an executive team. As I arrived at about 07:45 am, the sun was rising, and I caught sight of this fisherman on the lochan at the university. So, i stopped to take a photo. It was a beautiful peaceful sunrise, and the fish were rising…

I shared this photo at the start of the event, and had a real sense that this two days would be an opportunity to ‘be still’. To get away from the hustle and bustle of a busy and complex setting to reflect. To listen. To learn a little more about my colleagues and their goals and wishes. To improve the quality of our dialogue. To enhance team performance.

Charles Mingus

I was in a dialogue today with the team considering the flow of a two day team development event we are facilitating.

One thing that emerged was the tension between structure and freedom.  After the dialogue, I was listening to Radio 3 Composer of the week, Charles Mingus.  I was affected by the music as I was working so I took some time to look at Mingus’ work.

I often use the metaphor of Jazz for our work.  The ability to be in the moment, spontaneously creative.  To be able to ‘jam’ with the interaction between participants, where we build on each others contribution to co-create something new, fresh, innovative and invigorating.  To hold the balance of structure with freedom.  To make space for others contributions to flourish, and at the same time to be able to make my own unique contribution.

Came across these sleeve notes written by Mingus which really struck me.  He was opening up this dilemma: structure vs. spontaneity.  He spoke of how great composers (from classical and jazz) create something new , then improvise round that creation.  That structure is not antithetical to creativity, but rather can be a container and enabler for it.  That some musicians create colour and texture in variations on a theme that requires a very high degree of both creativity and craftsmanship.

In our dialogue we explored the dangers inherent with an extreme emphasis on one way.  Either avoiding structure out of fear of being controlled, or on the other hand, seeking too tight a structure out of fear of being exposed.

Of course, this is further complicated by how the client group may respond.  And this is dependent on many factors.  Their level of trust in us as facilitators.  How comfortable they are with ambiguity, and the maturity of the group to name a few.

So, how does one go about preparing for an event like this?  I guess it’s a bit like the story of the minister who was asked how long it took him to prepare his recent sermon from a young wannabe preacher.  “Forty years,” he replied.  His work was woven from his life journey.

So preparing for the work is preparing ourselves.  Doing the basics well (being able to play the scales and understand the instrument with expertise), creating the right amount of structure and being able to bring other melodies or rhythms to bear in the mix if they are required.

And when all is said and done, we are brought in as external facilitators to deliver an outcome, or series of outcomes: so the design, the process, the approach are all orientated towards helping the client  towards this goal.

Got into the car today to drive to work and Radio 4 was on.  I was about to turn it off, when I was captivated by the story…  The reason I was about to turn it off was because of the impact listening to the this programme in the morning was having on me.  There was so much negativity, so much cynical point-scoring, so little respect from the interviewers, who have become mini-celebrities in their own right!  

I was arriving at work in an aggressive frame of mind!!  So, no R4 news in the morning for me, until this morning…

There was a story about schools appointing writers in residence (why not take 4 mins 40 secs to listen to it here link).  After a cynical introduction, John Humpries asked William Fiennes, head of the charity First Story, to talk about it.  He spoke about working with young people, and how they thought that to write, they had to write books like Harry Potter or the Da Vinci Code.

He said that he started with the young people by being really practical, helping them to discover that they had something interesting to say, getting them to find value in their own stories, that their own stories were valuable in their own right, and worth writing about.

Then a young woman, Esther Nicholls, a sixth form student at Cranford Community College, spoke - and John Humpries invited her to read a part of her story ‘…no time to read it all’ (kind of laugh) ‘but can you read some?’  I wonder what would have happened if she had read it all?

Anyway she began telling her story, about her childhood with her grandfather in Germany, the birth of her baby brother, winters with relatives in Germany.  it was wonderful.  

I remember… she began a series of paragraphs … remembering her baby brother wrapped up in the cold, with tears streaming from his bright eyes ‘across blazing cheeks’ which captured the joy of the moment, and brought the bright crisp winter morning right into my car!

She went onto explain how this had helped her - that she realised that her own story had value, and it was worth writing about.  ’This has taught us to find our own voice.’

How many of us hold back because we are afraid that what we have to say is not significant?  That we need to find something to say that ‘fits’ or has worth, or even is ‘profound’.

What this young woman teaches us is that we all have a voice, something unique to say or contribute.  So, what’s your unique contribution today?

came across this quote today when doing some research for a team development event the LifeTree team are faciltiating in October.

You don’t lead people by hitting them over the head; that’s assault, that’s not leadership. 

- Dwight Eisenhower

Yet, how often management and leadership can feel like brutality at the receiving end.  We can justify this as leaders: ‘…we have to get the job done after all.  We have to make things happen.  You can’t make an omlette without breaking some eggs..’ and so on.

Bullying leadership becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  The ‘followers’ feel disempowered, less inclined to take initiative for they will probably be punished.  They will tend to wait for orders.  This reinforces in the mind of the ‘leader’ that they are no good, ‘numpties’ (good Scottish phrase!), need constant supervision.  So the leader continues his or her aggressive behaviour.

Of course, leadership requires tough decisions at times.  And effective leadership is courageous - but this does not mean that one can’t also show compassion and care. 

I love Peter Koestenbaum’s model of leadership (email me if you want more information on this) where he has as a polarity for Courage and Ethics.  As he defines them, ‘a courageous leader always claims the power to initiate, act, and risk, for courage means to act with sustained initiative.’  And AT THE SAME TIME, he argues that the effective leader is ethical.  ’An ethical leader is always sensitive to people, for ethics means to be of service’

(Image from on of the Photos I took last summer at a visit to Rodin’s Monument to the Burghers of Calais in the Musee Rodin in Paris.)

no time to tweak it - have to get on my bike and get to the office!

atahualpa

Wordpress is a very cool blogging platform.  it’s fairly simple to start with (lots of premade themes etc), but has some real complexity and power under the bonnet (or hood for my US friends).  It’s really a CMS (content managment system) which can run with static pages as well as a traditional blog.

Book: WordPress for Dummies

I invested in Lisa’s great book ‘Wordpress for Dummies‘ as there is SO much information on line, it’s sometimes hard to find what you are looking for.  Highly recommended if you are a newbie at PHP and stuff like that.

Hope you like the look of it!  If you do, please visit the Bytes for All Site on this link.

Facebook Graffiti by Jude

Got this facebook graffiti recently from my friend Jude & loved it so much I thought I’d post it here.  Yep, i’ve made the leap to all things apple…  

Rick, my friend and web designer, has been working on me for seven years - took a while but his influence finally paid off!

Like many ’switchers’, I wonder why it took me so long… the stuff is so elegant as well as much, much, much faster to use.

I was in a coaching session the other day and part of the conversation involved planning for a team development event. We were exploring how we might engage the team in sharing something of themselves during the event, and one idea was to ask each team member to talk about their favourite book.

We ended up sharing what our favourite books are. He mentioned his favourite book was Jupiter’s Travels by Ted Simon. How a man gave up a safe career in the 70’s, got Triumph Motorcycles to sponsor him (they were a global force in MC at the time!), and went round the world. The book is all about the places he went, but more importantly the people he met. Many he met said things like ‘I’d love to be able to do that, but I have family/work/domestic/financial commitments…’

This immediately made me think of a quote that a friend of mine, Kay, has on the bottom of her emails:

There are dreams of love, life and adventure in all us. But we are also sadly filled with reasons why we shouldn’t try. These reasons seem to protect us, but in truth they imprison us. They hold life at a distance. Life will be over sooner than we think. If we have mountains to climb and people to love, now is the time.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross [adapted]

So, what’s holding you back?

Not blogging much while i’m on holiday but took this photo while watching the fireworks on 4th July from Brooklyn Heights with the famous Manhattan skyline in the background.

Stuart Cosgrove and Tam Cowan presented their “the most petty and ill-informed sports programme on radio” – Off the Ball – in a classroom made into a studio at Baldragon Academy this (Saturday 28th June).  This was a part of the BBC Radio Scotland ‘Sound Town’ scheme where they adopt a school for a year.

My wife teaches at Baldragon and it’s been a tremendous success.  The kids have really enjoyed it and engaged in all aspects of the programme making/presenting; learning and building confidence.  The Radio Scotland Staff and partners have all been brilliant working well with the kids.

Today, Stuart and Tam had special guest Lorraine Kelly with a ‘studio’ audience made up of staff, pupils and friends in Dundee.

It was a blast!  They were typically iconoclastic and very little (apart from Motherwell FC!) escaped their acerbic wit.

There were a couple of local Dundee poets there who performed one of their own poems in the Dundee dialect – to hoots and cheers from the very enthusiastic audience!

At one point in the programme, Lorraine (newly given an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Dundee University – ‘for service to lip gloss’ as she put it) spoke about her love of Dundee.  How the city is going through a renaissance, that there’s loads going on in the City.  Stuart added his twopence worth, commenting on the success of the DCA.

Great to see Dundee spoken about positively!!

I spoke to Lorraine briefly afterwards & told her about Go Dundee & she’s agreed to be a part of a future event – so watch this space!

If you are quick you can listen to the programme again by clicking here.