A lot seems to have happened in 2019. To other people, not me. I’ve mostly been spending my days cooped up inside, feeling ill and not able to work or be sociable.
Given the situation I’ve found myself in, it’s not surprising that I’ve been thinking a lot about the future and how I can make things work for me, and for me to work.
Part of that is to find things that rely less on being somewhere for days at a time, and focusing instead on areas in which I can add some value in shorter bursts. One of these is designing and running one-day training/discovery workshops – something I enjoy immensely.
Since I wrote about creating my own Manual of Me, it’s been something lots of other people have asked about. And while there’s been an online ‘tool’ from the Leapers community that can be used by anyone, it would appear there is a need for a more practical way of learning about your authentic self and how to present that within a working environment.
So I made one. It’s happening in London on 28 March 2019.
While this iteration of the MoM workshop is aimed at individuals, there is also a ‘team’ version that can be run for internal departments and teams. It differs in that it’s designed to, well, work for teams.
So, that’s my plan for Q1. Run a couple of workshops. Test, learn, iterate. Run some more. Maybe I’ll see you on one? I hope so.
Related, in some ways, is the work of Pilvi Takala. If you’ve not seen her The Trainee installation, it’s a hugely rewarding work.
If you’ve read this far, then you deserve a little thank you. Use the code ‘Leapers’ to get a HUGE discount on a ticket for the London workshop.
The 10th October 2018 is World Mental Health Day. This year it has a focus on young people.
It’s a day well worth celebrating, as finally society begins to accept that there is no such thing as normal when it comes to us humans. However, mental health a broad spectrum term and can mean a variety of things to different people.
As someone who has suffered with depression and anxiety in the past (and still finds himself stressed and anxious now, in certain situations), I know how debilitating these conditions can be. Especially when you’re up against a deadline, or someone throws a curveball at you.
The last time I felt really anxious, stressed and depressed was when I worked at an advertising agency. They are tough places to work – long hours, the constant need to perform at your best, pitching for new business, a competitive environment, etc. It’s no surprise that lots of people experience burnout.
That alone is a cliché in itself.
I believe that everyone gets anxious and stressed and tries to hide it, or people think it manifests in specific ways, piling more clichés on. But this is real for a lot of people. They don’t conform to stereotypes or fit into neat little demographic buckets.
All this made me wonder if there was anything practical I could do to help.
On the 10th of October Simon sent to me… Not too long ago, as documented here, I discovered that jigsaw puzzles were a great way to help solve complex problems. They’re also a shared activity, one that reduces stress and anxiety. It’s playful, focused work. I’ve been using it for some time – mostly as I’ve found taking a walk more difficult than most!
Puzzled (pun intended) by why this was, I dug a little deeper and discovered the science behind why puzzles of all sorts are good for working through problems, as well as reducing stress and anxiety.
And that led me to create a set of jigsaw puzzles made from iconic print adverts. I’ve just sent out 12 to various luminaries in the advertising and creative worlds in the hope that it will open up conversations with their staff about stress and how to deal with it. Ultimately, I hope the puzzles get made as part of the working day – I’ve provided each recipient with five ideas on how they can do that.
With the jigsaw being such a cliché in the ideas business, there’s an irony in that these puzzles might help bring about some super smart ideas and insights, as well as make people feel better.
They’re also sent free. No strings. No selling of services. They’re a gift. Everyone likes a free gift, right?
So that’s my contribution to making the world a little better this year – it wasn’t perfect, but nobody is. You can see the images I used below – a HUGE thanks to The Advertising Archives for helping me access these images in high resolution.
Thanks also to Dave Birss for his help in making the idea of a cliché the focus of the message. And to all the people on Twitter who said I should go ahead and do this.
If you’ve got anything to add to this conversation – or if you received a puzzle (and maybe even got around to making it) – add your voice using the hashtags #notacliché and #worldmentalhealthday
And maybe, just maybe, take a moment out of your day to ask those around you if they’re okay. It might just be the best work you do this week.
I haven’t put anything here for a few months. And there’s a reason. I’ve been concentrating on other things, specifically work, but also family and my own wellbeing and growth. So, before I start to post some things again (which will happen over the coming days and weeks and months), I thought it worth a brief round-up on some highlights.
Noise reduction I realised recently that there was a lot of noise in my life. While some of this was of my own doing, not all of it was. I turned down the volume on distractions by deleting some apps from my phone. No more Twitter and LinkedIn, or Slack on my phone. These are things that I dip into very infrequently. Mentally, I’m certainly better for it. I may have missed out on some things, but I’m fairly certain it doesn’t actually matter.
IRL I’ve continued to meet people in real life. Chatting over coffee, or sitting down planning things out, or even making stuff. It’s been great. I wholeheartedly recommend doing more of it.
I attended Inexpert 2018, a conference that wasn’t a conference but a social experiment from the inimitable Steve Chapman. It was baffling, brilliant and batshit bonkers all in one day. I learned very little, but I learned a lot.
I visited the Royal Institution at the invitation of a client, to see the Faraday Museum and also to hear a lecture from Geoff Mulgan of NESTA about Collective Intelligence, the subject of his latest book. The talk was fascinating in some respects, and yet also felt like Geoff was stating the obvious in others. Not a bad thing, pointing out what it obvious – more of us should do it. While there is no video of his lecture on that day, you can view his talk from the RSA:
I continue to spend time exploring my practice, by booking The Lab, but also through further coaching. Recently, I was lucky to be invited to do Mark Shayler’s latest workshop, How To Be More You. Many good things to come out of this over the next few months. When he holds his next one, I’d recommend you go.
Work standards My mind has mostly been occupied with client projects. I’ve been lucky to have been working with the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, or LGC as they are known. Specifically, I’ve spent time with the Standards division. As someone who studied Environmental Management at university, this is a dream client for me.
I’ve been helping them with some brand strategy, as well as building and leading a team to improve their experience design. A smart bunch of people who are going through the tough transformation journey, and I’m super excited to be a small part of that journey. It also means I get to work alongside the lovely We Launch, and sees me bouncing between Teddington, Fitzrovia and Bury a fair bit.
Some of the initial output that is live is on a rebrand of pharmaceutical reference standard, Mikromol, which you can see in the updated brochure. All design is by We Launch.
If you’re wondering what LGC Standards do, well they ensure the quality of things like food, beverages, our water, medicines and even toys. In their foyer, they have the original handwritten test for determining whether coffee is actually coffee, or if it’s chicory.
Walking, a work and leisure exercise
As part of the work I’m doing with Dewi Uridge, I went on a walk with his Urban Baler, to capture conversation around the idea of design and community, specifically focused on the overlap between rural farming and urban design thinking.
Dewi graduates from Goldsmiths in June, and his work is featured on the Goldsmiths site – plus you can come to the MOD BA Design show in June. We are now looking at taking this initial work forward together, as part of a workshop series, as well as using it build Dewi’s next venture, a workshop and maker space in Sussex.
He’s definitely one to watch.
As part of my continuing rehabilitation from lung cancer, I’ve been out getting fit. I’ve started swimming regularly (despite not having swum since I was eight years old) and also walking as much as possible. I’m covering around 20 miles a week now, but I’m always looking to do more – so chats while walking (with coffee stops along the way) are starting to be built into my working practice more and more.
Getting out more London is great, but nothing beats getting out of its cultural orbit to experience something different. I spent 10 days in Yorkshire, just outside Holmfirth. Best known as the location for Last of the Summer Wine, the BBC sitcom (which I admit I didn’t watch), it was also a hotbed of small businesses doing great things. One of those was Lost and Found Interiors, run by James.
Not only did I spend some good money with James, the couple of hours we spent chatting about design and starting and maintaining a rural business was quality time spent. Go visit James if you’re up in the area, or pop by his online shop.
As I mentioned before, I’ve also been in Bury for work this year. Bloom Coffee is a great spot there, one that plenty of London coffee shops could learn a lot from in terms of ambience, food quality and customer service.
So, that’s why I’ve been quiet. Because I’ve been anything but.
A few weeks ago, I was taking part in a workshop. The facilitator of the exercise the group was undertaking asked us to move around and tell one another the thing that we felt we did best.
To begin with, I struggled to think of anything so I simply said what I thought best described my ‘job’. Except it didn’t feel authentic, even as the words slipped from my lips.
So, I started changing what I said, until suddenly I hit upon something that I felt was truly me. What I’d settled upon was deceptively simple, yet I’d avoided saying it out loud. Why? Because it wasn’t, and isn’t, what I get paid to do.
Often, knowing what makes you special is spotted by others. They see something in you that you didn’t spot yourself. Try it: ask ten people around you what they think makes you special and you’re likely to gather up an armful of answers.
Since I began focusing my thoughts on practice over process, I’ve viewed people through an entirely different lens. Their job title is less of an interest to me, because the ‘how’ of their work is what makes them unique.
Turning this into ‘gold’
While alchemy has its medieval origins, transmuting base metals into gold, it’s become to also mean, “seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination…” and it’s this that I’m beginning to hone.
Seeing that something special in someone and bringing them together with someone else within my network – and making that introduction incredibly specific, personal and relevant. It transforms people, creates new and unforeseen opportunities, and it’s, well, magical.
However, like alchemy, it doesn’t always work perfectly. Not every introduction leads to something magical, and that’s okay. The majority do – and in some instances, my introductions have led to major changes in people’s lives, working practices, career directions. And all it took was a personable and personal introduction – and pointing out to both people the thing they hadn’t seen in themselves.
Occasionally, when I talk to someone about this, they bring up the subject of money with me. Should I get paid for these introductions? They ask, what’s in it for me?
Payment is out. I’m not a recruiter, and I’m not finding people for specific roles. Nor do I want to be. It misses the point if I’m paid. I’m seeing something and gently nudging that person towards someone else in which I’ve seen a complementary way of thinking and/or working. I get a true sense of satisfaction from seeing a new working relationship blossom, or a friendship begin. And, as I know from attending the Do Lectures this year, Givers Get Lucky.
Practising alchemy requires me to acknowledge the occasional failure, to keep doing this because I know when it works it really, really works. Most importantly, I rather like the magic of looking out for that something special in someone.
As I evolve my thinking around the ‘How of Work’ so I’m continually drawn to the idea that practice is better than process.
One is a rigid way of working, where input leads to output. A process is step-by-step, and doesn’t care for where it’s applied – yes you can give a fancy name for each stage but it’s still beginning, middle, a bit more middle and end.
Practice, on the other hand, is what happens during that process. And it can take many forms, with more flexible frameworks applied.
I’m finding that keenly looking at this is providing me with deeper thoughts on what’s great about work, what’s the human practise that sits within an organisation, and, ultimately, what’s important to focus on if you want to change things, be innovative, or just make your business thrive.
Practice > Process
What’s this got to do with coffee? Last week I realised that meeting new people is the best way to learn new things, to find interesting human beings to share a space with, to talk. No direct selling allowed, although perhaps an opportunity will arise to discuss future ideas, projects or whatever. These meetings are a chance to share ideas, to suddenly realise that two hours have passed but the conversation is almost too good to pull yourself away from. It’s a chance to make connections – real, human connections – and to go on making those connections by introducing them to other people I know.
So I posted on LinkedIn (and Twitter) that I was open to coffee/tea and chats. Was anyone else up for it?
At the latest count, over 8,000 people viewed the status update. And around 20 people have asked to have coffee with me. The vast majority of these people I don’t yet know. Some will be done on Skype, because geography. Some meetings have already happened.
For each person I meet with, I’m also asking one thing. It’s a small way for me to demonstrate why practice is infinitely more interesting than process. And it’s a great ice breaker to help them understand what I can do.
More on that in another post
If you haven’t seen the LinkedIn or Twitter update, and would like to meet up and have a chat, do let me know. It’s how interesting things begin. And I love interesting.
Following an interesting question about CVs on the Leapers Community, created by Matthew Knight in response to his own decision to move on from his current role at Carat, I got to thinking about resumés.
Do follow Matthew’s journey via Rethinking Work, on Medium, it’s very interesting and may give you the confidence to make that ‘leap’.
More often than not, your CV and LinkedIn profile are looking backwards, not forwards. They give a snapshot of what you’ve achieved, the skills you have that were relevant for your past role. If the CV is about the journey, shouldn’t we have a tool that is more about where we’re heading?
This got me to thinking about my own recent decision to ‘retire’ from what I’d done before so that I could move into new areas, use my varied skills in new ways and continue learning. My own LinkedIn profile considers the old me, but not the new.
Time for me to create a Manual of Me.
How I add value
Solving problems. The more complex the better.
Working with teams of people to solve challenges. People from all walks of life. People from different backgrounds. People with varying degrees of knowledge of what might need to be done.
Working alone. Deep thinking. Presenting a set of starting points that others can build upon.
Workshops. Creating and facilitating them. Getting people together. Playing around with ideas. Taking someone’s thoughts and sculpting something from it, as a group.
Using the outside world within activities. Moving gets the blood flowing, provides observations and inspirations. It stops ‘stuckness’. Fresh air is the lifeblood of great ideas.
Barriers to consider
Lack of constraints. Freedom is great, but it leads to incorrect paths and a move away from certainty.
Sitting around bemoaning the problems rather than getting up and doing something about them. More doing than talk is better.
Offices and their conference rooms. Sitting at computers because that’s what makes people look busy.
Those who say serious is the only way to be professional. Being playful unlocks
Knowing all the answers before we set out. Where’s the fun in knowing? The fun is both in the discovery and in the journey towards that discovery (and all the paths that prove fruitless, for they bear fruit in ways that are truly immeasurable against the final outcomes).
Requirements
Open-minded people. The questioners. Those who ask why. People willing to try something because it might just unlock something in collective thinking.
Play. Having fun is possible while doing work. It allows for activities which, on the surface, appear unrelated to the task. Yet, they remove obstacles to thinking clearly and enable progress. And people smile, laugh and connect.
A space in which to work. This can be an office, a park, being provided a different desk inside an organisation each day, an hour of people’s time. As long as there is coffee to start the day.
The willingness to work hard. This doesn’t mean stay up all night, or skipping lunch. This means putting in effort and being present when necessary, always.
Uncertainty. Those who want to learn how to use it as a powerful force. And be happy getting things wrong in order to do so.
Cost I don’t like to think of it as a cost. I believe the value created far outweighs that – not only financially, but also through motivation of staff, progress on challenges and a shift in organisational mindset.
However, on your balance sheet it will be marked as a day of everyone’s time answering the brief. It can’t be ignored; however, it should be viewed against what you’re gaining. My aim is that value should always exceed cost.
Outcomes These are dependent upon the brief. Previously, for those I’ve partner with, I’ve delivered the following:
Frameworks and tools that your teams can use again and again
A report with clear recommendations
Ongoing support, coaching and training – of individual staff, departments, or organisations
Clearly defined strategies, goals and narratives for moving forward.
An outsider’s perspective: objective, unencumbered by internal process and politics, yet willing to get my hand dirty to make things happen.
And as I’ve found myself drawing more and more, I’ve prepared a visual version for those who prefer pictures to words.
I’ve been having coaching sessions.
Principally, these have been to get me out of my comfort zone and into a freer, more experimental self.
I’ve found them invaluable in understanding what’s blocking me from doing things, and the traits within myself that I’m using to define me.
That I’m using.
That’s a key point. It’s about me.
I’ve realised I behave a certain way, that I’m conforming to how I think people believe I should act. I’ve not been my authentic self all the time, and certainly not when I need to be.
I’ve been keeping things hidden, or showing the wrong side of me. I’ve been trying to please people and not putting myself first.
This has had an effect of me trying to make people happy in areas that I have no control over. And in trying to exert control, I’ve made myself unhappy, completed work that’s out of scope and yet still been left feeling I’ve failed somehow.
Now, I can’t really change the core person I am. I’ll always be overly talkative when I’m nervous, prone to occasional swearing. I’ll always want to do more than is expected (because I enjoy what I do); however, taking on someone else’s anger, or fear, does me no good.
I explained to my coach that I felt like I need to consider interactions within my work as if I had a graphic equaliser. That way I could modulate my responses, my actions and, therefore, how I felt about outcomes or decisions that needed to be made.
Beyond that initial chat, I’d banked the idea and then completely failed to follow up. So, as a good coach, it came up again this week during an exercise and she asked me what had happened to that idea. And so I’ve revisited it, in depth.
I could draw a whole host of these equalisers, each one with different labels. In fact, I’m doing this as an exercise from now on. Where I feel it’s necessary, I’m using this as a framework for reviewing meetings, workshop sessions, mentoring, etc.
The one at the top is how I think I act with people. I think a lot, constantly. About what they’re saying, how I might react. Sometimes I think my brain feels two steps ahead and yet I know that the assumption bar is creeping up. I don’t feel I listen enough – as the saying bar is up high. And yet, I like to think there is clarity within the conversation – that what I’m saying in reply, or framed within questions, is insightful and relevant; it’s clear and can be understood.
I’d prefer to have an equaliser that is more like the one below. And so I am working on making that the standard for my interactions at work.
I know I’m going to be guilty of viewing all these through my own biased lens. That can’t be helped or changed. Yet, as a self-reflection tool, I’m finding it really useful. To really consider what those labels should be. To decide if I need to modulate how I’m thinking, acting, speaking, behaving. Or just be okay with how I approached things.
