Monday 12 October 2009
Absence makes the heart grow fonder?
It has been nearly two months since my last post. TWO months....well, I did say that I had three HUGE things coming up, so I knew it would be some time, but I at least thought I would have the chance to post in September. Well, I did have the chance, and, for a not great reason, chose not to. I chose not to as, for the first time in a year, I did not want to write about what was going on in my job. I am not really sure why this was (though I may hazard a guess a bit later).
Any way, the three things that were going to distract me were:
1. Going to Ibiza: This was amazing. 8 nights... probably about 8 hours sleep in total? it was a great holiday, but hardly the most relaxing. And, if you will allow me a sentimental moment, it was a great way to sign off my first year in the bank - bumpy ride (blame easy jet), often challenging (blame the Spanish language - duos cervezas pour favor was all I knew) and really rewarding (blame the night clubs - some of the most amazing places I have been). So, a good time was had by all....and I arrived back to...
2. Move flats: Not even I can turn this into something exciting. I moved flats. It was successful. Well, actually, there is a sort of exciting story about it, but I cant begin to relate it to business, so out it goes. I am now living 15 mins from work. This makes me happy! But, more importantly, I had one more big step to make...
3. New Job: Just like that, I started a new job. And I am now a month into it, but rather than be overly reflective, I am going to try and give belated first impressions. I wanted to write the post that I wished I had written about 3 weeks ago. So, please spare me a few indulgences if I am a little rusty....
a) Back to School: This was my first impression - it felt like I was back to square one. My new role was totally different than anything I have ever done, and in a different environment. Working in HO immediately felt hugely unfamiliar, but ultimately welcoming. In many respects, during my first two weeks I felt like I was back at Uni, in freshers week.
I dont know about you, but my freshers week was a moment of realisation - where I suddenly realised how little I knew about the whole business, challenges and expectations that were to be placed on me. The new environment was huge, but rather than lectures, I had meetings, instead of mad old philosophy lecturers, I had articulate, business focused colleagues and, instead of cheap university shops, I had amazing coffee for breakfast. How very strange....
b) But wait a moment! : Should I not have expected this? Well of course, I knew it was going to be different, but just like when I joined and moved to London, I didn't realise how different. This time round, I honestly remember thinking "I've been with the business a year, it wont be a big shock", but to be honest it was. The reason for this, I believe, is two fold.
First of all, I am still very new to the corporate world, and only have a limited understanding of what is really going on. Secondly, the one thing I did underestimate, or at least, misunderstand (or 'misunderestimate' were I G.W.B), was the magnitude of the change. In some respects, it can be more startling when you think you can anticipate the change, and then when you actually realise the change, you begin to think ' how could I have been so far out?'.
And when I say I underestimated the change, what I am directly referring to is the skill level required to succeed. All of a sudden, I realise that I have jumped into a pool with many people with skill levels and experience that far exceed my own. But, then again...
c) Nothing wrong with a challenge: This has to be a good thing. The best place to learn, is from people with more experience and more skills than you. And thankfully, I am surrounded by such people at the moment - what a genuinely rich environment in which to learn. The trick, is just to make the most of it.
The HO environment is genuinely interesting - from a people and work point of view it is is a fascinating place to work. The great thing is that this time round, I don't have the same shock to the system I had when starting afresh. Over the last year I have accumulated knowledge, experience and other tools that will hopefully allow me to succeed - this time round I am, hopefully, better equipped for the challenge. No time for being home sick - no time for mad land lords or rubbish letting agents - no need to start from scratch - just lots of opportunities and challenges ahead.
The only last thing to add about my first impressions is related to my first point, about being back to freshers week. The best thing about freshers week was the people I met. Indeed, the people I met at Uni were some of the most interesting I have ever met, and that made my university life enjoyable. Currently, I can say the same for the business, and that really encourages me.
Those are my thougts as of two weeks ago - things may have changed slightly, but I feel that gives a fair representation of my first impressions.
--
Last few things I wanted to say relate to a few random points that have come up over the last month... may as well throw throw them in!
1. Some have departed: I know some of the grads have moved on to full time permanent roles, SB and JB two I have spoken too - good luck and congratulations to both of you and everyone else who has departed!
2. A book is for life... Myself and two other fellow keen beans are currently involved in a sort of book reading / reviewing thing....if you are interested drop me an email....we generally aim for one book every two weeks and take it in turns to pick. This weeks read is "Let the Right one In" and we have so far read "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". I'll post the amazon links at the bottom if you are interested.
3. Old? No way Jose! I turned 26 in September (amongst other things). If any one has any advice on how to deal with the rate at which I appear to be rocketing towards 30, then please contact me.
4. MA presentations: These took place two weeks ago, but I plan to write a post on them, Maybe not as long as I would have originally thought, but I definitely have a few things to say.
--
Thats it from me....its been two months in coming, and I do plan to write monthly updates (at least) depending on how things go.
Cheers!
DD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Right-John-Ajvide-Lindqvist/dp/1847248489/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255384335&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perks-Being-Wallflower-Stephen-Chbosky/dp/1847394078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255384357&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tuesdays+with+morrie
Any way, the three things that were going to distract me were:
1. Going to Ibiza: This was amazing. 8 nights... probably about 8 hours sleep in total? it was a great holiday, but hardly the most relaxing. And, if you will allow me a sentimental moment, it was a great way to sign off my first year in the bank - bumpy ride (blame easy jet), often challenging (blame the Spanish language - duos cervezas pour favor was all I knew) and really rewarding (blame the night clubs - some of the most amazing places I have been). So, a good time was had by all....and I arrived back to...
2. Move flats: Not even I can turn this into something exciting. I moved flats. It was successful. Well, actually, there is a sort of exciting story about it, but I cant begin to relate it to business, so out it goes. I am now living 15 mins from work. This makes me happy! But, more importantly, I had one more big step to make...
3. New Job: Just like that, I started a new job. And I am now a month into it, but rather than be overly reflective, I am going to try and give belated first impressions. I wanted to write the post that I wished I had written about 3 weeks ago. So, please spare me a few indulgences if I am a little rusty....
a) Back to School: This was my first impression - it felt like I was back to square one. My new role was totally different than anything I have ever done, and in a different environment. Working in HO immediately felt hugely unfamiliar, but ultimately welcoming. In many respects, during my first two weeks I felt like I was back at Uni, in freshers week.
I dont know about you, but my freshers week was a moment of realisation - where I suddenly realised how little I knew about the whole business, challenges and expectations that were to be placed on me. The new environment was huge, but rather than lectures, I had meetings, instead of mad old philosophy lecturers, I had articulate, business focused colleagues and, instead of cheap university shops, I had amazing coffee for breakfast. How very strange....
b) But wait a moment! : Should I not have expected this? Well of course, I knew it was going to be different, but just like when I joined and moved to London, I didn't realise how different. This time round, I honestly remember thinking "I've been with the business a year, it wont be a big shock", but to be honest it was. The reason for this, I believe, is two fold.
First of all, I am still very new to the corporate world, and only have a limited understanding of what is really going on. Secondly, the one thing I did underestimate, or at least, misunderstand (or 'misunderestimate' were I G.W.B), was the magnitude of the change. In some respects, it can be more startling when you think you can anticipate the change, and then when you actually realise the change, you begin to think ' how could I have been so far out?'.
And when I say I underestimated the change, what I am directly referring to is the skill level required to succeed. All of a sudden, I realise that I have jumped into a pool with many people with skill levels and experience that far exceed my own. But, then again...
c) Nothing wrong with a challenge: This has to be a good thing. The best place to learn, is from people with more experience and more skills than you. And thankfully, I am surrounded by such people at the moment - what a genuinely rich environment in which to learn. The trick, is just to make the most of it.
The HO environment is genuinely interesting - from a people and work point of view it is is a fascinating place to work. The great thing is that this time round, I don't have the same shock to the system I had when starting afresh. Over the last year I have accumulated knowledge, experience and other tools that will hopefully allow me to succeed - this time round I am, hopefully, better equipped for the challenge. No time for being home sick - no time for mad land lords or rubbish letting agents - no need to start from scratch - just lots of opportunities and challenges ahead.
The only last thing to add about my first impressions is related to my first point, about being back to freshers week. The best thing about freshers week was the people I met. Indeed, the people I met at Uni were some of the most interesting I have ever met, and that made my university life enjoyable. Currently, I can say the same for the business, and that really encourages me.
Those are my thougts as of two weeks ago - things may have changed slightly, but I feel that gives a fair representation of my first impressions.
--
Last few things I wanted to say relate to a few random points that have come up over the last month... may as well throw throw them in!
1. Some have departed: I know some of the grads have moved on to full time permanent roles, SB and JB two I have spoken too - good luck and congratulations to both of you and everyone else who has departed!
2. A book is for life... Myself and two other fellow keen beans are currently involved in a sort of book reading / reviewing thing....if you are interested drop me an email....we generally aim for one book every two weeks and take it in turns to pick. This weeks read is "Let the Right one In" and we have so far read "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". I'll post the amazon links at the bottom if you are interested.
3. Old? No way Jose! I turned 26 in September (amongst other things). If any one has any advice on how to deal with the rate at which I appear to be rocketing towards 30, then please contact me.
4. MA presentations: These took place two weeks ago, but I plan to write a post on them, Maybe not as long as I would have originally thought, but I definitely have a few things to say.
--
Thats it from me....its been two months in coming, and I do plan to write monthly updates (at least) depending on how things go.
Cheers!
DD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Right-John-Ajvide-Lindqvist/dp/1847248489/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255384335&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perks-Being-Wallflower-Stephen-Chbosky/dp/1847394078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255384357&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tuesdays+with+morrie
Sunday 16 August 2009
This Month...
This month three things are happening to me...
1. I am moving flats.
2. I am starting my 3d placement
3. I am going on holiday to Ibiza
What makes this a particularly interesting month is that this is all happening in one weekend. I arrive back from holiday the same day I am due to move out from my flat and start my next placement the following Tuesday. Needless to say, this will be a really interesting weekend.Conveniently, as there are three things happening, three thoughts in particular occurred to me...
1. Having something to look forward to keeps me focused on the moment... Something that I respond really well to is having something to look forward too. I cant wait to go on holiday, and by and large, I think that the holiday has had a positive effect on my work. By having the "prize" at the end of the tunnel, I am willing to put in longer hours, inconvenience myself and generally take myself out of my comfort zone.
This I think is in part down to the fact that I know I have a full week out of the business coming up.There is one really interesting thing about this, for me anyway. We all get holidays as part of our contracts, so, technically we 'deserve' them (or at least are entitled to them).
However, I view them as a reward for the work I do - they are a motivation for me to work hard. The conclusion for me here is two fold. Firstly, I am motivated to work hard by the potential to not work. Just what this says about my job, I am not sure, but it certainly implies that I value my time off.
Secondly, being rewarded is important for me. While I may like to say that I don't need rewards or recognition from other people (and I do like to say this), it seems that I need at least some sort of recognition from myself. If I am motivated to work hard in order to enjoy my holiday, I at least need that "self recognition" that I deserve a break in order to fully enjoy it. This tells me a lot about how I view myself.
2. 3rd Placement...3rd time still lucky? This is more of an out and out question. So far, I have felt very lucky since moving to London. I have met some great people, I have developed a really good group of people I enjoy socialising with and, generally, feel accepted. My 3rd placement represents the 3rd time in a year I have changed job roles and work place (4th if you count my previous job), and I wonder, can the luck keep up.
I am really positive with regards the role and the people I am working with, but it will be interesting to see how this works out. Its not that I am pessimistic, but from experience, luck does run out.At which point you need to ask, was it good decision making or luck in the first place.
3. New Flat, New Flatmates, New Start? I am quite excited about moving flats. My family aside, I have only ever lived with 4 different groups of people (2 at Unit, 1 in Belfast and 1 in London) and living with another new set will be very interesting. My expectations are that everyone will keep themselves to themselves and it will be quite a quiet group of people, but I cant be sure (having only met one of them for 15 seconds).
However, what is interesting for me is that the people I live with have become almost an aside to my life.When picking a flat, I was more interested in the following 5 things:
1. Location (near work)
2. Location (near Stamford Bridge / central London)
3. Nice Room4
. Location (nice area - apologies for the cliché)
5. Football - local football!
Who I lived with was almost an after thought. Which made me think about my priorities in London. My priorities are definitely the following three things:
1. making a success of my job
2. enjoying myself physically (e.g. playing football)
3. having a good social life
This is the first time in my life where none of these priorities were directly tied to the people I lived with. To be quite honest, from some one who grew up with a quite close family unit, this surprised me that the people I shared my home with were almost an afterthought.
-
So, what does all this mean....well , I can draw three conclusions, then I am off to bed....
1. Priorities remain the same - I still want to be happy, have a fulfilling challenging job
2. BUT, what drives them change - I am now less concerned with my home and more concerned with my job / career. Who'd have thought it.
3. Time off matters - Basically, taking time off and time out makes me enjoy myself more and makes me more productive. Turns out, I am not the "machine" I once told someone I was, and those basic human needs surface at some point or another.--
I guess that this post was really about what is currently 'driving' me to work.
I've found this summer to be really tough for a variety of reasons, but what appears to be constant is that with good social life, challenging work life and something to loaf forward to, you can still feel pretty good about things.
Bring on Ibiza!
DD
1. I am moving flats.
2. I am starting my 3d placement
3. I am going on holiday to Ibiza
What makes this a particularly interesting month is that this is all happening in one weekend. I arrive back from holiday the same day I am due to move out from my flat and start my next placement the following Tuesday. Needless to say, this will be a really interesting weekend.Conveniently, as there are three things happening, three thoughts in particular occurred to me...
1. Having something to look forward to keeps me focused on the moment... Something that I respond really well to is having something to look forward too. I cant wait to go on holiday, and by and large, I think that the holiday has had a positive effect on my work. By having the "prize" at the end of the tunnel, I am willing to put in longer hours, inconvenience myself and generally take myself out of my comfort zone.
This I think is in part down to the fact that I know I have a full week out of the business coming up.There is one really interesting thing about this, for me anyway. We all get holidays as part of our contracts, so, technically we 'deserve' them (or at least are entitled to them).
However, I view them as a reward for the work I do - they are a motivation for me to work hard. The conclusion for me here is two fold. Firstly, I am motivated to work hard by the potential to not work. Just what this says about my job, I am not sure, but it certainly implies that I value my time off.
Secondly, being rewarded is important for me. While I may like to say that I don't need rewards or recognition from other people (and I do like to say this), it seems that I need at least some sort of recognition from myself. If I am motivated to work hard in order to enjoy my holiday, I at least need that "self recognition" that I deserve a break in order to fully enjoy it. This tells me a lot about how I view myself.
2. 3rd Placement...3rd time still lucky? This is more of an out and out question. So far, I have felt very lucky since moving to London. I have met some great people, I have developed a really good group of people I enjoy socialising with and, generally, feel accepted. My 3rd placement represents the 3rd time in a year I have changed job roles and work place (4th if you count my previous job), and I wonder, can the luck keep up.
I am really positive with regards the role and the people I am working with, but it will be interesting to see how this works out. Its not that I am pessimistic, but from experience, luck does run out.At which point you need to ask, was it good decision making or luck in the first place.
3. New Flat, New Flatmates, New Start? I am quite excited about moving flats. My family aside, I have only ever lived with 4 different groups of people (2 at Unit, 1 in Belfast and 1 in London) and living with another new set will be very interesting. My expectations are that everyone will keep themselves to themselves and it will be quite a quiet group of people, but I cant be sure (having only met one of them for 15 seconds).
However, what is interesting for me is that the people I live with have become almost an aside to my life.When picking a flat, I was more interested in the following 5 things:
1. Location (near work)
2. Location (near Stamford Bridge / central London)
3. Nice Room4
. Location (nice area - apologies for the cliché)
5. Football - local football!
Who I lived with was almost an after thought. Which made me think about my priorities in London. My priorities are definitely the following three things:
1. making a success of my job
2. enjoying myself physically (e.g. playing football)
3. having a good social life
This is the first time in my life where none of these priorities were directly tied to the people I lived with. To be quite honest, from some one who grew up with a quite close family unit, this surprised me that the people I shared my home with were almost an afterthought.
-
So, what does all this mean....well , I can draw three conclusions, then I am off to bed....
1. Priorities remain the same - I still want to be happy, have a fulfilling challenging job
2. BUT, what drives them change - I am now less concerned with my home and more concerned with my job / career. Who'd have thought it.
3. Time off matters - Basically, taking time off and time out makes me enjoy myself more and makes me more productive. Turns out, I am not the "machine" I once told someone I was, and those basic human needs surface at some point or another.--
I guess that this post was really about what is currently 'driving' me to work.
I've found this summer to be really tough for a variety of reasons, but what appears to be constant is that with good social life, challenging work life and something to loaf forward to, you can still feel pretty good about things.
Bring on Ibiza!
DD
Tuesday 11 August 2009
To infininty, and beyond. Or to Walsall and Back
Hello!
Today I was, for the first time in Walsall, with one of my colleagues EB. I know that I have been threatening to give a finalised post on the PLP and training in the business, I thought that today's experience warranted a blog post.
As I write this am travelling back to London, and I started to get very introspective about what went well and what went badly about the graduate project we were delivering. To give you all a bit of perspective, we were travelling from London to Walsall to deliver a one hour workshop to some of our sellers. The purpose of our workshop was to "share best practices". Here are a few things I learned from the experience:
1. Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance (but no too much): Myself and EB had practiced and prepared our workshop for about 3 hours. This does not include the direct work that goes into the slides / research, just purely on the content after we know what we wanted to say Without thinking about it, we seemed to settle on a ratio of for every one hour of deliver, three hours of preparation were required to get us comfortable with the material. Now, I am not saying that this was an amazing workshop or perfect delivery, but I was at a point were I was confident in the material and the workshop.
2. Less Talking, more walking: I discovered today that I have an urge to walk around when I am talking / presenting. Every time that I got started on a slide, I had an urge to stroll around the nice big room we were in. Why is this? In retrospect, I think it is down to two things. One part is definitely nerves. It can be a little stressful delivering a message to a group of people you have never met and I think I had some nerves, this probably manifested itself in me wanting to move around so as to distract the people present. I guess, subconsciously, that if they are focusing on my movement and not my speech, I am less likely to be concerned about what I am saying.
The other reason I think is impact. Most of the people I see talking, be it in TV or in person, do so while making some form of movement. When it feels inappropriate to use your hands to emphasise a point ( and here it did - I was not arguing after all) I think I wanted to move to add emphasis to my points. But I somehow resisted the urge to move….but what did I do?
3. Nerves? No way! I just want to be loved; This is something I noticed myself doing very early on. Once I had introduced myself and started talking, I insisted on becoming defensive. Not only did I start talking about where I am from, but started talking about how new I was to the business and, hell, I think I even started to sound more Irish! Why? Well, I don’t really know - I guess I just figured that I would use / abuse some of the fabled Irish charm. So, what does this say about me? Well, maybe nothing more than I want to be liked (hell, who doesn’t) but it may also say that I am willing to resort to wiley charm to get people on my side. Either or, its not necessarily a bad thing… is it? And speaking of bad things….
4. Bad Jokes = Bad Idea: I told two bad jokes, though each was bad for a different reason. The first was bad as it made reference to…well…how shall I say it….self love. Admittedly this was only a double entrendre but still, I think that it was definitely a bad idea. Plus no one laughed (I don’t think they got the double entendre!). The second joke was bad due to the audience….it was not awful mind you, but I used a vaguely sexist quote from an audience of which the majority were woman… though I think they liked me enough to let me get away with it…I hope…
5. Finally… How does that make you feel? Ultimately, it was an interesting day - all that travel for a one hour workshop. I had never been to Walsall and it was nice. I felt nice. I had never ran a workshop, it was nice to be able to do so. I also thought the crowd liked me and my colleague, so that was nice. I also was not too nervous, which was nice. And everyone I met was nice. So the whole thing was nice.
But for me that’s just it…nice is comfortable. Cotton wool is nice, and its fluffy, just like sharing best practices / presenting. And for me, this is the difference. I had a nice day, but I much prefer a driven, challenging one. I am coming back, a little tired and happy with the work, but I don’t feel exhilarated or like I have seriously achieved something. I would rather be out of my comfort zone, facing challenges, being put under pressure and pushing myself.
The saying "its nice to be nice" is very appropriate, but I would add that "its better to be challenged". Was I challenged today? Yes, but only in nice ways. And nice is not enough for me….and yet nasty is too far. So, I need to find somewhere in the middle? Quite possibly….but what does that mean…
Conclusion
Part of me thinks that nice is nice, the other part thinks nice is lame. So, I probably need somewhere in the middle, less nice, more spice, if you will. But then again, as my often worn red T-shirt says, "spice is the spice of life". So….I say….bring me more spice.
DD
PS for those of you who know me, you can probably guess how tempted I have been to leap into poetry here….so many words to rhyme with nice and spice….I just about resisted the urge….
Today I was, for the first time in Walsall, with one of my colleagues EB. I know that I have been threatening to give a finalised post on the PLP and training in the business, I thought that today's experience warranted a blog post.
As I write this am travelling back to London, and I started to get very introspective about what went well and what went badly about the graduate project we were delivering. To give you all a bit of perspective, we were travelling from London to Walsall to deliver a one hour workshop to some of our sellers. The purpose of our workshop was to "share best practices". Here are a few things I learned from the experience:
1. Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance (but no too much): Myself and EB had practiced and prepared our workshop for about 3 hours. This does not include the direct work that goes into the slides / research, just purely on the content after we know what we wanted to say Without thinking about it, we seemed to settle on a ratio of for every one hour of deliver, three hours of preparation were required to get us comfortable with the material. Now, I am not saying that this was an amazing workshop or perfect delivery, but I was at a point were I was confident in the material and the workshop.
2. Less Talking, more walking: I discovered today that I have an urge to walk around when I am talking / presenting. Every time that I got started on a slide, I had an urge to stroll around the nice big room we were in. Why is this? In retrospect, I think it is down to two things. One part is definitely nerves. It can be a little stressful delivering a message to a group of people you have never met and I think I had some nerves, this probably manifested itself in me wanting to move around so as to distract the people present. I guess, subconsciously, that if they are focusing on my movement and not my speech, I am less likely to be concerned about what I am saying.
The other reason I think is impact. Most of the people I see talking, be it in TV or in person, do so while making some form of movement. When it feels inappropriate to use your hands to emphasise a point ( and here it did - I was not arguing after all) I think I wanted to move to add emphasis to my points. But I somehow resisted the urge to move….but what did I do?
3. Nerves? No way! I just want to be loved; This is something I noticed myself doing very early on. Once I had introduced myself and started talking, I insisted on becoming defensive. Not only did I start talking about where I am from, but started talking about how new I was to the business and, hell, I think I even started to sound more Irish! Why? Well, I don’t really know - I guess I just figured that I would use / abuse some of the fabled Irish charm. So, what does this say about me? Well, maybe nothing more than I want to be liked (hell, who doesn’t) but it may also say that I am willing to resort to wiley charm to get people on my side. Either or, its not necessarily a bad thing… is it? And speaking of bad things….
4. Bad Jokes = Bad Idea: I told two bad jokes, though each was bad for a different reason. The first was bad as it made reference to…well…how shall I say it….self love. Admittedly this was only a double entrendre but still, I think that it was definitely a bad idea. Plus no one laughed (I don’t think they got the double entendre!). The second joke was bad due to the audience….it was not awful mind you, but I used a vaguely sexist quote from an audience of which the majority were woman… though I think they liked me enough to let me get away with it…I hope…
5. Finally… How does that make you feel? Ultimately, it was an interesting day - all that travel for a one hour workshop. I had never been to Walsall and it was nice. I felt nice. I had never ran a workshop, it was nice to be able to do so. I also thought the crowd liked me and my colleague, so that was nice. I also was not too nervous, which was nice. And everyone I met was nice. So the whole thing was nice.
But for me that’s just it…nice is comfortable. Cotton wool is nice, and its fluffy, just like sharing best practices / presenting. And for me, this is the difference. I had a nice day, but I much prefer a driven, challenging one. I am coming back, a little tired and happy with the work, but I don’t feel exhilarated or like I have seriously achieved something. I would rather be out of my comfort zone, facing challenges, being put under pressure and pushing myself.
The saying "its nice to be nice" is very appropriate, but I would add that "its better to be challenged". Was I challenged today? Yes, but only in nice ways. And nice is not enough for me….and yet nasty is too far. So, I need to find somewhere in the middle? Quite possibly….but what does that mean…
Conclusion
Part of me thinks that nice is nice, the other part thinks nice is lame. So, I probably need somewhere in the middle, less nice, more spice, if you will. But then again, as my often worn red T-shirt says, "spice is the spice of life". So….I say….bring me more spice.
DD
PS for those of you who know me, you can probably guess how tempted I have been to leap into poetry here….so many words to rhyme with nice and spice….I just about resisted the urge….
Monday 6 July 2009
The Business Game - PLP Review
So, I am just back to my flat, it's crazily hot, I have been travelling for 6 hours (visiting home) and had no IPod. It's been a long day. But not an entirely bad one. The fact that I had no IPod gave me some time to think about things. This and the fact that my flight was delayed for an hour. But I'll not complain! No Sir! I did bring some high quality DVD's and books from home, so the number of distractions in my room have increased. But, rest assured I have unfinished business with the PLP. And there I wanted to review and comment on the business game we completed last Wednesday.
I deliberately left this a few days as I wanted to have enough time to reflect on the impact the business game had on me. The obvious trade off is that the game is not quite as fresh in my mind, but we'll see how this goes...
1. The Set Up: We all knew the game was coming, however, unlike previous PLP's, there was no pre-course material to complete. This in itself surprised me in hindsight. Not only did this section turn out to be the most detailed of the three modules, it was also the most intellectually demanding one. I understand the benefit of "being thrown in at the deep end" and working under pressure, but a total lack of preparation on my part probably impacted my expectations of what I would achieve on the day.
A success full day for me would have been continued personal development within the context of my own leadership skills. As I had no explicit goals before hand, I found it difficult to set specific personal objectives. This may not necessarily be a bad thing in the context, but given the set up of the previous PLP modules, it felt different.
2. Make your choice... Once the introduction and welcome was completed, we were encouraged to throw ourselves into the game and see how we get on. We were each asked to pick a particular business area to work in. I looked down the list and picked the area that I was least comfortable with. To be honest, I am not so sure what made me do it...I guess it was just one of those things where i thought it'd be interesting to go against my intuition.
That and I didn't really know the details of the game. It was not really an informed decision I was making, but at that point that was not necessarily a bad thing. If I had more details about what each of the different areas entailed (in terms of the game), it would have been very tempting to pick my favourite / one that I would feel that I would excel at. Hey, everyone likes to look and feel good, especially in front of your peers.
3. Devil is in the detail: Next up, we got the detail. This came in the form of 8 - 10 page booklets. Now, I loved this! There was a hell of a lot of material to digest, some really interesting concepts, some really interesting 'facts' and some interesting business concepts. Once I got the booklet, I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into it. At first glance, there seemed to be a lot of really interesting stuff, and given that our groups were pretty much randomly selected, I was really looking forward to the game.
Then the time scale came down... we had 15 minutes to digest and understand the information. This gave us 1 minute and 30 seconds per page. For me, this was not enough. It took me 5 minutes to read through the booklet once, giving me only 1 minute per page look at the details. By the end of the 15 minutes, I had only an incomplete understanding of the material. It was going to be an interesting afternoon...
4. The Games Begin: Once we got settled into the game itself, the group interactions were really interesting. At other points during the PLP I always felt like I had the opportunity to reflect on my own behaviours, but here I had a lot of stuff going on, all at once. Not only had we to work on our own understanding of the material, but we were to lead our groups as well as preparing how we would defend our particular groups interests later on in the day.
Bits of this worked really well - we all felt pressurised. Part of this pressure may have come from the set up - we were reminded that we would be judged on our performance in the activity. And you know - the grads can be a competitive bunch. So, for me the pressure translated well - and so did the intellectual demands of the job / scenario. There was a lot of information to be assimilated - normally I love the full range of detail and the depth of information - it is what gets me going in my day to day job. However, at no point did I have my focus...why?
5. Distraction.... Well, the reason was quite simple. I felt distracted. There was so much going on I found it difficult to focus. Given that some of my feedback previously was to "take off my blinkers " (thanks TE), every time I did take off my blinkers, I saw disarray, lack of organisation, and people struggling to understand the game. These were people I have seen work really effectively before - but now it was like being back to square one. So, I guess what I am saying here is throw a couple of mathematic challenges at grads, put them in a time critical situation and ramp up the pressure and we crumble? Well, not exactly...
6. End Game: The game taught me a hell of a lot about how interact when I am uncomfortable. So, in terms of me being able to understand how I react when I am out of my comfort zone, it was interesting. And I would say that irrespective of whether or not you were red, blue or green, you would be out of your comfort zone in the game..
To summarise, there was not enough time for detail, space for people or organisation for effective leadership. The various situations in the game felt like a struggle. The final of the game, after the presentations was the Q&A and announcement of the winner.
7. Drum Roll: The winners were announced and the game wound up. My group won, and, no discredit to the guys in my team, but I felt like we were the "best of a bad bunch" as opposed to being outstanding. And I don't mean this to bring down the other groups, merely that no one group stood out as being great. Additionally, the feedback that I heard was that other groups had similar problems with the game.
It was certainly a challenging day, probably for both the grads and the facilitators.
To conclude....
The business game was a great learning experience, but it was harder to learn from it than other aspects of the course. I felt that it was very challenging, but often not just a challenging exercise, rather a challenge to learn.
I really enjoyed the concept of the game - I thought that it was definitely workable and there was a lot you could pick up from (and about) other people in the game. Some of the feedback that came out of it was very interesting too. I also think that there was a lot that you could learn about yourself on this module, but that it required more time and effort to get the same level of learning out.
Specifically, I would have liked more direction from the facilitators - on a number of occasions throughout the PLP they have been there to provide immediate hands on direction and feedback and for me that was not present. i also felt like the time frame was a bit skewed towards discussion rather than understanding. We had a full hour to discuss in our groups our own interpretations of the information, but (it felt like) we had little direction of what sort of end product we were to produce. I understand that vagueness brings its own challenges and benefits, but for an exercise coordinating 6 groups, more direction for output would have been beneficial.
I may of course be wrong - maybe some people thought there was too much detail!
So I will sign off this post (2 of 3) with a quick note about the business game.... I have the option to go for an interview for "The Apprentice" soon....I am sorely tempted by it. It would be really interesting to do, and you can guarantee that it would be tough, but rewarding. I guess though, if I did make it through (ha!) the business games the PLP gave me would probably give me a bit of perspective on what to expect - if not on how others would behave, at the very least how I would come across.
So was it a successfull day? Yes and No. I learned a lot from the activity, learned a lot about myself, but without clear objectives, I struggled to really assess the impact it had on me. Still, since the PLP is all about potential, I dont feel bad in saying that this set up definately has the potential to be successfull.
Its all good stuff.....
Kindest,
DD
I deliberately left this a few days as I wanted to have enough time to reflect on the impact the business game had on me. The obvious trade off is that the game is not quite as fresh in my mind, but we'll see how this goes...
1. The Set Up: We all knew the game was coming, however, unlike previous PLP's, there was no pre-course material to complete. This in itself surprised me in hindsight. Not only did this section turn out to be the most detailed of the three modules, it was also the most intellectually demanding one. I understand the benefit of "being thrown in at the deep end" and working under pressure, but a total lack of preparation on my part probably impacted my expectations of what I would achieve on the day.
A success full day for me would have been continued personal development within the context of my own leadership skills. As I had no explicit goals before hand, I found it difficult to set specific personal objectives. This may not necessarily be a bad thing in the context, but given the set up of the previous PLP modules, it felt different.
2. Make your choice... Once the introduction and welcome was completed, we were encouraged to throw ourselves into the game and see how we get on. We were each asked to pick a particular business area to work in. I looked down the list and picked the area that I was least comfortable with. To be honest, I am not so sure what made me do it...I guess it was just one of those things where i thought it'd be interesting to go against my intuition.
That and I didn't really know the details of the game. It was not really an informed decision I was making, but at that point that was not necessarily a bad thing. If I had more details about what each of the different areas entailed (in terms of the game), it would have been very tempting to pick my favourite / one that I would feel that I would excel at. Hey, everyone likes to look and feel good, especially in front of your peers.
3. Devil is in the detail: Next up, we got the detail. This came in the form of 8 - 10 page booklets. Now, I loved this! There was a hell of a lot of material to digest, some really interesting concepts, some really interesting 'facts' and some interesting business concepts. Once I got the booklet, I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into it. At first glance, there seemed to be a lot of really interesting stuff, and given that our groups were pretty much randomly selected, I was really looking forward to the game.
Then the time scale came down... we had 15 minutes to digest and understand the information. This gave us 1 minute and 30 seconds per page. For me, this was not enough. It took me 5 minutes to read through the booklet once, giving me only 1 minute per page look at the details. By the end of the 15 minutes, I had only an incomplete understanding of the material. It was going to be an interesting afternoon...
4. The Games Begin: Once we got settled into the game itself, the group interactions were really interesting. At other points during the PLP I always felt like I had the opportunity to reflect on my own behaviours, but here I had a lot of stuff going on, all at once. Not only had we to work on our own understanding of the material, but we were to lead our groups as well as preparing how we would defend our particular groups interests later on in the day.
Bits of this worked really well - we all felt pressurised. Part of this pressure may have come from the set up - we were reminded that we would be judged on our performance in the activity. And you know - the grads can be a competitive bunch. So, for me the pressure translated well - and so did the intellectual demands of the job / scenario. There was a lot of information to be assimilated - normally I love the full range of detail and the depth of information - it is what gets me going in my day to day job. However, at no point did I have my focus...why?
5. Distraction.... Well, the reason was quite simple. I felt distracted. There was so much going on I found it difficult to focus. Given that some of my feedback previously was to "take off my blinkers " (thanks TE), every time I did take off my blinkers, I saw disarray, lack of organisation, and people struggling to understand the game. These were people I have seen work really effectively before - but now it was like being back to square one. So, I guess what I am saying here is throw a couple of mathematic challenges at grads, put them in a time critical situation and ramp up the pressure and we crumble? Well, not exactly...
6. End Game: The game taught me a hell of a lot about how interact when I am uncomfortable. So, in terms of me being able to understand how I react when I am out of my comfort zone, it was interesting. And I would say that irrespective of whether or not you were red, blue or green, you would be out of your comfort zone in the game..
To summarise, there was not enough time for detail, space for people or organisation for effective leadership. The various situations in the game felt like a struggle. The final of the game, after the presentations was the Q&A and announcement of the winner.
7. Drum Roll: The winners were announced and the game wound up. My group won, and, no discredit to the guys in my team, but I felt like we were the "best of a bad bunch" as opposed to being outstanding. And I don't mean this to bring down the other groups, merely that no one group stood out as being great. Additionally, the feedback that I heard was that other groups had similar problems with the game.
It was certainly a challenging day, probably for both the grads and the facilitators.
To conclude....
The business game was a great learning experience, but it was harder to learn from it than other aspects of the course. I felt that it was very challenging, but often not just a challenging exercise, rather a challenge to learn.
I really enjoyed the concept of the game - I thought that it was definitely workable and there was a lot you could pick up from (and about) other people in the game. Some of the feedback that came out of it was very interesting too. I also think that there was a lot that you could learn about yourself on this module, but that it required more time and effort to get the same level of learning out.
Specifically, I would have liked more direction from the facilitators - on a number of occasions throughout the PLP they have been there to provide immediate hands on direction and feedback and for me that was not present. i also felt like the time frame was a bit skewed towards discussion rather than understanding. We had a full hour to discuss in our groups our own interpretations of the information, but (it felt like) we had little direction of what sort of end product we were to produce. I understand that vagueness brings its own challenges and benefits, but for an exercise coordinating 6 groups, more direction for output would have been beneficial.
I may of course be wrong - maybe some people thought there was too much detail!
So I will sign off this post (2 of 3) with a quick note about the business game.... I have the option to go for an interview for "The Apprentice" soon....I am sorely tempted by it. It would be really interesting to do, and you can guarantee that it would be tough, but rewarding. I guess though, if I did make it through (ha!) the business games the PLP gave me would probably give me a bit of perspective on what to expect - if not on how others would behave, at the very least how I would come across.
So was it a successfull day? Yes and No. I learned a lot from the activity, learned a lot about myself, but without clear objectives, I struggled to really assess the impact it had on me. Still, since the PLP is all about potential, I dont feel bad in saying that this set up definately has the potential to be successfull.
Its all good stuff.....
Kindest,
DD
Wednesday 1 July 2009
PLP Part 3...or should I say Round 3?
Hello there...
I have been most neglectful of my blog lately, for some good and some bad reasons. The good reasons mostly revolve around cheese, the bad revolve around a combination of laziness, writers distraction (not technically block as I have had no problem writing on other stuff) and other general distractions of living in London. However, I have 3 new blogs to post at once, or as close to "at once" as I can manage. As they say, no buses for half an hour, then three at once (or if you trust TFL, no buses for half an hour, but you can get to your destination in under 20 minutes if you left 5 minutes ago and got a 4 trains and then a bus*)
My three blog posts are three reflections / comments on the PLP. The first will be a comment on how I personally I felt I got on at PLP module 3. The second will be a post on how I viewed PLP 3 as a group exercise. The third will be a review / comment on how I felt the whole package was. But don't worry, I am not going to be just focusing on the PLP, I plan to include how it has impacted the daily grind. Did I say grind? I meant fun, but more on that later. So, without further adieu.... part or round 3.
1. The Weigh in: I travelled to the 3rd module via automobile and arrived in (relatively) good time and was feeling pretty sharp. Part of me was glad for the break from work, but I couldn't help thinking about the work, and team, that I was leaving behind. While the purpose of the course was obviously focused on me, I did find it difficult initially to separate myself from my work. Not that I am trying to stretch an analogy, but I felt that my lack of separation affected my hitting power in the early exchanges. Not literally, but I was not on the ball in the morning session, for sure.
2. Early Exchanges: For me, my goal was set quite early on. I wanted to learn / improve my ability to effectively work in a team with a specific set of goals. I was looking forward to defending my teams interests to the other groups, and to be quite honest, at one point was feeling really up for the fight, or if you prefer, defense of my teams interests. For me, the group I was working in was a really interesting blend of characters and I was looking forward to it. Initially, I probably saw my role as being the person who would take on the responsibility of defending our groups interests. However, like a drunk boxer, I was swinging a miss.
3. On the Ropes: By 12pm (or round 3), I could tell I was not on my A-Game. Not only had I misinterpreted the set up of the exercise, but I had tried to misdirect my group - another group member had to correct me on this. Good work from him. This was a classic case of me trying to plough ahead with my own ideas of how to set the afternoon up successfully. I think my reason for trying "plough ahead" was that I was conscious of the lack of output our group had contributed. For me, I would have felt satisfied (if not overly so) with our contribution if we at least had a clear direction in place for the afternoon, but in doing so, completely missed the fundamental rules of the exercise.
This was particularly interesting as, at a previous PLP I was fed back that I should take a step back and look at the big picture - take the blinkers off if you will. And apparently, I hadn't done that quite yet. Needless to say, I was not feeling particularly comfortable with my own contribution within the group. I tried to analyse this at the time, as recommended to do so by the facilitators, but genuinely found this difficult.
For me, self reflection in such an environment was extremely challenging. While obviously I cant compare the 'stress' of the situation to that of a boxing match, it does seem to me sensible, that the more pressure we get put under, the harder it is to let go and take the step back - something that I would have definitely benefited from. So, after a quick lunch and a pep talk from (and to) a colleague, the bell went for the second half of the session...
4. Don't Fight the Referee, fight the opponent: I guess that that this has already been summed up by Sun Tzu better than I could ever do so, but this will become clear soon. By this point, I felt like someone out fought and out thought by an opponent. I had not really got to grips with the source material and not really worked as effectively as a Team member / leader as I know I can. It had not been a total disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly I was struggling to come to terms with the set up. Maybe this reflection would have served me better during the day rather than at 1120pm after, but better late than never.
I felt that I spent too much time trying to understand the rules of the game, trying to understand exactly what I was trying to achieve, and not enough time actually doing it. This was interesting, particularly because I was working with some very capable people, several of which clearly had a better understanding of the game than me. I did ask for advice from two of them, but perhaps I should have been more forthcoming in bringing forward my own key understandings and knowledge limitations. It is conceivable that other people would have done the same thing too - I am pretty confident that many other people had similar concerns. However, at this point, I was too focused on my own limitations, to bring in others. Again, if I had taken a step back, there is a good chance that I would have increased my own grasp of the scope of the project.
Often, during this point, I worked alone - most unlike me as I love team work.
5. This match was going to Points: Almost inevitable, this one went to points. I had thrown myself into the work throughout the day and despite being bested by it on several occasions, it never totally got the better of me. I have the teams I worked in as well as some industry on my part to thank for that. The push came to the shove when our sponsor arrived and we were required to present as groups. One of the gents from our group gave a great effort with undeniably difficult source material - Great Work EC.
By the very end I had a good understanding of the key costs / benefits of my own individual work, and was able to answer probing questions on them. But that was it - I would not have been able to answer questions to the same level of detail on any other part of the team I was in. In fact, I don't think I could have answered a single question on my other team members business functions. This got me thinking:
How am I meant to work with these guys and persuade them if I don't know / understand their point of view demands? Maybe if I had taken my blinkers off and tried to understand my colleagues demands / needs better, I would have been more effective in working as a team.
For me at no point, did I ever have a true grasp of what the other guys were doing. For me, this was really hammered / punched home in the Q&A session.
6. And the Winner is... Well, our team won, and I think that was in no small part to the excellent job EC did presenting in addition to key contributions from some of our other guys. However there is a point I want to make to all this.
I have framed the discussion of PLP 3 as a boxing match. I don't think it was ever set up to be a fight, but at points, for me it felt like that. However, it was a fight I learned a hell of a lot from., and I will talk about how I felt the content / structure worked in a separate post. This is a very vain and self centred post I am afraid...
A conclusion
But that's just it, learning is acquiring knowledge, and maybe Sun Tzu missed the point slightly (or ignored it) when he said
"Know yourself and know your enemies and you will never be defeated in over 100 battles"
Today, maybe a more appropriate statement would be
"Know yourself, know your friends and know your enemies and you will never be defeated in one battle".
Knowing how we work together is as important as knowing how our enemies / competitors work without us.
Finally, I know some of you think that's a bit cheesy, but for those of you in the know - I did say I had a hell of a lot of big cheese recently, and you cant blame me for sharing it.
DD
* TFL are forever lying to me.
I have been most neglectful of my blog lately, for some good and some bad reasons. The good reasons mostly revolve around cheese, the bad revolve around a combination of laziness, writers distraction (not technically block as I have had no problem writing on other stuff) and other general distractions of living in London. However, I have 3 new blogs to post at once, or as close to "at once" as I can manage. As they say, no buses for half an hour, then three at once (or if you trust TFL, no buses for half an hour, but you can get to your destination in under 20 minutes if you left 5 minutes ago and got a 4 trains and then a bus*)
My three blog posts are three reflections / comments on the PLP. The first will be a comment on how I personally I felt I got on at PLP module 3. The second will be a post on how I viewed PLP 3 as a group exercise. The third will be a review / comment on how I felt the whole package was. But don't worry, I am not going to be just focusing on the PLP, I plan to include how it has impacted the daily grind. Did I say grind? I meant fun, but more on that later. So, without further adieu.... part or round 3.
1. The Weigh in: I travelled to the 3rd module via automobile and arrived in (relatively) good time and was feeling pretty sharp. Part of me was glad for the break from work, but I couldn't help thinking about the work, and team, that I was leaving behind. While the purpose of the course was obviously focused on me, I did find it difficult initially to separate myself from my work. Not that I am trying to stretch an analogy, but I felt that my lack of separation affected my hitting power in the early exchanges. Not literally, but I was not on the ball in the morning session, for sure.
2. Early Exchanges: For me, my goal was set quite early on. I wanted to learn / improve my ability to effectively work in a team with a specific set of goals. I was looking forward to defending my teams interests to the other groups, and to be quite honest, at one point was feeling really up for the fight, or if you prefer, defense of my teams interests. For me, the group I was working in was a really interesting blend of characters and I was looking forward to it. Initially, I probably saw my role as being the person who would take on the responsibility of defending our groups interests. However, like a drunk boxer, I was swinging a miss.
3. On the Ropes: By 12pm (or round 3), I could tell I was not on my A-Game. Not only had I misinterpreted the set up of the exercise, but I had tried to misdirect my group - another group member had to correct me on this. Good work from him. This was a classic case of me trying to plough ahead with my own ideas of how to set the afternoon up successfully. I think my reason for trying "plough ahead" was that I was conscious of the lack of output our group had contributed. For me, I would have felt satisfied (if not overly so) with our contribution if we at least had a clear direction in place for the afternoon, but in doing so, completely missed the fundamental rules of the exercise.
This was particularly interesting as, at a previous PLP I was fed back that I should take a step back and look at the big picture - take the blinkers off if you will. And apparently, I hadn't done that quite yet. Needless to say, I was not feeling particularly comfortable with my own contribution within the group. I tried to analyse this at the time, as recommended to do so by the facilitators, but genuinely found this difficult.
For me, self reflection in such an environment was extremely challenging. While obviously I cant compare the 'stress' of the situation to that of a boxing match, it does seem to me sensible, that the more pressure we get put under, the harder it is to let go and take the step back - something that I would have definitely benefited from. So, after a quick lunch and a pep talk from (and to) a colleague, the bell went for the second half of the session...
4. Don't Fight the Referee, fight the opponent: I guess that that this has already been summed up by Sun Tzu better than I could ever do so, but this will become clear soon. By this point, I felt like someone out fought and out thought by an opponent. I had not really got to grips with the source material and not really worked as effectively as a Team member / leader as I know I can. It had not been a total disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly I was struggling to come to terms with the set up. Maybe this reflection would have served me better during the day rather than at 1120pm after, but better late than never.
I felt that I spent too much time trying to understand the rules of the game, trying to understand exactly what I was trying to achieve, and not enough time actually doing it. This was interesting, particularly because I was working with some very capable people, several of which clearly had a better understanding of the game than me. I did ask for advice from two of them, but perhaps I should have been more forthcoming in bringing forward my own key understandings and knowledge limitations. It is conceivable that other people would have done the same thing too - I am pretty confident that many other people had similar concerns. However, at this point, I was too focused on my own limitations, to bring in others. Again, if I had taken a step back, there is a good chance that I would have increased my own grasp of the scope of the project.
Often, during this point, I worked alone - most unlike me as I love team work.
5. This match was going to Points: Almost inevitable, this one went to points. I had thrown myself into the work throughout the day and despite being bested by it on several occasions, it never totally got the better of me. I have the teams I worked in as well as some industry on my part to thank for that. The push came to the shove when our sponsor arrived and we were required to present as groups. One of the gents from our group gave a great effort with undeniably difficult source material - Great Work EC.
By the very end I had a good understanding of the key costs / benefits of my own individual work, and was able to answer probing questions on them. But that was it - I would not have been able to answer questions to the same level of detail on any other part of the team I was in. In fact, I don't think I could have answered a single question on my other team members business functions. This got me thinking:
How am I meant to work with these guys and persuade them if I don't know / understand their point of view demands? Maybe if I had taken my blinkers off and tried to understand my colleagues demands / needs better, I would have been more effective in working as a team.
For me at no point, did I ever have a true grasp of what the other guys were doing. For me, this was really hammered / punched home in the Q&A session.
6. And the Winner is... Well, our team won, and I think that was in no small part to the excellent job EC did presenting in addition to key contributions from some of our other guys. However there is a point I want to make to all this.
I have framed the discussion of PLP 3 as a boxing match. I don't think it was ever set up to be a fight, but at points, for me it felt like that. However, it was a fight I learned a hell of a lot from., and I will talk about how I felt the content / structure worked in a separate post. This is a very vain and self centred post I am afraid...
A conclusion
But that's just it, learning is acquiring knowledge, and maybe Sun Tzu missed the point slightly (or ignored it) when he said
"Know yourself and know your enemies and you will never be defeated in over 100 battles"
Today, maybe a more appropriate statement would be
"Know yourself, know your friends and know your enemies and you will never be defeated in one battle".
Knowing how we work together is as important as knowing how our enemies / competitors work without us.
Finally, I know some of you think that's a bit cheesy, but for those of you in the know - I did say I had a hell of a lot of big cheese recently, and you cant blame me for sharing it.
DD
* TFL are forever lying to me.
Tuesday 9 June 2009
How far can you go?
Its been a month since my last post. This is not because I have not much to say, quite the contrary. Rather, I have had a lot on my mind and have been busy with a range of things lately and I have been concerned that if I posted during the previous month, it would not be as articulate as I would have wanted.
Anyhow, my good flatmate postulated a pretty interesting questions - How far do you think you can go in business? This was too good a question for me not to comment on. It is not that I have never thought about it before, rather it is a question I have consciously shied away from answering. More on this later.
I suggested that how far you go in business is possibly down to a tug of war between 3 things...
1. Drive to Succeed
2. Will to work
3. Will to inconvenience
This was never meant to be some sort of a complete theory of work or anything of the sort - we did have this conversation while cooking some dinner.
This was always going to be a short post though. I normally ramble a lot, but this was meant to be very short and self reflecting. To be honest, I dont know what "success" looks like to me. I do have the will to work, and I am happy to inconvenience my social life at the expense of work on occasions, but for me, it is really difficult to answer this question.
One of the reasons I have shied away from answering this question, and possibly the reason i am doing so now, is that what if it is more simple that that. What if success boils down to a combination of luck, ability and opinions.
If success boiled down to these three things, I would find it difficult to accept. Difficult because the idea of luck is both mysteriously haunting and a semi rational justification for outcomes. Still, it is worth a thought or two.
Anyhow, I am thinking about this subject and I will come up with a more substantive post at some point.
Anyhow, my good flatmate postulated a pretty interesting questions - How far do you think you can go in business? This was too good a question for me not to comment on. It is not that I have never thought about it before, rather it is a question I have consciously shied away from answering. More on this later.
I suggested that how far you go in business is possibly down to a tug of war between 3 things...
1. Drive to Succeed
2. Will to work
3. Will to inconvenience
This was never meant to be some sort of a complete theory of work or anything of the sort - we did have this conversation while cooking some dinner.
This was always going to be a short post though. I normally ramble a lot, but this was meant to be very short and self reflecting. To be honest, I dont know what "success" looks like to me. I do have the will to work, and I am happy to inconvenience my social life at the expense of work on occasions, but for me, it is really difficult to answer this question.
One of the reasons I have shied away from answering this question, and possibly the reason i am doing so now, is that what if it is more simple that that. What if success boils down to a combination of luck, ability and opinions.
If success boiled down to these three things, I would find it difficult to accept. Difficult because the idea of luck is both mysteriously haunting and a semi rational justification for outcomes. Still, it is worth a thought or two.
Anyhow, I am thinking about this subject and I will come up with a more substantive post at some point.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Its a boy girl thing - a sort of review
Hello there. On Saturday, a day where I was kicking back and trying to forget about work for the weekend, I discovered a really great film. This film was not a classic like 'the Godfather' or 'Battle Royale', rather it was a nice story. The story is as follows...
In a nice American suburb, two teenage neighbours living beside each other, one a guy one a girl. Essentially, they don't like each other very much and there are some pretty generic stereotypes about their families - one is working class, all star jock (American) football player, the other a preppy bookworm girl looking to go to Yale. The film begins, roughly, one week from the "biggest football game of the guys career, where all the scouts will be at. It is also one week, from the girls interview for Yale. So... long story short, these two end up buddied up on a school trip, argue in front of a statue of a Mayan god and wake up in each others bodies. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
So, about 15 minutes in and I had some gender swapping, crude jokes, an obvious "simmering" romance between the two leads and numerous childish jokes about the two leading characters getting used to the bodies of the contradictory sex. Don't get me wrong, I was giggling at the film - call me old fashioned but there is something pretty funny about a teenage guy in a girls body trying to get to grips with putting on a bra - while commenting that "these things are hard enough to get off".
Anyhow, long story short, the two characters get used to each others bodies, begin to fall in love, there is some ridiculous scandal involving a "homecoming queen", slumber parties as well as an amusing scene where the woman in a mans body goes to football practice while the man in the woman's body goes to the ladies shower room. Tactical awareness indeed.
So, the film winds up with the following scenario - the two darlings decide to coach each other, the guy teaches the girl (in his body) how to "harness" his strength to play football for the last game and she teaches him how to dress and pass the entrance interview for Yale. The climax is the Football game where, needless to say, the fairytale ending ensues... the girl in the guys body scores the ultimate game winning touchdown and the guy in the girls body gets back from the interview and.... well...you don't know. You just don't find out... So this got me thinking...
The girl in the guys body gets the immediate win. She / He gets the immediate glory of success, he / she led the team to glory and gets carried off the pitch. It made the whole thing worthwhile.
The guy in the girls body however does not find out, he / she has to wait. He / she has to wait to find out not only the result of the interview, but for the girl, it was an interview she was directly invested in without being directly involved. Obviously, she gets into Yale , and both get their reward, but though the picture painted both rewards as commensurable, they felt somehow different.
What struck me about the 'getting into Yale' reward, was that it was individual, fundamental and reliant on hard work of the mind. The individual success was down to the hard work of one person (or, for the sake of the movie, the two working together), but ultimately it was down to individual success. Though the two people had to work together, you are left in now doubt that the girl would have walked the interview - she was reciting Romeo and Juliet for crying out loud (and by the great big love in at the end of the movie, I kinda was...)
The flip side, the football reward, the scout saying great game we'll get you a scholarship etc. The important thing here, for me, was that the whole thing was about the importance of the team - though the success was led by one person, the whole team triumphed, and that was the way it was portrayed on screen.
I thought about this in a business context and asked myself what would matter more to me - what would I prefer? Individual success and reward or leading a team to success. Both have recognition and rewards. You could argue that the success is diluted by relying on the team to archive it, or you could argue that the success is magnified by sharing it with the team. Individually, you could say that the entrance to Yale was more rewarding than any team exercise as it was all down to one person, and that person delivered. The flip side is that, intellectually, it is better to stimulate more people and that is something that individual success misses.
I guess, there is immense virtue in both of these types of success, but what used to really appeal to me was the "stand alone" success. It was not that I was selfish, just I liked the idea of achieving individually. However, slowly, I am beginning to feel like though it is a different type of (very important) reward, driving and leading a successful team is much more rewarding in a business sense.
Recently, I felt like I reached a sort of compromise, in team sports and team business, being successful individually no longer mattered to me as much as it used to, I have become more focused on the team success. However, demonstrating my intellectual individuality and success has become more important than ever. I feel like this is an important part of me that I genuinely don't want to lose. Perhaps this is down to how I feel I can contribute to a teams success - I, like most people, still want to stand out within a team, for me this is by intellectual vanity, but ultimately I do want the team to be successful.
To conclude, the bottom line is this - loved up romantic comedies about ludicrous situations involving gender mind swapping can teach you a thing or two about yourself. Maybe this says more about my own disposition than I care to admit, but hell, it was a cracking movie. I couldn't escape thinking about work, but when the romance is that good, its okay to shed a tear.
Kindest,
Dante
*the film was called "its a boy girl thing", starring some people called Samaire Armstrong and Kevin Zegers. It has much better acting than Hugh Grant has ever managed. Check out its imdb entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482527/
In a nice American suburb, two teenage neighbours living beside each other, one a guy one a girl. Essentially, they don't like each other very much and there are some pretty generic stereotypes about their families - one is working class, all star jock (American) football player, the other a preppy bookworm girl looking to go to Yale. The film begins, roughly, one week from the "biggest football game of the guys career, where all the scouts will be at. It is also one week, from the girls interview for Yale. So... long story short, these two end up buddied up on a school trip, argue in front of a statue of a Mayan god and wake up in each others bodies. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
So, about 15 minutes in and I had some gender swapping, crude jokes, an obvious "simmering" romance between the two leads and numerous childish jokes about the two leading characters getting used to the bodies of the contradictory sex. Don't get me wrong, I was giggling at the film - call me old fashioned but there is something pretty funny about a teenage guy in a girls body trying to get to grips with putting on a bra - while commenting that "these things are hard enough to get off".
Anyhow, long story short, the two characters get used to each others bodies, begin to fall in love, there is some ridiculous scandal involving a "homecoming queen", slumber parties as well as an amusing scene where the woman in a mans body goes to football practice while the man in the woman's body goes to the ladies shower room. Tactical awareness indeed.
So, the film winds up with the following scenario - the two darlings decide to coach each other, the guy teaches the girl (in his body) how to "harness" his strength to play football for the last game and she teaches him how to dress and pass the entrance interview for Yale. The climax is the Football game where, needless to say, the fairytale ending ensues... the girl in the guys body scores the ultimate game winning touchdown and the guy in the girls body gets back from the interview and.... well...you don't know. You just don't find out... So this got me thinking...
The girl in the guys body gets the immediate win. She / He gets the immediate glory of success, he / she led the team to glory and gets carried off the pitch. It made the whole thing worthwhile.
The guy in the girls body however does not find out, he / she has to wait. He / she has to wait to find out not only the result of the interview, but for the girl, it was an interview she was directly invested in without being directly involved. Obviously, she gets into Yale , and both get their reward, but though the picture painted both rewards as commensurable, they felt somehow different.
What struck me about the 'getting into Yale' reward, was that it was individual, fundamental and reliant on hard work of the mind. The individual success was down to the hard work of one person (or, for the sake of the movie, the two working together), but ultimately it was down to individual success. Though the two people had to work together, you are left in now doubt that the girl would have walked the interview - she was reciting Romeo and Juliet for crying out loud (and by the great big love in at the end of the movie, I kinda was...)
The flip side, the football reward, the scout saying great game we'll get you a scholarship etc. The important thing here, for me, was that the whole thing was about the importance of the team - though the success was led by one person, the whole team triumphed, and that was the way it was portrayed on screen.
I thought about this in a business context and asked myself what would matter more to me - what would I prefer? Individual success and reward or leading a team to success. Both have recognition and rewards. You could argue that the success is diluted by relying on the team to archive it, or you could argue that the success is magnified by sharing it with the team. Individually, you could say that the entrance to Yale was more rewarding than any team exercise as it was all down to one person, and that person delivered. The flip side is that, intellectually, it is better to stimulate more people and that is something that individual success misses.
I guess, there is immense virtue in both of these types of success, but what used to really appeal to me was the "stand alone" success. It was not that I was selfish, just I liked the idea of achieving individually. However, slowly, I am beginning to feel like though it is a different type of (very important) reward, driving and leading a successful team is much more rewarding in a business sense.
Recently, I felt like I reached a sort of compromise, in team sports and team business, being successful individually no longer mattered to me as much as it used to, I have become more focused on the team success. However, demonstrating my intellectual individuality and success has become more important than ever. I feel like this is an important part of me that I genuinely don't want to lose. Perhaps this is down to how I feel I can contribute to a teams success - I, like most people, still want to stand out within a team, for me this is by intellectual vanity, but ultimately I do want the team to be successful.
To conclude, the bottom line is this - loved up romantic comedies about ludicrous situations involving gender mind swapping can teach you a thing or two about yourself. Maybe this says more about my own disposition than I care to admit, but hell, it was a cracking movie. I couldn't escape thinking about work, but when the romance is that good, its okay to shed a tear.
Kindest,
Dante
*the film was called "its a boy girl thing", starring some people called Samaire Armstrong and Kevin Zegers. It has much better acting than Hugh Grant has ever managed. Check out its imdb entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482527/
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Just Back from Rugby - Comfort Zones and a car ride
So, we were all carted back to Rugby for the second part of our potential leaders module. The journey both to get there and on the course was a really interesting one, there were plenty of things that I could say about the two day event, but I'll try and keep my thoughts as focused as possible.
1. Just imagine them in their underwear - We have all probably heard the saying "if you are nervous giving a speech, just imagine the audience in their underwear". Well, as those of you in my group know, I was a few minutes late for the first morning session. When I walked in, and was greeted with a friendly hello, I looked around at the three tables and something really strange happened. I was totally convinced in my head that I couldn't recognise anyone. Seriously, for those first 13 seconds, I looked around and was greeted by people I convinced I was convinced I didn't know. it was a really surreal feeling. Then, I recognised one kind soul who offered me a seat. What was really strange though was that when I sat down and actually looked around, I immediately recognised about 95% of the room. Obviously I knew most of the guys before hand so I was a little perturbed.
When I reflected on this, I tried to work out what had happened. I think it was the slight embarrassment at being 5 minutes late coupled with the excitement of coming into a group I was familiar with that affected my judgement. I totally lost my focus and was totally out of my comfort zone. But this taught me a valuable lesson - something as trivial as being 5 minutes late can affect my judgement and perceptions, quite dramatically too. If this can happen in the very safe training environment, then it can definitely happen in the pressurised business one. So, Lesson one learned at 1005am on the first day. If you are wondering why I called this step "picture them in their underwear", well it was because that old adage swam into my head as I walked in. Don't fear though, I did nothing of the sort.
2. Vindication? An anagram for vindication is "void in antic". One of the immediate pieces of feedback I got was around my gut reaction and the need to be vindication. After a healthy discussion in our group, where I disagreed about one of the decisions, another group arrived at the same conclusion that I had. I immediately sat back, my whole body language saying "see, i told you I was right". I was immediately questioned about this by the facilitator, asking why that was my reaction. I was tempted to start out trying to justify why, but I gave expanding my feelings a go (EQ and all that....)
When it came down to it, I feel that the vindication was important for me as it backed up my own intellectual pride. However, this is not necessarily the most appropriate reaction. To me, this is not as simple as "feeling validated", rather it is publicly feeling validated. I think I liked the fact that another group of people came to the same conclusion that I had. Was I right to think like this? I don't think so, and I am grateful I was challenged on this point. Having your feelings echoed by another group is different than feeling vindicated - there is a certain siege mentality that vindication brings in. I should definitely have let my groups discussion go and looked at the other inputs on their own merits rather than a way to validate my own earlier issues. So in some respect, my antics were void as I wanted to be vindicated.
3. Feedback - its not all sweetness. One of the standout exercises for me was the positive and negative (or is it developmental?) feedback one. For me, this exercise worked really well because of the way it was set up. It was set up in a safe environment, a full day after we arrived so we were familiar and the tools were presented to us. The tools, very simple but very effective, encouraged us to move into becoming effective (if not comfortable) of giving negative feedback. This took me out of my comfort zone, telling people I generally really like how I thought they worked well for me. But I do know the set up was what really set this off. A really well structured activity. To develop this idea slightly, although I learned allot about delivering negative feedback, I think that when it comes to doing this with my team I am going to use a similar approach.
While I am not going to go around handing out cute cards, I would like to develop a similar structure and toolkit to deliver really effective, difficult messages. This is something I will flesh out later, business viable feedback kits are a difficult and sensitive topic.
4. One to One...give me "me" time. The chance to work in a range of groups was great. I had 1:1 time with my peers, 3 way feedback, 7 people discussions at the tables and full room discussions and feedback. The variety not only served to keep the activities and sessions fresh, but it also allowed me to practice communicating within this variety. However, one feeling stood out for me - In particular with the 1:1's and 3 way discussions I got a lot out of. During the exercises I often found myself thinking "I cant wait for it to be my turn".
I don't mean this is a selfish point of view, in some respects it highlights the effectiveness of the sessions. However, what this also suggests / reinforces to me is that this is high value and I wanted to get as much out of the course as possible. The flip side is that I hope this didn't manifest itself in my activities - obviously it is really important that I give as much as I get from the group exercises, its not all about me. I guess the key learn from this is that I need to have control over my own contributions and to be mindful of the team goal (no blinkers on!).
5. Comfort Zone - i was so far from my comfort zone that it was a dot. There were many activities that took me out of my comfort zone, several of the feedback sessions were big learning experiences for me from this point of view. However, there was one "session" that stood out and took me beyond the norm. I am talking about the ancient and noble art of karaoke. Now, I have never karaoked before and I was heart afraid of doing so, but I enjoyed the singing with 3 of the guys. For some reason though, I seemed to think it was a good idea to follow up my initial pathetic karaoke effort with a.... raunchy.... duet.
While I dont think I need to detail all the details, needless to say that this is not my normal behaviour, but two things stood out here. First of all, the social aspect was massive. The opportunity to meet up and socialise with Peers totally outside a work environment did enhance my over all enthusiasm for the course. Secondly, the social side taught me a lot about my own interactions with people. I sometimes find it very difficult to know how to balance work and personal friendships. It is not always clear where the threshold lies and it was great to experience the other graduates in a very social capacity, as opposed to the usual business one. This was great...
--
So those are my immediate feelings on the course. It was, in my book excellent and my initial reaction was to add value to the business, both in terms of developing myself and others. I learned a lot on the course and generally had fun.
Just to finish off, the journey on the course was really interesting. We explored a range of feedback tools, styles and attitudes. There was some fantastic personal development time and some really empowering activities. I left feeling enthusiastic and energised, which was great.
In fact, I left so energised that myself and two colleagues who were driving home, decided to carry on the theme of the two days, which was expressing ourselves. We expressed ourselves by singing Queens greatest hits, wind blowing through our hair. Sure, we may have looked rather odd, but after two days being brought out of our comfort zones, it seemed only fair to bring the public out of theirs with our singing.
Kindest,
Dante
PS if you are interested in hearing the original of the song I sang to the locals, check out the following youtube link. Please be aware, its quite crude. Which is what made it memorable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VAv8y2hHM
1. Just imagine them in their underwear - We have all probably heard the saying "if you are nervous giving a speech, just imagine the audience in their underwear". Well, as those of you in my group know, I was a few minutes late for the first morning session. When I walked in, and was greeted with a friendly hello, I looked around at the three tables and something really strange happened. I was totally convinced in my head that I couldn't recognise anyone. Seriously, for those first 13 seconds, I looked around and was greeted by people I convinced I was convinced I didn't know. it was a really surreal feeling. Then, I recognised one kind soul who offered me a seat. What was really strange though was that when I sat down and actually looked around, I immediately recognised about 95% of the room. Obviously I knew most of the guys before hand so I was a little perturbed.
When I reflected on this, I tried to work out what had happened. I think it was the slight embarrassment at being 5 minutes late coupled with the excitement of coming into a group I was familiar with that affected my judgement. I totally lost my focus and was totally out of my comfort zone. But this taught me a valuable lesson - something as trivial as being 5 minutes late can affect my judgement and perceptions, quite dramatically too. If this can happen in the very safe training environment, then it can definitely happen in the pressurised business one. So, Lesson one learned at 1005am on the first day. If you are wondering why I called this step "picture them in their underwear", well it was because that old adage swam into my head as I walked in. Don't fear though, I did nothing of the sort.
2. Vindication? An anagram for vindication is "void in antic". One of the immediate pieces of feedback I got was around my gut reaction and the need to be vindication. After a healthy discussion in our group, where I disagreed about one of the decisions, another group arrived at the same conclusion that I had. I immediately sat back, my whole body language saying "see, i told you I was right". I was immediately questioned about this by the facilitator, asking why that was my reaction. I was tempted to start out trying to justify why, but I gave expanding my feelings a go (EQ and all that....)
When it came down to it, I feel that the vindication was important for me as it backed up my own intellectual pride. However, this is not necessarily the most appropriate reaction. To me, this is not as simple as "feeling validated", rather it is publicly feeling validated. I think I liked the fact that another group of people came to the same conclusion that I had. Was I right to think like this? I don't think so, and I am grateful I was challenged on this point. Having your feelings echoed by another group is different than feeling vindicated - there is a certain siege mentality that vindication brings in. I should definitely have let my groups discussion go and looked at the other inputs on their own merits rather than a way to validate my own earlier issues. So in some respect, my antics were void as I wanted to be vindicated.
3. Feedback - its not all sweetness. One of the standout exercises for me was the positive and negative (or is it developmental?) feedback one. For me, this exercise worked really well because of the way it was set up. It was set up in a safe environment, a full day after we arrived so we were familiar and the tools were presented to us. The tools, very simple but very effective, encouraged us to move into becoming effective (if not comfortable) of giving negative feedback. This took me out of my comfort zone, telling people I generally really like how I thought they worked well for me. But I do know the set up was what really set this off. A really well structured activity. To develop this idea slightly, although I learned allot about delivering negative feedback, I think that when it comes to doing this with my team I am going to use a similar approach.
While I am not going to go around handing out cute cards, I would like to develop a similar structure and toolkit to deliver really effective, difficult messages. This is something I will flesh out later, business viable feedback kits are a difficult and sensitive topic.
4. One to One...give me "me" time. The chance to work in a range of groups was great. I had 1:1 time with my peers, 3 way feedback, 7 people discussions at the tables and full room discussions and feedback. The variety not only served to keep the activities and sessions fresh, but it also allowed me to practice communicating within this variety. However, one feeling stood out for me - In particular with the 1:1's and 3 way discussions I got a lot out of. During the exercises I often found myself thinking "I cant wait for it to be my turn".
I don't mean this is a selfish point of view, in some respects it highlights the effectiveness of the sessions. However, what this also suggests / reinforces to me is that this is high value and I wanted to get as much out of the course as possible. The flip side is that I hope this didn't manifest itself in my activities - obviously it is really important that I give as much as I get from the group exercises, its not all about me. I guess the key learn from this is that I need to have control over my own contributions and to be mindful of the team goal (no blinkers on!).
5. Comfort Zone - i was so far from my comfort zone that it was a dot. There were many activities that took me out of my comfort zone, several of the feedback sessions were big learning experiences for me from this point of view. However, there was one "session" that stood out and took me beyond the norm. I am talking about the ancient and noble art of karaoke. Now, I have never karaoked before and I was heart afraid of doing so, but I enjoyed the singing with 3 of the guys. For some reason though, I seemed to think it was a good idea to follow up my initial pathetic karaoke effort with a.... raunchy.... duet.
While I dont think I need to detail all the details, needless to say that this is not my normal behaviour, but two things stood out here. First of all, the social aspect was massive. The opportunity to meet up and socialise with Peers totally outside a work environment did enhance my over all enthusiasm for the course. Secondly, the social side taught me a lot about my own interactions with people. I sometimes find it very difficult to know how to balance work and personal friendships. It is not always clear where the threshold lies and it was great to experience the other graduates in a very social capacity, as opposed to the usual business one. This was great...
--
So those are my immediate feelings on the course. It was, in my book excellent and my initial reaction was to add value to the business, both in terms of developing myself and others. I learned a lot on the course and generally had fun.
Just to finish off, the journey on the course was really interesting. We explored a range of feedback tools, styles and attitudes. There was some fantastic personal development time and some really empowering activities. I left feeling enthusiastic and energised, which was great.
In fact, I left so energised that myself and two colleagues who were driving home, decided to carry on the theme of the two days, which was expressing ourselves. We expressed ourselves by singing Queens greatest hits, wind blowing through our hair. Sure, we may have looked rather odd, but after two days being brought out of our comfort zones, it seemed only fair to bring the public out of theirs with our singing.
Kindest,
Dante
PS if you are interested in hearing the original of the song I sang to the locals, check out the following youtube link. Please be aware, its quite crude. Which is what made it memorable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VAv8y2hHM
Sunday 19 April 2009
The Honey Moon is Over
I have never actually been on a honey moon, but I am starting to feel like my honey moon period on the graduate programme is over. This does not mean that that I am not enjoying myself - rather, it is starting to feel like the reality of the job is starting to hit home. As such, there are a few things on my mind.
1. Back to Reality. After 8 months living and working in London, I have started to think beyond the next weekend. By this I mean, normally my only care is about delivering in work and partying at the weekend. While there have been plenty of times in the past where I planned my future etc, the first 8 months have been so relentless I've hardly had any time. So like the end of a honey moon, I have to start thinking about the realities of the job, career and life in London.
2. Why the change in heart son? What brought this sudden change in heart? Well, I am not sure that it was so sudden, rather I think that over the last few weeks while the pace of the job has remained relentless, numerous items in the news have made me reflect on how lucky I am to have a good paying, challenging and interesting job. With the G20 Summit and unemployment numbers continuing to increase it seemed to a good time to reflect on my situation. I guess what I am trying to say is that when I started to think about my future, I really began to realise how little thought I had given it. This, while not surprising, made me think that while you can maybe jump on the net and book a great last minute flight and get lucky and get a great honey moon, it is ultimately safer to plan.
3. School Reunions. When I got thinking about my situation, I started to think "if I went to a school reunion, what would I say?". I don't really know where this thought came from, but it seemed an interesting way to look at my job. For a start, it made me think that if I was writing a list of what I do, this would ultimately vary what I would tell people. Ultimately, there would be a bit of vanity - I would want those guys I used to know that I am doing well, living happily etc. Again, its not that I am not happy, but I really do feel I would be creative with the truth when describing my job and lifestyle. Working on the grad programme is undeniably great - like a honey moon, you don't come back and tell all your friends about the stupid fight you had on the second night.
4. The media wouldn't let the truth stand in the way of a good story. I guess that many people would probably be slightly creative with the truth - especially if it suits their means. However, I don't know why I would be feel the need to "big up" my job to people I hardly know or care about. Maybe this is because status is so important but I never thought it would be important to me. Maybe that's a bit clichéd, but I've never been one to go out of my way to be seen to be important. It is interesting to see the change in my own opinions since moving to London - I now am sincerely interested in both status and career and this has both surprised and educated me.
5. As the Honey moon ends... The image I have in my head is that first step off the return flight back into the UK after 2 weeks in Barbados. Ultimately the end of the honey moon is meant to be the first day of the rest of your lives together, but on a grey rainy day in Heathrow, you step onto the tarmac and the reality of the situation hits home. Its not that the reality is bad, just it is impossible to guess just how you feel about it until you are face to face with the situation.
For me, I guess this is the key point - how the job makes me feel. I like to think of myself as being quite scientific the reality is that so much of what we do relates to and affects our feelings. The reality is that my status, career planning and lifestyle having a definite impact on how I feel - and this took me by surprise. Ultimately though, just like a once the honeymoon period ends, be it in your job or marriage, you never can tell how you will feel until you are actually in the situation itself.
1. Back to Reality. After 8 months living and working in London, I have started to think beyond the next weekend. By this I mean, normally my only care is about delivering in work and partying at the weekend. While there have been plenty of times in the past where I planned my future etc, the first 8 months have been so relentless I've hardly had any time. So like the end of a honey moon, I have to start thinking about the realities of the job, career and life in London.
2. Why the change in heart son? What brought this sudden change in heart? Well, I am not sure that it was so sudden, rather I think that over the last few weeks while the pace of the job has remained relentless, numerous items in the news have made me reflect on how lucky I am to have a good paying, challenging and interesting job. With the G20 Summit and unemployment numbers continuing to increase it seemed to a good time to reflect on my situation. I guess what I am trying to say is that when I started to think about my future, I really began to realise how little thought I had given it. This, while not surprising, made me think that while you can maybe jump on the net and book a great last minute flight and get lucky and get a great honey moon, it is ultimately safer to plan.
3. School Reunions. When I got thinking about my situation, I started to think "if I went to a school reunion, what would I say?". I don't really know where this thought came from, but it seemed an interesting way to look at my job. For a start, it made me think that if I was writing a list of what I do, this would ultimately vary what I would tell people. Ultimately, there would be a bit of vanity - I would want those guys I used to know that I am doing well, living happily etc. Again, its not that I am not happy, but I really do feel I would be creative with the truth when describing my job and lifestyle. Working on the grad programme is undeniably great - like a honey moon, you don't come back and tell all your friends about the stupid fight you had on the second night.
4. The media wouldn't let the truth stand in the way of a good story. I guess that many people would probably be slightly creative with the truth - especially if it suits their means. However, I don't know why I would be feel the need to "big up" my job to people I hardly know or care about. Maybe this is because status is so important but I never thought it would be important to me. Maybe that's a bit clichéd, but I've never been one to go out of my way to be seen to be important. It is interesting to see the change in my own opinions since moving to London - I now am sincerely interested in both status and career and this has both surprised and educated me.
5. As the Honey moon ends... The image I have in my head is that first step off the return flight back into the UK after 2 weeks in Barbados. Ultimately the end of the honey moon is meant to be the first day of the rest of your lives together, but on a grey rainy day in Heathrow, you step onto the tarmac and the reality of the situation hits home. Its not that the reality is bad, just it is impossible to guess just how you feel about it until you are face to face with the situation.
For me, I guess this is the key point - how the job makes me feel. I like to think of myself as being quite scientific the reality is that so much of what we do relates to and affects our feelings. The reality is that my status, career planning and lifestyle having a definite impact on how I feel - and this took me by surprise. Ultimately though, just like a once the honeymoon period ends, be it in your job or marriage, you never can tell how you will feel until you are actually in the situation itself.
Wednesday 1 April 2009
Twenty 'G's - all on black!
As it transpires, all bankers, personal or otherwise are morally corrupt bad individuals contributing directly to the global crisis. Well, at least this would be the case were you to believe some of what has been said today. I am aware that this is a potentially sensitive topic in the current climate, but I did want to make a few remarks about how I see the current protests around how the 20 G's* affects our positions on the Graduate programme.
1. If You got love - you ain't' lonely: The same goes for hate. While it is not nice to work in a sector that gets an awful lot of bad press, I must say that I for one, find it very interesting to work for a company that has such incredible exposure. Understandably, not all this exposure is positive, but many of us are working for one of the most high profile business's in the country, in the financial capital of Europe. This really makes me appreciate the fact that, yes we are having tough times, but we are not going through it alone. Hell, we may even be one of the better equipped to handle the difficulties. Plus, we all should know, that if we make a positive impact now, when times are tough, we will stand out as being able to contribute to the business in tough times.
2. Lets all Play the Blame game: It is very easy to blame other people for pretty much anything. If you don't want to take responsibility, there is usually someone else you can pass it on to. While this may undeniably be the wrong business attitude, it is important to look at the vitriol being directed at bankers. Some of us may argue that we are still very new to bank, and sure, decisions were made in the past that were incorrect, but its not like we made them. However, the banks do get bad press and one of the reasons we do, I would suggest, is that many people fail to see the difference between making and allowing.
If I were to make something happen, say by pushing a child into the sea to drown, I would have caused the child's death by making it happen. If i were to stand by while a child was in the sea drowning and not rescue the child, I would have caused the child's death by allowing it to happen. The outcome of both my actions is the same - in both cases my actions caused the child's death. This is one way that people look at common issues - the bottom line is what matters, and if you allow it to happen, you are as responsible for the event happening as if you caused it in the first place. This is , I believe, one of the reasons why so much anger is directed towards bankers, as we are working for companies that have endorsed in the past one particular set of rules and behaviours as employees we are happy to allow these procedures to take place.
However, there is something fundamentally different between doing and allowing. In the above example, causing the child to drown implies callous, calculating and sociopathic tendencies. Allowing the child to die implies cowardice, ineptness and lack of empathy. While both sets of characteristics are flaws in character, there are very fundamental differences. However, the point is thatjudgement is often made of the bottom line.
We, as 'bankers', are being judged at the bottom line. If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem in that we are 'allowing' the problem to happen. However, there is a very big difference between allowing a problem to happen and intentionally bringing it about in the first place.
I for one, am happy to admit that I am part of the problem in that there are things I can do to improve, but I am not willing to admit that I am part of the cause of the problem. I want to make a differnce, but I want to do it in a fair and educated manner.
My guess is that many of the protester's are looking are being very "bottom line" and looking at the ultimate outcomes. Which is exactly the kind of behaviour they have criticised the banks for - looking too much at the bottom line and not enough at the big picture. The big picture for me (student debts, lifestyle, career) is very differnt from the "corporate approach".
Then again, though I may not agree with a particular way of thinking, I would not dream of anything as vulgar as throwing bits of steel through their windows.
My two main points of this post were around the high level of exposure and the philosophical implication of the problems. I have missed out something more serious and this has been intentional. I have not covered the threat to bankers personal safety - but with good reason.
In a modern civilised society there is no place for threatening people because of their (legal) profession. There are many difficult and repugnant jobs that have to be done that do not get subjected to the same exposure in the media. I would not wish to indulge any cretin who threatened a colleague of mine with violence by discussing the fallacies of their point of view.
3. One for the Road: For what its worth, my own opinions are distinctly very left wing. I agree, in principle with a large element of what the protester's have been saying, though I would go one step further and criticise the democratic systems in place. I agree with protesting, but never in the manner which reduces protests to ignorant acts of indiscriminate, disruptive violence.
Coming from Northern Ireland, I know a thing or two about indiscriminate, ignorant violence.
My fundamental point is this. It is fascinating to work in a culturally diverse society. It is even better to work in one that supports pro-active opposition to the status quo. I feel privileged that I can work in a job where I can make a difference and learn at the same time. I don't agree with violence and erratic opinions.
Protesting in such a manner as we saw today is a gamble. It is a gamble for your own safety, your colleagues safety and a gamble on the profile of your opinion.
Ultimately, I would not gamble with things like my colleagues safety or endorse violence against them for holding political opinions contrary to my own. Which is essentially what many people are doing. Protesting is one thing, but encouraging violence is another - it suggests that it is easier to blame than reason.
But then again, that's maybe why I didn't put Twenty G's on this passing off peacefully. I'm just not a big enough gambler and I prefer to reason than blame
Kindest,
DD
*20 G's is actually a reference to the book "the Gods that Failed". It is a discussion of the most powerful leaders in the world and how they modelled themselves as gods - but ultimately, failed.
1. If You got love - you ain't' lonely: The same goes for hate. While it is not nice to work in a sector that gets an awful lot of bad press, I must say that I for one, find it very interesting to work for a company that has such incredible exposure. Understandably, not all this exposure is positive, but many of us are working for one of the most high profile business's in the country, in the financial capital of Europe. This really makes me appreciate the fact that, yes we are having tough times, but we are not going through it alone. Hell, we may even be one of the better equipped to handle the difficulties. Plus, we all should know, that if we make a positive impact now, when times are tough, we will stand out as being able to contribute to the business in tough times.
2. Lets all Play the Blame game: It is very easy to blame other people for pretty much anything. If you don't want to take responsibility, there is usually someone else you can pass it on to. While this may undeniably be the wrong business attitude, it is important to look at the vitriol being directed at bankers. Some of us may argue that we are still very new to bank, and sure, decisions were made in the past that were incorrect, but its not like we made them. However, the banks do get bad press and one of the reasons we do, I would suggest, is that many people fail to see the difference between making and allowing.
If I were to make something happen, say by pushing a child into the sea to drown, I would have caused the child's death by making it happen. If i were to stand by while a child was in the sea drowning and not rescue the child, I would have caused the child's death by allowing it to happen. The outcome of both my actions is the same - in both cases my actions caused the child's death. This is one way that people look at common issues - the bottom line is what matters, and if you allow it to happen, you are as responsible for the event happening as if you caused it in the first place. This is , I believe, one of the reasons why so much anger is directed towards bankers, as we are working for companies that have endorsed in the past one particular set of rules and behaviours as employees we are happy to allow these procedures to take place.
However, there is something fundamentally different between doing and allowing. In the above example, causing the child to drown implies callous, calculating and sociopathic tendencies. Allowing the child to die implies cowardice, ineptness and lack of empathy. While both sets of characteristics are flaws in character, there are very fundamental differences. However, the point is thatjudgement is often made of the bottom line.
We, as 'bankers', are being judged at the bottom line. If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem in that we are 'allowing' the problem to happen. However, there is a very big difference between allowing a problem to happen and intentionally bringing it about in the first place.
I for one, am happy to admit that I am part of the problem in that there are things I can do to improve, but I am not willing to admit that I am part of the cause of the problem. I want to make a differnce, but I want to do it in a fair and educated manner.
My guess is that many of the protester's are looking are being very "bottom line" and looking at the ultimate outcomes. Which is exactly the kind of behaviour they have criticised the banks for - looking too much at the bottom line and not enough at the big picture. The big picture for me (student debts, lifestyle, career) is very differnt from the "corporate approach".
Then again, though I may not agree with a particular way of thinking, I would not dream of anything as vulgar as throwing bits of steel through their windows.
My two main points of this post were around the high level of exposure and the philosophical implication of the problems. I have missed out something more serious and this has been intentional. I have not covered the threat to bankers personal safety - but with good reason.
In a modern civilised society there is no place for threatening people because of their (legal) profession. There are many difficult and repugnant jobs that have to be done that do not get subjected to the same exposure in the media. I would not wish to indulge any cretin who threatened a colleague of mine with violence by discussing the fallacies of their point of view.
3. One for the Road: For what its worth, my own opinions are distinctly very left wing. I agree, in principle with a large element of what the protester's have been saying, though I would go one step further and criticise the democratic systems in place. I agree with protesting, but never in the manner which reduces protests to ignorant acts of indiscriminate, disruptive violence.
Coming from Northern Ireland, I know a thing or two about indiscriminate, ignorant violence.
My fundamental point is this. It is fascinating to work in a culturally diverse society. It is even better to work in one that supports pro-active opposition to the status quo. I feel privileged that I can work in a job where I can make a difference and learn at the same time. I don't agree with violence and erratic opinions.
Protesting in such a manner as we saw today is a gamble. It is a gamble for your own safety, your colleagues safety and a gamble on the profile of your opinion.
Ultimately, I would not gamble with things like my colleagues safety or endorse violence against them for holding political opinions contrary to my own. Which is essentially what many people are doing. Protesting is one thing, but encouraging violence is another - it suggests that it is easier to blame than reason.
But then again, that's maybe why I didn't put Twenty G's on this passing off peacefully. I'm just not a big enough gambler and I prefer to reason than blame
Kindest,
DD
*20 G's is actually a reference to the book "the Gods that Failed". It is a discussion of the most powerful leaders in the world and how they modelled themselves as gods - but ultimately, failed.
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Decisions Decisions Decisions....
Okay, so i was thinking on the tube on Monday about the idea of decision making. Obviously, as part of our jobs we are required to make decisions - this is part of any job. However, in my job, I have found decision making to be very interesting and challenging.
I would suggest, that 99.9% of the decisions we make don't have huge consequences. For example, it does not really matter whether or not I decide to read my book on the history of Formula 1 or go to bed. Sure, i may be slightly more tired in the morning, but, bottom line, its not going to hugely influence my life. Lets not get too metaphysical and start suggesting that all actions have effects (which they do), but lets assume that their consequences are negligible.
And there we have it... we have assumed. I have heard, and HATE, the saying "when you assume you make an ASS of U and ME (As an aside, why do people always say that in a slightly ridiculous voice!? In fact, its anything but an unassuming voice). Anyway, the point is, that we make decisions, very often based on assumptions, and generally our decisions are assessed against these assumptions.
Where the decisions are based heavily on assumptions, they are deemed risky, and where they are based lightly on assumptions and primarily on fact, they are deemed "informed". So that is decision making...
Well for me, there is more to decision making that just assumptions and facts. Usually I make decisions with a motivation attached to it. While it may seem that more often than not, decisions boil down to a balance of Fact vs Assumption, many of the decisions we make have important business relevance. And this is where the point of this post (hopefully) begins to take shape.
We are all expected to make business decisions and indeed are encouraged to be risk takers. But a vital part of our own success, and probably self esteem, is the motivation we have for making particular decisions. When i want to make a decision, I want to know that it not just the right one, but that I am also making it for the right reasons.
My point is this - it is often very difficult to know that we are making the right decision, and I find it even harder to know why. Due to the massively complex corporate culture, business environment and sheer number of people we work with, making decisions is often the easy bit, but understanding why is often anything but transparent. When you take into account business culture, value, sales, politcs, money, personal interestand so on, decision making becomes very obscured.
One quote springs to mind: "Indecision costs more than a Bad Decision". A great quote no doubt, but sometimes I think that making the decision not to decide until I better understand my own motivations , is as important as being able to decide in the first place.
Then again, you may disagree - maybe motivations mean nothing and all I have done is made an ass of me.
Kindest,
DD
PS really good artice on JV here. Check it out. It is interesting. Also, it is relevant to my post - it outlines the importance of decision making. Check it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5062609/Barclays-master-of-its-destiny-as-John-Varleys-gamble-pays-off.html
I would suggest, that 99.9% of the decisions we make don't have huge consequences. For example, it does not really matter whether or not I decide to read my book on the history of Formula 1 or go to bed. Sure, i may be slightly more tired in the morning, but, bottom line, its not going to hugely influence my life. Lets not get too metaphysical and start suggesting that all actions have effects (which they do), but lets assume that their consequences are negligible.
And there we have it... we have assumed. I have heard, and HATE, the saying "when you assume you make an ASS of U and ME (As an aside, why do people always say that in a slightly ridiculous voice!? In fact, its anything but an unassuming voice). Anyway, the point is, that we make decisions, very often based on assumptions, and generally our decisions are assessed against these assumptions.
Where the decisions are based heavily on assumptions, they are deemed risky, and where they are based lightly on assumptions and primarily on fact, they are deemed "informed". So that is decision making...
Well for me, there is more to decision making that just assumptions and facts. Usually I make decisions with a motivation attached to it. While it may seem that more often than not, decisions boil down to a balance of Fact vs Assumption, many of the decisions we make have important business relevance. And this is where the point of this post (hopefully) begins to take shape.
We are all expected to make business decisions and indeed are encouraged to be risk takers. But a vital part of our own success, and probably self esteem, is the motivation we have for making particular decisions. When i want to make a decision, I want to know that it not just the right one, but that I am also making it for the right reasons.
My point is this - it is often very difficult to know that we are making the right decision, and I find it even harder to know why. Due to the massively complex corporate culture, business environment and sheer number of people we work with, making decisions is often the easy bit, but understanding why is often anything but transparent. When you take into account business culture, value, sales, politcs, money, personal interestand so on, decision making becomes very obscured.
One quote springs to mind: "Indecision costs more than a Bad Decision". A great quote no doubt, but sometimes I think that making the decision not to decide until I better understand my own motivations , is as important as being able to decide in the first place.
Then again, you may disagree - maybe motivations mean nothing and all I have done is made an ass of me.
Kindest,
DD
PS really good artice on JV here. Check it out. It is interesting. Also, it is relevant to my post - it outlines the importance of decision making. Check it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5062609/Barclays-master-of-its-destiny-as-John-Varleys-gamble-pays-off.html
Saturday 21 March 2009
The Ever-Rest Challenge
Well, today I took part in the Everest challenge. As any of my colleagues were keen to point out, technically i profited from a charity event, which in turn means that I am a bad bad man. It was an interesting start to the day, though there were a few comments I wanted to make.
1. I felt like death: By the time I finished, floor 30 seemed felt like my first step into hell. In fact, if you will spare me the (deliberate) literary allusion, it felt like Dante's first step into the inferno. My whole body hurt, my throat burned - hell, even my teeth hurt. And it was not that nice kind of pain you get after good exercise, this was a proper "I am not as fit as i thought i was, dream on if you think you are going down stairs for another one" kind of pain. And you know what, it surprised me. I play football 3 times a week and am used to running 5 miles at a reasonably competitive time, but this was something else. I was a wreck.
2.Hands off...Hands on: There was a lot of clapping. I know it was all for charity, but there seemed to be ab awful lot of clapping. I am not suggesting that this was totally self congratulatory, as there was some really hard work put in, but I think I clapped "ourselves" at least three times. Hell, we just rocked in at 10am for a run up some stairs. I guess my point here is that we were clapping the wrong people. The majority of the money raised, I will hazard a guess, was donated by people not present. It was these guys who deserved the applause, and yet we couldn't give it to them, not directly at least.
3. Give me a hand: The stewards or marshall's saw some grim sights. One of them tried to encourage me by saying "would you like some water?". I replied with "mate, I need a fu*king hug, not some water". At least he smiled, no harm was meant, but christ did I really need a hug (thanks HP).
4. Always mix business and pleasure: It was really interesting to see the group dynamic once again. I know there were some individuals attending, some branch teams and some couples present, but it was really interesting to see the other graduates again.
We took some excellent and ridiculous photographs, but what stood out for me was the attitude. For me, it did not feel like I was with people I worked with, it felt like I was there with a group of buddies (allow me this sentimental digression please). That said, it was buddies who abuse, insult and generally torture me when they can, but that's standard and I'm down with that. The point remains that I felt that people were more natural and at ease than during working hours (you see - this is why corporate wear sucks). While people may assume this is obvious, I find it difficult to relax around people I work with, even outside working hours, but today it felt easy to do so. But then again, we were all in shorts.
5. Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail: there was some pretty wicked planning involved today. Sure, there were one or two pairs of shorts that were too short, but generally, it was a well executed day. While I will not pretend to know all the logistics, I must say it ran pretty smooth. So cheers to those guys who organised it. In fact, I feel compelled to add, that the one part of the day that was left to myself to organise involved an amusing incident. I managed to get the DLR towards Bank, then stay on the train once I had reached Bank (while everyone departed) and headed back towards Shadwell. So good work guys on the organisational front - very smooth and very enjoyable.
These were the things that leapt to mind, though I am sure several other observations leapt a bit higher for everyone else. I had a really good day and certainly had a lot of fun. It would be great to have the option to meet all the guys in that sort of capacity every week - it was certainly refreshing to have a totally non work meeting with some of the guys - but I guess one of the charms was that events like that don't happen all the time.
As such, I'd though I would leave you with a poem:
Churchill Place has many a stair,
It is tough on the mind as well as the soul.
My body felt good, my heart without care.
at the challenge ahead and the easy goal.
Floor one to ten took my ambition,
It was tough on the mind as well as the soul.
For me, it began at a sprint and ended a war of attrition,
The first ten flights had begun to take their toll.
Floors ten to twenty felt like I was running in glue,
It was tough on the mind as well as the soul.
I walked and struggled on and my hopes were too few,
Never before had I felt less suited to a role.
The last ten flights were designed to separate the great from the crud,
It was tough on the mind as well as the soul.
I insulted a helper and sweatted what felt like blood,
WhileClimbing the stairs I descended into a hole.
The finish arrived , and supreme was the feeling,
It was easy on the mind and let lose my soul!
Yet nothing could stop me, over did I go - reeling,
Despite all this I had achieved my goal!
And so it ended with a group hug,
happy I felt and without a drug!
training next year has begun in vain,
For I still know I will feel as much pain.
A dreadful poem - but then again, given how dreadful I felt, it seemed fitting.
Kindest,
Dante
1. I felt like death: By the time I finished, floor 30 seemed felt like my first step into hell. In fact, if you will spare me the (deliberate) literary allusion, it felt like Dante's first step into the inferno. My whole body hurt, my throat burned - hell, even my teeth hurt. And it was not that nice kind of pain you get after good exercise, this was a proper "I am not as fit as i thought i was, dream on if you think you are going down stairs for another one" kind of pain. And you know what, it surprised me. I play football 3 times a week and am used to running 5 miles at a reasonably competitive time, but this was something else. I was a wreck.
2.Hands off...Hands on: There was a lot of clapping. I know it was all for charity, but there seemed to be ab awful lot of clapping. I am not suggesting that this was totally self congratulatory, as there was some really hard work put in, but I think I clapped "ourselves" at least three times. Hell, we just rocked in at 10am for a run up some stairs. I guess my point here is that we were clapping the wrong people. The majority of the money raised, I will hazard a guess, was donated by people not present. It was these guys who deserved the applause, and yet we couldn't give it to them, not directly at least.
3. Give me a hand: The stewards or marshall's saw some grim sights. One of them tried to encourage me by saying "would you like some water?". I replied with "mate, I need a fu*king hug, not some water". At least he smiled, no harm was meant, but christ did I really need a hug (thanks HP).
4. Always mix business and pleasure: It was really interesting to see the group dynamic once again. I know there were some individuals attending, some branch teams and some couples present, but it was really interesting to see the other graduates again.
We took some excellent and ridiculous photographs, but what stood out for me was the attitude. For me, it did not feel like I was with people I worked with, it felt like I was there with a group of buddies (allow me this sentimental digression please). That said, it was buddies who abuse, insult and generally torture me when they can, but that's standard and I'm down with that. The point remains that I felt that people were more natural and at ease than during working hours (you see - this is why corporate wear sucks). While people may assume this is obvious, I find it difficult to relax around people I work with, even outside working hours, but today it felt easy to do so. But then again, we were all in shorts.
5. Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail: there was some pretty wicked planning involved today. Sure, there were one or two pairs of shorts that were too short, but generally, it was a well executed day. While I will not pretend to know all the logistics, I must say it ran pretty smooth. So cheers to those guys who organised it. In fact, I feel compelled to add, that the one part of the day that was left to myself to organise involved an amusing incident. I managed to get the DLR towards Bank, then stay on the train once I had reached Bank (while everyone departed) and headed back towards Shadwell. So good work guys on the organisational front - very smooth and very enjoyable.
These were the things that leapt to mind, though I am sure several other observations leapt a bit higher for everyone else. I had a really good day and certainly had a lot of fun. It would be great to have the option to meet all the guys in that sort of capacity every week - it was certainly refreshing to have a totally non work meeting with some of the guys - but I guess one of the charms was that events like that don't happen all the time.
As such, I'd though I would leave you with a poem:
Churchill Place has many a stair,
It is tough on the mind as well as the soul.
My body felt good, my heart without care.
at the challenge ahead and the easy goal.
Floor one to ten took my ambition,
It was tough on the mind as well as the soul.
For me, it began at a sprint and ended a war of attrition,
The first ten flights had begun to take their toll.
Floors ten to twenty felt like I was running in glue,
It was tough on the mind as well as the soul.
I walked and struggled on and my hopes were too few,
Never before had I felt less suited to a role.
The last ten flights were designed to separate the great from the crud,
It was tough on the mind as well as the soul.
I insulted a helper and sweatted what felt like blood,
WhileClimbing the stairs I descended into a hole.
The finish arrived , and supreme was the feeling,
It was easy on the mind and let lose my soul!
Yet nothing could stop me, over did I go - reeling,
Despite all this I had achieved my goal!
And so it ended with a group hug,
happy I felt and without a drug!
training next year has begun in vain,
For I still know I will feel as much pain.
A dreadful poem - but then again, given how dreadful I felt, it seemed fitting.
Kindest,
Dante
Thursday 19 March 2009
Culture - not just about taking in museums.
It has been slightly longer than I had hoped between posts. Believe me, this has been more down to the fact that I have been busy than a lack of things to say (ask my flatmate - he hears allot of my comments that don’t make it as far as this blog!). Anyhow, I wanted to make a few comments about culture.
First of all, living in London, a city of culture, I have begun to feel very lucky. Lucky that I have the opportunities to visit all these wonderful places like the imperial war museum, the Tate modern and even Westminster - what ever floats your boat. So, that’s great! There are so many places to go, so many places to see... but do I have the time to get to them all?
You see, this is the double edged sword that is culture. The culture of work.
Having moved out of the retail network and into a more office based position, I have become involved in a different environment. This different environment brings with it its own unique set of unwritten rules, behaviours and expectations. And what is a "culture", in the business sense, except rules, behaviours and expectations.
This 'office' environment seems to me to have some very specific, and perhaps specific to it, cultural idiosyncacies. I thought I'd briefly discuss a few.
1. Look, but don’t touch. Of course, it’s a slight metaphor. In an office, it’s totally okay to look, or rather, not look but listen carefully to other interactions that are going on around you. Indeed, feel free to eavesdrop on people. In-fact, you may not even be eavesdropping - you may just be listening to a conversation people want you to hear. Or, to take this to a greater extreme, you may be able to see / hear that a conversation is taking place, without being able to hear the details. In this case it is obvious that its okay you see these two people are having a conversation, but you must not enquire as to what it is.
For them, it is a "private conversation" that they are having in public - so never ever interrupt. Or, better still, look at your emails and sigh - that way it looks like you have been asked a difficult question that requires your full attention, but really, you are more interested in the type (if not the detail) of the conversation.
2. NEVER and I mean NEVER, go home. It is a total mistake to be the first to leave. Woe and betide the gent or gentlewoman who leaves early. In-fact, even if you are doing something you could do at home, it is better to get a coffee (that you wont drink) at 455pm and spend 20 minutes doing it in the office. It’s better to be seen working in the office, than be working unseen (but twice as hard) at home.
3. Sell yourself: I am not endorsing some sort of prostitution, but every opportunity for discussion, even if it is about how many pens you need for an afternoon meeting, are an opportunity to display your social networking and self management skills.
4. The train was Late: If no one else gets your tube in, there were always delays on that line. It does not matter that you were technically early, if you arrive between0855 and 0920 without reason, there were delays on the tube. Any longer, and you are into the realm of major delays, but this time period is small enough to account for a "random" delay. Of course, those extra 5 minutes in bed were worth it.
5. Status please! There is literally never a dull moment. It is inconceivable that you may actually have a free moment. A free moment is merely an opportunity to find more work. If you are not working or seeking work, you are wasting time and not adding value. The same goes for lunch, if you are not working lunch; your lunch schedule is not working. And of course, people should know that you are seeking work, email as many people as possible and ring someone for a status update. OR, better still, ring your flatmate and talk crap with him that sounds like business.
Okay, so these were 5 things that leapt out to me. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of hard workers in the office, but I wonder about the culture. If our culture is to behave in this fashion with the goal of being perceived to work hard, are we maybe missing the point?
Is it okay to leave 20 minutes early to catch a faster train home where you will work harder? Is it okay to see two people having a "private conversation" and comment on it? To be honest I don’t know.
I guess the reality is that perception matters, culture does not.
Or rather, business culture is fundamentally a perception of performance. And in our business reality, performance is everything.
For me, there is more to life than performance, but one thing I do know is that all this 'culture' is causing me to miss a hell of a lot of 'culture' in London.
DD
First of all, living in London, a city of culture, I have begun to feel very lucky. Lucky that I have the opportunities to visit all these wonderful places like the imperial war museum, the Tate modern and even Westminster - what ever floats your boat. So, that’s great! There are so many places to go, so many places to see... but do I have the time to get to them all?
You see, this is the double edged sword that is culture. The culture of work.
Having moved out of the retail network and into a more office based position, I have become involved in a different environment. This different environment brings with it its own unique set of unwritten rules, behaviours and expectations. And what is a "culture", in the business sense, except rules, behaviours and expectations.
This 'office' environment seems to me to have some very specific, and perhaps specific to it, cultural idiosyncacies. I thought I'd briefly discuss a few.
1. Look, but don’t touch. Of course, it’s a slight metaphor. In an office, it’s totally okay to look, or rather, not look but listen carefully to other interactions that are going on around you. Indeed, feel free to eavesdrop on people. In-fact, you may not even be eavesdropping - you may just be listening to a conversation people want you to hear. Or, to take this to a greater extreme, you may be able to see / hear that a conversation is taking place, without being able to hear the details. In this case it is obvious that its okay you see these two people are having a conversation, but you must not enquire as to what it is.
For them, it is a "private conversation" that they are having in public - so never ever interrupt. Or, better still, look at your emails and sigh - that way it looks like you have been asked a difficult question that requires your full attention, but really, you are more interested in the type (if not the detail) of the conversation.
2. NEVER and I mean NEVER, go home. It is a total mistake to be the first to leave. Woe and betide the gent or gentlewoman who leaves early. In-fact, even if you are doing something you could do at home, it is better to get a coffee (that you wont drink) at 455pm and spend 20 minutes doing it in the office. It’s better to be seen working in the office, than be working unseen (but twice as hard) at home.
3. Sell yourself: I am not endorsing some sort of prostitution, but every opportunity for discussion, even if it is about how many pens you need for an afternoon meeting, are an opportunity to display your social networking and self management skills.
4. The train was Late: If no one else gets your tube in, there were always delays on that line. It does not matter that you were technically early, if you arrive between0855 and 0920 without reason, there were delays on the tube. Any longer, and you are into the realm of major delays, but this time period is small enough to account for a "random" delay. Of course, those extra 5 minutes in bed were worth it.
5. Status please! There is literally never a dull moment. It is inconceivable that you may actually have a free moment. A free moment is merely an opportunity to find more work. If you are not working or seeking work, you are wasting time and not adding value. The same goes for lunch, if you are not working lunch; your lunch schedule is not working. And of course, people should know that you are seeking work, email as many people as possible and ring someone for a status update. OR, better still, ring your flatmate and talk crap with him that sounds like business.
Okay, so these were 5 things that leapt out to me. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of hard workers in the office, but I wonder about the culture. If our culture is to behave in this fashion with the goal of being perceived to work hard, are we maybe missing the point?
Is it okay to leave 20 minutes early to catch a faster train home where you will work harder? Is it okay to see two people having a "private conversation" and comment on it? To be honest I don’t know.
I guess the reality is that perception matters, culture does not.
Or rather, business culture is fundamentally a perception of performance. And in our business reality, performance is everything.
For me, there is more to life than performance, but one thing I do know is that all this 'culture' is causing me to miss a hell of a lot of 'culture' in London.
DD
Tuesday 3 March 2009
Work Life Balance and Thoughts on the future.
Hello all,
This blog entry has been slightly delayed for two reasons. The first because I was back home for the weekend (stressful!) and the second because I wanted to be able to give some proper thought to this. Anyhow, this post focus's around the work life balance and the idea of a career.
Okay, so what is "work life balance". When someone asked me what sort of work life balance I had, i thought it was a round about way of asking was I on drugs. And thats the truth. I was new to London, and it struck me as maybe being like one of those weird sayings people say, just like "are you friends with Dorothy?"* Anyhow, as we all know, work life balance relates to how we balance our working and social life. This got me thinking...
First of all, I didnt know I had a work life balance. Sure I go out at the weekends and what ever, but I didnt know that this was called a WLB. Then I realised why. Most of the time, when I think of things, I think of actions, not "long term consequences". You may be able to see where this is going. For example, my social life and playing football to me were just individual activities, but ultimately they are part of a delicate balance. But Hang on! This does not seem natural. Think of the following few examples:
1. Binge Drinking: Is it actually possible to just go for a drink? Have two pints and it is a binge drink.
2. Learning something: Is it still possible to just learn something because I like to, or do we have to identify a development need?
3. Change your attitude: Do I change my attitude or do I now change my approach in order to meet my long term objectives.
Anyhow, I may be labouring a point, but essentially when I go for a drink, read a book or changing my attitude about something, I always felt these were isolated actions. But now they form part of my work life balance. Interestingly, I now minute plan my social life in outlook. I put social events, including football training in my outlook.
I find myself more effective at having fun if I plan and structure it. But does this in someway make it less fun? Or is this planning just part of the bigger picture that is necessary for me to adapt to? Like say....a Career?
This leads me on to the second part of this post. This is the first job I took as a career. Every other job has been taken out of necessity, interest or experience. However, my place on the Grad Programme is one that I took for the future and potential. This in itself is quite an alien concept to me.
My previous career planning was listening to a philosophy lecturer telling me that all the greatest philosophers were either tortured to death or committed suicide. Tough Break. But the point was I had no plan...
I had no plan and ended up here. But is that such a bad thing? I mean, I'm pretty happy with where I got to, I have had a blast at Uni and had a great time so far. So when certain important leaders in our institution and peoples whose opinion I value start telling me to get a plan for the future, the fact that my lack of planning so far has got me where I am happy to be makes me think - Do I really need a plan?
This then brings me full circle to my work life balance. I am more effective when I plan my fun side of my life, so if i plan my work side, will I be more effective at that too?
So thats my thoughts on the difficulty of carreer choice and balancing my working life. Of course, I couldnt end without a final remark.
Those greeat philosophers certainly didnt plan to be tortured, but they did plan to commit suicide. The phrase a rock and a hard place when it comes to plans springs to mind. Or as a certain actor once said " a plan is just a list of things that dont happen".
Good luck with your work life balance!
kindest,
D
---
* I usuually reply, "no, she is my ex girlfriend". Lord knows what they infer from this.
This blog entry has been slightly delayed for two reasons. The first because I was back home for the weekend (stressful!) and the second because I wanted to be able to give some proper thought to this. Anyhow, this post focus's around the work life balance and the idea of a career.
Okay, so what is "work life balance". When someone asked me what sort of work life balance I had, i thought it was a round about way of asking was I on drugs. And thats the truth. I was new to London, and it struck me as maybe being like one of those weird sayings people say, just like "are you friends with Dorothy?"* Anyhow, as we all know, work life balance relates to how we balance our working and social life. This got me thinking...
First of all, I didnt know I had a work life balance. Sure I go out at the weekends and what ever, but I didnt know that this was called a WLB. Then I realised why. Most of the time, when I think of things, I think of actions, not "long term consequences". You may be able to see where this is going. For example, my social life and playing football to me were just individual activities, but ultimately they are part of a delicate balance. But Hang on! This does not seem natural. Think of the following few examples:
1. Binge Drinking: Is it actually possible to just go for a drink? Have two pints and it is a binge drink.
2. Learning something: Is it still possible to just learn something because I like to, or do we have to identify a development need?
3. Change your attitude: Do I change my attitude or do I now change my approach in order to meet my long term objectives.
Anyhow, I may be labouring a point, but essentially when I go for a drink, read a book or changing my attitude about something, I always felt these were isolated actions. But now they form part of my work life balance. Interestingly, I now minute plan my social life in outlook. I put social events, including football training in my outlook.
I find myself more effective at having fun if I plan and structure it. But does this in someway make it less fun? Or is this planning just part of the bigger picture that is necessary for me to adapt to? Like say....a Career?
This leads me on to the second part of this post. This is the first job I took as a career. Every other job has been taken out of necessity, interest or experience. However, my place on the Grad Programme is one that I took for the future and potential. This in itself is quite an alien concept to me.
My previous career planning was listening to a philosophy lecturer telling me that all the greatest philosophers were either tortured to death or committed suicide. Tough Break. But the point was I had no plan...
I had no plan and ended up here. But is that such a bad thing? I mean, I'm pretty happy with where I got to, I have had a blast at Uni and had a great time so far. So when certain important leaders in our institution and peoples whose opinion I value start telling me to get a plan for the future, the fact that my lack of planning so far has got me where I am happy to be makes me think - Do I really need a plan?
This then brings me full circle to my work life balance. I am more effective when I plan my fun side of my life, so if i plan my work side, will I be more effective at that too?
So thats my thoughts on the difficulty of carreer choice and balancing my working life. Of course, I couldnt end without a final remark.
Those greeat philosophers certainly didnt plan to be tortured, but they did plan to commit suicide. The phrase a rock and a hard place when it comes to plans springs to mind. Or as a certain actor once said " a plan is just a list of things that dont happen".
Good luck with your work life balance!
kindest,
D
---
* I usuually reply, "no, she is my ex girlfriend". Lord knows what they infer from this.
Sunday 22 February 2009
Next Placements
Hi Guys!
I realise that the next week or so is going to be a very exciting one - I am really looking forward to my next 6 month placement. While I will not go into the details here, I am certainly feeling optimistic about the placement. I, like many of you, will be working more centrally, on more strategic projects.
I really think that this will be a fantastic opportunity for all of us, though I do have a "gut feeling" that we will face slightly different challenges. I thought I would write to give you an idea of what I feel my main challenges will be over the next 6 months.
1. Change of Environment: We are no longer going to be in the branch network. If your placement is anything like mine, there will be some involvement with the branches, but I anticipate much less direct involvement. This will mean that we will have to "keep our finger on the pulse", as such, with the day to day running of the bank, and it can be difficult to do so.
2. Back to Reality: Okay, so I just wanted to include a silly reference to the great comedy Red Dwarf, but there is some relevance to my sub-title. Keeping track of the day to day runnings of the bank will be challenging enough, but we also need to maintain the relevance of our work. On a few occasions I have been handed information or a document by someone and looked at it thinking "okay, this is great, but totally useless to the real world." Another common theme is looking at a something and being left with the feeling that someone went to a lot of tine and effort to do this, but it has bugger all use. I want to make sure that any work that I do does not fall into these categories, but it may be tough.
3. Expect the unexpected: Just wanted to use a cliché this time, though this has nothing to do with leaping into the unknown. As we change our job roles, we will have different expectations place on us - I for one struggled to understand what expectations my manager had on me initially. It can be difficult as we will be meeting many of our colleagues for the first time and it’s hard to know what they expect / want.
4. The Learning Curve: I really get the impression we are going to be under a different kind of pressure. Our 6 month probation is up. We have all (I assume!) proved we are not incompetent idiots. So round one is over. Round two is going to them asking us to show what we can do. I look at probation as being a series of tests to prove to them that you are not something. The next six months is the chance to prove what you are. Though we may not always get recognised for the hard work we do, I am pretty confident it is at least noticed.
5. The fun factor: As many of you know, I chose to move countries and lifestyle to take this job. Aside from the initial stress, caused mainly by incompetent letting agents (I'll not even get started on that*), the job has been a blast. I have had great weekends, hard work, lots of variety and met some really 'interesting' people. I hope it is maintained. However, I've done the easy bit settling in and readjusting to a new lifestyle and the novelty has worn off, so that makes me ask myself, "will I deliver in my new role" and "will my new role deliver for me". It’ll be great finding out.
SO, these are my thoughts. I am really excited, but I am nervous about a few things as you can probably guess. All this talk of 'networking' and 'allowing yourself to become an authentic leader' leaves me cold. I just like to socialise and learn. Anyway, why bother saying "authentic"? If I say "I want to be a leader", the authenticity is implied in the statement! I'm not going to want to be a non authentic leader. This minor rant got me thinking - are there any successfull non authentic leaders? Any Suggestions? I came up with
1. George Bush - obvious choice.
2. Kim Jong-Il - debatable, is he actually too successfull a leader?
3. Inspector Closseau - Was he actually a leader?
4. Charles Manson - Was he a leader? I not that comfortable calling him "successfull".
5.Phillip II Spain - He launched the spanish armada. I only included him as I just read an article on it. I suppose the Armada was a success in that they got ships together and sailed around Ireland. The less said about the epic defeat, the better.
That said, it has been great to get a graduate network, and I hope that whatever happens, it will be an authentic experience and not some vacuous promise, just like the one my letting agent made.
Have a great week guys!
Kindest,
Dante
*bloody letting agent delayed my move in date, then tried to charge ME for the cleaning then didn’t fix the toilet or sing for a WEEK and...... I'll stop there. I am trying to get the week off to a great start.
I realise that the next week or so is going to be a very exciting one - I am really looking forward to my next 6 month placement. While I will not go into the details here, I am certainly feeling optimistic about the placement. I, like many of you, will be working more centrally, on more strategic projects.
I really think that this will be a fantastic opportunity for all of us, though I do have a "gut feeling" that we will face slightly different challenges. I thought I would write to give you an idea of what I feel my main challenges will be over the next 6 months.
1. Change of Environment: We are no longer going to be in the branch network. If your placement is anything like mine, there will be some involvement with the branches, but I anticipate much less direct involvement. This will mean that we will have to "keep our finger on the pulse", as such, with the day to day running of the bank, and it can be difficult to do so.
2. Back to Reality: Okay, so I just wanted to include a silly reference to the great comedy Red Dwarf, but there is some relevance to my sub-title. Keeping track of the day to day runnings of the bank will be challenging enough, but we also need to maintain the relevance of our work. On a few occasions I have been handed information or a document by someone and looked at it thinking "okay, this is great, but totally useless to the real world." Another common theme is looking at a something and being left with the feeling that someone went to a lot of tine and effort to do this, but it has bugger all use. I want to make sure that any work that I do does not fall into these categories, but it may be tough.
3. Expect the unexpected: Just wanted to use a cliché this time, though this has nothing to do with leaping into the unknown. As we change our job roles, we will have different expectations place on us - I for one struggled to understand what expectations my manager had on me initially. It can be difficult as we will be meeting many of our colleagues for the first time and it’s hard to know what they expect / want.
4. The Learning Curve: I really get the impression we are going to be under a different kind of pressure. Our 6 month probation is up. We have all (I assume!) proved we are not incompetent idiots. So round one is over. Round two is going to them asking us to show what we can do. I look at probation as being a series of tests to prove to them that you are not something. The next six months is the chance to prove what you are. Though we may not always get recognised for the hard work we do, I am pretty confident it is at least noticed.
5. The fun factor: As many of you know, I chose to move countries and lifestyle to take this job. Aside from the initial stress, caused mainly by incompetent letting agents (I'll not even get started on that*), the job has been a blast. I have had great weekends, hard work, lots of variety and met some really 'interesting' people. I hope it is maintained. However, I've done the easy bit settling in and readjusting to a new lifestyle and the novelty has worn off, so that makes me ask myself, "will I deliver in my new role" and "will my new role deliver for me". It’ll be great finding out.
SO, these are my thoughts. I am really excited, but I am nervous about a few things as you can probably guess. All this talk of 'networking' and 'allowing yourself to become an authentic leader' leaves me cold. I just like to socialise and learn. Anyway, why bother saying "authentic"? If I say "I want to be a leader", the authenticity is implied in the statement! I'm not going to want to be a non authentic leader. This minor rant got me thinking - are there any successfull non authentic leaders? Any Suggestions? I came up with
1. George Bush - obvious choice.
2. Kim Jong-Il - debatable, is he actually too successfull a leader?
3. Inspector Closseau - Was he actually a leader?
4. Charles Manson - Was he a leader? I not that comfortable calling him "successfull".
5.Phillip II Spain - He launched the spanish armada. I only included him as I just read an article on it. I suppose the Armada was a success in that they got ships together and sailed around Ireland. The less said about the epic defeat, the better.
That said, it has been great to get a graduate network, and I hope that whatever happens, it will be an authentic experience and not some vacuous promise, just like the one my letting agent made.
Have a great week guys!
Kindest,
Dante
*bloody letting agent delayed my move in date, then tried to charge ME for the cleaning then didn’t fix the toilet or sing for a WEEK and...... I'll stop there. I am trying to get the week off to a great start.
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