Doug Shaw

The #ConnectingHR Christmas Special

Wowser! As many of you will know, earlier this week there was an informal Christmas beer up for the #connectinghr crew. An open invite to all. Huge thanks to the many good people who turned out and helped make the evening fun and memorable.

Now I know this is the time of year when folks write those Christmas parties gone baaaaad type notes so don’t worry, we’re not going there. Well not quite. It transpired that one or two of our merry band did suffer a little, both on the day and in the immediate aftermath. What with it being Christmas and all I thought it might be nice to record the Christmas beer misadventures in the form of a song for you all. Sadly my proper video camera is still not playing ball so this was recorded on a point and shoot with a frankly shocking microphone. That’s my excuse. Enjoy.

On Wednesday we went drinking with #connectinghr, My boiler broke, got a hangover the worst by far

TheHRD he broke his specs and now can’t see a thing, He really shouldn’t go out anonymous drinking

Oh no, there ain’t no Sanity Claus

FlipchartFT lost all of his credit cards, the worst excuse for a no-show he should be barred

MrAirmiles took his Christmas tree on a bus, Struggled up the stairs while old ladies made a fuss

Here comes Uncle Nick, Let’s give him some stick

Callum Saunders took it easy not a man of vice, But then next day he trod in sick you know that can’t be nice

So even though a few can tell a tale that’s not too bright, I hope that everybody had a wonderful night

Oh no, there ain’t no Sanity Claus

photo c/o kevindooley

Brevity

@BillBoorman wrote a great short post yesterday about bullshit in your LinkedIn profile over at the Recruiting Unblog. The picture below shows the top ten bullshit words and phrases used in the USA as identified by LinkedIn Analytics. Click the pic and you will be transported to @BillBoorman’s excellent blog where you can also find out the most over used word on LinkedIn UK.

Out of curiosity I copied and pasted my LinkedIn profile into Word and searched for these bullshit phrases. Phew – I didn’t find any (although the word results did appear twice). Just as I was congratulating myself, “Good old Smug Diddly Ug Doug – no bullshit here..” it struck me. I may not have any of these overused phrases, but I do have a whole pile of other crap on here. It’s true folks – my LinkedIn profile reads more like a car crash in a lexicographers than a summary. The place is just packed. And it’s not exactly current. I mean, the last sniff of detail goes back to the time of the dinosaurs, or in other words, when I was still employed by BT.

I needed a few useful tasks to do round Christmas time and I’ve just found the first one. Thanks to @BillBoorman for kicking off my festive to do list.

Losing Hurts. And it’s Good For You

The photo shows me hurting on the bike. Writing this hurt too. I’d take the bike pain any day.

Last night I sat in a freezing cold church hall attending the annual general meeting of the Addiscombe Cycling Club and became a loser. Our club captain of the past ten years was standing down and another club member and I were up for election. He got it, I didn’t.

In brief, my competitor offered more of a very successful, proven formula. If it ain’t broke why fix it? I offered something a little different, and in doing so mine was the riskier option. There were 36 people present. He received 20 votes, I received 8 and the remaining folk abstained. I congratulated my competitor sincerely on his win.

In the aftermath I felt a mix of disappointment and stupidly, some anger. I hope I didn’t show the latter – that would have been pretty pathetic. Stuff like “Why didn’t they pick me? Don’t they know change is good for you blah blah rant moan.” It stayed in my head. At least until now.

Today I reflect. I look again. Nearly a quarter of the assembled members supported the something different option. That’s not bad, not bad at all. In fact it’s pretty good. My sincere thanks go to those eight people.

These feelings reminded me of an opportunity I lost last year. I got down to the final two for a position of external adviser to a local authority board. And then I lost. Back then I was initially angry. And on reflection I realised that was wrong. I made it all the way to the final fence in my first few weeks out on my own. I should not have been angry, I should have been excited.

I’m learning that losing is an essential part of putting yourself out there. And if you use the lose to encourage yourself and others to better things, then losing is good for you. So is getting over yourself – I’m still proud to wear the shirt.

What have you winners lost lately?