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In the zone

I met Natasha earlier this week. We’ve exchanged many tweets and I was excited about this opportunity to meet in real life. We had a flowing conversation and the time passed all too quickly, as it does when you’re in the flow. Natasha is a great listener. That’s a nice way of me saying I think I talked a bit too much.

One of the things I spoke about was nerves. I often get nervous when performing (in every sense of the word), particularly at the start of something. When I say nervous I mean sick to the bottom of my stomach locked up tight can barely talk or walk cold sweat fear of God. That kind of nervous. This is a shame because I enjoy what I do very much and I know if I could channel these nerves more effectively I could enjoy myself even more and give something much better to people.

Natasha suggested I try a slight shift in my thinking. Could I maybe convert nervous into excited? I’ll try anything and this sounds like a good idea thanks very much Natasha, let’s see when I can apply it.

Tomorrow I’ll be joining up with some of the biggest and best names in and around the world of social recruitment. I’ll be meeting some familiar faces and some new ones too. I’m confident that I will learn useful stuff and have a really good time, and make a useful contribution to the day. I’m nervous about excited by the possibilities.

On Friday evening I’ll be in the New Forest standing on stage performing to a group of friends and acquaintances. It’s our annual summer camp and therefore my annual big night out. I’ve been doing this for several years now and the organisers are always kind enough to invite me back. It’s high time I repaid myself and the audience for their faith in me. I am nervous about excited by the possibilities.

How will I get on? I am excited about checking in with you again next week to let you know.

Culture – the CEO replies, or does he?

Last night I had a dream. You remember that note I sent to the CEO yesterday? I dreamt I got an out of office reply which read:

Dear colleague

I’m sorry I can’t reply to your note personally right now, I’m managing by walking about (MBWA). I find MBWA a great way to listen to colleagues and learn from them. I really enjoy taking action based on what I’ve heard, and seeing this action make a difference to the working lives of us as a group of staff, and in turn, our customers. Of course we don’t get it right all the time and that’s fine, with creativity and innovation come mistakes, and from these mistakes arise further opportunities to learn and improve.

I will call you when I’ve finished today’s MBWA and arrange to pop by and see you soon. Alternatively give me a call and come and find me, if that’s easier for you.

Hope to see you very soon.

I awoke from my dream imagining the possibilities sparked by such a reply. And like all dreams I have, things fade quickly from my memory as reality bites. I’m glad I wrote the note down before I forgot it.

Just over three years ago I had a reality. I was working for a new divisional CEO brought in to clear up the mess left by the previous one. To be clear I didn’t work for him directly, there were two layers of confusion, oops sorry I meant management, between him and me. When the new CEO arrived he asked, nay he begged for people to be open, to lend him ideas and help. “Please drop me a line with your ideas; I can’t get us out of this mess alone”. Encouraged by this appeal I began to look for and suggest ways of making work better. I found real cost savings, small in comparison to the size of the hole we were in but we were told every little helps. I found opportunities for growth too.

I received replies to my notes. Not from the CEO, but from people on his team reassuring me that although he is very busy, all these things were being looked at. And without fail that was the first and last response I received to every single note I sent. I used to write a blog for the business so I would recall some of these ideas on there, and I often found out via blog comments these ideas were really being considered, and in some cases actioned. But I never found this out via the CEO or any of his cronies.

Then all replies from the CEO office stopped, just like that. I kept the ideas flowing for a while with no clue if they were even getting through. What was I to do? I wrote one more note. I titled it “Are You There?” and I politely asked if I was ever going to get a reply directly from the CEO to any of my notes. I was as encouraging as I could possibly be, and I got a reply. It read:

Thank you for your note to Bert (name changed to protect the ignorant). Although he is too busy to respond personally he appreciates you being in touch blah blah blah.

Based on these experiences I’m heading back to dreamland for my next dose of inspiration. If you have news of where the boss has engaged and created a positive outcome I’d love to hear them. Surely the news ain’t all bad?

Culture – a letter to the boss

Dear CEO

Your culture is not that highly polished list of words you call values.

Your culture is not that beautifully crafted and simultaneously vague sentence you call your mission.

Your culture is not what you tell your people it is.

Your culture is what you do and how you get things done.

How do you get things done?

Yours sincerely

Today’s post was inspired by a smart guy who loves cricket, who likes to read and who causes me to think differently. You know who you are.