The What Goes Around Blog

I Wish…

I’m attending an event this week called The Big Tent. It’s part of an initiative (mild panic) currently being run by the CIPD and Jericho Chambers, under the banner of ‘The Future of Work is Human‘. By way of further explanation of what to expect on Wednesday, I’ve pinched this from the event website:

Through a mix of panel discussions, videos and small table-based conversations we will explore whether the future of work really should, can and will be human and if so, how to support, develop and harness that power into a successful, productive and fulfilled workforce.

The gathering will combine inspiring plenary talks, open conversations and workshops, through which the community will rotate to contribute and challenge existing ideas. The conversations will be hosted by those currently running the work streams and other aspects of the Future of Work is Human project. It will conclude with a “what can we learn/what can we apply?” commitment session to help build a shared manifesto.

Prior to attending the event, we’ve been invited to email in a wish. I sent in:

‘I wish…we would all be a little kinder to one another’

and because I can sometimes be a little greedy, I have a few more wishes too.

I wish I didn’t feel under pressure to wear a suit to the event.
I wish we were a little less self interested, and a little more community focused.
I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller.
I wish we were better at learning from our mistakes.
I wish we didn’t assume that hierarchical seniority is the same things as leadership.
I wish to integrate the difference without losing it.
I wish we were more interested in cocreation and coactive power, and less interested in coercion.
I wish the trains ran on time.

Doubtless there will be lots shared during and after the event, I’ll signpost stuff on the day and beyond. In the meantime, whether you are going to the event or not, I’d love to hear your wishes too, please.

Memorable Learning Experiences

I’m in a hotel room in Cleveland Ohio. I’ve been in this great city for a few days and enjoyed an excellent weekend with friends. Later today I head off to Sandusky to help prepare for the annual Ohio Society for Human Resource Management conference. There will be 950 of us under one roof learning with and from each other, I’m excited to be here.

This is my third time here and I have a deep connection with the event itself and the people associated with it. Back in November 2011 I had a conversation with my Dad about ‘what next?’ and the idea of doing interesting things in the USA emerged from that conversation. My Dad died unexpectedly just two months after our chat and a month after that, I got confirmation that Ohio had accepted my ideas for a presentation. I honour that conversation with my Dad each time I come here, and this year I’m facilitating a session on connectedness, We Are Better Together. Here’s where you come in…

I have a ton of ideas, stories, frameworks, models and behavioural stuff to play with. I’ve been preparing and planning for this session for months, and because it contains a high level of improvisation – twists and turns will emerge, about which we currently know nothing. It’s a bit like a subway map, we can see how to get across town and there are many choices and directions we could take to achieve this.

In support of building and following our own version of the map, I would really appreciate your help. What are your most memorable learning experiences? Good, bad, behavioural, tactical, technical, etcetera, I’d love to hear from you. How did you feel, and what did you learn? I’d love to include a few of your stops on our journey, and I promise to share the map we draw together once the event is over. Thanks in advance for your help, have an excellent week.

AmericArt

A few weeks ago I painted a small acrylic abstract on canvas board titled ‘Lost In Spain’. It became a part of the We Are All Artists free art project and the art work now belongs to a lovely lady named Stacie, who did some excellent detective work to figure out where the painting was made. Here’s a photograph of the art work being finished on our return from Spain, before it was handed over.

The following week I hid a piece of art in my local town after being photographed by the local newspaper who kindly ran a feature on the free art project (the piece in the photo was not the piece I hid that day).

By coincidence, Stacie’s son found the piece of art I hid among the flowers! Having already received a piece of art as part of the project, Stacie and her son decided to pass this one on, which is a lovely community minded thing to do. Stacie’s son travelled to the USA later that day and he took the art with him. It now resides somewhere near Simsbury Connecticut, and that has to be the longest distance this free art project has travelled so far.