Where business and the arts meet, making work better together.
It’s late, or is it early?
Truth be told, I neither know nor care.
What I do know is I’m in an unfamiliar city and I walked a friend home to her hotel just a few short minutes ago.
It’s late, or is it early?
It’s dark. It could be anywhere from midnight to six.
Take care of each other, I guess that matters.
Good night.
Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those ‘what can we learn from the Olympic Games in the world of work’ type posts. It’s just an observation, that’s all.
Since 1964 Larissa Latynina has held the record for the most medals won by an Olympian. 18 to be precise, including four gold medals in Melbourne, three golds in Rome, and two in Tokyo.
Yesterday evening at The 2012 Olympic Games in London, Michael Phelps eclipsed that record. In the run up to the record changing hands, Latynina said ‘I just lived a normal life, the medals are one thing. Me, myself, my family, my children are another thing. I’m quite happy there is a man in the world who can overcome my record.’
Contrast this with the reaction of John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, on hearing news that Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen had smashed her personal best by at least five seconds in the 400m Medley. Leonard said the performance reminded him of the East German women swimmers in the 1980s, who were doping on a systematic basis. He told the Guardian newspaper, ‘History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, unbelievable, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved’.
Phelps has just achieved something most people would define as ‘unbelievable’. I wonder what Mr Leonard makes of that?
And now this morning I read about this farcical display of match fixing at the badminton. Crazy!
Congratulations to Michael Phelps and particularly to Larissa Latynina who has shown humility and good grace as the baton is passed.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to choose to invest some time at Keira’s school this week. On Wednesday I went to a coffee morning with the Head and Deputy Head teachers on the dreaded subject of homework, and yesterday I helped the ninety children of year four get from school to the local theatre. Miraculously, our travel performance was repeated and all ninety made it back too! Then last night we went to a maths evening. Trust me – it was much more fun than I and probably you, imagine, and if you need any help with the grid method, I’m now your man.
I’ve observed lots of interesting flows and tensions over the past two days and overwhelmingly what I’ve seen is a team of enthusiastic, energetic (where they get it from I’ll never know), passionate and gently persistent teaching staff giving their all to help the kids be the best they can. It’s quite some balancing act.
Carole, Keira and I chose Stanley Park School primarily because it just felt right, a welcoming friendly place to learn. And so it has proved. The teachers I’ve been fortunate to interact with these past two days are: Mrs Clark, Mrs Lamy, Miss Gray, Mr P, Mr Tazzyman and Mr Sewell. Thank you for your time and for your interest in Keira and all the children, and I appreciate your interest in me and all the parents too.
If you get the opportunity to interact with a teacher today, try and find a reason to thank them.