Category: Work

Big Tent : Narrow Door

When thinking about change, how do you enable greater diversity in your processes?

This week I attended the Future of Work is Human Big Tent. There were lots of interesting, necessary and at times fascinating subjects on the agenda.

  • National alienation and class
  • Power
  • Implications of the 100 year life
  • Helping enterprise flourish
  • The human responsibility of business
  • A universal basic income
  • Actively removing fear of discrimination: the economic case
  • Pay and incentives – the need for fundamental reform
  • Education: time for a system by-pass?

I scribbled a lot of notes which I’ll write up and share soon.

The tent (it wasn’t a real tent, we were at Central Hall Westminster) was indeed big, and I felt it had a very narrow door through which we passed.

I heard some good stuff, and would have preferred a more involving, inclusive, action orientated approach, with less reliance on the sage on the stage, which was loaded with white privilege*. I’m not saying the views from speakers weren’t valid, they often were, and I think a richer picture would have been painted with a more diverse approach. If the shock I experience since Brexit has taught me anything, it’s that I frequently exist in a bubble, and I need to diversify where and how and from whom I seek understanding.

During the event, there was an acknowledgment of how we hire in our own image, and general agreement of that being a limiting and often flawed concept, yet the audience seemed to have been recruited in that way. There is a risk this will lead to a lack of diversity in thinking, the success of this work requires a shake up in how people are engaged with it.

big-tent-doodle

At times, the discussion felt quite abstract, quite overwhelming. I developed a headache towards the end of the morning which I managed to ease through a bit of doodling, then someone at our table called out the abstract nature of the discussion, and suggested we tell stories of small things we’re already doing to make change. Stories of togetherness, trying something new, dog walking, art, and parties all followed. That lovely, useful, and simple idea brought the conversation back to a more applied level, and I felt it beginning to galvanise us at the table. Coincidentally, and in support of this, Johnnie Moore shared thoughts from a book by Shawn Achor called The Happiness Advantage on Facebook later:

“Goals that are too big paralyze you. They literally shut off your brain, says Achor. Here’s what happens to your brain when faced with a daunting goal or project:

The amygdala, the part of the brain that responds to fear and threats, hijacks the “thinker” part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, says Achor. The amygdala steals resources from the prefrontal cortex, the creative part of the brain that makes decisions and sees possibilities.”

I’m grateful for the invitation and pleased I went. An interesting morning indeed.

*Someone had the courage to call this out part way through the event. I don’t know his name, but thank you, whoever you are.

Are These The Right Things?

I am a member of a Facebook group called New Business : Next Steps, run by Ann Hawkins and Ed Goodman, authors of an excellent book by the same name. Ann often bookends our working week with some good questions about what we’d like to achieve, and how we’re getting on.

Lately I’ve been feeling lost, and somewhat withdrawn. These are things that happen from time to time, that’s life, etcetera. I’m no complaining, just acknowledging. When I feel like this, I tend to withdraw from responding to Ann’s questions too. Lately I’ve been nurturing a bias for action, so today, I chose to reply to this prompt from Ann:

Check in Friday: What was the most useful thing you did this week that made a difference to your business?

Here’s how I replied.

  • Wrote 4,000 words towards my book.
  • Asked people in my network for help with some questions to provoke more content for the book.
  • Kicked off plans for a Berlin/London art meets work mini tour.
  • Made a conscious effort to stream my thinking and to do stuff, it’s been far too messy lately.
  • Wrote a farewell email to a group I’ve been working with.
  • Attended the quarterly business review of a partnership I joined a few months ago. Doing this helped me see first hand and in more detail, the exciting work we can do together.
  • Shared a video of my talk about the art and soul of better work from this year’s All About People event.
  • Made what I think is a lovely piece of art for my weekly local free art drop.

Clearly I cheated, this is not the most useful thing I did this week, it is several useful things. Are they the right things? Who knows, and what they are, is evidence that in among the doubt, I am taking action. Thank you for the prompt, Ann.

In case you are interested, here is the art work I mentioned, and the video of the Art and Soul of Better Work talk.

Winged Heart II

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Meaningful Work

My intrepid friend Martin Couzins is often to be found out and about at various events and conferences, thinking interesting things, asking interesting questions. I spotted this on his Twitter timeline recently:

The term ‘meaningful work’ being talked about a lot at #HRSS16 ~ are lots of people doing work that isn’t?

My thought, and response to Martin was:

Meaningful to whom? Most work is coercive, make it coactive, it may generate more personal meaning.

Owen Ferguson added:

Meaning is in the eye of the beholder

To which Martin replied:

Yes, do people talk about their work in this way vs other areas of their lives? Who knows?! Does it need to be meaningful?

Back in the Middle Ages, I had a student job, working in the fruit and veg department in Sainsbury’s. At the time, shoppers bagged their produce, and brought it to a member of staff, who weighed it, sealed it and priced it, then gave it back to the shopper who would pay for the goods along with everything else, when they got to the till. I used to love this part of the job. I set the work out in my head as a series of challenges, which included having conversation with the customer (if they appeared to want to), making the seal on the bag as neat as I could (which was a struggle with the cranky old machine we used), and moving the queue along as quickly as possible.

Was this work meaningful? No. I do not believe I was put on this planet to achieve my own, self imposed nerdy customer service challenges. However the choices I made helped to pass the time, which was beneficial to me, and helped the customer get served well and quickly, which was beneficial to them. I accept that I derived satisfaction from a job well done, and my primary purpose for doing the work was to get paid so I could save up for something useful have a social life. I also remember that Graham and Steve (the department manager and assistant manager) were great fun, and did what they could to make work enjoyable. That helped at the time, and the fact that I can recall their names in an instant, after so many years, is worth noting.

Within the HR conference environment, meaning gets talked about a lot. As an example, I doodled this sketch note after attending the 2014 Meaning conference.

My attempt to capture a sense of Meaning 2014 -based on my own reflections and some tweets I spotted. I sketched this on the train on the way home.
My attempt to capture a sense of Meaning 2014 -based on my own reflections and some tweets I spotted. I sketched this on the train on the way home.

For many people, I’m not sure how much the idea of meaning relates to their day to day work. I’ve worked in lots of operational environments where the lofty concept of meaning, is frankly meaningless. I’m struggling to recall the last time a client asked me to help them ‘find meaning’ in their work, yet I am guilty at times, of helping people to seek it out. Am I asking the wrong questions of the people I work with? Look again at Owen and Martin’s comments. ‘Meaning is in the eye of the beholder’. ‘Does it [work] have to be meaningful?’.

i recall a section of Dr Ken Robinson’s book, ‘The Element : How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything’, where he writes that many people do their work to sustain something more enjoyable/useful/maybe even meaningful, beyond the work they do. And that’s OK. I see that having a clear understanding of how my role fits into the bigger picture is really important. If I know:

  • Why I’m doing the task
  • what impact it has on our goal
  • and I support the goal
  • and feel I am able to cocreate it as well as contribute to it…

That is powerful. That sequence is also, in my experience, quite unusual. As a series of steps, this may not appear as seductive as a powerfully crafted, conference presentation about the search for meaning, yet in practice it may actually be much more meaningful.

I shared a draft of this post with Martin and Owen and invited them to comment. Here are their reflections – first Owen, then Martin.

“Thanks, Doug. It’s a thought provoking post and explores an area I think is particularly interesting at this point in the history of the “developed world”. To what extent could the search for meaningful work devalue satisfaction, contentment and happiness with a job? We can’t all be doctors for Médecins Sans Frontières. And sometimes meaningful work is disguised through years of abstraction. Banking used to be a noble profession that helped grease the gears of the economy and, perhaps more meaningfully, help new parents buy a new home sooner than they would have otherwise. As you can see, your post has already spurred more thought for me and I’m sure it will for others. Which is hopefully meaningful for you 🙂 “

“I really like what you have created here, Doug. I’m still not sure what meaning at/through work is. Is it about developing your sense of self as a person, making friends, making money to do other more meaningful things in life, getting personal joy from achieving things? Maybe it is all of this. But can employers make work meaningful – I don’t know? I like your thinking on this Owen and agree that this is an interesting time to be thinking about such things. I’m just thinking more on this and am enjoying the conversation and what has come out of it!”

This is the second time in recent weeks I’ve invited and sought feedback in the process of writing a post. I’m enjoying how this is currently working – it broadens my thinking, and reminds me of the importance of other perspectives too. If this subject resonates with you too – feel free to add to the mix.

More to follow…