End It

Finish is part of my New Year Evolution. To me it means both complete stuff, and end stuff that isn’t cutting it anymore.

Since February 2009 I’ve run a LinkedIn group called ‘Is Bad Behaviour Killing Big Business?’. Over time we’ve had loads of good conversations – done some wonderful networking and sparked some useful creative ideas together. And then, sometime around the end of 2011, I lost the drive to continue curating the group. Early in 2012 I wrote to all the participants about the state of the group and a few people encouraged me to keep on going. I tried – and the moment has passed, the love is lost.

About ten days ago I wrote to all the members again, this time to inform them of my decision to delete the group. I’ve concluded that the last thing the world needs is a dormant LinkedIn group, though to be honest with the amount of spam on there maybe a quiet refuge ain’t so bad eh? But seriously folks – you can’t engage with everything, at least not effectively. So today I have deleted ‘Is Bad Behaviour Killing Big Business?’

Finish is part of my New Year Evolution. To me it means both complete stuff, and end stuff that isn’t cutting it anymore. What can you end?

Author: Doug Shaw

Artist and Consultant. Embracing uncertainty, sketching myself into existence. Helping people do things differently, through an artistic lens.

4 thoughts on “End It”

  1. Sounds like a very good call Doug – well done. It’s funny how little we talk about endings in the work context… that things do (& must) come to an end, that it’s OK to stop so we can start something else, that there’s a process around endings that allows everyone to accept it’s an ending and we can move on. I wonder why that is?

    1. Thanks David. I’m not sure of the answer to your question, in the case of my now departed LinkedIn group, the reason I didn’t kill it last year was I felt that to some extent it belonged to all the members. When a few said keep it going – I did, and then I found I didn’t have the desire any longer. This time – I took more direct action. Letting go is not the same as letting people down and yet it seems it is often all too tricky. I’m looking forward to more finish in 2013.

      Cheers – Doug

  2. I ended one or two things last year. One of them was attending networking events that only really existed to make money for the people who ran them. There are probably other things that I should end. Just an hour online this morning and so much thought provoked already! 🙂

    1. Hi Graham – sounds like a good thing to stop doing. As David suggested it’s not easy to stop doing stuff, and it gives a real lift when you do it – making way for a new experience. Have fun – and keep going 🙂

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