Where business and the arts meet, making work better together.
I believe that everyone goes to work to try and do the best they can
I believe in the power of Proceed until Apprehended
I believe in a thing called love
We received loads of lovely suggestions to our Three Little Words game last week. Perhaps you might like to tell us – what are your credos?
photo c/o lucy like whoa
What do you do?
Before I ask this question out loud, I like to put on the voice of the Queen of England and ask it in my head. It is fun (yeah I need to get out a lot more) and you might like to try it.
I think “what do you do?” is a very interesting question. It is nearly always answered incorrectly. Here’s what usually happens:
Me: “Hello I’m Doug”
You: “Hello I’m Fran”
Me: “Pleased to meet you Fran. What do you do?”
Fran: “I’m a Senior Information Manager”
Me: “And what do you do?”
And Fran repeats his or her previous answer.
I persist gently and in the end we have a great conversation and I find out what Fran does.
It interests me that when I ask folk this question they tell me their job title. And in a lot of cases – that means nothing to me, and it probably doesn’t mean much more to them and their colleagues.
Yes it’s a hackneyed tale – but I like the story about President Kennedy asking the dude with the broom, “What do you do?” Broom dude famously replies “I’m helping to put a man on the moon”.
I find it rather underwhelming that folk feel defined by their job title. By all means have one, but please don’t confuse it with what you do. Good folk consider and help to create a structure that recognises the what and the how that integrates with the title. That helps give people purpose.
So what am I doing? Currently I am helping people to make work better, one conversation at a time. Next week, I’ll be doing something slightly different.
What do you do?
This photo is a view of our garden in the early Spring. You can see the old shed and some of our apple trees bursting with leaves. I enjoy growing things, it is enormously satisfying. Growing fruit and veg, growing business, growing community.
On May 5th the #connectinghr community will get together for our second unconference. I will be helping to disorganise things. The full details are here and it would be great if you could join us. Why should you? I would like to share a couple of feelings about the last one which I hope will resonate with you.
In October 2010 I attended the first #connectinghr unconference. It was the kind of powerful community event that I really enjoy. I went along with one objective: to share. And I benefited enormously from it. I picked up loads of ideas, and the event inspired me to write and perform a little song, on the spot. That last sentence says a lot to me about inclusion, involvement and encouragement. I felt sufficiently confident to experiment. When was the last time you went to a meeting of new minds and dared to be different? In the moment.
I was and still am hugely grateful for the support of the #connectinghr community. And I want to help it grow.
Will you?
