When work and home provide similar lessons

It appears to me that the more I read and experience, in terms of professional development, the more similarities can be drawn about what we do at home and what we do at work. Sound familiar?
October's Management Today had a great read about team development, by Peter Cullen and Terri Hunter. It likens the stages of a soccer training session for building a successful team.
Recently I have also read Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence". (And to be frank I think you need to have a fairly high Intellectual Intelligence to get through it). The reference to toddlers and children, to draw out examples is prolific. This book tends to focus on individual characteristics and how to adapt to them. This whole book, in my opinion, is based on a 12 month visit with an cognitive behavioural therapist (CBT), nothing wrong with that.
Another example, drawn from personal experience, was some time ago when I attended a "dealing with difficult people" seminar. That evening I had the pleasure of assisting at a 5 year old's birthday party. What I had learnt that day was so applicable for dealing with a bunch of boys at this party and gave me a good opportunity to try out a few tools.

The examples are endless. How about listening skills - how important is it to listen? I found myself reading books to my son the other night called, Listening, Sharing & Helping. Lots of examples of how to listen actively, the importance of acknowledgement, waiting until the other person has finished speaking and so on. Maybe I don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on courses, management magazines and books, instead just be way more present in the day to day activities of my own developing child. I'm definitely putting this method down on my personal development plans for the future.
The best advice from the article by Cullen & Hunter is that team commitment will come from a clarity of goals. And coming together as a team should only be done when joint work from the team is needed - if you bring your team together just for an update or informal session it could leave members uncommitted, overloaded with information, and lacking focus.

How often have you forced a meeting with no agenda and no winning outcome?

How would you prepare for a career of the future?

Lots of my favourite reads have published articles on jobs of the future. No huge surprises with what is coming out, I wish I could be more creative to pose some crazy suggestions. It is already happening whereby people who have great admin experience have transferred these skills to managing peoples lives. Data storage, data filing etc. Wouldn't you love to have someone come into your house and clean up your hard drive or wherever you keep stuff? I've got files of photos, resumes, and goodness knows what else, lamely filed in different places. Along with that comes the supplement of papers, real photos (photo albums-remember these) filing cabinets full of warranties and paper stuff that I may never need or use.

What other employment opportunities will there be? The CMTO was mentioned at a recent marketing conference (Chief Marketing Technology Officer) with interesting possibilities. Technology and the environment have been the catalyst for most of the future thinking. So while their is an abundance of business journals and papers written summonsing the future of employment using careful research, analysis and real stuff, most of my own research has come from two great movies. My most favourite movie of all time is Gattaca and a more recent addition to my movie greats is WALLE.

GATTICA has been on my top favourite list for 13 years. Opportunities for jobs, DNA mapping, selling your urine, blood, etc - love it (cash jobs? what will we use for cash?). The best quote from the movie; Vincent I' ll never understand what possessed my mother to put her faith in God's hands, rather than her local geneticist. A greater emphasis on genetic counselling maybe? More recently WALLE emphasises the importance of waste management, the environment and health.

One fair assumption could be the career that has lasted for centuries may still be around in one form or another. Would prostitution and the sex industry be in demand for another 20 centuries?

Is there a career or job you would like to do in the future that may not be popular today?

My apology to Cold Callers - I'm Busy

Dear cold callers, I'm writing this post today to apologise that I will likely not call you back, return your email or accept your Linked In request. I am truly apologetic about this, but I can't physical do it. I don't really know who you are, if I've met you or if we could genuinely give you some business. You see it is nearly time for the next monthly BOSS publication to come out and I'm still just trying to get through last months, let alone all my regular reads. The beautiful thing is that the guru was responding to a question this month on dealing with the increasing demand of our own organisations and existing business relationships due to better technology, but didn't really have a solution to this either. The emails get bigger, become quicker, and increase, but storage does not. So another new time waster is deleting the never ending assault of emails that I have collected to date.

The business solution options are increasing, everyone has opened up their own boutique creative agency, research agency, DM solutions, digital assistance, print shop and strategic consultancy, and I don't doubt that they are all very good. The scary thing is that we had a bigger and quite well known PR agency contact us via twitter to tell us they could help us set up in this very space and then list a bunch of things they could help us with, all of which we had been doing for some time.

The best advice I received from my own Linked In contacts was to invite all these people to come out to my office (quite some way out of the CBD) on a Friday afternoon between 4pm and 5pm to show their wares. After some thought I've decided, I really don't want to be confined to the office every Friday afternoon between 4 & 5pm waiting for them to turn up. Selfish of me.

Everyone deserves a chance, but isn't it fair for these people to come to the table with something that demonstrates they may understand our business needs? And no I'm not going to see you just because you keep talking about a fabulous new strategic plan that you can't discuss over the phone.

Am I bitter and twisted, I've given some a break before and have been let down. Once bitten, twice shy maybe?

What's the answer? Any thoughts?

The future of education for children

This months BOSS magazine, from the AFR, has so many great stories in it. These include, Youth vs Wisdom - Which bosses are best, Project Turnaround was great, and many more I haven't got through yet. One story that I loved was titled The Real Education Revolution, written by Fiona Smith. The basis of the story is research and insights around education and teaching methods, that educationist Greg Whitby has discovered. The classroom looks less structured, but the education is well planned, tailored and varied. Also a mention on the federal government's Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. We have all heard a lot about this, the magic $25,000 figure for a building, favouritism and wroughting, but has all this distracted us from the fundamental rationale around this policy and its strategy? The article suggests the implementation of this program is already outdated.

Two things came to mind as I read this. First was, I want my child to go to a school like this. I am currently wandering down an important decision path about schooling for my own little boy. What is best? Private versus government? How do you even judge a school, or work out the value from the school fees versus day to day costs of public schools? Based on this article I drew distinct connections between development at work and home. There are many employees whose love or hate of their work often comes down to the manager at the time, not always the organisation. And this holds true for schools. It is not solely the school name that makes it good or bad, it is also about the individuals that teach there, plan lessons and develop the curriculum. So how do I find out about the teachers? What other lessons need to be used during this school hunting time? Where do I find help?

The second thing I thought of is, do I buy my son an i-pad for his third birthday? With this came some other benefits, such as, this morning I was a lot more relaxed when he insisted on playing with my iPhone.

At the end of the day I'm still always amazed when I read business journals and corporate case studies, to find they have such interchangeable messages between work and my family life.

Thanks for this thought provoking story BOSS, it gave me more ideas on how to come to a final decision on a school and was also inspiring, by providing hope of a future progressive schooling system for my own son - But still looking for any more advice.

Public Relations 101 - Crisis Management

Tonight I was so disappointed to hear about the issues with the Happy Baby dummies, and the company’s response. Now we all make mistakes, it’s not hard for things to go wrong, and even if we don’t believe the product will cause problems, what harm would it do to recall and investigate? I work for a very ethical company and put my faith in the fact we would react quickly and with maximum caution if our products even hinted at being, not quite right. With Happy Baby being an Australian company, like my own workplace, I am even more disappointed that they may compromise the health of a child, the health of their brand, and the health of Australian Made. Hello (not so) Happy Baby, just RECALL the product straight out, isn’t this PR 101? If the likes of Woolworths have taken it off the shelf, I’m sure you’ll be picking up the bill for that anyway, and as for reputation management…. Where do I start? Whatever you have or haven’t done, however “isolated” the two incidents were, your defense doesn’t cut it for the Australian consumer, let alone a mother who is ready to protect her new little wonder that has come into the world at any cost. The Happy Baby website talks about the Australian Safety standard and how the company meets these standards, however I’m pretty sure, like many regulatory guidelines, that these standards are the minimum standard for compliance, and you are more than welcome to exceed these rather than sit back and watch the review for improvement (not an expert opinion of course).
“Dummies currently come under voluntary Australian safety standard (AS2432-1991). This standard is currently under review in order to update and improve the standard to provide optimum product safety, a direction which is supported by Happy Baby® in the interests of maximising the safety of dummies for Australian families.” http://happybaby.com.au/standards.php (accessed: 21/7/2010).
I really don’t want to see this company suffer from poor crisis management plans, I’ll watch closely to see if this could make for a good marketing case study in the future.

Suggestion to talk to your 1,500+ facebook fans/likes asap and get a better read on any reputation movements.

Would you buy a soother from Happy Baby?

Should management support the greening of their organisations?

This months B&T magazine (July 9th 2010) has posed the dilemma from a reader about how to turn management around to support basic environmental principles, rather than a crappy attitude that the individual employee should push through green initiatives at this workplace. This person is questioning his/her own personal concern and is asking “what can I do to change management attitudes, and is it really my look out to be an agent for change is this business?”

Well recently I have decided to champion some change in my own organisation. To be honest it’s quite possible that the greening of the business has already started within individual departments, so I think that would be a great place to start. The key for me is to up skill in this area, so I’m off to an AIM session to see what wisdom I may be able to absorb But to answer the big question of how you make management care; I would love to have an educated opinion and provide some first hand advice, however the most obvious influencer is the bottom line. Money talks to Management, CEOs, boards and share holders. Greener businesses also mean more supportive customers. Adam Joseph talked about the benefits from a consumer perspective earlier this year (Professional Marketing, “Sustainable Marketing & CSR: Just do it”, Adam Joseph, April-June 2010, page 30-31). Over the past ten years, environmentalism has become an increasingly important issue for consumers, Adam Joseph said, “the implications for marketers are wide-ranging and far-reaching:” Sustainability has become evident in the food market (eg, chocolate, coffee), and is emerging quickly within the fashion industry.

The most effective argument however is put forward by The Chartered Institute of Marketing http://www.cim.co.uk/resources/ethics/tbl.aspx who released the Business Case for Sustainability, this includes; (with my well thought out comments in brackets)

1. Compliance with sustainability reduces the risk of public disillusion, boycotts and negative press (saving money)
2. Sustainability helps to stimulate innovation and find new solutions in R&D (making money)
3. It creates a competitive advantage through customers wanting to buy from ethically minded companies (loyal money)
4. It generates cost savings, for example, locally sourcing produce saves transportation costs, creating a culture of reducing usage and wastage lower costs (more profit more money)
5. Companies that reduce their energy bill by 20% could add the same amount to their profit as a 5% rise in sales. (same as above)

So yes lets look out for the environment and promote a win win augment to the big guys. If we can show them they will look good, the business will look good, and the bottom line will look good, how could they possibly not support this?

Do you support an organisation or product because it genuinely cares about being green?

Does charity make you feel good?

Last Sunday I was reading the Body & Soul pull out from the paper and there was this great little piece called Fast ways to feel good. It was 5 basic points in The Wellness File by Marie Rowland http://www.talking-matters.com/talking/Profile.htm that was so common sense, though I’m sure not many of us stop to do. Being charitable is one of those things that I’ve always wanted to do more of, over the years I’ve looked into working for charities (only they didn’t pay enough), I’ve been involved with a group of friends who wanted to start up a project called Two Roads to raise money for infrastructure in Burma (Myanmar). We went so far as a business plan, consulting with World Vision and then we all got too busy and it didn’t bare fruit. When I was younger I volunteered my time at the YMCA, I have spent many years religiously donating blood (but not for the last few) and even attempted philanthropy via my son’s 1st birthday with no presents and raising over $1000 for the Red Kite Organisation. However I don’t feel I have an affiliation with any one cause. Apart from the regular drop off to the second hand stores or one off donation to emergency support like bush fire fund, there’s not much else I’m actively involved in. I have thought long and hard of what else I could do to help the world, including helping out with look good feel better organisation, getting involved in a charity run or getting involved in a mentoring program. standards.gif"> Lets face it wouldn’t we all like to be as generous as Bill Gates, who can’t work much these days because he’s too busy running his philanthropy activities, or New National Broadbank Network CEO Mike Quigley who has donated his $2 million first-year salary to stroke research, after recovering from leukaemia in the early 1990s

When it comes down to it Marie Rowland recommends “Even the smallest of acts, such as offering your seat on a bus can bring an unexpected feeling of pleasure. Helping others helps us feel worthy”

What charitable deed could you do today?

It would be extremely easy to talk about Australian politics right now. The day the party ousted their own, will they give her a make over, will she live at the lodge, will all the women of Australia vote for her cause she’s a arrr women? The First Female Prime Minister has taken her chair, but frankly I’ve already had my picture taken with the lady and have moved my thoughts on to bigger issues.

Well it’s been a while since my last post, because I’m still not loving my chosen design of this page. It’s not working for me! However, finally I have put finger to key board as I’ve now dug down to the real issue. It’s called busy mind syndrome. Don’t we all identify with this? Wow how exciting, a diagnosis for why I can start a project strong out of the gate, but this last week or two haven’t had much pace on the finish. This is particularly apparent on the home front. So thanks to BRW this month for moving me into action. http://www.brw.com.au/p/sections/health/over_active_minds_threat_to_productivity_T5nwRT2NWzQI6w6EQmd51L

This month BRW has a fabulous article by Judith Tydd, outlining results from a study that may even have coined this phrase. Busy mind syndrome is defined as “a tendency to juggle multiple activities and multi-task” – every woman I’ve ever known – “and as a result, struggle to concentrate on one [individual] task”. Instigator and researcher, Martina Sheehan said people reported that on weekends there’s a real inability to focus on their kids. My hand is up as one of those. I want to be busy and it kills me to sit still and play with my child on the weekend. Could my child also have busy mind syndrome - he starts a puzzle, watches 10 minutes of a movie, wants a drink, and pulls out some toy cars, all in the time it takes me to put the kettle on. Hang on I forgot he’s only 2. So what’s my excuse? I need to move on from busy mind syndrome, the article recommends pausing for one minute before moving on to the next task. Well it’s time to pause and move this diagnosis into a treatment phase. I only hope our PM Julia doesn’t have busy mind syndrome.

What makes you feel like this?

Where have you taken a two year old for a holiday?

The time has come to start planning a holiday. When you really need some time out and it's not great for your mind and body to relax by pottering around the house. We have to get away from the temptations of cleaning, tidying and washing. But honestly where is good for a holiday with a 2 year old in the middle of winter? I started off looking at holiday's gone by. Would we want to travel to Europe, maybe go camping, or head far north for some sun and sand. None of this would be as easy now. With a quick surf online I found a couple of resorts with kids clubs, mostly for 4 years and up and that was about it. The accommodation is tricky also with our son only just sleeping in his converted cot bed, where would we sleep him?

I gave up and went back to reading a marketing journal to escape the idea of having to plan a holiday and thinking these "family things" are much harder to coordinate than working a full time job. And there it was a letter from the editor of Professional Marketing - Marise Donnolley talking about family friendly marketers and the difficultly of trying to book a holiday with children in tow. Thanks Marise, my limp efforts were not really as pathetic as I first thought.

Where have you been holidaying with a 2 year old?

Does a shorter shower really make a difference to the environment?

Happy World Environment Day. Not sure exactly what this means or how I can really make a difference. So I thought I'd boot up the computer, which is plugged in to four other things, thile the TV is blarring in two rooms and my three mobile phones are charging at the closest free power point.

The washing machine is spinning away and hubby has gone grocery shopping likely to come home with a dozen or so plastic bags. A typical Saturday morning. So I've had the quickest shower ever in order to do my bit for the environment today - or maybe because my two year old was screaming from the other room and I had to high tail it out to save him from falling out of his boat (the washing basket).

Surely it's OK though because the utility companies are doing their bit, they've put up all their cost in hope to get us to be more concious. And I'm sure the extra profit they are making is going back in to researching better ways to make everything more sustainable.

I Googled World Environment Day and found lots of useful information, the site http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melbourne_details.php?id=11609 was pretty good start, it told me to celebrate, they're firing up the barbie, and inviting everyone to have a picnic. I want to solar panel my roof, recycle my water, live off the land and get rid of my car, but it's very expensive and pretty hard to do.

Seriously what are you doing to help the environment? I clearly need some practical tips?

Are animal circus's OK?

The circus has come to town. It's an odd sight to see a big old elephant and other animals across the road from your house. The circus is setting up, and has already attracted a stream of mums, dad's and kids, with camera's clicking. We're all fascinated. It's replaced taking my son to the park, and we just go across the street and talk about the elephant and the camels for 20 minutes at a time. This brings me to the question, is it PC to support a circus like this? I'm kind of sitting on the fence. It's a bit more like a car accident from my eyes, we can't stop looking, but deep down I'm not sure if it's quite right?

What's your thoughts? Would you take your child to an animal circus?