Inspire Me

Is It the Time of Year?

We can't help but be affected by our very marked seasonal cycle here on this island - and this time of year is one of the most potent from a pre-Christian point of view. Autumn Equinox was traditionally the time of balance between opposites as we turn inwards for the winter, and a time to give thanks for the harvest we have gathered this year. Many of us are finalising our plans for next year, and perhaps giving ourselves permission to celebrate our creativity this year would be nice too. The first UN International Day of Peace on September 21st is also something to celebrate.

To Boldly Complete

The team I've been helping with the development of Humanistic Change Leadership have almost completed their eighteen month programme, and are emerging as increasingly sensitive and empowered leaders. To help consolidate their marked increase in self-directed learning, they are now running several sessions on the workshops. This is excellent practice, and helps them take the programme into their own hands before I disappear. They are now consistently modelling the principles and practice of Humanistic Change Leadership, as a result of which the culture of their organisation downline has qualitatively improved; there is a greater sense of value, purpose and community. And no-one can point to a specific intervention or initiative that has done this - the change is far more subtle and pervasive, and therefore more sustainable.

This is all Great - but I Can't Afford it!

One of my clients told me the other day that he believes the external specialist help he's been getting recently has helped him to lever his organisation's bottom line performance by more than 10% - and he has paid less than 0.05% of turnover for that help. He says he's happy with that ratio.

Soft Skills, Hard Decisions

Most new clients find that when they start working with me their learning and their job seem to be two entirely separate things - then as time goes on the two become more and more closely integrated, until as one client said the other day 'I can no longer see the join!' This is a sign that the causal relationship between personal development and effective leadership has been understood and is being utilised in a creative way. Two of my clients, in two different organisations, have recently redesigned their organisational structures. In itself this is nothing new - what is different is the way they approached making the hard decisions - they both spent time reflecting on the humanistic aspects of the need to restructure, the outcomes they were looking for, and a wide range of options for how they might go about it. In both cases they spread the design process over a slightly longer than usual elapse time, they involved more people in the creative process, the resulting structures are going in far more easily than usual, and the individuals in the new structures are feeling increasingly valued and empowered. I believe this is largely because they are using soft skills to help make hard decisions, in a way that benefits both the organisation and the individual.

Events

The first International Conference on Organisational Spirituality at Surrey University was held in July; a client and I co-presented a workshop on Humanistic Change Leadership; the next ICOS is in 2004. On October 18th I'll be at The 9th International Mentoring Conference near Cambridge, describing the eighteen month Executive Development Programme; details are on the website - maybe I'll see you there?

Shake That Booty

I keep hearing people in their 'prime' (sort of late thirties to mid fifties ...) bewailing the fact that it's impossible these days to just go out for a nice evening dancing and relaxing - it's all raves and hip hop and 'deep house', whatever that is, and in any case there's nowhere to take the kids where they can dance safely - well, now there is - Barefoot Boogie and Whirl-Y-Gig in London both hold regular dance events, alcohol/smoking/drug free - children of all ages welcome - see you there!

Thank you for reading