Imagine a swimming pool in front of you. You are first to arrive. You lower yourself into the pool. At first the glassy water is disrupted by some ripples. As you start to swim these become small waves right to sides of the pool. You have had quite an impact on that water!
This applies whether you are Michael Phelps or a leisure swimmer.
Now think about this in terms of what you do generally. In your “pool” how far does your influence reach? Of course using the swimming pool analagy the answer should be right to the edges. But is it? Have you decided that influencing is limited to the “Michael Phelps” in your pool and what can you do now to change that?
Then after a while, as other swimmers join you you can no longer identify your waves - they are now blended with the others. But that does not stop you swimming does it? Unless another swimmer is splashing about and making the water round them unpleasant ( and think about that in terms of your current situation …) we have all learned to work with the others and those combined waves still reach the edges.
In your world who could you co-operate with combine your waves?
And a final thought…what if you decided remove the boundaries of the pool and decide to swim in the ocean?
I am writing this at the start of the second week in 2010. Over the past week the press, blogs and online chats have been full of resolutions and advice on how to lose weight/stop smoking/ change jobs…the usual stuff.
Also in the last week in the UK we have been hit by the worst winter weather we have had in the past 30 years. I suspect that for many people the challenges of getting to work, managing childcare because schools have been closed and keeping the house warm and might have taken the focus off any of the usual New Year resolutions.
But is this the right time to be making changes just because a new year has started?
And how can you tell if it is the right time anyway?
The ”right time” often presents itself. It might come from an “aha” moment when you have sudden clarity on what you want. It might be from a chance comment, or something you read or meeting someone new.
This is not meant as an encouragement to sit back and wait for something to happen of course! Taking some - even small - steps towards change can give great results. And you never know - you might find that when you look back on previous successes - that the “right time” was when things came together without you artificially forcing it.
In the most recent Metasaga ( more info at the foot of this post) we led a group round the National Gallery of Scotland to look for metaphors in the paintings.
Lesley ( my co-guide) and I had chosen a number of stops between us for questions. The final one was mine. It is a painting by Italian painter Correggio and hangs near the entrance of the gallery. The painting is complete except for the central figure which is still in a sort of sketched format. I have tried researching this more but drawn a blank so if I get the artistic comments wrong please forgive - or correct - me.
I understand that this might have been a draft for another picture. Or the central figure might have been left deliberately blank so that a patron could be painted in. Whether either of those are accurate this unfinished painting was bought by another artist ( who clearly admired the work) and is thought to be sufficiently important to be hung in the gallery.
Bearing this in mind the questions I had at that stop on the Metasaga were
Do you have anything unfinished ( and maybe even put aside or discarded) that would be valuable to others? Maybe they would be willing to take it over and develop it further? Or work in collaboration to finish it with you?
Does what you are doing have to be finished to be valuable?
I actually thought I had posted on this topic already and I realised that I hadn’t when I read this excellent post from Ian Aspin on his Really Good Thinking blog which includes another question on the same theme
“Let’s stop right now and ask “what are we not deciding/starting/doing/finishing now because we don’t think it’ll be perfect?”.”
Worth thinking about?
Metasaga
At the start of the speaking skills training workshop I ran yesterday I asked the participants to score out of 10 how confident they feel about speaking in public at the start of the day. As is often the case most people will score themselves below 5. At the end of the day I ask them to decide where they would score themselves at that point - and most will move themselves up - at least a few points.
In context of one day of training and in a box ticking feedback format this provides limited information - but it’s a start.
Speaking in public always scores highly in the top 10 things people dread doing. At the start of a workshop I am prepared for participants feeling varying degrees of nerves and start by asking them to introduce themselves. When we have done that I point out that they have already “made a speech” - they spoke - the audience listened!
In the next sessions I lead the feedback but as soon as possible I ask the other participants to contribute so that they all speak - and they are all invited to comment on what they noticed. Crucially this feedback starts with what they thought went well - giving specific examples (” you were great” is not helpful) and then some suggestions for what they might do differently the next time. I use this feedback model for all of the training I deliver and it never fails to surprise me how few people have used it before - and how much they like it when they give it a try!
The basis for the speaking skills workshops is to help participants establish are already doing well and build on that throughout the session - and to choose what to focus on for improvements in other areas.
In another context, when reading the reflective reports for the management students on the Edinburgh Napier University programme that I teach I was delighted to see that some had adopted this feedback model when trying out their new learning on their teams and that they were encouraged by the results.
We have loads of sayings which advocate persistence for success eg “You learn from your mistakes” and “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince” and even “If at first you don’t succeed try and try again”. Add to those a bit of focused encouragement and watch that confidence grow!
I would love to hear your stories and/or comments. Please share.
Over several years I have been involved in university programmes that build workplace learning into the coursework where the students are asked to apply their academic learning to real life situations and reflect and report on what happens. I love reading this kind of submission. The stories are often full of experiences and outcomes that are unexpected to the writer and should form the basis of their understanding of their own skills and talents as well as recognising what they might want focus a bit of attention on developing.
But I am often disappointed that the emphasis is on that “developing” bit and there is only a quick mention in the passing of what went really well let alone a plan for how they could do more of that.
Myexperience of performance appraisal systems is a bit out of date as it’s been a while since I have been an employee so I had hoped that things had changed recently but I know from many conversations that these is most often what I would call a “deficiency” position ie establishing what needs to be put right. I know, though, that there will be good organisations out there - and good line managers - who do recognise what is going well.
But maybe we don’t help ourselves - and I include myself in this here. Personal learning happens all the time - it does not have to be scheduled, sourced or indeed paid for - but if you are not recognising and valuing what you have/ are learning then maybe it’s about time to start.
I am group coach for a 2 cohorts of management students right now. From what they say their written reports I can see clearly that they have learned a great deal from being part of the programme. I will stress to them that the measure of what they learned is less about the mark they get for their work and more about how they are using that learning.
