why we should all be more 'phlegmatic'

(this blog first appeared as a guest submission on RubyStar as part of their series on words defining 21st century business - thought I'd share it in light of all the colds that people seem to be suffering with at the moment!)

Phlegmatism (phleg-mat-ism)

I know – it sounds like you’re full of a stinky cold, oozing unmentionable fluids from nasal cavities, and generally in need of emergency Beecham’s powders*, but it was once used by the founder of one of the most successful PR consultancies in its day by means of praising my performance whilst in his employ.

With business today becoming more and more like the PR industry that I remember from all those years ago (ever-shortening deadlines, increasing expectations from clients, things going wrong at the worst possible time…) my contribution to this RubyStar series is that word of personal recognition I once received: ‘phlegmatism’. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Greek and Latin, but today it means to be calm, composed and self-possessed. In times of increasing stress, we need to try and remain calm and carry on – we need to find ways to be more ‘phlegmatic’ in how we approach our businesses. For me, that’s about perspective – I was once employed in the health service, literally holding peoples’ lives in my hands; the implications of being even 2 minutes late back then is nothing compared to what it would mean for me today…


*(other cold remedies are available…)

why mission statements are a waste of time

Any time you get involved with reviewing or creating a new organisation, someone inevitably asks (and probably rightly so), “but what’s our mission statement..?” – without such a focus, it’s very difficult to be able to get everyone working together, motivated and generally able to be better at what it is that’s being done.

But trying to define that elusive vision which provides the magic answer to unifying everyone, resolving disagreements over purpose, and enable you to easily tell the world what it is you’re about is rarely easy going.

You’ll find that you can easily spend hours (and even days) in consultations involving words, values, images, and so on, just to get to a collective agreement about the general focus of it. And then just as much time again trying to get the exact right words, in the right order (and with the right punctuation!)...

And all for what? Some inspirational statement that most people don’t even acknowledge the existence of, because their view of you is shaped by their experiences of interacting with you – how and what you do with them (as well as for them), and what they hear about you from other people.

What’s prompted me to embark on this seeming rant against the sacrosanct mission statement is that I’ve been invited to join a consortia, and we’ve just spent ½ day trying to agree between the 9 of us what our shared mission should be about... (and still only got it down to 3 options!). Surely we’d be better spending our energies agreeing the broad shape of what it is that’s united us in the first place, and then getting on and doing something to make the world a better place?

But what about me and my consultancy practice? I’ve often referred to having certain values that influence my approaches, so surely I have a mission statement too? Something aspirational, but also a bit vague and ‘woolly’ to make it easier for me to do the wide range of things that I do – so until the next time I review it, here it is:

“to not get caught...” 

The day I became a hashtag on twitter…

You may already know that I’m on twitter; you may know that I occasionally tweet ‘live’ from events I’m at; and you may even know that a few months back someone did a survey that identified me as one of the top500 influencers of social enterprise in the world based on what I do on twitter.

But what you probably don’t know if that earlier this week, I became a ‘#’ (hashtag) on twitter.

Hashtags are funny things - they let you easily find other tweets of similar subject matter, and also to help place the content of a tweet in some kind of context. They range from the celebrity, to campaigns, to movements, and even the ridiculous.

And the list of them has just been added to with one that’s all about me! And while many people know I have a gift for self-publicity, on this occasion I can’t claim the credit for it: it was someone else who, unprompted, began this new tag. I’d just finished having a chat with them about some ideas around the LiM tool that allows small enterprises to more easily and better identify and report on their social impact and value, and they tweeted about it, adding the hash tag #chattoadrian

A couple of other people picked up on this and retweeted the tag pretty quickly, meaning its moved from one persons random idea to something that others think is genuinely useful and helpful.

What does this mean for me in practical terms? Well, I’m realistic enough to know that I’ll never trend on twitter, but it is a way that people can more easily see who I’ve been speaking with and what they thought of me. And I like that - I’ve always been open about trying to be transparent and accountable in how I work and offer my support and services, and this new hash tag means that its even easier for people to say and see just how good (or otherwise) I’ve been. It’ll keep me on my toes more, and that can surely only be a good thing in the long run.

So - thank you Graham Gardiner for making a new rod for my back, and contributing to my notoriety!

Olympic-free haven...

Lots of people seem to be using the Olympics at the moment as allegory and parallel to illustrate various ideas and arguments.

Not me.

I'd like to think that there are some places where you can still escape from all the hullabaloo and drama and hearing people arguing about who should have won what.

So I'm going to keep my blog an Olympic-free zone (even though the Olympian values are strikingly similar to those of co-ops...)

'nuff said.

See you again when its all over.

the delusions of senior management (...and why it harms all of us)

At a recent seminar I attended, I noticed that the more senior a persons’ role is, the more likely they are not to have brought a notepad/pen, etc. with them - yet they know they're coming to an event where they’ll be exposed to learning, and so be wanting to keep notes for their reference later. 

Perhaps this is because that due to the seniority of their role, they assume that others will have taken care of such ’basic’ administrative needs for them (a self-delusion of how important they think they are)?

And this concerns me - this obvious erosion of a person not taking responsibility for themselves is surely at odds with their responsibility for the performance and well-being of others under them? If they can’t be trusted to make sure they’ve a notepad and pen when going to an event where they know they’ll need them, then how can we have faith in their competency to manage significant budgets or large numbers of other people?

There are, thankfully, exceptions I’ve seen to this - people who’ve been on leadership programmes with the likes of Common Purpose, people in co-operatives (where one of the defining values is ‘self-responsibility’), and people in faith-based organisations, where there is a commonality of theological teaching around proving you can be trusted in the small things before being allowed to take on the larger responsibilities…

So perhaps we need to challenge people in authority more; not over the public failings that cost people’s livelihoods, but before they can get to that stage - check that your boss carries a notepad and pen with them when out and about…

On being a 'Guru'...

People often refer to me on occasion as being a ‘Guru’ in different contexts - seeking to express their appreciation for my knowledge and skills in relation to social franchising, social and co-operative enterprise, governance, social impact reporting,… - and I’m always nervous if they do so publicly.

Not because I don’t think I’m ‘worthy’ of recognition, but because of the risk that I might start to believe my own hype - which leads to complacency and arrogance. Which leads to people I work with not getting the standard of support they need, and so not benefiting as they should do.

I find myself having to manage a difficult tension - presenting this hype as part of my expert abilities in order to win commissions of work, but at the same time needing to make sure that I remain humble enough to work alongside clients in ways that they’re comfortable with and that are appropriate, recognising where I might need to change my approach or invest in new skills.

There’s also a risk to my professional relationships within networks and with my peers - there are plenty of self-proclaimed ’Gurus’ out there, who through ignorance end up offering a poor quality of service and support that leaves clients in a worse position that when they started. As a result, people are often sceptical of ‘Gurus’, and I’m concerned that I’ll be tarred with the same brush.

The key lesson in all this is not to take a persons’ word for how great they are in their field of expertise - ask for examples and testimonials. If you’re not able to ask for such things (for whatever reason), then you can do things like look at their websites, or recommendations on their LinkedIn profile.

Don’t believe what you’re told at face value - you’re relying on the ‘expert’ to support you to resolve an issue or problem you don’t feel able to yourself, and its you who’ll be left to live with whatever they introduce or implement on your behalf - they can walk away afterwards, but you can’t.

How I (nearly) made a client faint - and why they gave me a fruit basket afterwards

As some readers of my blog will know, a lot of what I do is supporting people and communities to realise their visions by creating new co-operative, social, or private enterprises. And I do this through various means – training courses, consultancy, beer mentoring, etc...

Recently, I’ve been working with a number of south Asian women who want to use their skills to improve the well being of families in deprived communities, but also want to work in ways that ensure people’s dignity is paramount in that process as well. They were ‘awarded’ 4 days of my life through the co-operative enterprise hub to help them to pursue and realise this, and through that time I’ve helped them develop their business model, financial plan, marketing and also to incorporate themselves as a worker co-operative. And it’s this last part that caused their ‘excitement’ – they were so sure that they would have made a mistake on their submission to companies house (they structured their worker co-op in a guarantee company form, in case you’re wondering), that when their company certificate arrived in the post, they were overcome with excitement... they told me that one of their number almost fainted! (although I’m not sure I can take all the credit for that, as it turns out that the person also had a cold at the time...)

 

Anyways – they were so impressed with how I’ve supported and encouraged them over these few days, that at my last session with them this morning, they produced a fruit basket as a traditional means of expressing their thanks for all I’ve done with them over the last couple of months. And I’m very touched – normally, at the end of supporting an individual or group, there’s the awkward handshake and assurances about keeping in touch, but this felt really nice – so  thank you Access Alpha Ltd of Burnley, and may the universe reciprocate your generosity many times over.

(NB – i’m also partial to cake, beer and donughts in case any other clients I’m supporting are thinking of finding ways to thank me...)