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Category: POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, WELLBEING & POETRY

If you have never lived through a day like this before, remember what if feels like to see history turn

Published December 7, 2010 by Jo Jordan

Sea Cliff Bridge Water by Jon... in 3D via FlickrEmperor’s Clothes

I am not sure that the content of Wikileaks is really much to write home about and I still see the reaction as being a classic case of Emperor’s Clothes.  It seems the Guardian has the same view.

Scientific Journalism

But I do take Assange’s point that Wikileaks has ushered in an era of scientific journalism.  Yes, it is good to have evidence for what we write about and what we believe in.

Who has put the frighteners on Amazon and Paypal?

I can’t see why Amazon, Paypal etc are running scared.  Who is putting pressure on them?  And why?

As for delayed warrants of arrest  . . .

As for the extradition, I am afraid I believe Assange’s lawyer.  The Swedish authorities have had more than three months to issue that warrant.  It is sub judice now but I am curious to know what questions are asked by British judges.

If you have never lived through a turning point in history . . .

This is one of these moments when history turns.  We are in a room that turns cold as everyone realizes that we are a fork in the road from which there is no return.  We go this way or that.  Let’s hope it is not that.

Remember the feeling . . .

As we get older, we accumulate experience and we recognize the signs.  And the deep dread of prolonged trouble ahead.

Remember the feeling. It is one of those visceral reactions to life that you should never forget.

Good luck to everyone.  We are going to need it.

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Go students! But in solidarity

Published December 6, 2010 by Jo Jordan

UK Uncut Demonstration 041210 by ucloccupation via FlickrThe ethics of Gen Y

I am puzzling over the ethics of our youth.  That’s not unusual, of course.  By an accident of history, I am a typical Gen Xer.  I drink water and carry a laptop. I’m highly independent and anyone not quite ‘up to it’ receives a glance of disapproval that is the hallmark of my generation.

Gen Y’ers elsewhere

I’ve also lived in a country where the Gen Y’ers clashed  magnificently with the old guard who reminded them constantly of history. “We fought for your privileges”, said the old guard.  “Toughs”, said the youngsters, “give us more. And NOW!”

Little emperors, indeed.

Student action in UK November 2010

The student action along Oxford Street of the moment are interesting.  So many students are not there.  We look around our universities and wonder.  Not even self-interest can get them out.

But self-interest has got some out.  Are they really ethical though?  Are they pouting because they have been excluding from the loot and pillage of the economy?  Or do they really care about a well run society and are they prepared to run society well in exchange for a fair and decent wage?

Solidarity is the ethical test of politicians

The test is in solidarity.  Let’s see what alliances are formed and let’s see how easily they are bought off.  How many of the leaders would join Top Shop tomorrow if given a graduate management position?

The test is in solidarity and I am hoping (against hope) that they will take the lead in mapping the issues that face the UK today.

But beware: Politics is about results not motives

But then an old politicial science professor said to me once: In politics motivation doesn’t matter.  Only results matter.

Unless students have a clear ethical position and  a map of the alliances they want to forge, they will find their energy quickly coopted to other causes.

It happened to other generations who were smug and complacent. It can happen to them too because that is politics.

We are waiting to see.  Hoping but waiting.  I hope their political science professors have taught them well.

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Day-dreams win over one track goal-orientation

Published December 5, 2010 by Jo Jordan

I'm back by Taho Scope via FlickrForget being goal oriented – it’s inherently evil

I’ve always been a day-dreamer.  It’s not that I don’t get things done.  But I’ve known since I was a teenager that getting things done is dangerous.  Psychologists like Peter Gollwitzer use more complicated impenetrable language.  Simply put, when we are going like a train, we are apt to run over other people and ultimately make a mess.

Better to chill and have a happy routine of work, look about, work, look about.  No need to be so stressed.

Living without dreams lacks soul

But to live without dreams, that is stressful. We become increasingly ill-tempered.

It’s a good thing that dreams don’t take no for an answer!

I don’t know what happens to other people but with me ultimately the dreams win.  I am fascinated by the size of my doodle books when I am overly busy.  I need my day dreams.   And I keep breaking off from work to doodle.

When too much dull work locks them out, my dreams simply break back in!  I am glad.  They are loyal friends.

They are also interesting friends.  When I entertain them, ideas  roll.  I love it.

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Fantastic new reads and listens found this week

Published December 5, 2010 by Jo Jordan

Riverside Park stroll - June 2008 - 066 by Ed Yourdon via Flickr1  Play ethic

Not an easy read but this article sums up

Store it away as a baseline of what we know about business models in the networked age; give it to your students to study; use it make heuristics for your strategy sessions

2  Mute magazine: culture and politics after the net

Mute magazine: Deeply thought out well informed discussion of a wide range is issues from architecture to the ongoing student protests in London.

A lot of it is over my head.  To comment on any piece, I’d have to read a shelf of books too.  But that’s why it is in my “Worth Reading” feed.

3   French Radio London

I definitely don’t understand most of what is said on French Radio London but I like the music and I like the way they put the title of the track on the screen.  BBC never does that.

Station of choice for the moment

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Your best work environment? I do need to be happy and playful

Published December 5, 2010 by Jo Jordan

When the Desert flowers by Martin_Heigan via Flickr
When the Desert flowers

Who we insist we are and will be!

I had to write a proposal over the weekend and I was astonished by the words that seem to come unbidden from my fingers.  Playful language, evocative language, jocular language.  Where on earth did it all come from?

A moment’s thought and it wasn’t difficult to deduce.  I’ve been doing some more conventional work in more conventional organizations. Everyone is so angry, so abrasive, so concerned that they are losing out.

Any good wishes seem calculated.  The smallest problem is a disaster.  Little is an opportunity to create a better and more joyful world together.

My proposal was little more than a response to 4 months in an emotional desert.  The flowers came out at the first opportunity.

Playfulness and joyfulness begets playfulness and joyfulness – I hope

Then I got two emails from people I don’t know – at all.  I had contacted them about their work.  In both cases, it gradually had come through that they were having to make a stand at work to be heard.  They are doing a good job. Smooth.  Polished.  And very, very professional.   But there was an emotional cost – an unnecessary emotional cost.

With no expectation of any sort of reply, I replied to each raising real questions about their work. I also pointed them to connections and opportunities that might benefit them.  They then replied to me with more connections.  They weren’t that interested in my ideas but they liked it that I had created a loop in their lives or reminded them of one that had fallen off the radar.

What is your essential environment?

I’d never thought of myself as needing to be in a playful environment.  I am not playful person.  I don’t come from a playful culture.   And that’s the under statement of the year.  I can at least make people laugh by taking off the favorite phrase of ‘my people’ – we will make a plan.

But I think I need a playful, joyful environment otherwise I try to be the playful, joyful one.  And I’ve not had much practice.

But I sent off the proposal anyway.  It began “I’d be delighted to spend my time in the company of lively burbling . .”

Do you think they will reply – not made here?

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Wikileaks and the Emperor’s Clothes

Published December 3, 2010 by Jo Jordan

855am by Trinity via FlickrNon-event of the week

Wikileaks – so I found out about the lame political analysis coming out of Embassies.  Surprised – not really – they hear the same lame analysis I hear at cocktail parties. Surprised – sort of – surely, well I mean these guys are the crème de la crème – surely they think more deeply than that.  It seems not.

Wikileaks was a nothing.  We all know this stuff. We just didn’t know that THIS IS ALL!

Wikileaks and the Emperor’s Clothes

The powers-that-be are writhing precisely because Wikileaks turned out to be a nothing event.  So a boy in the crowd has yelled out that the Emperor is wearing no clothes.   The tailors who sold him make-believe clothes, if they have their smarts about them, cashed in and headed for the hills along time ago.

Those who didn’t have the guts to point out the scam before are looking foolish. That’s all.

But maybe we are the ones with no clothes?

It is a logical possibility.  Let’s look at the squeals of outrage.

Critics say that our officials can’t govern unless their inane analysis is secret. Hardly. There was little secret or analytical about it.

Anyway, the basic requirement of their position is that they do nothing without our consent or that would be consistent with our consent on inspection (maybe that is why the analysis has been so lame?)

Privacy and confidentiality refers to the people they describe.  Yes.  Other people’s details are private but not the politicians they ‘play’ with. Those people consort with foreign embassies to be heard.  There interaction is not a secret; nor cannot it be.  The lamentable state of Joe Soap’s bank account or the personal foibles of a  politician’s mother – those are confidential to those people.  Actions taken on behalf of voters is never secret.  Ever.

The only secret that has been blown is that it doesn’t take a lot of expertise to do what Wikileaks has exposed.

But still, maybe they do other stuff we don’t know about.  Hands up if you believe that.  But still, maybe we suffer from outstanding ignorance and they are wearing clothes after all.  It is possible.  But that is how the scam works.

Simple solution: wear clothes

If they are wearing clothes, I think we would have seen another reaction and different body language.  Wearied looks. A condescending pat on the head.  We would even have heard what was reputed to have been said to Hilary Clinton:  you should read what we say about you.  The world is simply roaring with laughter at a case of emperor’s clothes.

There is a simple solution.   Put on some clothes.  I am sure we will like what we see when you do.

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Write because I am curious about my audience?

Published November 29, 2010 by Jo Jordan

Une belle journée à vous ! Have a nice day ! by GattouLucieso far behind.. Sorry via Flickr

So am I going to write that paper or shall I bin it?

In a former life, I might have decided whether to write a paper or not on the basis of the objective merits of the paper.  I might even had aspirations that someone might read it.  Ha!  The average formal paper is read by 7 people.  Blogs at least get read if ever so cursorily.

Solidarity and invitation

Galeano makes an important point.  The only interaction worth having is horizontal – solidarity.

If I write that paper

Who do I hope to benefit?

Who do I hope to invite in?

And most of all, whose reply do I hope to receive?And why do I want their reply?  For personal gain or because I am genuinely interested in what they have to say?

Deeply curious about our audience

Writing is not so much knowing our audience.  It is being deeply curious about our audience.

My challenge is clear.  Who do I want to hear from?

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Legitimate anger

Published November 28, 2010 by Jo Jordan

O OUTRO LADO DO MEDO É A LIBERDADE (The Other Side of the Fear is the Freedom) by jonycunha via FlickrI don’t like anger.  I don’t trust it.

I don’t like anger. I don’t trust it.  We just become one track-minded and lose perspective.

Eduardo Galeano expresses the anger many of us feel

But sometimes we do need to sink into an emotion.  I re-read Galeano’s words on the hegemony of unfairness and I re-read them aloud.  These are hard words to be read aloud to hear their flint-sharp steel-hard tones.

Reading negative poetry aloud at home is safe . . . and cathartic

I felt better.  I did.

It doesn’t harm that below those words I had also recorded a positive way forward.  But it helped to hear words that confirmed that I am not the only person in the world so heartily tired of having to pretend that the unfairness we see every day is not there.

Maybe one day I will read those words aloud in public

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We are who we mix with – negotiating outcomes in supply networks

Published November 28, 2010 by Jo Jordan

Tunnel Vision by emerille via FlickrWe are who we mix with

I am just coming to the end of a project and I find myself in a curious position. A week ago, it seemed important to write and publish a paper.  A week later, as I entertain the prospect of moving onto other work, I find myself puzzled by why I thought that important.

Simply, my audience is changing and so is my sense of priorities.

Supply networks mean a constantly changing audience

This is not rocket science but it is critically relevant to the working in a world of supply networks.  In the ‘olden days’ of supply chains, we maintained a position between some kind of supplier and some kind of customer and our audiences rarely changed.  In today’s world, our range of suppliers and customers shifts so fast that we cannot afford to ‘buy in’ to other people’s priorities. Alliances are temporary – very very temporary – and commitments need to be phrased in these terms.  Simply, customers have to learn that they don’t have massive influence unless they have massive loyalty.

We only really attend to who and what is in our bubble

Even before the days of supply networks, I had noticed how easy it is to buy into the value systems of people around us.  When we are in situation, even for a few weeks, where the views of any class of stakeholder are not represented, we start to forget about them. It is only when we step out of the bubble, that we realise what has happened.

Bubble members need to be respectful to all our stakeholders

My take from this observation is this:  we simply have to be very selective about who we work with. Any sign of disrespect early in the negotiations has to be met firmly by withdrawal.  If keeping ideas back is a condition of engaging with us,  it may be better to find other work partners.

And we need frequent points to check that our attention to other important stakeholders hasn’t drifted

Early negotiation accommodation is so common that we might feel we cannot afford to be this strict.  Perhaps not.  But then we have to build in checkpoints where we are able to withdraw if we are not being heard or some if-then – I’ll go along with this now but we want a review and if these conditions aren’t being fulfilled, then we want a rethink.

Work negotiation of the future – contingent, temporary where the links are more powerful than the customers and suppliers?

I guess we will see a lot of discussion along these lines in the next few years.  In three years, I wonder what I will think of my thought processes.

What do you think?

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The secret of writing: Little and often

Published November 17, 2010 by Jo Jordan

Goal setting through a picture of wine bottlesLittle and often – that’s the secret of writing

  1. Start before you are ready
  2. Never break the chain – write every day – write something – good or bad
  3. Stop – work for half-an-hour to an hour and never more than one-and-a-half hours and stop

7 fold increase in productivity

Boise, who studied academics intensively, was able to show that these three rule accounted for the 7 fold difference in productivity between top flight and ordinary academics.

It’s a massive difference, isn’t it.

Highly productive writers

It seems that highly productive writers sit down and write, every day, usually before the house gets up and before they can be distracted.

The free write, structure, edit or do whatever they are able to do at that point but they write and they never miss a day.  That way they maintain a habit, maintain their confidence, develop fluency.

Above all, they don’t lose track. They don’t waste time figuring out where they were.

Amazingly of all, productive writers write for short periods.  Apparently the pattern is to work in 15 minute bursts with mini-breaks, quite often for as little as half-an-hour and very rarely for more than an hour. Boise calls periods longer than one-and-a-half hours bingeing.

Getting back to writing

I know all this is true..  I’ve been distracted by another project and I’ve woken up each day with a head full of other concerns.

And I’ve lost track of the concerns that led me to blog.

Then it becomes harder to blog.

Then the mechanics, like quickly finding a picture in Flickr take longer.

Yes, professional writing needs to be habitual.  It has to be given some kind of priority.

When your life changes, deliberately change the slot of time for writing?

Maybe when our life changes, we have to sit down and ask ourselves quite openly, “Where is the time for writing?”

Because most of us write because we “have to”. Without it, we feel that life loses its meaning.   And then it is even harder to get back into.

Little and often

That’s the key.

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