UK November 2008

It has been an exciting time. We have graduate coaches from our first Assessment Centre. These eleven coaches are supporting a major venture to strengthen manufacturing management in the UK (see press release).

At the same time, we are about to offer three new coaching courses between levels 3 and 5. These are all certificated, two of them by ILM or the CMI.

In spite of a very obvious recession our order book is very good. Past lessons appear to have been learned - 'weak managements are not very good at managing through difficult times'. And so commercial organizations, the NHS and Government are all continuing to invest in their leaders.

UK March 2008

I am just returned from Australia and great hospitality too. After several trips, I have warmed considerably to Australians who, from bush to city have so often shown proactive consideration and help. I feel that the country and its culture have matured marvelously overt the last decade or so to become more embracing and welcoming of others. The human values that were once only available to close friends and family are now overtly expressed to complete strangers and I am very warmed by the hearts of this great nation state. I spent time in Sydney before flying to Adelaide and then driving south through the great vineyards of South Australia to pick up the Great Ocean Road and head slowly east to Melbourne. The great spaces, friendly welcomes and rugged geology and beauty of the coast made a lasting impression. We spent some time in the Blue Mountains arriving one evening in thick mist. The following day was magically beautiful and we walked almost alone into the Australian rain forest near Blackheath, their own 'Grand Canyon'. Air plants hanging from limestone cliffs, fern-root systems thriving from the dripping water, impressive waterfalls, red crayfish, lizards up to four feet or more, so unstressed by humans that I was within 40cm of one this size or more, and then the 1000 ft climb out. A great day. Although Australians too are concerned about the corruption of their youth and the arrival or 'swarming' where kids get together using cell and txts to abuse the public, the fact is that so much of Australia is undamaged, littered or defaced as it is in England where unruliness and mob-mentality is a despicable 'badge of dishonour' amongst the corrupted. Or is it just an adjuvant effect of relative over-crowding here? We moved back to Sydney, a splendid showing of La Boheme and a day on Balmoral beach which has intuitive memory for I walked where my grandfather spent his last year or so before accident and death in 1943. A great memory was spending an evening with Susie Linder-Pelz and Michelle Duval. We ate in a restaurant overlooking the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House where everything was exquisite. The conversation was extraordinary, delving deeply into humanity, health and the connections for change. It was also extraordinary to be invited to run a coaching master-class for experienced coaches in NSW when Michelle Duval is on the ICF's doorstep there. Michelle is one of the most breathtakingly brilliant coaches on the planet but her graceful and unassuming air have not helped expose her world-class profile and talent in her local community. Perhaps that will change now!

I returned off the red-eye immediately to the field of work and the ongoing facilitation in the development of my favourite team, more coaching programs and coaching. Again, the rapid changes in experience provide a rich source of personal change and I am mindful to leave adequate spaces for reflection so that this resource is not dulled by time.

Floods  23 July 2007

While the weather and flooding in the UK make national and international news, we find ourselves cut off from the rest of the UK with all roads blocked, the army in attendance and rescue and police helicopters hovering overhead. The floods here exceeded the highest recorded levels of 1945 by some inches and come very soon after the very bad flooding of 2000. Once again then, I find that I am again an islander. I say this as I was brought up in Guernsey, a small island that holds a tapestry of memories. It is a small, parochial place. There was much friendly rivalry between Guernsey and Jersey (and still is) with each blaming inbreeding for the distinctive characteristics of their neighbours! Still, Guernsey had many good points: doors were left open, groceries left on view in open-top cars and kids roamed freely without damaging people or property (very often). Some of that exists here too. You can leave you door unlocked if you want to, crime is low, there is a great deal of community activity and in the summer months you will see, every day, a habitant of the village tending to plants, watering, picking up litter or sweeping the sidewalks.

That neighbourly conduct has almost died out in Britain though still common in my other home in Philadelphia, which, having a population of 7M (6th largest US city) is a sort of miracle to those from this side of the pond. But then, nearly 30% of Americans go to church compared to the UK where the attendance figure is under 2%.

The downside of 'island' communities as distinct from Philadelphia, is that it seems that a higher proportion of them lack vision and are fearful of change ("this is what WE do" - an 'identity statement') and continually refer to the past as the benchmark of 'what to do' without reference to what is done better anywhere else. Psychologically (and linguistically) they are often quick to generalize and irrational judgement. When challenged they are prone to whingeing rather than providing adult feedback and often are poor at understanding compromise and collaboration (Thomas & Kilmann). That stands in contrast to my experience of Philadelphia (which of course has about 168 nations represented in its communities). Is the difference due to the amount of challenge created by dilution of both memes and genes or simply due to the relative isolation and co-bonding in micro-cultures - or perhaps a combination of both?

How then, in developing people, can we nourish the neighbourly qualities in our people and still make sure that their heads are held up, looking for improvements, rather then overly secure in the 'old stuff'? one answer may be to widen their horizons by bringing in new people. Another may be to use the gentle art of challenge:

'Really, what are the pros and the cons of that view?';

'Interesting, how long ago did you decide that to be true?;

'Always?';

'I expect needs have changed since then, after all, we are always evolving how we do things aren't we?'

But maybe we need a change-team to achieve a faster result! A group of like-minded people invoking rehearsed phrases, like those above, so that the phrases become familiar and, with luck, part of the fabric of their lives. Cultures are created and grow through common thinking and behaviours - get enough new blood to co-exist and interact successfully in any culture and it will flex and change for the better.

Wine and Whine 6th July 2007

I have been given a rather intriguing present by David Dove (of 3CCCs Ltd) a fortified wine called Maury Solera 1928 of 16% proof. While I wait for it to settle, decant and air I am informed by David that it improves during several days after opening. Here sits a wine that was on the grape when my father was a young man. While the wine is still developing and improving, my father is dead and has been for some years.

Both David and I are passionate about fine wines and both talk of the great pleasure when the wine floods the palette and the taste develops and changes. So pleasurable in fact, that both of us have been known to 'delay gratification' (in the terms of Dr. M. Scott Peck) by sipping slowly for hours or days in order to expand the period of experience. The ability to delay is unfashionable but an essential landmark in the development of the individual. Another great factor in personal and human development that has also been dying over the last eighty years (while this wine has been maturing) is the ability to recognize the pleasure in simple and mundane things and to be thankful for those - instead there is a growing culture of whingeing about inconsequential matters, for example the age of one's cell phone or car! Instead we would be best to be thankful for freedoms, for health, for the magic of a single bloom, for our sight and for the mad flight of a bat against the darkening sky.

A third thought about personal development that I want to share is that of comparing, 'she has more money than me', 'they have better cars than me', she is better looking that me'. Such comparisons arise where we forget that we can have power over our reactions to our environment. And so many people do, reacting as if to the icons on a screen, being curt, rude, opinionated and negatively judgmental. This incredibly basic human process of comparing is no more sophisticated than that of the lower primates and we really should get over it!

Comparison is at the root of the gang and mob, of sectarian violence and hatred. How can it be, with so much more known about human development and workings of the mind, that so little progress has been made? How hard is it to challenge our own limiting beliefs and to challenge those of others and make a difference within our social and working cultures? Well I am grateful to compare and enjoy this wine and especially thankful to David for the chance to feel grateful for an upcoming magical experience - curtesy of this wine -  a tour of memories:

of parents and friends who have passed over, reminiscences of other tastes and gastronomic delights taken in wonderful places with incredible people.

Not much to whinge about there!

Frank Daniels and Ericksonian Language Patterns 1st July 2007

I spent a valuable weekend with Frank Daniels exploring and learning more about altered psychological states including 'Internal Absorbtion' otherwise known as trance. Of course there are several levels of trance, not just one and many of us are familiar with some of these ourselves, from low level processing while driving a car (and forgetting for the moment where we are) to day-dreaming. Beyond that are deeper levels as experienced via Transcendental Mediation for example. In the context of the most common induction process observed and used during the time with Frank and his colleagues, it is interesting to note that the induction of trance had a clear alteration of pattern at which point direct eye-contact was removed and the voice was slowed and reduced in volume by degrees. In coaching, I am not aware of doing this although will often look into the middle-distance and away from my coachee's face after they have already descended into deep trance-like processing (in silence). Now I think to revisit some of the many DVD material we have from master-classes to see whether or not I have instinctively used some of these techniques - I will let you know.

Collaborative Ventures 26 June 2007

This week I have some days away with a colleague to focus on the development of coaching and leadership. Collaborative development like this can be wonderfully fruitful and it tests the boundaries of a number of important virtues:

• 'holding back' to provide space for others to express

• opening up to creative expression of one's own

• to practicing compromise and collaboration in a mutually supportive setting.

There is also the discipline of re-organizing priorities to make sure that all projects are moving forward and necessary changes made to create more than enough space for success to flow from that energy. My partner in this endeavour is also an author and coach and working together, we both hope to enhance and develop the delivery of the things that we are passionate about in order to have wider impact. It starts from open minds, mutual trust and regard and an empowering belief that 1 plus 1 is greater than 2!

Coaching for Performance 20 June2007

Its a fact that I get some rather 'challenging' coachees. Its a result of being a 'safe pair of hands'. So what? Well, when you get a coaching brief and you think, 'mmmm another beast!' you begin to wonder (again) whether your career will survive the latest power-lunatic of total world destruction! The problem is that HR want to tell you how bad the beast is and want to ease you into the inferno. In fact, I want (and do sometimes)  say, 'I do not need to know, I'll make my own assessment'. Well it is relief for them to express their concerns and that can be part of the service to HR - the downside is that I then have to clear the 'field' and try and be objective about my experience when first meeting the 'beast'. And we are not talking pussy-cats. Yes, I have been scared, very scared!

Interestingly, some of the most formidable coachees turn out to have soft-underbellies and after a period of risk and uncertainty, I am sometimes their only trusted confidante - in their life - really. How is that possible. In part it is the establishment of rapport and in part the creation of credibility and trust - after that it is simply, for me, gut feeling to go for the killer-challenge at the right time. I have been known to turn a tiger into a pussy-cat with a phrase like, "so... you could be called a bit of a bastard then?" This approach is not gender-specific. One if the most tenacious coaches on the planet is Michelle Duval 'the terrier' who never shirks from the need to challenge. I am not promoting provocative coaching per se, but I hope opening the idea that spontaneous challenge, ameliorated by experience, can shift the most difficult coachees and provide a miracle result. Of course, it is not the coach who makes the change, but the coachee. We only facilitate and do remain in awe at the momentous changes is perception, motivation and performance that take place in our presence. This is an undoubted privilege and to be paid for that privilege is one of the genuine miracles of life.