Discipline makes Daring possible.

Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

Category: A Process for Recovery

Imagine a country
June 1, 2020

Imagine a country

“Imagine a country. . .

Close your eyes, and put your fingers in your ears and shut out the angry chaos for a moment.     Now take a deep breath and imagine a country you want to live in, a country you wish existed, a country where you’d truly feel at home. . .”

This book is a collection of some of the imaginings.   In 500 to 800 words (or an illustrative alternative) within a month.

It’s well worth a read.  But an even better idea would be to do it.  To share this prompt with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, networks.   Then to discuss those imaginings.   And decide how they can begin to be made real.

I don’t know about you, but several times over the last few years, I’ve wondered about moving.   To a different part of the country, or even to a different country.

This book reminds me that it’s better to improve than move.   And that I am responsible for the home I live in.

 

Reading the signals
May 14, 2020

Reading the signals

Quite a while ago, I lost a lot of weight.   I was happy with where I was, so I stopped trying.   I ignored the signals (tightening waistbands, reverting to my old clothes), and refused to even look at the ones that would have told me the brutal truth (the scales, mirrors).

Now I’m back to where I started, doing it all again, with 5 stone to lose instead of only 1.

Don’t judge me.

What signals are you ignoring in your business?  Which are you wilfully blind to?  Which are you not even seeing?

From Recovery to Evolution
May 13, 2020

From Recovery to Evolution

A little while ago, I mused on what might make a good recovery process:

I’ve been thinking about this again, and with a simple addition, this becomes something much more sustainable – a process for evolution as well as recovery:

Maybe we’re always recovering?

Go!
April 24, 2020

Go!

Now go.

Get started.

Move faster than you feel you should.  Faster than you thought you could.

Not because you’ll get there quicker, not even because you’ll get there.

Because it’s the running, the doing, the moving forward, with others, with people like us, that is the real reward.

This is what it means to be human.

Re-focus
April 23, 2020

Re-focus

The world has changed since the last time you did this.

Before you get going again, take another look.

Knowing what you do now about the resources you have to deliver what you really want; what the people you serve really want and what the people you work with really want, which version of better are you aiming for this time?

Take stock
April 22, 2020

Take stock

Once you’ve accepted what is, it’s time to take stock of the resources you have available to you.

Obviously, the physical resources – cash; credit; working capital; stock; work in progress, the available working hours of your team.

Also the intangibles – your Promise of Value, your ‘way we do things round here’; your know-how and expertise; the willingness/ability of your team, clients and suppliers to support you through changes.

Less obviously perhaps,  its time to take stock of what matters.   Because that will almost certainly have changed, for you, your clients and your team.   And that may open up whole new futures, and close some you thought you had available.

Possible futures are resources too.   It’s worth taking stock of them before you decide which ones to explore.

Let it be
April 21, 2020

Let it be

Over the weekend, as well as reading, I listened to wise words from Scott Perry, of Creative on Purpose:

“Acceptance of what is opens the door to what is possible.”

It’s difficult to avoid grieving over what you’ve lost, which includes the future you thought you were going to have.

It is lost.    There is nothing we can do about that.

But other futures are open to you.   Different futures.   Better futures.  Because you can make them so.   At least, you can do your best to make them so.

The first step in a process of recovery is to accept what is, now.