Discipline makes Daring possible.

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

Category: Humanity

Connecting
April 15, 2020

Connecting

Last night I discovered Johann Hari and his work on depression, anxiety and addiction.

His findings are fascinating, and chime very much with my beliefs on what motivates people, and how you help them to be happier and more productive.

Humans have fundamental physical needs – food, clothing, shelter, sex.

We also have fundamental psychological needs – autonomy, mastery, agency, purpose and above all connection with other people.  We need to be seen and valued.

I’d be interested to know what the current situation is doing for those needs right now.   I suspect that some of the psychological needs are being better met for some people, while for others some of the physical needs are under threat.

If Covid-19 is an opportunity for a reset.   It’s going to be worth thinking about what comes back after the reset button is released again.

How can we ensure that more people have more of their fundamental needs met intentionally and consistently, without killing ourselves or the planet in the process?

It’s a big question.  But we can start small, with where we belong – with our own families, friends and businesses.

Here are the TED talks:

https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong

 

Sweeping
April 7, 2020

Sweeping

Yesterday, on my early morning walk/shop I went past a local pub.  It’s an enormous 1930’s pub, surrounded by an equally enormous car park.   Empty of course.

Except for one man, sweeping.

“That is going to be the cleanest car park ever.”  I quipped.

“I’m doing it for cardio, I’m not a jogger.”

But he was also doing it like it was a Zen garden.  Systematically, methodically, calmly.  Sweeping everything into neat little piles, one in each marked parking space.

Beautiful.

And I never thought I’d say that about an empty pub car park.

Give yourself a break
March 27, 2020

Give yourself a break

After a stressful and uncertain week, with many things still to be resolved before we can all adjust to the new normal, it will do us good to take a break.

Even if all we can manage is 5 minutes.  Even if that 5 minutes is at some strange time of night.

Switch off from the news.   Log out of email and social media.  They aren’t helping.

Find a place to sit where you can be as near to fresh air as possible.  Even if that’s just an open window.

Sit.

Breathe.

That feeling in your stomach? The butterflies?  The anxiety?  You’ve had it before.  And you got through before.  You got the job.  You learned to drive, swim, ride a bike.  You did the parachute jump.

That feeling isn’t only fear.  It’s excitement.

Things will never be the same again.   They will be better if we dare to make them so.

Measuring doughnuts
February 17, 2020

Measuring doughnuts

In an earlier post, I asked why it’s deemed important to report on the FTSE 100 index at every news on the radio, and what relevance that index has for most ordinary people.

There are alternative things to measure, that matter more to most people, and I think Kate Raworth’s doughnut pretty much captures them all.

What if instead of the FTSE, we had a daily snapshot of our impact as a nation on overshooting the ecological ceiling, or undershooting the social foundation?   What if we could see every day how well we are doing at keeping within “the safe and just space for humanity”.

Like the FTSE and other indices, this snapshot would be made up of data from millions of enterprises large and small across the country, and that means that each enterprise would need to measure it’s own impact too.

That’s completely doable, if we set our mind to it, with the help and support of our accountants.

Why wait?  Let’s start now.

Repetition
February 12, 2020

Repetition

I own a few thousand books, all of which I have read multiple times.

Why do I do this?

Because every time I read a book, I’ve changed since the last time I read it, so my interpretation of it changes.  I see different things in it, notice different character traits, or different ways of using words than I did before.

I also own several editions of the same works.

Why do I do this?

Partly for practical reasons.  Some editions fit more easily into a pocket than others.   But mainly because the experience of the physical book is different in each case.  Some have fine, almost transparent pages of thin, crisp paper.  Others are thick, rough-textured.   Some even have edges cut by the book’s first reader.   Typefaces vary.  The smell and heft of each edition is different.

You may think I’m weird (I know I am), but I bet you’ve re-read a book, or re-watched a film, or watched a remake of a favourite.  You will have heard different versions of the same song, and sometimes preferred a cover to the original.  I bet you’ve eaten the same dish at different restaurants, or at the same restaurant at different times.  Not because you want it to be identical, but because ‘the same but different’ is interesting.

Repetition is comforting, reassuring.  Repetition with variation is comforting, reassuring and enriching.

Something customer experience designers could learn from.

Growth
February 10, 2020

Growth

For the last 260 years or so we’ve behaved as if we live in a world of infinite physical resources.  We don’t, obviously.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean a ‘no-growth’ future.  It just means finding a different, less damaging kind of growth.

If the things people really want, beyond food, shelter and family are agency, mastery, autonomy, purpose and community – personal growth and development – then we will never run out of opportunities to grow these things, just as we will never run out of opportunities to ensure everyone is fed, sheltered and cared for properly.

Plenty of scope for human ingenuity I would have thought.

Externalities
February 7, 2020

Externalities

Wikipedia tells me that “an externality is a cost or benefit that affects a third party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit.”

If I have a flu jab, to protect myself from flu.  I decrease the chances of the people around me catching flu.  That’s a benefit.

If I go to work full of cold, I increase the chances of my colleagues getting a cold, that’s a cost.  If I stay at home, that’s a benefit.

The point about externalities is that they aren’t measured.  They are literally not accounted for in a business.   We metaphorically shrug our shoulders and say “Not my problem.  I’m just trying to make a profit.”

Yet the consequences don’t go away, just because we ignore them.    If I go to work with a cold, and my colleagues catch it, everyone’s productivity is lowered.

We live in a series of systems, and ultimately a closed system – planet Earth, and sooner or later the consequences will come back to bite us.

Time then to take responsibility for all the results of our actions, not just those we choose to see.

Climate change needs to be on the balance sheet.

Sanity
January 29, 2020

Sanity

Listening to Start the Week on Monday, I heard Grayson Perry give a brilliant definition of sanity:

“Sanity is being all of yourself, to everyone, all of the time.  Not schizophrenic or chameleon-like.”

Authenticity follows on from this: “Authenticity means bringing all of yourself to bear on a topic” – in other words, bringing your whole self to the work.

So, if it feels like your job might be driving you insane, you could be right.

Practical optimism
January 22, 2020

Practical optimism

Last Monday was ‘blue’.  This week is supposed to be the gloomiest week of the year (for those of is in the northern hemisphere at least).    All that’s left of Christmas and New Year are the debts and broken resolutions.   Easter and Spring Bank holidays are a long way off (even though the Easter eggs have been in the shops since Boxing Day).

I don’t buy it.

For me, the days are getting longer.   Snow can’t lie for long if we get it now.  Spring is on its way.  People and businesses are up and about again, getting stuck in with new plans for making the world a better place.

But here’s a practical idea for next year:

Take one of the too many get-togethers that happen in the run-up to Christmas and move it to the beginning of 2021.  The best works Christmas party I ever went to took place in February.

Celebrate each other outside the prescribed calendar of feelings.