Inspired

Two visits to Perth Concert Hall over the past few days have really inspired me.  During the first visit, I had a quick look at some of the images on display as part of the Perthshire Photographic Society exhibition.  (Note to self - go back for a longer look.)

I was entranced by Jean Burhouse’s montage of Perth buildings - and I spent a chunk of this morning snapping away - I might post some of my efforts later.

The second visit was last night to see the magnificent Perth Youth Orchestra annual concert.  I was blown away by some of the performances, but what made my night was the huge smile from daughter-child as the orchestra stood in response to the rapturous applause at the end.  A moment of magic!

Manage like your hair's on fire

I came across a blog entry with this wonderful title - and had to read it. I guess that Rafe Esquith has an interesting and inspirational story to tell, but I was particularly interested on the six levels of moral development:

Level 1: "I don't want to get in trouble."
Level 2: "I want a reward"
Level 3: "I want to please someone"
Level 4: "I follow the rules"
Level 5: "I am considerate of other people"
Level 6: "I have a personal code of behavior and I follow it"

This is relevant for me just now as I am preparing some bible studies for teenagers on the Sermon on the Mount, and need to convey to them the standards that Jesus is explaining to his disciples. So I can definitely use this.

As I was thinking about this I began to wonder if there should be another level:

Level 7: "I follow the standards of Jesus"

Of course, none of us can actually live up to that, but it seems to me that it's a pretty good target to aim for.

While thinking about teachers with their hair on fire, I was reminded of this TED video. I can't imagine what would happen if Clifford Stoll's hair caught fire, but I can see that it has probably happened to him on more than one occasion!

Anticipation

Is Barack Obama's inauguration speech the most anticipated speech in history? Well, I certainly can’t remember anything quite like it.

Which raises another question – why is there so much anticipation?

A few thoughts from me:

• He’s an excellent orator, who seems to connect with people whenever he speaks;
• He conveys a sense of passion and belief in what he says;
• He inspires hope through the vision that he communicates; and
• Most of us are expecting him to change things – in a positive way.

Is it fair to place so much of our collective aspirations on one man? Probably not. But with exceptionally high approval ratings – and inevitable comparisons to his predecessor – Barack Obama has a large burden to carry.

Of course, there are many waiting for him to fail, or to fall, but I hope that he can maintain his clarity of vision, purpose and communication. I was heartened by Andrew Rawnsley writing in yesterday’s Observer:

“Better the audacity of hope than the timidity of cynicism.”

I’m looking forward to the speech tomorrow (which may be a bit sad!), but I’m also looking forward to see how Obama deals with the job. I hope he emerges from the presidency as fresh and as vibrant as he enters it.

More Ryder Cup reflections

Following on from yesterday’s entry, there are a few other lessons that seem to come from the way that the American team won the Ryder Cup last week.

The principal issue is teamwork. This has been claimed by the Europeans as the decisive factor in their run of victories in recent Ryder Cups. The argument being that they worked better as a team, even though the Americans had the more gifted individual golfers.

Well, this year I think that Azinger did a fantastic job of planning and managing his approach to team-working. It appears that he grouped his players into 3 groups of 4 – based on the way that they lined up in Sunday’s singles matches, and in the paired events on Friday and Saturday. He combined is ‘flair/momentum’ players (Kim, Mahan, Leonard and Mickelson); his ‘rowdy, Southern boys’ (Weekley, Holmes, Perry and Furyk) and his ‘steady guys (Curtis, Cink, Cambell and Stricker).

I surmise that his Sunday philosophy was that if the first 4 players could build the right momentum, then they would sweep away their European opponents – this was only partly successful. (Although, as an aside, I think that the success of Anthony Kim against Sergio Garcia was hugely significant in both the outcome of the Ryder Cup and in establishing Kim as a mega-star of golf in the very near future.) By contrast the second group of 4 were all successful, and they completed the victory (rout) by each winning their matches. The crowd were really into it with these players – 2 of them from Kentucky where the match was being played. Finally, for Azinger, if his first two cohorts didn’t finish the job, then he had his steady guys at the end to grind out the necessary points.

The lesson here is about planning ahead and creating contingencies for a variety of scenarios.

But in reality, the Ryder Cup was won on Friday and Saturday. Again, Azinger worked with the same groups of 4 players, but he further divided them into pairs – mainly a blend of (Ryder Cup) youth and experience. It has long been a hobby horse of mine that people work best in consistent teams. There is a need to hold your nerve and let a team blend together. A couple of years ago, we brought a team together to implement a new software system. There were some initial difficulties and tensions, and some calls to change the composition – from within the team and from outside of it – but we stuck with it and let the sort out their differences. In the need we had a very successful implementation, in fact, the corporate Head of IT said that no other project had ever been so well managed.

Anyway, Azinger decided on his pairings and largely stuck by them. In the 16 matches on Friday and Saturday he used 7 pairings. By contrast, the European captain Nick Faldo used 13 pairings – which didn’t exactly indicate a high degree of confidence in his players (or his own decision making?).

There are other lessons that I could potentially draw out – like developing individual talents, using resources wisely, and about making sure that you have the right challenge mechanisms within your team, but enough already!

Congratulations to Azinger and his team for a well-planned and merited victory. And just for the record, Faldo didn’t get everything wrong – his choice of Ian Poulter as a wild card wasn’t universally popular over here (I didn’t agree with it at the time), but he was the most successful individual in the competition!

small acts - the sequel

"Do your little bit of good where you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Imagine how surprised I was to get this link in an e-mail today!

God does work in mysterious ways - and through our small acts.

Coaching the coach

I was really inspired by a course that I attended this week. It was without doubt the best course that I have attended for many years. The topic was “Coaching in Leadership”, and was facilitated by a guy called Joe Lafferty.

His style and the topic appealed to me in equal measure. I guess that the coaching approach fits naturally with my approach – although there are still lots of things to learn and develop.

During the practical exercise, the facilitators had to join the small work groups to make the number work, and Joe joined the group that I was in. Being a bit slow on the uptake, I let my colleague go first, then I realised that this meant that I would be playing the role of coach for the coach. (Must learn to think ahead a bit more!) Actually it went fairly well, and Joe was complimentary about my efforts.

During these exercises we were dealing with real issues for each of us. While I’m not going to break the confidentiality agreement, using the coaching approach with Joe’s problem triggered some thoughts for me. There will be developments in the near future – check back over the next couple of days for more info.

Inspired - first tentative steps

I started to write an entry last week and interrupted myself... several days later I've remembered what I was going to write about.

A friend lent me a book a while back (which I will return soon), which really inspired me. It was called Doorposts by Timothy Botts. The basic idea is that he has taken passages of scripture and presented them as calligraphy. Now my talents are significantly less impressive, but it inspired me and I've made some tentative steps of my own (see below). It kind of links to my thoughts on Praying in Color and also Richard Rohr's idea of having a current mantra. Anyway I'm finding it quite useful and therapeutic and challenging and inspiring. I may show some of my further attempts in due course.

It's also prompted some thoughts about motivation, which I'll come back to later.

Inspired #2

This wasn't what I'd planned to write about tonight, but...

It was a beautiful drive to work this morning. I was a wee bit early and the traffic was a wee bit lighter. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, and as I approached Arbroath the sea was shimmering and glistening before me. So, I took a slight detour, down to one of the harbours and spent a few minutes taking photos. It was so lovely, and still, and inspiring - a really good start to the day.

This was the scene shortly before 8 a.m. this morning.


And the rest of the day went pretty well too!

Inspired

Last week I was at a conference for a day. To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to it much. Aye, I expected some interesting presentations; and, aye, it would be good to catch up with people that I only ever seem to see at these sort of things; and, aye, a wee bit of time thinking about the 'bigger picture' rather than the day-to-day minutiae of Sleepy Hollow would be good. But there was that nagging doubt about priorities and the added value of a day out of the office etc, etc.

I should say that I'm normally a big advocate of cpd activities, so this was an unusual mood for me. Especially since a friend of mine was taking on the role of President of our association at the conference. But I was giving up a role that I've held for a couple of years, and while I'm glad to be released from the responsibility, I guess I will miss it (a wee bit).

Anyway, the first session was one of those "in conversation" things. Famous presenter talks to someone with an amazing personal story etc, etc, etc.

It was brilliant - and snapped me out of my truculent mood. The presenter - Sally Magnusson - was superb. Probing, insightful, well-researched and deft of touch - lightening the mood when emotions were heightened.

But the subject was truly inspirational. He's a guy named Jamie Andrew - he's a mountaineer who got caught in a storm at the top of a French alp in the middle of winter for five days! His climbing partner died and Jamie had such severe frostbite that both feet and both hands had to be amputated. He told his story with humour and insight - aware that what he did was risky, but not overly risky in his view. The remarkable part though is how he has recovered. He has climbed again, including ice climbing; run marathons, completed an iron-man triathlon; snowboarded; skiied; and adopted an incredible, positive attitude. You can find out more at his website, which also contains links to the charity that he has co-founded.

Amongst other things that he talked about:

"The flame of passion [for mountaineering] hadn't been extinguished."

"It's a hugely important part of being a human being to push oneself."

"There's always a solution out there."

"Make the most of your strengths and work around the weaknesses."

An amazing story and an amazing man - truly inspirational. I'm glad that I went to the conference!