Hello

Well, I’m sure that it hasn’t escaped your notice that we are living in very interesting times. It is as if reality has been hacked by a Hollywood script writer. One with a flair for heightened drama and a penchant for creating a credulity straining plot line. With so much unrest in the world at the moment it is very easy to become fearful and distracted. That is entirely understandable. We can all of course make our voices heard in different ways, with varying degrees of visibility and impact.

Where we can almost always make a huge amount of impact however, is in the area or areas of our lives which we directly control.

For example, our attitude, our focus, our motivation, our honesty and our interactions with others are all much more under our control than often we realise. Taking responsibility for those things that we can control is crucial. If we wait, gazing open mouthed at that which we cannot control we can waste precious energy and time. Gandhi is reported to have once said something along the lines of, be the change that you want to see around you. Wise words indeed. Be the causal agent in your own life and career. If you wait for someone else to change things, you may wait a very long time. And the people around you may well want the change that you want, but they are waiting on someone to make that change for them. And so there is no improvement, only frustration.

Everyone is a leader, irrespective of position and title. Everyone is a leader because we all have influence, often more than we realise; and we all influence each other.

So what could you do to improve your own work environment? (If it needs improving). Well, imagine how you would like things to be. Imagine what the behaviours of others would be like in that idealised environment. Imagine then what types of behaviours you should exhibit to be a shining example of this new idealised culture. Then, at various decision points during the next few weeks, pause, just before you take action, and ask yourself what would this idealised version of me do at this point? Then do it. Do it again, then do it again. Each time you are about to take some action, inject a bit of a pause, then think ‘ideal you’, ‘ideal culture’, then proceed.

Will you get that right every time? No. Will you get annoyed when someone doesn’t appreciate what you are trying to do? Yes. Will some people just not respond to this new approach? Yes. Will some people respond favourably and begin to create their own version of the ideal then? Yes, absolutely. In fact many more people are likely to respond favourably than not. The reason for that is that most people are really decent, and pretty much want the same things you do. However, what about those ‘outliers’? Well, everyone is different, and there is richness in diversity. Although, if someone is being downright toxic, that will become quite obvious. To the point where they may choose to go elsewhere, where their great skill for misery making is truly appreciated.
There is an ‘I’ in team, and there are often several teams in a culture. It begins with you. You are more powerful and influential than you probably realise. And you need to be the best version of you for not only yourself, but for your family, and for your career.

What then of the unfolding drama in the B Movie that has somehow become our current reality? I don’t know about you, but the concept of thermonuclear war is just somehow not that appealing. Particularly when the people who instigate it will be drinking tequila cocktails in their underground cities, replete with swimming pools, cinemas, bowling alleys, libraries, and of course statues of themselves. Meanwhile on the surface of planet toast, things would be very different. Perhaps it wouldn’t be all bad. For example, there would be no need for X-ray machines as people’s faintly glowing bones would be quite visible through their slightly translucent skin. Much of the internet would be down, meaning that people would actually have to talk to each other. Those at least whose tongues hadn’t evaporated. Sales of Coca Cola would skyrocket, this being one of the few drinks that was just as bad for you whilst dozed with one hundred thousand becquerels of strontium 90, as not. However on the minus side, we would have to avoid gangs of six foot tall marauding cockroaches who were being controlled by sound waves from a guitar being played by Kieth Richards.

Maybe there is a way to avoid all that. What if we adopted a different Hollywood movie reality. The reality from the type of movie where the leaders of each respective ‘tribe’ have to fight it out amongst themselves. The winner claims victory. I can see it all now. A muddy field. Us having a cup of tea whilst watching Kim and Donald et al, who are stripped to the waist, oiled-up, slugging it out. A sort of, not looking very hungry games.

Wouldn’t that be fairer? And the losers would have to endure one full year of the winner’s television broadcasts. I’m not sure what’s worse, wall to wall synchronised dancing, or the endless repetition of the phrase, ‘you’re fired!’. However both are preferable to hearing ‘you’re fried!’.

Best wishes
Mike

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