The first hurdle to ‘getting’ what we’re doing, is the word ‘Happiness’ itself.   We’re so bombarded by ideas of happiness as pleasure, that people often struggle to distinguish between the two.  This confusion has deep roots because the marketing and advertising machinery of economic growth has devoted its considerable skill to persuading us that things which give us pleasure are the route to happiness.  This has never been true.

Pleasure is always short-lived. No matter how pleasurable the activity/thing is, an overdose of anything will begin to pall in time, and ultimately become repulsive.   Happiness as we’re viewing it is a set of universally recognised qualities in life.  Irrespective of culture, geography, age or any other factor, we KNOW that people value relationships most highly and that we ALL thrive when we have a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose and place.  Noticing and naming these things for ourselves is an incredibly powerful thing to do, because happiness is the magic key to social and environmental transformation, not simply an ephemeral bit of joy.

Since everybody has their own ideas about happiness, it’s a conversation we can all have.  The magical part (the bit that leads to social, environmental and yes, economic transformation) is that conversations about happiness built on the points above, draw people into positive, constructive engagement in ways that overcome some of our most intractable challenges. This is hugely important.

In business terms, there’s plenty of evidence around to show that employees are looking much more actively for a good work life balance, and that many are making changes that de-prioritise cash if it relieves them from being in the stress/burnout zone.   This shifting perspective should come as no surprise to any forward looking organisation, since it’s so clearly linked to the shifting landscape of 21^st century business.  We’ve overdosed on consumption to such an extent that people are searching for meaning, and that search for meaning is highlighting the effects of our industrial impact on environment and society.

So what can we do to adapt?  We’ve developed a ‘Happiness Challenge’ that helps people get to grips with the meaning, importance and value of happiness as a focus which improves work and life in many ways.  The challenge, which starts with teams inside an organisation and develops to include stakeholders and eventually local communities, is a sure-fire way to build a positive, happier workplace where people thrive and success naturally flourishes.

We’ve got the evidence to show that a happiness focus is incredibly effective as a way to increase creativity, pro-activity and to reduce interpersonal conflict.  We know it enhances collaboration and negotiation skills, and these things quite naturally increase job satisfaction, improve health and retention rates, and as a result, directly boost the happiness of customers and suppliers.

The challenge itself is a 10 week programme including group workshops, on-line and supported learning, coaching and action with trainer mentoring throughout.  It’s based on live issues and features leadership, positive psychology and cross- cultural facilitation. Expect practical, challenging fun with effective outcomes to make your organisation flourish.

The Happiness Challenge launches in September. To register interest and receive full details, write to mike@happycity.org.uk

modoto continues to offer facilitation, coaching and leadership support and will happily tailor a bespoke event or programme for organisations which are serious about positive change.

The biggest problem we face on earth is the idea that growth is more important than anything else, and economic growth remained the unquestionable centre of yesterday’s announcements.  At the Happy City Initiative, we believe the best thing for business is the same thing that’s best for people, and that is the prospect of long term prosperity.  Annual growth forever is an utterly destructive nonsense that will surely rip apart both people and planet.

The resources do not exist for this kind of fantasy, and anyway, if we re-directed our efforts towards better measures of prosperity, we’ll find plenty to do that enhances life more meaningfully than simply selling more stuff.

Let’s stop confusing our ideas about Happiness.  Selling more stuff to get richer so I can buy more things that make me happy is all about Shortwave Happiness. It doesn’t last.

Developing our sense of community, care for the places we live and how we live in them are the ingredients of Longwave Happiness. This CAN last.

We believe there’s heart-felt truth in the desire for sustainability and social cohesion, but these things cannot, and will not become a reality until the banking systems have been reformed in favour of service to the public, and the notion of growth as our ultimate goal has been dropped.

So we’re here to stand for a new, practical and applied form of people-friendly economy that works in the interests of all of us.  We created the Happy City Initiative to name the ‘Elephant in the room’, to help people see and act on an alternative vision, and to help provide the skills which make us all masters of our own economy.  Let’s not forget the elephant of growth REQUIRES our unhappiness to feed itself. If we become content with who we are and what we have, our interest in consumption fades.

Call us if you’d like to focus your team on the skills which promote long term prosperity, are good for business, good for people, and good for the planet.

Cameron has just talked about budget cuts, emphasising the need to reduce our budget deficit and keep the confidence of the market.  He’s said “How we deal with these things will affect our economy, our society – indeed our whole way of life. The decisions we make will affect every single person in our country. And the effects of those decisions will stay with us for years, perhaps decades to come”.

He’s right of course – but he’s got there by using the right formula in the wrong order – and that means he’s likely to get it wrong in the future.  As Bill Clinton’s campaign team so rightly said ‘It’s the economy, stupid’, but the decisions are NOT actually about debt and trade.  The real issue is that we’re living as though we had three planets at our disposal, and the key driver for that sorry state of affairs is our attitude to finance.  The ‘markets’ are simply made up of people playing a game by a set of rules that make no allowances for the real world effects of their activities.

So yes, we need to reduce debt, and yes, we need to head for recovery – but the government needs to make it clear that a recovery has to address our financial hedonism, or it will involve the ultimate cost of life.   The efficiency of public spending, certainly needs addressing, but the banks and banking system should be squarely in the frame at the same time.

At the moment, it looks to me like the government is preparing for Beechers Brook, and they don’t stand a chance of crossing that wire.

Chapman visited me in June 2007 on the pretext of interviewing me for his Masters degree on “Change Agent Skills & Strategies”.  I remember that the sun was out and my guard was down as we sat in the garden chatting about ‘making  a difference’.  At the time I had no idea how I was being manipulated, but  soon came to see I’d been stripped like a bamboo in a Panda Pen.

Chris used his considerable charm to talk to 5 other unsuspecting Change Agents, before retiring to his Irish bolthole to hatch an audacious plan.   He used the information we gave him, studied, added his own experience, and set out to describe in detail the traits of exceptional Sustainable Change Agents. He later returned with a plan for world domination. It’s time to tell all…

The Agency is an undercover operation which recruits people who are resistant to labels.  Chapman is only interested in people with the capacity to switch between coaching, consulting, facilitating and training.  Selection is highly rigorous.  His elite Sustainable Change Agent squads are subtle workers, moving easily through the undergrowth of everyday business in their natural ‘flow’. Working equally well together or alone, they shepherd people towards belief in a different future with their magnetic sense of the possible.  In short, they are a force to be reckoned with.

I would never have appreciated the scale of Chapman’s plans if I hadn’t seen the temple. That’s when I realised that Indiana Jones was merely a front for a shady movement of revolutionary change.  Here was the secret of Sustainable Change Agency written in stone. It was breath-taking.    Close your eyes and read this…. OK, nearly close your eyes then.

There are Five ‘Foundational blocks’ of knowledge along the bottom on which the whole temple sits. These blocks are knowledge of: One’s core self; what one is best at; the ‘big issues’; the specific working context; and core working methods.

Evenly spaced on top of these blocks, are three supporting ‘pre-requisite’ columns, without which you’ll never get the roof on. They are:  High level of personal and spiritual development; deeply meaningful sense of personal mission that sits within a global context; and willingness to work very hard.

The lintel is a thing of real beauty. It’s made up of the seven competencies/abilities which set Chapman’s change agents apart from many others . These are the ability to: hold disturbance and possibility; be exceptionally imaginative in developing strategy and experimenting ‘in the moment’; move between big picture and detail; think in a systems way that deals with complexity and inter-relatedness; move flexibly between a diverse range of working methods; flexibly seek support from a diverse range of sources; and have a strong sense of ‘what might be’ and what’s emergent.

And to top it all off is a roof of Joy – the experience of pioneering at the cutting edge, connecting people and issues, achieving breakthroughs and doing work of great potential impact.

You can open your eyes again now.   Magnificent isn’t it?

Chapman has been quietly recruiting to The Agency for some time now, but I’m blowing his cover so that more people can get to see the Temple.   Only Chris knows the location of the real thing, but you can find him at The Change Exploratory (www.changeexploratory.ie ).  He hides his megalomania extremely well and is often found recruiting at events like the Authentic Leadership In Action Conference which he facilitated this January in Holland.

If you’ve been able to picture the temple from my description, I hope you’ll be able to spot the Elite Sustainable Change Agents around you more easily – it’s amazing how the numbers are swelling.

Dr Chris Johnstone, a fellow Agent who’s stepping out of the shadows with this to say.  “See your life as an adventure story; seek out the truth (beyond the media); allow yourself to feel disturbed; understand level shift (when parts act together as a whole); go beyond your limiting beliefs; let deeper purpose act through you.  When you’re serving something larger than yourself, you’re never acting alone. You get unexpected allies, help from unknown quarters and wider support and resources become available”.

If you’re an Agent who’s still under cover, I urge you to come out.  If you’re intrigued and would like to know more, have a look at one or some of these sacred sites…www.changeexploratory.ie, www.modoto.co.uk, www.asp-online.org, www.the-hub.net, www.wiserearth.org, www.aliainstitute.org, or www.burrenleadershipforum.ie

Reviews below: Can Any Mother Help me? – Getting Up and Down –  The Secret Life of Trees –  English Constitutional History –  Taming Your Gremlin –  The Happiness Purpose –  Three Cups of Tea – Piracy, Turtles & Flying Foxes – Digital Fortress – Toby Alone – A Face to the World – The Long Road Home – Being White – Cycling into the Sunrise – Letters to my Grandchildren – Bel Canto – Paradise Now – Winner Take Nothing

Currently reading:

What are your optimistic about? by John Brockman, Pocket Books, 2007
Tao te Ching by Lao Tse

REVIEWS

Winner Take Nothing by Ernest Hemmingway, Jonathan Cape, 1934.  This book is a masterclass in descriptive writing. Wikipedia tells me this is his third short story collection, in the period when he was summering in Wyoming and wintering in Key West.  The 14 tales aren’t so much stories with a beginning and an end, but artful vignettes that snap fragments of people’s lives. I really enjoyed them – particularly the ‘homage to switzerland’ which retells the same scene in a railway station cafe three times with a different central character for each part.   The only reference to the title is in a poem at the beginning of the book which reads ‘Unlike all other forms of lutte or combat the conditions are that the winner shall take nothing; neither his ease, nor his pleasure, nor any notions of glory; nor, if he win far enough, shall there be any reward within himself’.  Worth reading for the skill of the writing. 6/10

Paradise Now by Jari Moate, penpress, 2010.  Jari Moate is an excellent writer whose style reminds me of Ben Okri. Paradise Now is filled with delightful and surprising descriptive turns of phrase, and the story itself is shrouded with a sense of questing mystery. The main character, Elektra, is filled with uncertainty and her doubts raise questions which aren’t neatly resolved. The book, once finished, isn’t finished with you.

Set in Bristol, the plot centres on the convergent paths of a local artist who shoots unexpectedly to fame, and an Afghan shopkeeper who seeks to avenge injustice.  The Company [sic] represents the forces of corporate greed, but the ‘bad guys’ aren’t a caricature of evil.  The only parody is the main Company representative, whose exaggerated entrance seemed out of place and unconvincing.  Having said that, his swagger faded and he became more credible as his insecurities gradually unravelled, leaked in private asides to Elektra.

There were a few passages in the book which I simply didn’t understand, and although I wasn’t clear exactly what was being said, it felt authentic. These were arty freestyle Bristol characters with their own smoky logic and language and the mood they created was tangible.  The writing was at home. This flair for writing shines brightly as Jari turns on a very different style for the scenes in Afghanistan.  Although most of the action unfolds in Bristol, the Afghan portions of the story are so engrossing that the balance feels strong and the stage is well set for different worlds to collide.

The twists and turns that finally bring the two main characters together work well, and the pulsing power of The Company grows and grows in the background, becoming a deafening roar as the pace quickens towards the end. The on-stage denouement is surprising, and there’s an eerie hush about the final scene of the book.  The tattered loose ends seem to flap in the wind and I wasn’t sure quite what I thought of it all as I put the book down.  I felt as though I’d viewed a giant painting too close up, and had to retreat to a distance to take it all in.

Overall, I really liked this book. I liked the way it stayed with me afterwards, growing and developing of its own accord. It’s a great debut for Jari, and with so little resolved, the door is wide open for more. I hope he’s writing hard…

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, 2008.  Liz read this one and loved it, so it landed on my side of the bed and leapfrogged the other books there.  Patchett is a natural story-teller whose characters play with your imagination to become vivid. This one would be good for a book club group as the story offers layers of meaning that would stand a lot of conversation.  The basic story is created from a Japanese businessman’s love of opera, which is used to lure him to a latin american country hungry for the investment of his company.  The whole party is taken hostage by a group that opposes the government, and the story of the siege unfolds.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it for it’s entertainment value, fine writing and for offering good brain food. 10/10

Letters to my Grandchildren, thoughts on the future by Tony Benn, Hutchinson, 2009.  This small book contains 39 ‘letters’, each only a few pages long.  I’m a great fan of Mr Benn, and the book was written to inspire young people to reject pessimism and cynicism, and to have confidence in themselves.  The book is very ‘of the moment’ with references to events that are so recent I wondered how he had managed to write it so fast.  Having said that, the snippets of thought in each chapter piece together a loving philosophy which is ageless.  His curiosity, accumulated wisdom and insights are (I think) inspiring, and this book is a delightful read. 10/10

Cycling into the Sunrise by Gregory Yeoman – unpublished.  Greg’s a good university mate who cycled across Russia.  The first draft has a good story in it, but he’s still got work to do…

‘Being White in the helping professions (Developing effective intercultural awareness) by Judy Ryde,  Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009.  This one was recommended by a friend and colleague, then I happened to be at an event with Judy and she had copies of her book for sale!  The book is about the invisible context of being White, where the view of ‘normal’ includes an easy and privileged position in society.  There is remarkably little written about ‘being white’, and simply by drawing our attention that way, I thin she’s doing us all a great service.   In conversation, Judy has found that White people have trouble ‘getting’ the idea, describing us as white fish in a white sea, with no idea of the sea’s existence.  An example of this is the tendency to talk of  ’Skin Colour’ as though it means whiteness, rather than a wide spectrum of shades.  Black people know what she means immediately.  The point of the book is that many white people who consider themselves ‘colourblind’ are unwittingly insensitive.  By raising awareness about our racialized context, Judy aims to help us all be more sensitive and effective in dealing with our differences, and so contribute to a more peaceful world.   The book has quite a bit of academic language, so isn’t a simple Romp of a read, but it’s peppered with helpful examples – overall, she’s clear that confronting ‘white centeredness’ is a process which needs time, so the book is a small, but significant step on a great journey.  It’s clear that our experience of each other is dramatically improved when white people make the effort to understand how different cultural values are lived in our society, rather than dismissing them as ‘wrong’.  Getting rid of racism is not simply a matter of finding it and changing our minds – it requires a deeper acknowledgement of much larger shifts in cultural consciousness. White people need to listen undefensively and understand that colonialism lives on in white advantage. She concludes with five pointers: Start with ourselves because white is a privileged racial category; Remember that racism is built into the organising principles of society; develop an inquiring attitude and have the courage to discuss your experience; Don’t dismiss feelings of shame and guilt; Remember that change in [caring] professions is part and parcel with change at both individual and societal levels.  These conclusions will make much more sense if you read the book.  If the academic language and references were edited out, leaving the stories, insights and challenges to our thinking, I’d certainly give it 10/10…

The Long Road Home, Aftermath of War, by Ben Shephard, Bodley Head, 2010 – I read this one because I was chairing a Talk given by Ben on the book. My understanding of the aftermath of WWII was dramatically improved – fascinating insights into the politics and characters that did their best to deal with the millions of ‘Displaced People’ right across Europe.  Ben describes the forces that shaped both the emergent United Nations and the new state of Israel using lots of personal accounts.  Thoroughly illuminating, well written, and engaging, if a little more detailed in places than I felt I needed. 7/10

A Face To The World by Laura Cumming, Harper Press, 2009 -  I was asked to review this book for the Festival of Ideas (I’m on the Advisory Board) - Laura Cumming clearly possesses a fantastic knowledge and love of the visual arts, and she’s managed to cram a lot of great material into this book.  By the end, I felt I’d been slightly cheated of a great read.  The key connecting narrative through the book was weak, and the writing seemed to have three styles, as though aimed at three distinct audiences.  Some passages were academic, some were filled with the authors personality, and between these were the artists stories I really enjoyed.  If only she’d stuck to one of these, I’d have known what to do with the book.  As it was, I constantly alternated between a desire to put the book down (treacly academic writing), throw the book away (OTT gushing Art Luvvy writing), or read it avidly (glimpses of the worlds that shaped the artists and their work).
It’s a lonely feeling when a discussion starts up around you about a soap opera you’ve never seen.  The more you know about the characters, the more interesting the discussion becomes, but Laura’s encyclopaedic knowledge was lost on me and at times I was left out in the cold.  She confides with readers to draw them in – ‘Vincent, as we intimately call him’ (Nope – it’s Van Gough to me) and writes at length about minute details of some of the portraits, magnifying them until (to me) they seem out of proportion to the art itself.  She projects herself into the artists lives to describe their feelings (‘devastated’, ‘hopeless’, ‘blazing’ etc.), but I’m left feeling she’s daubed too much of her own vivid colouring all over their palettes.  I wish I could have shared her joy, but her enthusiasm made mine wane.
Overall, I was disappointed.  It felt like a fascinating train of thought about self portraiture had arrived at the platform, but it pulled away leaving half the carriages behind. My verdict would be ‘light reading, heavy in parts, with scattered enjoyable bits’.  5/10

Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle, Walker Books, 2008 – Some friends very sweetly sent this book to our son Toby as ‘a gift for no reason’ a few months back.  It’s worthy of the awards it’s won in France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Taiwan and the UK, and carries the hallmarks of ‘classic’ children’s writing.  The characters are strong, the storyline entertaining and imaginative, and if I were a teenager, I’d have absolutely loved it.  There are some good creative twists on classic storylines which carry you swiftly through the book.  Much better than Digital Fortress.  8/10

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. An easy holiday read. Oscillated between mild interest and Irritation.  Seemingly desperate to become an action movie script, so a bit too breathless, and easy to guess what’s coming up.  Worth 4/10 if you’ve nothing better to do.

Piracy, Turtles & Flying Foxes by William Dampier, published by Penguin as part of it’s ‘Great Journeys’ series in 2007, extracted from A New Voyage Round the World, 1697.  I really enjoy journals that bring a different age to life through their descriptions of little details of no great significance, and the way things felt at the time.   Dampier was a kind of 15th century backpacker – switching ships, taking his chances and getting into scrapes (like fordingrivers whilst fleeing Spanish troops, and surviving storms at sea in an open canoe) and so whilst he’s not a great writer, it was definitely an entertaining read.   My own experience as a carefree globe trotting sailor made it very easy for me to be in Mr Dampier’s shoes, so the writing may not feel as tangibly immediate to others.  I was very struck by the way his account shows the systematic and competitive exploitation of people and local resources by the colonising nations of England, Holland and Spain.  Overall, the account made the 1600′s feel like very recent history and I think this kind of material should be essential reading for anybody with an interest in international trade and justice – there’s lots of good food for debate.  Scores on the doors for me are 6/10.

Three cups of Tea (one man’s mission to promote peace…one school at a time) by Greg Mortenson & David Relin, Penguin books, 2007.   My brother sent this book to Liz for her birthday, and rather than put the book down when she’d finished the last page, she immediately gave it to me.  It’s a fascinating glimpse into the ordinary lives of people who live on the mountains around the Pakistani/Afghan border, and how Greg Mortenson helps them build schools.  I really enjoyed learning a little more about their culture and the local politics which are never reported in the news bulletins we hear. The book is a good argument for compassion and respect as a realistic alternative to war. Both Greg’s organisation, the Central Asia Institute ( https://www.ikat.org/) and the book get my vote.   I give it 8/10.

The Happiness Purpose by Edward de Bono, Pelican Books 1977.   This book belonged to Liz’s parents, and so has probably been in our house for at least 4 years, but I’d never seen it before.  As we’re about to launch the Happy City Initiative, it seemed heaven sent, and I had to read it there and then.  This book has all of de Bono’s usual clarity of thought and it’s easy to read.  Written in three parts, the book covers the Nature of Happiness, the Application of the basic principles to life, and Actions to put the Principles into effect. In it all, you can see the roots of many other people’s writing where there are strong overlaps with his ideas about thinking skills.  This book was essential reading for me, confirming much of what we do at modoto whilst adding some useful ideas for engagement.  I liked it so much that I’m attempting to get de Bono to Bristol for a lecture as part of Bristol’s Festival of Ideas. Definitely 10/10.

Taming Your Gremlin (A surprisingly simple method for getting out of your own way) by Rick Carson, Collins Living, 2003 (updated from the original of 1983).

This one was recommended by our good friends Kate and Arvid at Inspired Lives.  They’re great coaches, and said they’d found this book consistently useful.  It’s got a very simple idea at the heart of it (naming your negative habits and thoughts as a gremlin), and sets out a whole range of self help exercises for exploring the things that can stop us from reaching our potential.  I was familiar with a lot of the thinking, which I’ve seen reflected elsewhere, but it’s a very good ‘package’, well written and easy to digest.   The key elements of Gremlin Taming are ‘noticing’, ‘playing with options’ and being in process – but of course the summary is useless unless you’ve read the book!  I’d definitely recommend the book to people who know they struggle with inner conflicts.  A useful 9/10

English Constitutional History by SB Chrimes,  a reprint from Oxford University Press in 1978 (originally published in 1948)

Our house is so full of books that I can always find something I didn’t know we had.  This particular book belonged to my wife’s parents, and the author used to live on the next street to them.  It’s a little dry, and I found myself skimming quite quickly through the somewhat dated sections on the constitutional structures of the day and the medieval foundations.  There was a lot of interesting commentary and I enjoyed learning about the tussles that bled away the power of the crown.  The book’s blurb calls it a ‘miracle of compression…lucid in argument and vivid…’ and I agree that it gives a really good sense of the sweep of time. I was fascinated by the personalities and reforms that have successively changed the way we are governed and seeing that today’s system of government only really emerged in Victorian times, I felt more confident that we may see better reform in our lifetimes.   I’d really recommend this book to anyone thinking about governmental reform, because it supplies vital context.  It deserves 8/10 for its content more than its style.

The Secret Life of Trees (how they live and why they matter) by Colin Tudge, published by Penguin in 2005  - This is a book I picked up at the Hay book festival when I went to one of Andy Middleton’s ‘Hay On Earth’ events last year.  I started reading it around October and only finished it this month.   The reason it took me so long to read was that there are great long sections on the clasification/naming of trees, and detailed descriptions of just about every tree type that ever was.  It’s PACKED with information and interesting facts that make it an excellent reference book, but it’s also got great passages of storytelling in it too – so overall it’s a kind of funny mix.  It read a bit like a cross country run where you go steaming along down a lovely rolling slope of prose and then hit a very steep rocky scree rise – the scenery’s always interesting, but you have to concentrate much harder in some places than in others…

Our civilisations have all been built with trees – no trees, no great buildings; no trees, no migration across the seas and no trees, no fire for manufacturing – some of the many examples of the ways in which our history has been shaped by them.  Had the dice rolled differently, he can imagine  how trees rather than grain could now be the mainstay of human food production.  I’d never properly appreciated trees before and with a better understanding of their magnificent variety, adaptability and vital importance to all life, I feel Colin has given me a real gift.

The conclusion is for the need to create agrarian economies rooted in biological reality with a true concern for human well being.   He urges us all to keep asking the questions ‘what do we actually want/are we trying to achieve?  and invests his hope in democracy to keep our leaders (especially ‘career’ politicians) on track to build societies that work.

Overall I really liked the book.  The FT quote on the front cover is right that that it’s a ‘Love letter to trees’, and I think it’s a bit too amorous for yer average general reader – a simplified book about 1/3 of the length would be brilliant.   Scores on the doors? For me, about 8/10

Getting Up and Down (how to save strokes from 40 yards and in) by Tom Watson, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1983.

From age 5 to about 26 I played a lot of golf – I was a single figure handicapper largely because I practised what Tom advises in this book.  I rarely play these days, but picked the book off the shelf out of mild curiosity, and when I re-read it in an evening, I was reminded what a gem it is (for golfers!).  It does exactly what the title suggests and I was surprised to find that although I knew everything in the book, I saw how my golfing habits have got a bit lazy in forgetting some of the tiny details which make a big difference.  If you’re interested in golf, then I can’t recommend a better book. 10/10

Can Any Mother Help Me? (a true story of friendship through a secret magazine) by Jenna Bailey, Faber & Faber, 2007.

I found this book at a ‘freeconomy’ event in Stokes Croft last year.  The book is about a ‘magazine’ that’s effectively a string of letters reflecting life’s ups and downs, passed between 20 women between 1935 and 1990.  The material comes from the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, which Jenna Bailey found when researching for an Msc.  She was so caught up by the stories that she interviewed the few survivors and the children of the deceased.   The stories give wonderful glimpses of these women’s character,  how they lived and what they felt about family relationships and work through the decades.  Charming and diverting. 7/10

Judge me by my own criteria… one of my central messages is that if you are clear for yourself about the purpose of the language you are using then you are far more likely to achieve that purpose.  So my purpose today, or at least one of them, is to prompt you to get more curious about how we use language and the impact it has, and to provoke some lively and fun discussion about the possibilties that language opens up for us.  Let me know at the end if I succeeded!

LANGUAGE AND PURPOSE

Many leaders feel safer with facts, figures and physical materials and would catagorise language as part of the soft and fluffy stuff.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Wars are started and ended through language, words send men to war, they make stocks and shares plunge or rocket, instigater fear or hope in whole nations.  They can in short completely change the feel and outcome of almost any situation. 

Let me ask you a question:

What is the loveliest thing anyone has ever said to you?

…did you smile?

…..are you standing a little bit taller remembering that?

Which characteristic of yours are you most ashamed of?

…..not feeling quite so big now?

            …..not liking me as much either?

Whose day are you going to improve with a call or a text or a comment today?

….starting to plan to make someone smile that you hadn’t thought of until now?

            …..feeling a little more able to make a difference in the world?

Just by carefully choosing the questions, by being clear for myself about the purpose  for asking each one, I have lead you to feel differently, to react differently, even possibly to act differently – without even having met most of you before! 

So the language we use and the questions we ask can have a profound affect on the influence we have, the impact we leave on others and our chances of achieving our goals and purposes.

This is true of the language we use when we interact with others and the language we use inside our own heads when we are communicating with ourselves, giving oursleves feedback and reflecting on our world.

One useful exercise is to try to imagine an Art Gallery of the effect of your language and questions.  If the impact you leave in each interaction left a visual image would that gallery be filled with scenes of hope, of possiblities, of doors opening and capacities flourishing; or would it be more of a scene of devastation, of problems highlighted and entrenched, of chances missed of hope snuffed out.

In terms of tools, there are many, but 2 quick ones to start of the process of growing our curiosity are:

Try switching all your buts to ands.  In any conversation, a but can create a black and white, ‘either/or’, right or wrong, left or right, true or untrue conversation.  By changing but to and, you open up the chance to introduce new ideas without crushing old ones, to open up new possibilties without dismissing what is already on the table.  It can lead to both/and solutions being found, minds being opened and win win outcomes to be explored.  Give it a go!

Another little trick, and a more controversial one, is to try, for a week or two at most, to stop using any Why questions.  Why questions tend to produce ‘because’ answers, which again create sides and prompt defensiveness.  They are also are most used type of question, so are often the lazy option.  Just by cutting them out of your language diet you force yourself to think more about the PURPOSE of your question and how it will be heard and it’s impact.  So switching it to ‘What benefits did you see in chooosing that option?’ Or ‘What other ways of doing this have been considered?’ you are immediately putting the idea out there that the other person has a good reason and has considered many angles, thus opening up the scope for solutions far further than ‘Why did you do that’ or ‘Why don’t we do it differently?’

LANGUAGE AND DIFFERENCE

A lot of what influences our language is the assumptions we take into a situation.  We often think assumptions are bad things that we should try to rid ourselves of, yet we hold assumptions all day every day and they are an essential part of life.  The power of assumptions comes in our ability to notice them and then CHOOSE which ones to hold.  So if I held the assumption that you had all come here this evening to ‘catch me out’ or to make me look foolish, I would have entered this room in a very different frame of mind than I did, holding the assumption that you’d all be great and interesting people who were on for having a great conversation.

So as leaders, we can use assumptions to help ourselves to work more positively with people.  For instance ALWAYS holding an assumption that others come to every situation with at least some good will and good intent.  That most people want to do the right thing.  That assumption may be challenging, but starting from that place greatly influences the language I use and therefore the chances of a successful outcome to any interaction.

So we can actively CHOOSE useful assumptions, but we also need to always hold all our assumptions LIGHTLY.  Be ready  and alert to the need to check them, challenge them, change them where necessary.

A particularly powerful area for this is around differences – a frequent stumbling point for language and communication.  Many, many people hold the assumption that difference is scary, it causes conflict, it makes us feel less comfortable and confident and generally it is often a good idea to avoid too much difference.  But what would be different if everyone in the world recognised and assumed that difference was totally life enhancing, even magical.  Is it possible to learn ANYTHING from someone who is identical to you in every way.  It is only if you have had a little bit of different experience, thought or knowledge than me that I can learn from you and grow.  If you continue down that line, then the more different you are from me, in age, gender, race, religeon, background, hopes etc etc.,  then the more I can learn, gain and grow from talking to you.

How revolutionary could that assumption be in our society and how drastically would it change our language and how we lead groups of people and all the differences they embody?

LANGUAGE AND HOPE/POSSIBILITY

Finally, earlier in this piece I mentioned that language and its power to influence others also includes its power to influence us, ourselves. Whenever you use language, whether it is in public, in a meeting, with a friend, colleague or loved one or simply when you are thinking back over your day in your own head in the bath…. check whether you are being a judge or a supporter.  Are you giving life and opening up the chance to move on or are you your own (or others’) harshest critic?

When we journey into the future we take much of the past with us.  How do we ensure that what we take is useful to us?  How do we ensure that when we pack our backpack of life that we put in there things that will nourish us for the journey and help us map our course?  One of the most powerful ways we do that is through the questions we ask and the language we use, that can focus the mind (rather as I did at the beginning of this evening) on the solutions within and around us, or the barriers to change and to growth.  Language can create our reality and so let’s make sure our language guides us to fill those backpacks (our own and those we ‘lead’) with great ideas rather than dead weights that simply slow us down.

Q1  What is the most powerful question you have ever been asked and what made it powerful?

Q2 What would be the most revolutionary positive assumption we could hold and spread that would change our world for the better?

Q3. what examples have you experienced of swapping an unhelpful aspect of yourself, your life, your organisations’ culture etc for a focus on a solution or a life giving idea that really moved things on or made a ‘tipping point’ change to occur?

The conundrum for these pollinating specialists (the traders) is that they’re constantly seen as ‘good people to have along’ for their great connections and ideas, but there’s never any expectation to pay.  It’s both a virtuous AND a viscious circle in one.   By accepting invitations to a wide rage of different meetings, the pollinator gathers excellent material for making connections, making them more valuable at the next meeting, but without pay for the time spent gathering material, they have to find other ways of earning a living.  Or do they?

The pattern I’ve just described is typical of a great many wonderful pollinators I know, who end up feeling burned out by their efforts to help and support others.  I think there are two clear reasons for this pattern. The first is that people don’t see either the skill or investment involved, and the second is the gap between the pollinator’s contribution and the eventual results.

So what’s skillful about pollination? Surely anybody can introduce people or ideas into conversations, especially in ‘the relationship age’ when we’ve all got more facebook, twitter and ’community’ networks than you can shake a stick at.  Why should they pay somebody for bringing a few new connections into play?  

The answer lies in an understanding of the skill.   Skilled people make things look easy, but their deftness is (almost) always the result of a great deal of practice.  So it is with pollination, the casual flick of a few connections into the conversation is not all that it takes.

The art of human pollination is all about making great relevant connections, seeding ideas and catalysing new directions.   A good pollinator invests a huge amount of time and energy in order to do the job really well.  The reason they’re so valuable in meetings is because they’ve spent the time gathering good sources of information and have their finger on the pulse of new thinking long before it hits the news.  They’re also wired to make lateral connections because they cross paths with people and projects who wouldn’t otherwise have reason to meet.  

Just as a management consultant would point to their research, training, experience and intuition to justify their costs, so too should the pollinators.

The second hurdle for pollinators to clear is the need to justify their contributions in terms of ‘real results’.  It’s often very hard to relate the few specks of pollen that introduced the new people or ideas into the mix, with the change of strategy, great new initiative or averted disaster that ultimately came about.  The only way around this problem is to write down what happened and use endorsements from people whenever you can.

This is a tricky path to walk, because part of the pollinators skill is to introduce ideas and connections in a way that allows the recipients to feel full ownership of them.  If there’s any feeling of lingering obligation to the pollinator and people sense (or fear) even a tiny loss of control, then the pollinator is likely to be less welcome the next time around.  So the only strories that can be used are those where the people involved have recognised the importance of the pollinators contribution off their own bat, and offer their endorsement without prompting.

Here are a couple of modoto examples.  Barny Houghton often attributes the creation of his landmark Bordeaux Quay venture to his invitation to an RSA Coffehouse Challenge event on food futures organised by us.  Gwyn Jones is similarly effusive about the strides he’s taken in his work with the Association of Sustainability Practitioners thanks to a range of introductions we’ve made to him over the past few years and Oli Wells recognises modoto as having played a key role in the creation of the Coexist community at Hamilton House.

The pollinator’s contribution will only have been a small thing in a whole chain of events, but this doesn’t diminish the value and importance of that event.  

So, pollinators - be bold and stand up for your skills and experience – and those who like to have pollinators around -be as generous with your recognition and financial support as they are with their time!

If you’ve got pollinator experiences  to share, please add them here.

She said the best tools for COINS are simple (things like Skype or Ning) and that collaboration works best when there’s a high level of trust, transparent communications and a strong sense of shared vision.   The three elements reinforce each other and generally add up to productive working groups unless there’s a poor ‘Noise to Signal’ ratio, which can weaken the sense of group clarity.

She gave a couple of interesting examples – I’d not heard of Intellipedia before(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellipedia)  – it was formed by a network of intelligence agencies in the States when they realised that they could have pieced together enough information to avert the Twin Towers attacks if only they had shared their Top Secrets with each other…

Alice noted that the leaders of collaborative networks tended to be those who gave the most, and that there was a high risk of burnout.   David Navarro offers some advice about this in his ‘Seven Ways to Play  Much Bigger Game’ at http://www.thelaunchcoach.com/workbook1.  In a nutshell, he says the pitfall is there for those who know they need to Give to Get, but they forget to pay attention to the Get side of things and do too much that adds little or no value to their own cause.

Alice concluded that the biggest barrier to collaboration was the lack of education on the subject in schools and universities.    You can see more of Alice’s work here www.collaborationninja.com and can contact her direct at alicemarie.archer@gmail.com if you’d like to talk.

We think Alice is absolutely right about the barriers to collaboration, and as a little ray of hope, we’d add that the barriers can be completely removed with a few nifty lines of re-programming to the mindset.

ARE WE HOOKED ON UNHAPPINESS AND CAN WE ‘GROW’ WITHOUT IT?

The central ideas behind ‘Western’ thinking about economy and society are pretty straightforward. It goes a bit like this: People desire things, people work to make more money to buy more things, people buy more things, more things are required, more work is created, the economic output of the country increases (ie GROWTH), and everybody gets richer & happier (well in principle anyway).

“I need more things to make me happy”

I work to make more money to buy more things

I buy more things

More things are required

More work and output is created

GDP rises (ie GROWTH)

We all get richer and/or happier (don’t we?)

As we draw this out, you immediately see that the process of growth is not self-sustaining. Being richer or being happier don’t make you want or desire more stuff (in fact it should do the opposite). Unless there’s something thrown in to create more ‘desire’ to start the ball rolling, everything slows down and stops. ‘Marketing’ is a primary tool that we throw in to stimulate demand, but it only works because it aims to make you unhappy with your current lot. If we stayed happy with our lot, we’d have much less desire, and would not ‘need’ so many new things… so consumerism finds problems, highlights them and then drip feeds unhappiness to provoke the next cycle of growth.

The western world is filled with the machinery required to tell us we have not got enough – the media, bombards us with what is not good in our world, advertising, magazines, movies and the TV tell us what possession would make it better or show us how green the grass is on the other side; fashions change at an ever increasing speed, so the clothes, cars, houses, possessions we have are never good enough for today or tomorrow, only for yesterday. Even our politics is always looking for what is wrong with our current systems, what we need to add to the system to make it work.

So how to break this dependency on ‘not enough’?

IF…. in every area of life, we focus more on what is working in our system – the natural and human resources, capacity, creativity, innovation – we see opportunity for building on what we have, we see how we can grow the capacity, or the productivity using the resources that are there. As we develop and grow those capacities and opportunities, the way we manage and use the resources we have improves, our creativity increases, feeding more opportunities for improving and increasing those resources from within. As we improve the resources and capacity of the system – we have more things in the system that are working, and thus when we look for what is working we have more to build on….and so the loop continues.

I look for and find, examples of what is working,

solutions & ideas, other resources

I see opportunities to build on those, use them to solve different problems

be more creative & productive

I develop and grow those capacities and opportunities, I use the resources I have better, my creativity increases and I gather more ideas,

There is more capacity, more resources and successes to go round

and to share with more people

More things in the system are working

When I look I find more examples of what is working,

solutions & ideas, other resources…….and so the loop begins again

The need for a constant external input of anything simply disappears – the output from this system (more things that are working) is also the input for the cycle to continue. Since the system does the work, and the politics, education, media, society does not need to work hard at inputting any negative desires, because by starting with what is working the system has fed itself and created a positive (sustainable) loop. Indeed the machinery that has so well fed our dependency on unhappiness could rather be used to highlight what we have, to help us find all those examples of better use of resources, of how to solve our challenges, of how to share our ideas and capacities better.

Fortunately, there are more and more people who have found ways to make the mental shift away from this unhappiness addiction. Whilst cynics sneer, trapped by their own fears and disbelief, many people are heading towards a place where all people are valued, all ideas are explored, our greatest challenges are not ignored or entrenched but are resolved by multiplying successes, learning from them and spreading that learning to everyone who they could help….

Whilst the majority are looking at what we need to DO to achieve a sustainable future, the day to day actions we need to change, others are focussing on thisy mental, or cultural transition – a new way of thinking, being, interacting that gets us out of the current cycles that can make real change, through practical actions an almost impossible dream.

QUESTIONS I HAVE….

What would be different if this is how are society thought?

How fast would this effect be multiplied if more and more of us interacted like this in every meeting, conversation, interaction?

How strong a viral effect could we have if (in Malcolm Gladwell’s phrase) the ‘connectors’ connected up what was working – the latest solution – a new idea – the surplus resources with the needs?

ACTIONS I CAN TAKE……

Think about what you have in abundance – be they ideas, skills, contacts, space, time, physical resources – make a list

Then think about what you have that is more scarce – what do you need more of to really thrive or make your ideas a reality or overcome a challenge – make a second list

Then as you go to every meeting, social occasion, read an article, receive an email – think about who you can share your abundance with – who could benefit from it – who has a scarcity in that area? And then where could you find what you need – how could you be more creative, ingenious, open minded about where and how to find it – who might have an abundance you might share in?

Maybe you also get to hear about other people’s abundances and scarcities (maybe not using that language!) and will hear of people you could connect so that they could help each other, solve each others’ challenges etc. The effect could mushroom as we all move in our ever inter-connected worlds.