Vicarious achievement

Posted in evolution on 16.09.06@781 by pjh

I have a passion for doing the right things for business results, whether improving or replacing processes. I have come to believe that the conventional wisdom of safe and incremental improvements, of using people as though they are interchangeable machine parts, of relying upon formal and audited processes to cause the necessary communication are false. I now believe that accidental communication, in corridors and canteens, ad hoc meetings and co-located cross-functional teams, these are the trappings of how great things get done. I have sat in my ivory tower for too long now and I long to get back into the thick of true accomplishment.

I used to think that the architecture team needed to sit in the midst of the designers and the developers because our company’s processes were not mature enough, that the accidental conversations where problems and solutions are discussed were a sign of a rapidly growing organisation. I now believe that processes cannot replace the values inherent in proximity and casual contact.

Philip Hellyer — Award-Winning Speaker

Posted in evolution on 07.08.06@848 by pjh

Hyperbolic but true. I gave a speech about improving yourself by going faster at the Toastmasters and was voted the President’s Award for Best Speaker. Of the evening. Against two other speakers, one of whom read from his notes (but who will become a tremendous speaker, I’m sure of it). But none-the-less my very first speaking award! The first of many, I have little doubt.

Going Faster — How to apply the Andretti factor to your life

Posted in evolution on 30.07.06@512 by pjh

This speech is not the one I thought I’d be giving.

This speech is still #4, it’s about using words, words carefully chosen, words that matter.

Madam Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters, Most Welcome Guests,

This speech is about YOU, because you are amazing!

You’re amazing because you are here tonight trying to change and to grow. Some of you are facing your greatest fear. That makes you better and braver than most other people in the world.

The race car driver, Mario Andretti said “If everything seems under control — You’re just not going fast enough!”

So let’s see whether we can accelerate your growth by asking a couple of questions.

First Question.

How long does it take to become an expert?

I read recently that it takes five years. I couldn’t find his quote, but he wrote that you can become an expert, in a field of your choice, by studying just one hour each day, for only five years.

Think about that. He was writing before the interweb, and he was writing to an audience of Americans. The United States has a population of about five times that of the UK, so actually, I think:

You can become a leading international expert in the field of your choice in just five years.

Pick a topic, preferably one you’re already passionate about, read some books — say one book every week. Sit in Borders or your local library. Read, and think about what you’re reading.

You’ve got email and the interweb — find some experts, write to them for advice and with questions. Find out what they know. Find out what they don’t know.

Within a month you will be the local expert among your friends and colleagues, and in six months you’ll know more about your topic than 99% of the people you meet on a day-to-day basis.

If you read a book a week for five years, that’s 260 books on a particular topic. How many of you, as professionals, in your day jobs right now, keep up with your subject to the tune of a book a week? Not very many.

So yes, absolutely you can become an expert in five years. Mastery might take a lifetime, but expertise is quicker.

You’ve got five years — starting … now

Second Question.

If it takes five years to become an expert, how long does it take to become Excellent?

I’ll give you a hint - it’s not five years. It’s not even five minutes. According to Thomas J Watson of IBM, it takes just one minute to become excellent.

Here’s how: You sit down, reflect on your life as it is, and as you’d like it to be, and you vow to yourself, your god, and the universe, never again to do anything that is not excellent.

That’s it. So simple and so hard. Just stop letting yourself do substandard work. You’ll feel better, and it will get easier. Put some WOW! into everything you do.

My challenge to you is this: Go home, tonight, and write out a list of 25 things that describe WORK THAT MATTERS. Work that matters to you.

Choose five. Over the next week, in your current job, with your current projects, do them. Find some way of incorporating these five things that will make your work so much more meaningful. And just do it.

Which of you is going to resolve to be excellent, starting right now? Which of you is going to shine?

You are amazing and you are brave. I know this because you’ve come here tonight, and I know that you’ll keep coming back until you’ve mastered what you need to.

What about Mario? Mario Andretti — Does everything seem under control, are you just not going fast enough?

Has it become comfortable for you to come here week after week, to sit in that chair, to watch other people give speeches, to watch other people play the roles?

Listen to Mario — Go faster!

  • Pick a topic — become an expert.

  • Resolve to Be Excellent — in everything you do.

  • Do work that matters.

Acknowledgements

This will be my #4 speech to the City of London Toastmasters. It was heavily inspired by Tom Peters and the Brand You 50. Mixed in bits of Joe Vitale’s Missing Instruction Manual. It’s about time I gave a speech with some WOW!

How to Choose your Beliefs for Success

Posted in evolution on 23.07.06@686 by pjh

The beliefs that you hold are like the caption under a photograph in a magazine. Consider that this photograph is a snapshot moment in time of your life as it is right now, a frame cut from your epic movie. The first secret is this: you can change the caption without changing the photograph.

Consider that this one frame is just the smallest fragment of the film of your life. The second secret is that the universe will start to change the frames that follow based on the caption you’ve written. Change the caption, change the movie, change the ending.

I was in a bookshop yesterday and I picked up, quite by accident, a copy of Joe Vitale’s Missing Manual. Looking through it, I found the story of a man who always had relationship troubles. One day, he realized that the feeling that he’d always thought of as ‘falling in love’ was really a self-destructive attraction to the wrong women. Wow! The feeling didn’t change but the caption, the interpretation of that feeling, sure did. He’s now happily married to an amazing woman, and has a new feeling with the old label ‘falling in love’.

Richard Wiseman wrote a book about Luck that says something similar. Dr Wiseman, a psychologist, set up several experiments where the subjects go through a given set of circumstances. For example, he’d ask you to meet him at a certain cafe for lunch. He’d put a £5 note in the gutter outside, and a stooge at every table so that you couldn’t sit alone. Some people would step right over the fiver, and sit waiting in silence at one of the tables. Others would find the fiver, get a nice cuppa, and sit and converse with the most interesting looking person while they waited. The difference? The lucky ones think that they’re lucky, and have a wonderful time. If that isn’t a life-changing caption, I don’t know what is.

I was standing on a crowded London bus one Saturday afternoon. The bus started to leave, and a woman ran after it. It stopped and let her on. (They don’t often do that!) She only had a ten-pound note, but the driver gave her change. (They don’t usually make change!) She made her way past me to the back of the bus and found a seat. (Even though it was crowded!) By then I was convinced that she’s an incredibly lucky person - you probably are too - except for the sour look on her face. I bet she hated that she’d had to run for the bus, had to ask for change, and had to shove her way through the crowded bus. Imagine how much happier her life would be if only she would recognize the fabulous fragments of her life.

What are you doing right now that’s really great? Recognize and re-label and re-caption your life. (Just one thing!) Right Now!

Four-dimensional Life Purpose

Posted in evolution on 25.06.06@451 by pjh

Just listened to Steve Pavlina’s podcast #15, on purpose. I’ve read his stuff on having a purpose before, and failed to discover mine. This podcast goes a bit deeper and discusses general and specific purposes and the benefits that follow from self-knowledge.

Beyond discovering my general purpose, he talks about having a more transient specific purpose that is balanced on four axes. (Interesting parallel to Schumacher’s four levels of being.)

  • Body — What do I physically need to do? (bills, food, comfort, etc)

  • Mind — What can I do? What skills do I have that can be used in fulfilling my purpose, including the ability to learn new skills?

  • Heart — What do I want to do? What physically in the world do I enjoy doing that I could make part of my purpose-fulfilling behaviour?

  • Spirit — What should I do? What nagging conscience-mollifying thing should I do as part of my purpose? Service, fulfilment.

So, if I have a job that pays really well, but which I could be better equipped to do, and which my heart isn’t in, and which isn’t fulfilling, then I’m really out of balance on three of the four areas.

I need to discover a specific purpose that brings all four areas to where they overlap. Think of a Venn diagram with four circles. If there’s no overlap between them, then there is no specific purpose within that universe that will keep everything in balance. By changing the universe and better discovering the boundaries of each of my particular four areas, I will discover an overlapping segment. My specific purpose lies within that overlap, so that all four areas can be in balance and be fulfilled by the same purpose.

I’ve got a number of options. I can fix my current job by enhancing and expanding my skills, which in turn might increase my enjoyment of the job. After all, I work in a field for which I once had great interest and passion. It may be the unfamiliar territory that keeps me from wanting to go to work each morning. Similarly, the knowledge that I’m not doing a great job keeps me from feeling fulfilled, so there is always this sense of ’should’ that further unbalances my heart.

I could also throw over my current job and find a new one, in the same or a different field, or go self-employed, or any number of other things that will bring in enough cash to keep me in the manner to which I am accustomed. I could also reduce my cash needs, to make it easier to maintain balance on the physical axis. The trouble is, without knowing my broader purpose, what good is it going to do me?

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