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Monday, 04 May 2009 16:29 |
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It's been too long since I blogged. One of the technical reasons is that I'm quite often offline and I can't find an offline blog editor for Joomlah, which I could send directly to my site when I come online. Come back Dream Weaver??? Another reason for not blogging is Twitter, of course. It's so quick and easy. Once you've posted all your important inane stuff, what else is left to talk about? There are, of course, identity issues and whatnot, but let's keep this technical. Who am I and what have I to say to who is a whole other issue. I'm trying to tie up my doctorate at the moment, so I should keep off the blogging - and twitter. There is also a host of fascinating work and life-stuff happening, which will also keep me busy. I'm torn again by the question of many short blog posts or fewer, more significant ones. Just having those options freezes me from writing.
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Tuesday, 24 February 2009 14:11 |
Watching the TED talks for performance inspiration for my next webinar and I got side-tracked by the content in this one by Barry Schwartz, talking of practical wisdom (or Phronesis, the name of my previous blog). He starts by taking us through the job description of a hospital janitor: mop the floor, restock the cabinets etc. It's a long list on this job description. But, as he says, there is "not a single thing on it that involves a single human being". And yet, if you talk to Mike, Luke, and other hospital janitors, they will talk to you about their job in relation to the patients in the hospital. Kindness, care and empathy are an essential part of the job, but their job description doesn't contain say anything about it. It's their interaction with patients and their families that helps the hospital and patient care to function effectively. What's more, if you ask any of the janitors how long it took to learn their job, they'll tell you it takes years to be experienced as a hospital janitor. And they aren't referring to mopping the floor or emptying the trash cans, but how long it takes to be experienced working around patients, their families, the doctors and nurses. The full talk by Barry Schwartz is a call for "practical wisdom" in a world which has gone made with bureaucracy. His call is that we: - acknowledge and celebrate moral heroes and demand that people around us do too
- strive to be ordinary and extraordinary moral heroes ourselves
- acknowledge that anything that involves interaction with other people involves moral work and that moral work depends on practical wisdom
- he starts a point by making a mundane point or statement that you couldn't disagree with e.g. a janitor's job list is full of all these tasks... and then follows it up with a suprise e.g. but not a single thing on the list involves a single human being.
- he uses the names of people in his stories. Luke (the hospital janitor) said this, Mark told the story of ....
- he uses moral examplars e.g. Barack Obama and the hospital janitors. He tells us what these moral examplar do and don't do "He didn't say ... He didn't say ... Instead he said...".
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Monday, 26 January 2009 23:25 |
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Whew ... arrived. Hello blog. I missed you. The last two months have seen me engaged in exciting projects, wading through reports, getting caught up in life turbulences, spending Christmas in Rio (my daughter lives there) and giving training in Mombasa, where I stayed on to visit family and childhood friends. I have had this strong sense of closure and new beginning and it seems to be getting closer. Maybe that's what happens when you start transitioning to fifty. I feel on the edge of myself (expression borrowed from a friend) ... and it hasn't been helped by the US elections and Obama fever, in which I'm completely caught up. My overwhelming sensation at the end of last year was saturation - saturated with emails, information, people, things to do and expectations to meet. It didn't leave enough time for strategic thinking, let alone the important stuff like reflection, creativity, play and love. Among other things, this year I want less and I want the less to be more meaningful. How to balance less with at least the same income will be one of the challenges. Here's to 2009. I know it's going to be a great year.
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Thursday, 11 September 2008 12:56 |
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I'm struggling to write blogposts and I'm going crazy for it. One of my problems is that most of my contracts need a regular (monthly) report. The reports are counted as "the product" for which you are paid. All you need for your product to be counted is an account of what happened. Beverly, not able to let a learning opportunity pass, finds herself writing what she calls "reflective reports". Reflective reports get her to spend a long time thinking ... and thinking about the processes ... and thinking about the intermediate, semi-learnings .... and thinking about how she would do it differently next time ... and thinking about who else could be involved ... and thinking about those very little things that make a difference .... and thinking... With so many gems being lost in those reports I now ask myself ....
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Friday, 01 August 2008 04:36 |
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Once again I learn the lesson. The more you do something for nothing (or for less than it costs you) the less (some) people appreciate what you do. And the more demanding they'll be and the more favours they'll ask you for. And the more they stall over the measly payment they have to make. I am refining my antena about organisations with good intentions who want something for nothing. I will not be cynical. And I will not always be nice.
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