Just one thought - sharp and not so sweet

I just read this piece and am left wondering why it is I judge and comment on others behaviour before attending to my own... and this is something I am not alone in :(

http://www.becomealeader.org/articles/why-you-gotta-get-rid-your-bad-apples

Oh to be a better wife, mother, friend and colleague... I guess it's really all about committing to and focusing on one action at a time...

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” Margaret J. Wheatley.

Thank you Harold Jarche (Harold Jarche » Using our knowledge) for drawing my attention to this quote and for the rest of his blog post from October 2010. I've been gorging at the buffet of ideas and writing... and am now suffering the consequences of excess!

Trisha Liu and CheeChin Liew both commented on Google+ about 'collecting' and 'consuming' information without taking time to reflect and give back a perspective on what has been gathered; however Harold's final word that reflecting is just the start, the real change takes place when we integrate new thinking and behaviours into our daily lives.

I had a short trip overseas recently and took some reading with me, with every intention of noting and long hand reflecting on what I have 'consumed' over recent months... I'm embarrassed to say the endless roll of movies and docos on the plane totally distracted me and yet more time has passed without any reflection - and in that time I've been back at that buffet, shoveling it all down, so fast and in such quantity, I can no longer remember what it was I 'ate'.

In other aspects of life, I've always said that less should be more... maybe the way to quench the thirst for ideas and information, I should go slower and think more deeply and focus on just one (or maybe two) thoughts at a time!

Thoughts prompted by The Weekend Australian 5/6 March 2011

Open, just systems... WikiLeaks, Facebook and employee engagement

A few scattered observations...

I read an extract of Robert Mann's essay titled "Inside Julian's brain" in the Inquirer section of this weekend's Australian where reference was made to the search for openness and the need for governments and large corporations to be transparent and accountable - to be 'open, just systems'.

The reaction to some of the most recent WikiLeaks would indicate that not everyone views total openness and honesty as desirable. These reactions and other observed experiences, I believe, indicate that such systems require a maturity in the community. The very 'comfort, reassurance and security' nanny-state systems provide us has rendered us impotent and lacking in the maturity to deal with this honesty... Jack Nicholson boldly challenges Tom Cruise with "you want the truth, you can't handle the truth..."

The openness Assange is talking about would appear to be ahead of societal ability to cope with and maturely respond...

...and just above the final piece on Assange, is a headline that confirms this....

"As Facebook users wonder who is really friend, a new book asks if friendship needs to be regulated."

Such are the dilemmas open systems present us!

Turning to the professional section of the same paper, I found a piece by Andrew Brushfield on improving employee engagement and the need for open communication to avoid 'us and them' dynamics.

The question would appear to be, we say we want the truth, but can we handle it?

Tidiness, stress, office design and workplace culture

As I continue my eclectic reading journey a few things connected...Steve Simpson in a recent Unwritten Ground Rules publication wrote about the subtle signs that have a not so subtle impact on our environments - bottom line, if you present people with a well maintained and cared for work space, they will generally keep it that way. The minute you allow this to slip, so will the care and concern shown by the people.

Some people I worked with last year repeatedly complained about their office - bitterly and quite destructively so. I reckoned it wasn't too bad at all, the problem was in the fact they didn't seem to care about the place, didn't feel cared for and didn't do anything to show any pride...they are also a pretty stressed bunch which led me to connect to the other article on the MindTools website about "How tidiness and maintenance affect stress"... it's true.

This really got me thinking and connecting with the section in the recent AHRI White Paper, "People@Work/2020 on the 'not so smart office of the early 21st century'.

Put this all together...

• office design is critical and careful thought needs to be given to the type of work people will be performing and how they will perform it
• be obsessive about a 'walk the talk' approach to maintaining the overall look and maintenance of a workplace
• support staff to maintain realistically orderly workspaces and provide them with the resources to make this easier.

There's something for everyone - at the organisation level, the work unit level and the individual level!

We can't always have the ideal office or physical workplace, but how we look after it both personally and collectively would seem to have a major impact...

Links to the 3 articles/documents

http://www.ugrs.net/newsletters/CI131.pdf - check out the article on page 2 "Subtle Signs"
and
http://www.mindtools.com/stress/EnvironmentalStress/Maintenance.htm

and

http://www.ahri.com.au/MMSDocuments/profdevelopment/research/research_papers/fow_white_paper.pdf