Drummond Learning Ltd

CIPD13 - Making an exhibition of yourself

2013-11-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

This week I attended CIPD13. This blog is for those people that dread this sort of thing - as I once did and, to some extent, still do.

I managed to swing by the free exhibition for day 2 and spent the day, against expectations, meeting people, connecting and even selling myself a little.

When I say against expectations what I actually mean is that, based on previous exhibition experience I somewhat dreaded the idea of wandering around aimlessly, looking lonely and lost and satisfying myself that a good days work would be measured by the number of free pens I would collect - a practice that should be left exclusively for forced trips to Ikea where wandering around aimlessly seems to actually be the main thrust of proceedings.

Of course, this time it would be different. This I had told myself (many, many times) before finally signing up and booking my tickets to Manchester, my old university stomping ground.

Familiar surroundings would help but the key to the decision really lay in reminding myself why I'd spent time and money rebranding the website and getting shiny new business cards produced - certainly not to have them sit in the corner brooding over what might have been. No, Jonny Dirty Dancing Swayze (or whatever he's called) was calling those little old calling cards out and was going to be spinning them around the exhibition hall, lifting them over his head and casually strutting past the old apologetic me, "I'm wrong and I say I'm wrong".
"Yeah!"
See ya. I was off exhibitioning.

Now, a brim full of bravado is all well and good but there are some useful exhibition rules to observe if you're going to make the most of it;

1. Remember where you are!

You're at the exhibition - not the conference.
Yes, there's a lot of good stuff going on 'over there' but you are going to be free from the shackles of well observed schedules and seminars; free to wander around when you want to and control exactly who you want to speak to - likely other frugal individuals who want to get to business first and the cultural zeitgeist later. And remember, you (I) might just be able to afford the conference next year.

2. Do your research

If you have a budget to spend you should approach potential suppliers having already formed an opinion of their offering - this can shield you from the sales patter that might be coming and allow you to take control through some pertinent questions; about what makes them unique or what their direct competition are doing for example.
(I was not buying on this occasion - but stayed on my guard, looking out for loaded introductory questions like, "do you like to foster innovation?"
"Er, no actually I prefer to stamp on it whenever it raises its ugly head")

3. Set yourself some goals

It doesn't matter too much what the goals are but know clearly what you want to have achieved by the end of the day. It might include stands you will have visited, scheduled events attended, number of new contacts made, number of business cards given out or even, as I said to myself, I will not go longer than 5 minutes without speaking to someone I've never met (unless I'm in the toilets at the time).

4. Be yourself

Unless you're an aggressive agoraphobic in which case I'd suggest.... the conference (tee hee). The point is, it's not most people's natural behaviour to go around approaching and introducing themselves to random strangers. You may have to just get on with that part; dive in and see what happens. But once you're off the board so to speak, try and act naturally, speak genuinely and just remember to smile. Focus on being interested rather than trying to be interesting.

5. Don't expect too much

It's a great opportunity to meet lots of people but they're not all coming to knock down your door for work immediately afterwards. Concentrate on making a few good connections; find the likeminded people that you gel best with and the follow up with them to show they made an impression on you.

Finally, don't forget that there is a seldom acknowledged phenomenon when it comes to exhibitions, conferences, societies, clubs and conventions - often the most successful people never attend - they are somewhere else being unconventional and successful.

See you next year - well maybe.

My world-view... changed forever

2013-09-03T12:01:00.001-07:00

Hello again dear reader,

I've been musing lately. A musing I will go. Amusing myself really.

The more I learn about the world of people development through the writings, theories and models that describe the human condition and its underlying processes and intricacies, the more synthesis, similarities and cross-overs I notice.
I've no doubt that in some kind of prophetic vision, I will eventually unearth the Integrated Theory of Everything. Now I really am amusing myself.

Nonetheless, it is evident that a view of the world instilled in me when reading a book many years ago, is substantiated and strengthened by my own ever-growing body of knowledge and experience.

This world-view which, like Michelangelo's David, seemed to have always been there and which the reading of the book simply allowed to come to the fore, is one of a world carved in two.
A dichotomy so fundamental that having perceived it, I would never see the world in the same way again; and it continues to inform my approach to people development which I believe provides for a fuller and more long-lasting learning experience.

This split describes a view of the world, on one hand from a scientific point of view set alongside on the other, a view from an artistic perspective, and the book that so powerfully engendered this twin-centric outlook is Robert M Pirsig's, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Perhaps, as a twin myself I was additionally motivated to accept the proffered view as true, but the power of the prose, the fascinating story running through the book and of course the academic quality of the essay ('An Essay On Quality' as it is subtitled) has hooked millions of readers the world over and no doubt affected many others in such a profound way as it did me.

A good way to understand the principle that underpins the duality of the book is to take the motorcycle of the title and set it alongside a landscape painting (it's a bit easier than taking on Zen for my purposes here).

The motorcycle is said to have scientific or 'classic' form - the feat of engineering that makes hundreds of parts move together and propel the cycle and it's rider forward is embedded in logic, cause and effect and physics.
At the same time however, there is something beautiful about the motorcycle - it is not just lifeless bits of metal, it has a artistic form too, something 'romantic' that is less tangible but nevertheless there.

In the case of the landscape painting, it is firstly a thing of beauty to perceive from an artistic or romantic perspective. But if we perceive it more deeply we can also appreciate that it too has scientific form to it - the precision of each brush stroke, the mixing of chemicals that formed the paint, the 'classic' training of what 'beauty' looks like in terms of landscape form etc.

The over-riding affect this approach has had on my own approach to learning and teaching is to nurture 'the reserving of judgement' in order to be able to see another perspective. It encourages positive scepticism and balance and leads to flexible and adaptable individuals and organisations.
Balance is the key theme - scientific/artistic, real/imaginary, body/mind, direction/support, inward/outward, thinking/feeling, conscious/unconscious, self/others, past/future... the list goes on and on.

Experience has taught me that effective learning occurs when one has a foot in each camp, like standing at the centre of a see-saw and tipping it each way to greater and lesser extents to facilitate the results that one desires.

For instance, in leadership, the balance of directive and supportive behaviours is often cited as important to drawing out effective performance based on the needs of an individual at any given moment. We see in the Hersey and Blanchard model that directive behaviours relate to affecting 'ability to do', while supportive behaviours affect the 'desire to do'. Getting the balance right enables the individual to perform and progress.
The see-saw analogy works further by reminding us that tipping the balance too far in one direction can lead to undesirable extremes; in this case of behaviour; dictatorship or smothering in the case of direction and support.

We all have preferred or habitual ways of behaving that are significantly informed by our views and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. It is our preferred approach that describes the fulcrum of the see-saw from which we must depart to facilitate change. Where that fulcrum sits on the spectrum of inward thought/outward action for example, determines the extent to which it is easy or difficult for us to tip the scales.
Positive scepticism aligned to this balanced approach provides the means by which we question and challenge ourselves to continually improve as it assumes that, even if we think we're right, we might still be wrong, or that there could be a different and more effective way.

Happy learning

A wee tale of time management and happiness

2013-07-29T01:02:00.001-07:00

Recently I had the pleasure of delivering a time management course.

Working in an associate capacity is always interesting because some details are usually a bit sketchy; in some cases the excitement builds around 09:00 a.m. as an anticipated but unspecified number of people are due to arrive - or maybe they're not!

On this occasion however it was different. I knew with a good amount of certainty that two people were heading towards me to learn something about the ways of the fourth dimension.
I'd even taken the chance to Google my delegates in advance. It struck me that, with the prospect of a more intimate and informal dynamic that a smaller number of delegates affords, it might be nice to surprise them with a factoid or two of research that acknowledged their personal accomplishments to date.

This strategy proved to be exactly 50% successful.

On the one hand, just this year a local newspaper had mentioned one delegate in a good news article tied to the great work they do in schools.
On the other however, just the knowledge that at least 121 people on LinkedIn shared the other delegate's name.

As it turned out, upon greeting my guests, it became apparent that the reason for these two facts provided a perfect insight into their attendance to this particular course, being as they were at opposite ends of the time-bracket we call 'career'. Time literally meant completely different things to them.

A common early-opener is to ask the individuals about themselves and what they hope to get out of the course. The questions seem simple enough, but listening to the responses it is apparent that they are not always easy questions to answer.
With just two people to cater for I'm given a real opportunity to get under the skin of the issues and truly tailor the delivery to suit their personal circumstances.
So when it is revealed by both that attendance was not initiated by either of them personally, an interesting challenge is set (a possible primary objection)...

To add to the challenge, delegate A clearly saw the value in learning something new as he acknowledged it was both a good idea and a perfectly well timed session for him. Delegate B less so; as might be natural from someone planning more for retirement than for career.

And so my inside voice begins to ponder this as I get into trainer mode and begin the course...

Time management provides for perhaps the greatest number of clichés and one-liners a trainer could stumble across in the course of one day. From 'arriving promptly' through there 'not being enough time in the day' to 'having the same 24 hours as (insert name of famous successful person)' and not forgetting hoping that the delegates day 'was time well spent'.
I think these language patterns can tell us a lot about the things we take for granted. Before they became clichés, they were pearls of wisdom.
And it was this line of thought that struck me as I was rolling out the well-prepared introduction to the course whilst simultaneously considering the needs of the two delightful individuals with whom I was to spend the next 8 hours. In it I was to find the answer to my own time quandary - how to make this course at once relevant to both people.

The answer lay in the biggest cliché of all - the course title. 'Time Management' is of course a misnomer. We can only manage ourselves better. Time doesn't really respond either way and cares even less it seems.

And so, as the course progressed, we found ourselves talking more and more about the use of our time as it related to ourselves and from this to our own personal happiness. That is really the goal when it comes to 'change' in any field of personal development - increased happiness with who we are, what we can do and what we can achieve with it as a result.

And that was the common ground that led to an open, honest and candid exchange of thoughts and experiences that day. This was where relevance and value lay; spending this particular parse of time sitting in a hotel discussing a concept we all too often fail to fully grasp and all too readily take for granted.

It was a real pleasure to discuss the hopes and dreams of a young idealist intellectual who had so much on his plate he'd sometimes struggle to start on anything. And the hard-to-phase widow who smiled sadly at the latest changes to the corporate environment to which she had to adapt.

Of course, businesses benefit directly from employees who utilise their time more effectively. I simply argue that the choice to do that above the level of 'good enough' (in spite of owning or learning the skills to enable it) lies as much in the realm of an individual's own self-worth and current level of happiness as it does in their knowledge and skills.
By addressing the usual mix of knowledge and skills such as planning, organising, delegating and communicating whilst also exploring happiness in its various forms (motivation, beliefs, self-esteem) I believe everyone gets a greater return on their investment in training-time.

In fact, just like the old clichés say; You can teach a man to fish but you can't make him drink.

"What would you like to get out of your time here today"?

12 simple words that sparked these latest musings on happiness and learning.

Dear reader,
What are the most influential and powerful questions you ask

- to get to the heart of matters?
- to provoke change?
- to inspire people?

Ciao for now.

Happy learning.
Andrew

Personal leadership insights

2013-07-14T07:48:00.001-07:00

Leadership is a story.

It is the narrative of a life lived.

It is a life lived as both author and protagonist. A life lived with purpose and meaning (for good or ill). A life of past, present and future woven together to form a rich tapestry. A journey.
A saga, if you will.

In this context, personal leadership becomes the pilgrimage; the return from the wilderness, the part of the journey where you find yourself.

Personal leaders are free-agents. They are free to make choices about many things - their mood, their behaviour, their responses; even their feelings to some extent. Importantly they are free to change. Nothing is fixed, finite or impenetrable. Survival is about growth.

It is possible, I believe, to deconstruct, model, practise and nurture the behaviours that we see as the story we want for our own lives. To do this purposely and meaningfully in order to get more of what we want, to become more like we want to be and as a necessary step on the journey towards people leadership, if that happens to be your thing; that outward leadership that weaves your narrative into that of others; into the wider story of the world, and causes it to wield influence.

Personal freedom and outward influence.
Two pretty chunky volumes in the Leadership tome.

It's my pleasure to share a previous chapter of my own journey with you.

http://crosbydrummond.blogspot.co.uk/

And I'll look out for you should our stories collide in the next.

Business as usual...? Not likely.

2013-07-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited to be kicking off this, the first of my new blog series.

It is 18 months since my last posting and not surprisingly the cause of my first blog series has also been the cause of my extended absence.
Young Crosby is now two and half years old and a delightful and loving bundle of fun.

Fatherhood has at once aged

me ten years and also made

me feel twenty years younger

- which as a net result is

definitely reflected in my looks.

But seriously, the events of the last 3 years have changed my life so significantly that I have developed whole new perspectives and dare I say it, even a drop or two of wisdom.

I've learned a lot about myself and throughout have continued to absorb as much as I can about the world of learning; how it happens, why we do it, how it is different for different people and what this might mean for the future of learning at work.

Running my own training consultancy continues to be a hugely rewarding experience. I've had the pleasure of working with fantastic people and travelled the length and breadth of Britain getting involved in a whole variety of training and development initiatives.
Colleagues have become friends and open, honest and mutually beneficial relationships remain at the core of how I engage and work with my clients and fellow collaborators.

Over the last few months, spare moments have been concentrated on a re-brand with new logo, imagery, social media pages and a lovely new website (with thanks to Brian & Dan) all now coming together.
I hope you can visit. www.drummondlearning.com

My aim for this blog series is to provide a varied mix of useful, insightful and interesting content related in some way to the theme of learning; with perhaps just a few considered sojourns into the wider world.

So, what better way to start than with a learning revolution and the truly inspirational and down right funny Sir Ken Robinson...