Inside Out

This story from the days of the Apollo missions is probably apocryphal but it does raise an interesting point about the difference between job descriptions and vision.

In 1967 a journalist is wandering round NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory talking to people involved in the Apollo missions.

He encounters a man wearing the default engineer’s uniform of a white shirt and blue tie, a slide rule sticking out of his top pocket.

“Sorry to interrupt” says the journalist, “but do you mind me asking what you your job is?”

“No problem” replies the engineer, “my job is to calculate the mass flow rate of RP-1 fuel through each of the engines of the Saturn rocket”.

The journalist dutifully writes this down in his note book and thanks the engineer. In the office across the hallway he finds another man, dressed in a dark suit. He knocks politely then asks,

“Hello, I’m doing an article on the staff at NASA and I am trying to find out what peoples jobs are.”

“I’m the Lunar Module Flight Plan Director.” says the man in the suit,  “I manage and approve all changes the the LMFP.”

Again the journalist writes down what the man says and wanders off to find someone else. At the end of the corridor is a man in NASA overalls sweeping the floor. Under the blue and red logo is the word ‘Janitor’.

Sensing the possibility of a human interest story the journalist approaches the man

“I can see you are a janitor”, he says “but what does your job involve?”

“That’s easy”, replies the janitor “I’m putting man on the moon”.

Why do it?

Is “Because it’s there” a good enough reason to do something? Do you want to do it to become wealthier, to be more secure, to learn something or just to get to the top?

Prepare

You need to work out what you resources you need, you need to work out a rough schedule as well. You also need to make sure you’re up to the task and have the right team around you.

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From the formation of the British East India Company in 1600 until 1947, the British were control of the Indian subcontinent. They achieved this fueled by and in search of one beverage, tea. Over four hundred million people lubricated the hard work of powering an empire with an infusion of Camellia sinensis.

Tea still plays an enormous part in everyday British life, and nowhere more so than at work. Nowadays, other beverages are catching up fast. Coffee is the frequently offered alternative but the range of hot drinks available stretches from the sublime to the ridiculous. It doesn’t matter what you, the boss, or that odd lady who does the payroll drinks, as long as you drink something.

Leaving aside the health benefits of drinking tea (green, herbal, camomile or otherwise), or even of just drinking fluids, a cup of tea is an important psychological tool. Read More »

Let My People Go Surfing
by Yvon Chouinard
The Penguin Press HC
ISBN 978-1594200724

The subtitle of this book is “The education of a reluctant business man” and Yvon Chouinard definitely falls into this category. He practices MBA, or Management by Absence which has meant that everyone in his company has to have a strong idea of what they are trying to achieve. It’s difficult to ask your boss for guidance when he’s halfway up a peak in the Himalaya.

The first half of the book deals with the history of Patagonia, from its start in the back of his truck through to being a multinational equipment and clothing manufacturer.

It should be a tale of how not to do it, with itinerant climbers promoted to senior managers and a staff that has permission to disappear when the surf gets big. However the tale reads as an adventure yarn, with a real feeling of teamwork, tolerance and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking. Instead of despairing at the ineptitude of the participants, you realise that this may be an alternative way of doing business.

In the late 80s, Patagonia started struggling and Chouinard realised that they had overreached themselves. When he had to lay of 250 of his workers, he decided that he needed to clarify in his own mind why he was running a business. The book goes on to explain the “philosophies” that were created to guide the company onwards.

The philosophies are like a 50 page mission statement, split into categories like “Product Design” and “Environment” and are there to guide any member of the company in making the best decision for the company. While his goals won’t be applicable to anybody else’s company, the process of setting those goals will be. If you want to see how important the environment is to Patagonia, look at their philosophies. If you want to know how they expect their suppliers to be treated, looking at the philosophies.

Every business person who aspires to create, run or work in a business that isn’t a nine-to-five, cubicle farm, sweatshop should read this book.

Links to buy: Patagonia and amazon.co.uk

There are more than 6000 words in the English language representing emotions.¹

Can you name more than 30?

How does this affect your understanding of other peoples feelings?

¹Tony Robbins @ TED

Photo from Ben Smith’s flickrstream under Creative Commons

Totem would like to invite you to participate in our next Anything Could Happen course which will be running in September. It will be taking place in North Wales on either 11-13th September or 18-20th September. The cost is £280.

There is plenty of of information about the course at www.totemdevelopment.co.uk/anythingcouldhappen

In summary, it is an open outcome course with no fixed programme. We aim to draw together a diverse group of people, put them in beautiful surroundings, and provide challenging activities to create a powerful learning experience. It is aimed at people who are interested in their own personal development and who want to explore their own learning in an exciting and challenging environment.

Since we use Agile Programming, we can’t guarantee what you’ll be doing on the course but previously we have guided blindfolded partners; hunted foam animals scattered throughout the town; created art out of slate; abseiled and climbed; had round table debates; created codes and built a bridge across a lake.

We couple this with meaningful, engaging personal and group reflection and review to ensure that participants come away having learnt from everything they have done.

Some comments from previous participants:

“Thought provoking and loads of fun with plenty to take away to think about and hopefully apply!” -James

“A month of life packed into 48 hours!” -Eeva

“Thought-provoking; knackering but fun and challenging” -Billy

Mark also wrote a short piece about his time on the course, which you can read here.

The course fee includes all food and accommodation for the weekend, as well as the training, activities and any materials used. We will be based at the well equipped and friendly Bryn Du Mountain centre.

If you are interested in attending the course, please let us know which dates (11-13 or 18-20) you could attend and which one you prefer.

If you have any friends, colleagues or family who you think might be interested, please do not hesitate to forward this to them.

If you want to know more about this unusual course, please feel free to contact us.

On our Anything Could Happen course we ask the participants to recommend a book that they have read that changed the way they thought or behaved. The participants of ACH1 had the following suggestions. Read More »

We’ve just arrived home from the Sonata Nationals, a yacht racing event that this year was held in Poole. The Sonata is 6.9m boat that is very seaworthy and fast for its size.

We were blessed with sunshine and a good amount of wind which meant the racing amongst this very competitive fleet was close, intense and exciting. In this type of event there aren’t many tactics, the short courses and identical boats mean that most races are won by making your boat go faster through the water. A 1% drop in performance will cost you 60m over the race and probably about 5-6 places.

What struck me out on the water that a small yacht like the Sonata, normally crewed by 3 or 4 people, was a perfect medium for team building.

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Once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night a traveller arrives at a small village, carrying nothing more than an empty pot. Suspicious of the stranger and in the midst of a food shortage, the villagers hide away in their houses and refuse him food and lodging. Seemingly indifferent to the hostile atmosphere, the traveller fills a large pot with water from the village well, drops a large, smooth stone in it and places it over a fire lit in the village square. Read More »

If you watch any group discussion where more than 3-4 people are trying to achieve something, an interesting effect occurs. The group often start out with everyone contributing but after an initial period of politeness (Tuckman’s forming stage) the group begin to resemble a fried egg. Both physically and conceptually, people place themselves either in the yolk, the white, or outside the egg entirely.

Read More »