LUNCH

PS - we're still waiting for that thunderstorm.

LUNCH

• I go to Mr Laveracks


• I buy a luvverly bit of filet.


• I dig up spuds


• I pick broad beans


• I pick nasturtiums and young lettuce, making a vibrant salad with both leaves and flowers


• I cook beans and spuds.


• I sear filet in butter.


• I season meat.


• I roast meat at about 11 mins a pound.


• I make mustard and mint dressing


• I make large tray of tomato salad


• I open Gran Riserva


• I get everything ready for stated time


• I apply contingency rule of 15 mins


• Guests turn up 35 mins late despite agreeing time for meal to appear


• One participant says I'm not eating that and raids fridge for alternative


• Meat is delicious for all who partake


• I have large row with Missus


• Afternoon activities are suspended subject to forthcoming peace talks

DILEMNA

I find X boring.
I find X false.
I find X trite.
I find X controlling, dressed up in insipid sweet.
I find in X's company time drags.
I feel drawn to avoid X.
But X seeks me out.
X invites me.

Do I:

Lie?
Be grateful?
Accept?
Call it as it is?
Be completely honest?


What is in X's best interest?
That I tell X of my reaction?
That I hide it, and thus conspire with X's own conspiracies?

Markets. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

HAIKU

Breathing out seems more
important than breathing in.
Get both right; you're there.

HAIKU

Dawn's red nails grab day,
The shepherd's warning ignored.
Can I seize it too?

HAIKU

An easel, grass
Close, paint – planning or regret?
Thoughts. Come back here now.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

CELEBRITY STATUS

I'm hitting the big time.

Last night in Cecconi's, Bill Nighy. Very lean. Very well tailored. Trademark thick glasses.

This morning in the lift at mint, the Hairy Bikers. Not very lean. Not at all tailored. Trademark hairiness.

ZEN TODAY

This breathing business!

Where will it get you?

PENCIL CASE FROM MONTREAL

When I was a boy, my cousin, who was in the Merchant Navy, was a romantic figure. He occasionally appeared in my young life, newly returned from some exotic place. Always he brought some new thing. Once, gold trinkets from Surinam. Another time, unheard of brands of sweets from the far east. Once, even, a wife, from Guyana.

Once, he brought me a pencil case from Montreal. It's lid was made of sealskin. On it, the word Montreal in gold letters on a leather plaque in the middle of the sealskin lid.

The sealskin was mesmeric and lives still - incongruously - in my memory. It was impossible not to touch it. It was much hairier than one would expect. But the grain went only one way. Stroke it one way and it felt smooth. Move your hand the other way, and it was bristly and harsh.

Culture shifting is like stroking the sealskin. The elements, the levers of culture - the people, the systems, the rewards, the ways of working, the myths, legends and narratives, and the goals can all be aligned. Then the feeling is as smooth as the grain of the sealskin.

Or they can be misaligned, and create an abrasive, disfunctional result.

It is the job of the culture shifters to sensitize themselves with the grain, and attune it to goals, gently stroking it the right way, adjusting it more and more to the required direction, attuning it always with and never against that grain.

NOTHING WILL COME OF NOTHING, NUNCLE!

When it comes to facilitation, the fool in Lear has it wrong.
The most important thing you can do as a facilitator is..... nothing.
In either coaching or facilitation settings you are dealing with the paradox that the less you do the greater the effect, and the more you intervene, the less empowerment, ownership, and effectiveness.
With this awareness, the aesthetics of intervention change, and process work becomes like writing poetry. Every word needs to be scrutinised and pared. Few are called. Many are spared.
I truly believe that if everything you say is beautiful, the result will be beautiful too. And what you are then doing is artistry.