This week I went to a networking evening in Bristol called South West Founders. I’ve been meaning to go for ages – since moving to Bath earlier in the year. I finally got around to it because I’d planned to meet with a friend, John Lynch, for a few beers – and we decided a trip to Bristol might work.
If you have read the blog before – you have probably seen my post “I HATE Networking”. That reports on a networking event in Bath that I attended – and hated. Interestingly enough, two guys spoke at that event who I have now become friends with (Mike Ellis and Dave Kelly).
I thought that tagging along with a pal might help with my dislike of networking events – and it did. John was great company – and filled in nicely during those initial “wallflower” minutes.
I’m known for being a little too flippant – it’s the “scouser” blood in me. When we arrived, we were given a couple of stickers to write our names on – and with a box to simply say why you are attending. In a rush, I decided my best/wittiest response was “I’m Driving John Home”.
This allowed me to make some anecdotal observations on the “networkers” at the event:-
BADGE SCANNERS – there were many people who would walk slowly around the room and scan badges. I watched a few of these – and when they read why I was there – promptly moved on without chatting (they assumed I was John’s chauffeur and just bumming a free drink).
WHAT DO YOU DO TYPES – there were some who engaged in conversation, but ignored me when they read the badge and focussed on chatting with John. Again, did say hello – but assumed I was not worth chatting to as I was just John’s driver
I’LL SPEAK TO ANYONE – there were many fun, open people too. They chatted about a variety of subjects, took an interest – and ignored the badge. If I’d had green hair – they would have been the same. My sort of people.
I did some preparation for the event. It was arranged via the MeetUp site – and all the attendees had a profile and contact details. There was no-one who specifically sprung out as a “must see” contact – but I did follow a few people on Twitter.
Interestingly, one of the guys who I followed on Twitter I didn’t get the chance to meet. However, we’ve since followed up/met on-line and are getting together early next week for a bite to eat and swap ideas.
Lessons learnt?
… for me … don’t be too flippant, it might put off people talking to you
… for others … never judge a book by its cover (or a guy by his name badge)
… and finally … off-line networking and on-line networking mix. The people who attend the same event probably have something in common. Don’t work the room, it’s a long term game – and you might be as likely to make that connection on-line. Do prep – and read the attendees list.
As for “Driving John Home”. I got badly lost in Bristol, couldn’t properly partake in the free drinks (kindly sponsored by the nice guys at local VC Eden Ventures) and then lost my car park ticket (had to pay an extortionate amount for a full day!). We’ll be taking the train next time – and I will be more sensible with what I write on my badge.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about my least favourite question – “what do you do?”. I am, like many parents, guilty of mulling over with friends and family the question of what our sons and daughters will be when they grow up.
On reflection, it’s a question of a different age – and pushes our thinking (and that of our children) in the wrong direction for a modern society. We should be stepping back and taking a more general view of what will our children’s life look like – work (what you do) is only one component of that picture.
This is such a crucial area. It horrifies me when I see statistics that 77% of Americans are unhappy in their job – from a poll by Gallup discussed in Time Magazine. Also, Computer Weekly recently reported that a job satisfaction study by recruitment firm Monster.co.uk found only 30% of of 228 UK IT staff surveyed were satisfied with their current employment and number of IT staff considering changing jobs reached 92%. We seem to have made an art of putting round pegs in square holes.
Our society is undergoing a revolution that will move work\life balance off the agenda – and get us focussed back on life. We are living in a society that is holding on by its fingertips to a security blanket of a workplace based on routine and tenure from an age where industry and the military dominated. This is especially visible (and worryingly so) in our education system. Look around our schools and you will find children in smart uniforms (military) and bells ringing to precise times (industrial). You will find timetables based on mothers being housewives and not working – and holidays based on harvest time to help farm labour capacity. Its very structure and culture is preparing our children for a life and workplace that is now in history.
I feel that our children need to spend their formative years understanding their life choices. Not to make a decision on their first job, long-term career – but understanding the options of the best practices to live well in this modern world. In recent years, our generation seems to have undergone an experiment of work hard/earn money/buy stuff. We all know this practice of over working while following the carrot of consumerism doesn’t work – so let’s learn from it and help our children find a new, more fulfilling life.
I look around me and see amazing changes in my lifetime. My father worked hard as a journalist from leaving school until he retired on his 65th birthday. He had tenure, stability and a vocation. His education – very similar to that of today – got him ready for this. I cannot see any children growing up now wanting to – or being able to – follow this model.
My father-in-law loved music and the arts, but was steered by his parents in to a job at a bank. He worked there until he could take early retirement from his roles as a Bank Manager at 55. He then followed his true love and plays the piano (often making good money) – and is still enjoying this active music career in to his late 70s. I wonder what his life would have looked like balancing the two – a neat segway between finance and the arts.
For some reason, I’ve managed to find a balance of life through being an entrepreneur. I’m not advocating this path for all – but I’d recommend the flexibility and the sense of achievement. However, it’s not for those who don’t like working the high wire without a safety net.
With friends, I see the pressure of those in full-time employment. Wondering when they might get a “tap on the shoulder” saying they are no longer needed. I’ve learnt from business – that you don’t want to have just one customer to rely on for your income. I believe we all need to treat our lives as being a solopreneur – and having one employer, one pay cheque is a risk our children will not be able to afford to take. It’s a big change – but exciting and will give the next generation a fantastic opportunity to live their life in balance.
The other consideration – which cannot be ignored – is that our children’s life has changed from a middle distance race to a marathon. At the start of the 1900s, life expectancy was less than the pension age. In 1901 baby boys were expected to live for 45 years and girls 49 years. The latest figures from 2009 show that life expectancy in the UK is 82.6 years for women and 78.4 years for men. We now have life expectancy way past the “pension age”. So we are dreaming if we think that any government or bank can square that circle financially. Our children’s life will be much longer – which is great news. However, this means that they need to be prepared for a “long race”, to balance those phases, learn new skills, take time out to suit them (e.g. when children are born, growing up, etc). I remember my father working until his 65th birthday – and soon after losing my mum and then being taken with cancer. He’d got to the finish line of retirement, and then not enjoyed it. I wished he’d has his “retirement benefits” along the way. I’ve been fortunate to have time off in the middle of my life and spend quality time with my wife and children – I’m lucky (and hopefully setting a trend). However, we can’t get our children to believe life starts with a gap year, then 3 years University and then a slog towards a fictitious retirement date! It’s got to have balance – let’s share our learning.
I do fear that our children are sold short by the education they receive (often with excellent teachers – but in a system that is out of touch). They also get a distorted view from parents who want them to follow their path (find a good job, settle down, get a pension, etc). We need to look around us – as parents – and start preparing our children more realistically.
If you want to look for change – just think back to the introduction of the idea of “home working” for executives about 20 years ago. It was greeted by incredulity by some – how could employees be trusted, if people cannot be seen – then they can’t be working, etc. In a recent survey 66% of people said they would work for less if they could work from home. With transport costs and wasted time commuting – this has to make social and economic sense. It’s becoming a part of our culture. The skills and freedom to work this way are critical – but still the bell rings and heads go down as the supervisor/teacher looks at the workers/pupils.
I read an article about education in The Guardian this morning that got me thinking. It had a quote from the late Sir Alec Clegg, chief education officer of Yorkshire’s West Riding and among the most prominent educational figures of the day (he died in 1974. Clegg believed schools should pursue “the education of the spirit … the child’s loves and hates … hopes and fears”. It’s what education has always been about – but often in practice not pursued.
Beneath that quote in the papers was another article headlined “Pensions dispute gives academics work-life balance”. The lecturers are “working to contract” and had consciously gone back to only doing their basic hours – and not letting their work overtake their life. It’s an interesting read – and says to me we need to get our children thinking about what we have learnt over the past 20 years (good and bad) in our changing work practices (and how they effect the balance of our life).
I am fortunate that I can afford a private education for my children. It’s the best money can buy – in the current system. The school believes in a “total curriculum” and successfully balances the academic aspirations with a wider range of opportunities. My belief is that in a system that doesn’t work well – this has the best chance of delivering. However, even at this excellent establishment, I’d love to see these resources re-aligned to prepare children much more for the new work and life landscape. It’s difficult to change a system that wants to work to industrial/military hours – and with staff that have partly chosen their vocation for the comfort of the working environment they enjoyed at school. I believe we will see disruptions in education over the next few years that will start to deliver an education for our children more alligned with future life and work.
I’d be interested if any readers have examples of flexible schooling in action around the world. I have seen the work that Khan Academy is doing via YouTube – and now integrating in to some US Schools (video below).
Please do add a comment with any more that you know of.
I’ve been following the news about the various anti-capitalist protests around the world. We’ve even had one sprout up in the middle of Queen Square in Bath!
It got me thinking – that maybe we should be careful about how to use the terms capital, capitalism and capitalist. Capital isn’t just money! As you will know if you’ve read my blog before, I believe that your most valuable asset is your Personal Network. It’s much more valuable than money in the bank – conventional “financial” capital.
These days, our social media presence and our network of contacts is referred to as our “social capital”. It’s a good term – and gets us to think of this network as an asset (much like our savings, pensions, etc). I think it’s important that we continue the analogy – and learn from the “financial” capitalists to protect, nurture and grow our social assets.
All my reading leads me to the conclusion that there is a significant power change going on in the world. My feeling is that the disasters in the world economy shields one of the biggest changes – and that is the empowerment of the individual. The growth of our social network, the change in the dynamics of the workplace and our dissatisfaction with the old system of work/get paid/consume is leading us on a new path.
We now have the tools as individuals to create and grow significant Social Capital. In time, this will mean that we will chose where we want to work – and how we want to work. We will be courted by businesses who can meet OUR requirements – and we will need to be convinced that a business matches OUR personal needs. The shoe is moving to the other foot.
I did a google search for the term “social capitalist”. There are a wide range of definitions. For example, Wikipedia says that it’s an economic theory around macro-economics and philosophy (not what I am proposing).
Fast Company appeared to give awards to Social Capitalists up until recently. Their Social Capitalists are “Social Entrepreneurs who are changing the world”. I like those too – but it’s not what I am talking about.
My idea of Social Capitalists is you and me. People who believe in their network, want to make connections, give value to those around them and cherish relationships as their most important asset.
We need to be careful with our Social Capital. I’ve written before about my concern about social networks – especially Facebook. They act in effect as our bankers, places where our social capital is held side by side with that of others. We need to learn from the banking crisis that we should be very careful where we put our trust – and check if our social capital is safe.
Every financial adviser will tell you that it is most important to protect your capital. We should do the same with our Social Capital. We should not allow our relationships to erode. We need to nurture and keep our currency.
My idea of Social Capitalism offers a middle ground between our current financially driven world – and the bartering of the past. This combined with our craft and skills will help us make our way in the world – finding work that excites us and the people who give us energy. Becoming Social Capitalists is at the core of this opportunity to leverage and grow.
Power to the people – and viva Social Capitalists!
I really don’t like the “what do you do?” question. I don’t like to be asked it – and I try not to ask it of others (although when my limited smalltalk dries up, it has been known). However, I realise that these days before we meet, I might have “googled” you – and you might have “googled” me.
So, it’s likely that the “what do you do?” question is already being dealt with on-line. Is our on-line presence making the right impression? Is it telling our story?
“I founded a computer company, they sacked me, I got involved in cartoon animation, then another computer company – and for the last few years went back to the first computer company for a second try at running it.”
It’s not the list of jobs – it’s the achievements and the world beating stories that put us in awe of Steve Jobs.
Why then, do we present ourselves with our jobs and roles in a boring list formats? Have we just been brought up to fill in forms?
Why do people judge us by “what do you do?” – without asking us to tell our story?
It’s great to get the regular formatting and all those dates in chronological order. Computers like them, LinkedIn can build a business around them – and HR departments can sift hundreds of candidates more easily. But what does it say about a person? What’s their story? What have they done that they are most proud of? What makes them special?
“Unstructured data is harder to work with. Open text fields in forms can cause issues. There are between 4 and 8 thousand variations of IBM and “Software Engineer” in LinkedIn’s database”
So even that doesn’t work! For unstructured data, read the real you!
As you will have seen from my website, I’ve tried to get around this “dull CV vs story telling” issue by adding a “Projects & Tales” section. It hopefully defines me more through what I have done – not the list of jobs I have worked at and for how long.
I’m a big believer in trying to present things visually. It got me wondering whether there was the opportunity to solve the problem of dull CVs visually. I wrote a while ago about a start up in Singapore called Identifii. They had come up with a very simple psychometric test that gave a visual report. I like this type of format to get the “headline” of a person. Much better than the “what do you do?”.
A friend also pointed me in the direction of a new service called VisualizeMe. Just a few clicks and permission to access my LinkedIn account gave a graphical overview. This has potential – but not sure it tells a story.
Fast Company magazine reported on an interesting hiring strategy brought in by News Corp to find great coders who had not followed a conventional path. The sub-text of the article was “Why hire a PhD, when a self-taught kid is just as good?” News Corp are having to compete with some major players in Silicon Valley. They decided they would literally take anyone who had the “right stuff”. Their project was named “Code Foo” and their recruitment campaign said “Flipping burgers to scrape together enough cash to buy Portal 2?” and “Blow our minds while you’re here and we’ll hire you.”
They brought in 28 students – with the aim of taking on 4. They took on 8. Roy Bahat, the ING (Division of News Corp) President said:
“It’s not like if you looked at their résumés, you would have said it’s impossible that they would be qualified for the jobs. But if you only looked at their resumes and said, ‘Should we interview this person based on this résumé?’, there wouldn’t necessarily be a reason to say yes. They’re the kind of people we would have overlooked.”
An innovative approach – and the six weeks allowed these candidates time to tell their story!
As we approach a very different world, where individual presentation will be so important – it’s important that we try to find the tools that tell our story. The “what do you do?” is the old-world equivalent of today’s google search for your name. We need to pay attention and be ready to tell our story when that google search button is clicked!
There is too much emphasis on the idea that the way to get on in life is having great qualifications – and in particular a degree. I think it’s a dangerous fallacy. It’s education along with opportunity that matters – and that doesn’t necessarily involved schooling or universities.
I sat at lunch with a friend the other week. She was hosting a dinner with a chief executive of a major multi-national company – and she started to make apologies for the fact that she had dropped out of further education. I pulled her up on this, and reminded her that many of the greatest achievers dropped out or left school early. It was the week that Steve Jobs had died – so there was one example for starters! Finishing a course and getting a degree is not the route to success.
I regularly listen in to Desert Island Discs – an excellent biographical programme linked in with favourite music of high achievers. I am always surprised at how many subjects of the programme have dropped out. A recent Desert Island Discer was the broadcaster Danny Baker – he left school at 14.
In the article, Michael goes through a “credits list” of dropouts that have made such a difference to the world of technology.
Steve Jobs of Apple
Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft
Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone of Twitter
Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker of Facebook
He also talks how 20% of jobs are fulfilled by a formal process that involved a CV, qualifications, etc – but 80% depends on the personal network you create and the story you can tell. Don’t get hung up on the CV and degrees – people want to know the real you, not a set of stats.
I agree with Michael that the route to some careers will require formal qualifications. The professions such as lawyers, accountants, engineers, etc. However, the economies of the world will be driven by business creation – and that’s what we should help many of our school leavers towards. I would like to see equal support given to young people in creating new business as in applying for universities to get degrees. I would also like to see the willingness of governments (and banks) to give the same funding support for new startup ventures that they would to running up debt on studies.
Also this morning, Sachin Rekhi (founder of Connected – which has just sold to LinkedIn) shared with me a story in Fast Company magazine. The story “Silicon Valley’s new hiring strategy” – told the story of an innovative programme in the US to find coders away from the conventional trawl of CVs. It also had a great graphic showing some successful dropouts, entitled “we don’t need no education” (I’m a sucker for a Pink Floyd lyric!)
So you can add Richard Branson, Frank Lloyd-Wright, Lady Gaga and Walt Disney to that list!
I liked a quote from my twitter friend, Sarah Doody, yesterday:
“How do you balance a start up and having a life? You DON’T. If all your chips are in, it IS your life.”
Let’s get people creating start ups, having a focus – and not killing time in a 3 year trip to University. Let’s drive those University applications down. Create something, learn out in the real world – and choose life!
Building my personal website has been a stressful experience. It has produced frequent crisis of confidence. I’m not naturally a self-promoter – and I blush as I write this article about narcissism.
Lynda peppers the book with quotes about the challenge to balance narcissism with reputation building and personal branding”:
“These are also the people who will tread the fine line between out-and-out narcism and a more nuanced presentation and branding of self.”
“Walking the line between personal branding and making a mark, and out-and-out narcism, will be increasingly important.”
“I don’t want to confuse narcissism with this reputational building. It’s not narcissistic to want to build a trusted personal brand – it’s vital.”
It’s encouraging – but doesn’t give you much of a safety net. Being a pioneer – can mean you fall flat on your face and your personal branding just makes you appear a pushy, self-promoting, narcissist!
Also, while the website building process has been going on – I seem to have been bombarded by headlines such as:-
In the end, I bit the bullet and did all the things that I needed to do. Some were easier than others.
I had some great help from the team at local Bath agency, Storm. Dave Kelly (the “award-winning” young boss) took the brief, Andrew pulled together a simple – but striking – design and Liam wired it all up so that it worked. It’s been quite a big build as I decided that the “Projects & Tales” area were going to be the best way to build confidence with visitors. The site is aimed at business founders who might want help – and like minded individuals who want to make contact. Lynda’s book was again useful on this:
“Attractors pull others towards them because they are seen as open, so others feel less anxious about approaching them, and they are seen as good at reciprocating, so their friends are keen to introduce their friends to them. But perhaps the most important pull of attraction is that they are seen as interesting and exciting, and create clear pathways along which others feel they can approach them.”
It would have been cheaper to just have a DIY site from About.me or Flavors.me – but I felt the “storytelling” was important. Would be interested to hear your thoughts if you get chance to compare the three sites.
Having my picture taken was pretty cringey. Despite being a professional photographer for nearly 15 years – I’d never been the “victim” of a studio photographer before. Neill Menneer from Bath studio Spirit Contemporary Photography, put me at ease. I’m pleased with the results. It was originally suggested that I could just have a “snap” done – but the professional photography makes such a difference. I think if I was running on a tighter budget I would have had the pro photo session done – and just gone with About.me or Flavors.me. I would then have worked harder on a basic WordPress.com blog to back up those sites.
Writing the project and tales was a cathartic and enjoyable experience. It was definitely self-indulgent, but an important opportunity to reflect on what I have done that I’ve enjoyed and have managed to make a difference with. Getting the tone right was important – and here I drafted in the services of my “big sister”, Sandra. She’s an experienced newspaper sub-editor. As well as knocking the writing, spelling and grammar in to shape, Sandra was able to give me an honest answer to my questions like “does this make me sound too much of a twat!” I hope she’s been honest!!!
Finally, I knew that there was one page that needed to be a bit more “sales”/pushy. That was the About Me page. I decided to outsource the writing of this. Lea Woodward offers a great service to do this. I sent her the draft of my site – and a brief on who I was trying to reach. I think she’s got the tone right – and along the way she reinforced that I should use “you” in my writing much more than “I”. Training the narcissist out of me!
Well, the site is now up and running. I’ve still not shown my wife or given her the link. I still find the idea of talking about myself and showing personal pictures in such a public way skin crawling!
I did read an article last week that did give me faith that if I come across as a narcissist, it’s not that bad.
“Steve Jobs is a text-book example of a brilliant productive narcissist, a change-the-world personality who evolved into a great leader by developing his strategic intelligence: foresight, partnering, visioning and motivating.”
There is some great music – but one particular section (around 50 minutes in) got me turning up the volume. Tony Bennett talked about how he met Bob Hope when he was in the United States Army as a soldier in WWII (Tony Bennett was born in 1926!). He said that Bob had given him one of the best tips on being an entertainer – “If you love the audience, they’re going to love you. If you don’t care about the audience, they’re not going to care for you.” It’s a passion that Tony Bennett still has at 85 years old – and it’s a lesson to anyone in business who serves customers.
Tony also had his own thoughts. “I always admired my audience, most performers think they are superior to their audience, but they’re not.” Substitute audience for customers – and it gets you thinking??
Tony is passionate about making making people happy. He said: “The general public are powerful…. I’m an optimist…. I’ll go for what the public wants. I think the greatest lesson we can learn is to listen to what the public wants.”
Many people talk about following your passion. I agree. But don’t forget to “love your audience” too.
I hope you manage to read this post and listen to the BBC iPlayer before it’s not available. The quotes surround an intro to one of Tony Bennett’s favourite artists and songs. If you’ve missed the radio show, just finish this post by listening to Louis Armstrong and “Wonderful World”. Tony said that audiences identify with this song!
This is the first blog post at my new home of philobrien.com. Hello to former readers of the Personal Network blog – and welcome to new readers. I hope to cover a wider range of topics here. I am especially keen to comment on what is happening in the worlds of old, new and social media. Other issues on the agenda will be “future work”, “visual communication” – and, of course, personal networks.
I was brought up a Catholic in Liverpool. Weekly trips to church – and lots of talk about Souls and The Devil (then lapsed at 18 and never went back!). In recent times, I have read and watched to try to understand how the world got in to such a financial crisis. Part of my “education” on the subject of the financial crisis has been watching the excellent film “Inside Job”. It is a compelling (and deeply worrying) story of how deregulation and “toxic instruments” like Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) were used to bundle up sub-prime mortgages. I recommend you watch the film.
Anyway, back to Facebook. Where do they fit in with these trains of thought? Well, I think we are happily trading chunks of our social capital for the free services that Facebook (and others) offer. It’s a bit like being invited in to the Casinos at Las Vegas – those free drinks are tempting us to make poor judgements. You might look at Facebook (here you should include in your thinking Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al) and consider their financial model. They are not making money (or significant money) – but are worth billions. Why is that?
Well, my feeling is that they are taking chunks of our social capital, bundling that together in batches of 10 million users – and then setting a share price for these bundles. Their balance sheet is our aggregated social capital.
More individuals “loaning to FB” their social capital = more value
More individuals “swapping” their social capital within FB = even more value.
I could write a long article about this – but why not write your own and play this search and replace game?
Social Capital = Soul
Facebook = The Devil
FB Stock = Toxic Social Capital
In the last year, I have watched the revolutions that have taken place around the world. Many have been attributed to the social media generation using Twitter and Facebook. It’s been positive to see so many people standing firm against corrupt governments and taking back their countries. It has needed bravery and determination.
Many commentators now talk about Facebook in comparison to countries. Facebook’s own stats today tell me they have 800 million active users world-wide. In July nearly 50% of the US population where on Facebook – I suspect that is over 50% by now. So, if Facebook is the size of a country (in fact bigger than most) – what sort of revolution might take place? It would be an easy revolution – little bravery, no bloodshed. I’m intrigued to see if Facebook implodes. Will historians look back and ask “what where they thinking?”
Last week, I went to a play at the Theatre Royal in Bath called “Earthquakes in London”. It was a play about the impending doom caused by our generation not looking after the planet. It talked about a planet that would always survive – but could only cope with one billion humans, not the seven billion we are heading towards. There was a line where the actors talked about desperate Africans deciding they could take no more and walking to Europe en masse. Apocalyptic stuff! The same day, I had listened to reports that it is 75 years ago since the Jarrow March. Back in 1936 this was a march by 200 desperately poor, unemployed people from the north east of England to London. They covered 300 miles – and held a banner calling it the Jarrow Crusade.
We live in interesting (and unstable) times. We can learn from recent history that if things seem too good – they probably are. The financial crisis has shown us this – and we might think of applying this learning to how we consider our relationship with Facebook. On the bigger picture – don’t underestimate the power of large groups of people with a cause. The Jarrow Crusaders showed it 75 years ago – and the revolutions around the world this year have echoed the same. Where next? Is revolution coming on-line?
One of our family’s treats each year is to attend concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival. We have been doing this for the last 4 festivals – seeing acts ranging from Adele to Status Quo to Mumford & Sons to Mark Ronson to Alicia Keys. Our children started doing this when they were 9 & 10 – and we always buy tickets to stand to get to the front and enjoy the music.
This year, our treat was to watch Sting at the Stravinski Auditorium. Standing tickets were behind about 12 rows of seats – and getting there early to queue was important. We took some friends and their children – and commenced our queuing at 5:30 – with doors opening at 7pm. We got 4th place in the queue! When the barriers came down, we rushed up the stairs to find the auditorium doors closed – and 35 minutes later we were finally let in to bag our place. We found a nice space up against the barrier and next to a TV camera stand with a clear view for the youngsters in the party (ranging from 12-16 years).
What intrigued me is the dynamic of trying to keep your “personal space” in these situations. It’s fun standing up and being able to move around (I can’t call it dancing!!). However, there is a tension about keeping your space and not letting people push in or get too close. We spotted a couple of young girls about 4 layers back (they were 8 & 9 years old attending their first concert). Their view was totally blocked by our party – so we negotiated with those around us to budge up and their mum and dad were able to send them to the front to enjoy! That was the nice bit… The girls headed off to bed at the interval – and then the spaces changed … and suddenly there was an issue! My friend, Sally, got “monstered” from behind by a couple. Firstly, the man got too close to Sally – then the lady insisted on pushing her handbag into her back (and that of a Swiss lady next to her). Eventually, a highly vocal row broke out (as Sting was performing one of his quiet numbers). It was all very tense and uncomfortable. As a solution, I swapped places with Sally … and the lady got bored with poking me in the back with her handbag after another couple of numbers.
We are so used to having our space – and the nicer the life we lead, the less we like the crush of the Tube trains and the chaos of the Easyjet airline queues. Recently, Sir Terence Conran, one of Britain’s best loved designers, said: “…space is undoubtedly going to be the greatest luxury of the 21st century.” He’s definitely right…
I’m just reading a book called “Tales from Facebook” by Daniel Miller. It was recommended to my by my Twitter friend @SadGrimm – and is proving to be a cracking read with a “short story” style helping to present the research. The Facebook focussed research is very relevant to the real-life scenario above. Here is a brief excerpt:-
“You simply can’t have both closeness and privacy. You cant have support without claustrophobia. You can’t have this degree of friendship without the risk of explosive quarreling. Either everything is more socially intense or none of it is.”
As we build our Personal Networks in real life – or online with social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and “new kid on the block” Google+ – we will continue to juggle (and make compromises on) closeness and privacy.
Regular readers (and those who have just randomly come across my LinkedIn or Twitter profile) will know I like WOW projects. The term comes from Tom Peter’s article in Fast Company magazine back in 1999 that explained that in the new economy, all work is project work. And you are your projects!
He said: “Your goal should be to work in perpetuity with Wow people, on Wow Projects, for Wowable clients.” It’s still true today – and will be in the future.
From the start of my working life, I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in some Wow projects with some Wow people. I’ve been reminded of this a couple of times in the last 24 hours.
Firstly, I picked up the paper this morning to find a story about the Toxteth riots being 30 years ago this week. That was the week I started my first job – a Trainee Press Photographer at Mercury Press Agency in Liverpool.
I’d not bargained for my first week in employment to involve the coverage of some of the worst rioting on mainland Britain.
I can always remember the phone ringing late at night after the family had gone to bed. I was told that another photographer would pick me up (I didn’t have a car) and would take me to Toxteth where there were some sort of disturbances.
The first pictures that I took were of riot police dragging away an injured colleague as buildings burned around them. It was scary – but exciting for an 18 year old who had dreamt of being a press photographer. It was what I’d wanted to do through my adolescence.
My mum and dad were concerned – especially when I didn’t arrive home for another 20 hours (that meant I had worked through the night and had no sleep for 30+ hours). I’d photographed the aftermath of people trying to put their lives back together after the riots.
I was back out in Toxteth the next night – and for many more nights over the next month. I witnessed CS Gas being used to quell a riot on the streets of mainland Britain for the first time; photographed a policeman stabbed in a related demonstration; and recorded a protester run over by a police van and then dragged in to the back of the vehicle with his back broken.
I also photographed “Minister for Merseyside” Michael Heseltine being pelted with food by children. It was a baptism of fire for a young photographer – but remains a Wow experience in my life.
This week, I’ve watched quite a few hours of Wimbledon coverage on BBC HD. The quality of images is superb – nearly as good as having a courtside seat. Looking at the background of the TV images, about 60% of the photographers sitting at Wimbledon Centre Court this week were my colleagues up to 1994, when I hung up my cameras. So they’ve continued to have Wow time for 17 years since I left this work behind. I got immense enjoyment from having the best seats in the house at Olympic Games and World Cup Finals with these photographers. It was a Wow!
From Toxteth Riots through to world class sports coverage – I had a Wow experience. Since those times, in the last 17 years, I’ve been fortunate to work on some Wow projects. Including growing and selling a business, winning a National award for technology – and most recently managing to find “funemployment” projects helping a Duchess and creating a children’s cricket charity.
I’m currently on the look-out for the next Wow projects. First step, as you might expect from the title of my blog, is developing my Personal Network for the new challenge. Do contact me if you have anything Wow that I might be able to help with!
I’m not wanting my blog to become a review of the BBC’s output – but they are creating some terrific programming around networks. The latest find is a BCC Radio 4 report called “The Secret History of Social Networking”. In the aftermath of the success of the movie, “Social Network”, BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones has [...]
As you will know if you have read this blog before, I like the work of Keith Ferrazzi. His books “Never Eat Alone” and “Who’s Got Your Back” are great reads if you want to get an understanding of the dynamics behind building a Personal Network. The style is a little “American” for a shy, [...]
There was an article in the Huffington Post today by Fast Company Editor Robert Safian. It’s a brilliant post on many levels. It captures much of my feeling about the future of work, it quotes heavily DJ Patil (who I have written about on other occasions) – and in “Generation Flux” (twitter hashtag #genflux) it [...]
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Last week, I went to a play at the 
