From bright future to glittering present: Robin Ticciati

About Dorothy

Sometimes, I have reasons to remember a concert long after it has passed so that a light touch in the present evokes my memories of years gone by.

One concert that remains vivid in my memory is a performance of Mahler’s 8th Symphony in which I sang as a member of the London Symphony Chorus in 2001 – or thereabouts. We sang in the Birmingham Symphony Hall under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle and alongside the National Youth Orchestra.

It was a special occasion for me because my nephew, Edward Nesbit, was a young composer that year with the National Youth Orchestra, a sign that his early interest in composing held some promise and (I confess) a matter of auntly pride. It was also a pleasure, as always, to have the opportunity to catch up with Paul Keene, who is Director of Programming and Projects at Symphony Hall. I sang under Paul’s baton as a member of the Peterhouse Chapel Choir during my days at Cambridge.

There is another memory that is vivid in my mind from that day. I suspect that other members of the chorus will remember it, too. In the midst of our tutti rehearsal, Sir Simon Rattle asked a member of the orchestra to take his place at the podium so that he could step back and listen to the orchestra. As Rattle walked back into the depths of the hall the young timpanist, Robin Ticciati, took up the baton and conducted. Even as I write I feel the goosebumps that I felt then at the realisation that this was a young man whose bright future was already visible – something to be nurtured and celebrated.

Times move on. My nephew, Edward, has continued the courageous and uncertain path of a composer and is currently studying at Kings College, London. You can read about him and hear some of his music at www.edwardnesbit.com. And on Thursday 25th March, Robin Ticciati will be making his LSO debut at the Barbican, conducting Sibelius, Lindberg and Grieg.

I’ll be there.

To niche or not to niche?

Coaching,

Frankly, my journey as a coach has been one of deep personal exploration for me, as well as for my clients, so that my first eight years as Director of Learning for Life (Consulting) has been as much about my own journey as it has been about the lives and work of my clients. It has been a time of examining my values and making adjustments to increasingly live and work in line with my values. It has been a time of examining old beliefs, letting go of some in favour of new beliefs which support me as someone who is authentic, resourceful and whole. Many times it has brought me to new thresholds which are waiting to be crossed if I am to be true to myself and to make my contribution in the world.

This year, a few well-targeted questions from the wonderful coach Hilary Cochrane made me put aside plans I had made and to reconfigure the year ahead, signing up with Kathy Mallary in the US to examine my marketing at the same time as signing up with Carolyn Free Pearce as my coaching supervisor and continuing my work with my coach of five years, Lynne Fairchild. What a great team!

Even with this superb team, the work that awaits me is well and truly my own and I have quickly started to bump up against and explore some of my own limitations as I examine the mother of all marketing questions: what is my niche? It’s one thing, for example, to say working with senior leaders and I say it with ease. At the same time, which leaders? And what is it about those leaders that marks me out as a coach (and which, come to speak of it, attracts people who are not leaders to seek me out)?

In recent days I have reached out to others to invite them to share their own experiences of identifying their own niche, sharing my question (‘to niche, or not to niche?’) with a number of groups to which I belong. I have been grateful for the depth and variety of answers which help me to test my own thinking.

At the same time, questions from each member of my team are bringing me right back home. What if, asked Kathy last week, your true genius is in the area of wholeness and integration? I recognise this immediately, recognising how much I have sought in my own life to reconcile the irreconcilable and how often I work with clients to go beyond inner conflict to help them understand and respond to underlying needs. Today, Carolyn has thrown in the question of authenticity and integrity and this, too, resonates with me, recognising as I do my own path to authentic self-expression as well as my conviction that my clients will give their best performance as well as achieve their deepest satisfaction when they are able to be themselves. As a coach I enjoy working in deep partnership with my clients and over long periods in ways which many coaches are not.

Somehow, none of this is new and all of this is new. As I wonder what it means to have these themes of wholeness, integration and authenticity as a point of departure for my niche (rather than leadership and emotional intelligence) I recognise both that I am coming home and that I am treading a new and uncertain path. It is a path which requires faith – the trust and conviction that if I share my strengths my true clients will find me.

To write this posting is to step over the threshold and go public, even whilst recognising that I am only just beginning to answer the question: what is my niche? In my own way and in my own professional sphere, this is my ‘coming out’.

The life and death implications of unilateral control

Developing as a leader,

Today, I opened my intray to the monthly newsletter of Roger Schwarz and the heading: How Unilateral Control Can Kill You. Whatever your setting, this brief article highlights the life and death implications of unilateral control and I am glad to take Roger up on his permission to reproduce his article:

This is not a headline from the sensationalist tabloid National Enquirer. It is the conclusion of Dr. Peter Pronovost, an MD and a Ph.D. in hospital safety, who is medical director of the Quality and Safety Research Group at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Pronovost’s group is responsible for increasing safety and reducing iatrogenic illness and death – those caused inadvertently by physicians, surgeons or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.

Each year, a lot of people become ill or die in hospitals not despite health care, but because of it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in American hospitals alone, healthcare-associated infections account for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths each year.

So, what does this have to do with unilateral control? It turns out that some of these infections and deaths can easily be prevented, but unilateral control takes over. Pronovost says, “As at many hospitals, we had dysfunctional teamwork because of an exceedingly hierarchal culture. When confrontations occurred, the problem was rarely framed in terms of what was best for the patient. It was: ‘I’m right. I’m more senior than you. Don’t tell me what to do.’” This is the classic “I understand, you don’t; I’m right, you’re wrong” unilateral control mindset. The impact in healthcare is the same as it is anywhere: many, many people stop sharing relevant information when they are treated this way. The difference? If a nurse clams up you may die.

Take the case of doctors washing their hands. According to Pronovost, even with improving safety records, 30% of the time, doctors in hospitals were not washing their hands prior to surgery. So, at Johns Hopkins hospital, they made a number of changes, including empowering nurses to make sure the doctors washed their hands. If the doctors did not, the nurses were empowered to prevent a procedure from beginning. Initially the nurses said it wasn’t their job to monitor doctors; the doctors said that they would not allow nurses to prevent a procedure from moving forward. Yet, over four years, the hospital got their ICU infection rates down to nearly zero. What Pronovost doesn’t say is whether these medical teams changed their mindsets about hierarchy and unilateral control or used checklists and other simple structures that treated the symptoms but bypassed the fundamental causes of unilateral control.

As Pronovost points out, unilateral control also exists between doctors. Once, during a surgery, he was administering anesthesia and saw that the patient was developing the classic signs of a life threatening allergic reaction. He told the surgeon, “I think this is a latex allergy, please go change your gloves.” “It’s not!” the surgeon insisted, refusing. Pronovost responded, “Help me understand how you’re seeing this. If I’m wrong, all I am is wrong. But if you’re wrong, you’ll kill the patient.” When communication between the surgeon and him broke down, he asked the scrub nurse to phone the dean of the medical school, believing that the dean would support him. As the nurse was about to call, the surgeon cursed Pronovost and finally pulled off the latex gloves.

For most of us in organizations, the costs of unilateral control can be difficult to pinpoint. We lose time, our commitment, innovative ideas, the organization’s money, our faith in leaders, and some of our mental health. Pronovost’s work reminds us that when the stakes are high, unilateral control can cost people their lives.Click here to read the New York Times interview with Dr. Peter Prosnovost, on which my article is based.

This article is written and edited by Roger Schwarz, copyright Roger Schwarz & Associates, 2010 and all rights are reserved. You can learn more about Roger and his work and also sign up to his monthly newsletter at http://www.schwarzassociates.com/ .

The globalisation of empathy

Emotional Intelligence,

In recent decades scientists have been studying the role that empathy plays, work that is increasingly known and understood thanks to a range of authors including ’emotional intelligence (EI) guru’ Daniel Goleman. In my own work I have engaged deeply with emotional intelligence, conducting large-scale research projects in corporations to understand what differentiates their most outstanding leaders (without fail, aspects of their EI abilities), assessing leaders for senior roles, and working in deep coaching partnership with leaders and other individuals who want to develop their emotional intelligence in order fully to step into their capabilities and make a difference in the world.

But what difference? On Monday I heard a new and challenging take on the role of empathy when I listened to Jeremy Rifkin speak at the RSA about his new book The Empathic Civilization.

As I begin to write, let it be said that Rifkin is an exciting and fascinating speaker. At the beginning of his hour-long lecture he took out his glasses and his (is it me, or were they a little scruffy-looking?) notes and began to take his audience on an exciting, stimulating and deeply thought-provoking journey. I was struck by his combination of sharp mind, warmth and empathy. Not once did I see him look at his notes.

What did I take from his talk? His central thesis, supported by all sorts of facts, figures and academic research, is that we have entered the Age of Empathy just as we are heading towards global disaster as a result of our disproportionate and unsustainable use of the planet’s natural resources. The question is, shall we reach a point of developing the depth of empathy for populations around the world that it will take to avert disaster? And shall we reach this point in time? These are compelling questions to which we do not yet have answers.

I was also interested in some of the ground Rifkin covered along the way, including his response to questions at the end of his talk. He cited the internet as a model for the kind of world we need to create if we are going to avert this crisis, because of its open and collaborative qualities. What if, for example, instead of building centralised energy sources, we were to harness local energy sources (sun, wind, rain etc.) and share any energy we don’t need ourselves via some kind of distributive network? This is particularly important since building has the highest carbon footprint (followed by beef production, and only then traffic).

Now, in writing this brief posting I have a fear of totally butchering Rifkin’s thinking. So as well as directing you to Amazon (via the link above) in case you want to read a copy of his book, I also invite you to have a root around the RSA’s website where a recording of his presentation as well as brief video extracts will be posted some time very soon.

Paying it forward

About Dorothy, ,

It’s not often I have cause to mention my local supermarket on my blog, even though I am cared for like a princess by staff who see me pop in on a regular basis. Today, though, I am celebrating the law of unintended consequences and an opportunity to ‘pay it forward’.

Now, in case you haven’t come across the ‘pay it forward’ idea, I commend you to watch the film of the same name with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. In this film a young boy comes up with the idea as his response to his teacher’s invitation to students to create something that will make the world a better place. The idea? Do someone a favour and ask them not to pay it back but to pay it forward.

Now, when I first saw this film, the young man who served me at my local video rental shop (those were the days!) gave me a very strange look and – if I remember rightly – described the film as decidedly “cheesy”. Needless to say I didn’t tell him that I was planning to watch it as one of our optional “homeworks” with fellow students on my NLP Practitioner programme.

But what of my local supermarket? Well, if you shop at Sainsbury’s and you are a Nectar Card holder you may have noticed the recent introduction of a natty little box that dispenses small slips of paper with special offers when you pay for your shopping. More than once, my special offer has been an inducement to spend £40.00 or more – something I rarely do given that I live so close and hardly ever do a “big shop”.

Yesterday I had one of these slips in my purse when I popped in to Sainsbury’s. I knew it was reaching its sell-by date and I had only a small number of things to buy so I was delighted to offer it to the woman in front of me at the check-out. This meant that she got £4.00 off her shopping – about 10% – and I had the satisfaction of knowing that this little slip of paper didn’t end up unused in my bin.

Now, it’s a strange thing, but I sense that the impact of this small gesture on both of us – who knows, maybe even on those who observed it – was disproportionate to its monetary value. The woman offered to pay me the £4.00 she’d saved and I was delighted to say no – all the more so because I could see she was doing the family shop. She was clearly touched by the kindness of a stranger. I was touched in turn knowing I had made this gesture and been seen. And when two strangers show kindness to each other, the world always becomes a safer more comfortable place.

What of Sainsbury’s? I am guessing that this interaction isn’t what they planned when they set up their boxes full of inducements to buy. And still, I’d like to think that if their marketeers were sitting round imagining the impact on local communities of many ‘brief encounters’ like this one, they might chose to say, “yes! let’s do this and celebrate our role in making the world a better place!”

Sometimes, it’s all in the framing

About Dorothy

Show me a man who says he doesn’t like classical music and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t yet know what he likes. Why else would ‘Carmina Burana’ be so widely used by advertisers and television producers? Why else were the ‘three tenors’ so popular when they came together in 1994 to sing in concert?

We all like classical music. As a member of the London Symphony Chorus I can tell you that you wouldn’t always know it when you’re in the concert hall at the Barbican: so many audiences are white, middle aged and middle class (yes, I guess that’s me!) It’s hardly a representative cross-section of our deliciously diverse population.

So I loved the video that reached me this week (thanks, Arabella!) of a live opera performance in a market in Spain, the Opera en el Mercado. I confess that to watch it touched me – brought tears to my eyes.

And I smiled to read the banner which was raised at the end of this brief performance: Ves como te gusta la opera? See how you like opera?

Sometimes, it’s all in the framing.

Motivation: the case for knowing the science

Developing as a leader,

A while back I wrote about Alfie Kohn’s book Punished By Rewards, which makes the case – based on a thorough review of the science – that using a “carrot and stick” rewards-based approach is ineffective in a wide range of settings.

Recently, author Dan Pink has picked up this baton and published the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Pink also made a 20-minute presentation on this topic to a US audience which is available via www.TED.com. (TED is a great resource, sharing ‘ideas worth talking about’ in a simple and accessible format). If you don’t have time to read the book it’s well worth taking time to hear Pink’s clear and succinct case for intrinsic motivation. At the heart of Pink’s message is the observation that what science knows is not what business is doing.

In case you’d like to explore further, here’s a link to an on-line interview with Pink about his book which also offers a link to Pink’s presentation: Blog – Just Ask Leadership, Executive Coaching – CO2Partners: Dan Pink – Interview on Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Managing your mailing lists

Coaching

Have you noticed how many more organisations are harvesting e-mails from websites and using them to send unsolicited mail? Most days at the moment I spend time unsubscribing from a newsletter that I didn’t elect to join.

MAPS have some clear guidelines for managing e-mail list which are worth reviewing if you are sending out a newsletter or any other kind of e-mail circulation. You’ll find these guidelines at http://www.mail-abuse.com/an_listmgntgdlines.html. MAPS is a major anti-spam blacklist service.

What is a ‘coaching culture’?

Coaching, ,

Sometimes my colleagues ask the most stimulating questions via discussion groups and this one (on the Coaching at Work group on LinkedIn) intrigued me: what is a ‘coaching culture’?

Amongst the many environments I have worked and played in, I think first and foremost of my experience as a member of a number of resource teams with ITS (http://www.itsnlp.com/). In this context, I was a volunteer working with other volunteers to support our trainers in delivering various trainings in neurolinguistic programming (or NLP). As volunteers we were all interested in furthering our learning as well as supporting the learning of others. You could call this a ‘coaching culture’.

What was the culture in this environment? This was an environment in which team members embraced each other fully, understanding that we are all learners. Anyone seeking support for their learning would be welcomed by other members of the team. Whenever there was friction or misunderstandings feedback was given openly and directly, and both parties understood that they might have something to learn from this exchange of feedback. And when team members had a ‘gripe’ with another member of the team it was typically well understood that this was a signal to the ‘griper’ that he or she might have something to learn. Team members tended to view each other – and programme participants – as resourceful, whole and able to learn (even if they hadn’t learnt yet!). There were high levels of trust and flexibility.

What about work in this environment? Whilst there was considerable flexibility and a willingness to cut each other some slack, we still worked to high standards across a whole range of tasks, from sorting the stationery cupboard to supporting participants. Over the life of a team (twenty days over five four-day modules) we got to know each others’ strengths and to work to them as well as to our own. Work was a joyful experience.

How might this translate into the workplace? Correspondents on the Coaching At Work group highlight that organisations aspiring to a ‘coaching culture’ at work might have many definitions of this phrase and as I write I wonder how many definitions would fall well short of the ‘ITS experience’. How many organisations would welcome the level of intimacy involved in working together in this way?

I also wonder which is chicken and which is egg. For, on the surface, it seems to me that the culture of the resource teams was only possible because team members were chosen with great care. At the same time, I think of Douglas McGregor’s famous ‘XY Theory’ which proposed that managers tend to adopt one of two fundamentally different approaches to managing their people. Is it possible that, over time, an organisation in which leaders believe in the importance of learning (who engage in their own learning and support the learning of others) will, over time, attract precisely those employees who wish to work in a ‘coaching culture’?

Oskar Schindler: an unlikely hero

All articles,
He who saves a single life, saves the world entire

From the Talmud

In 1993, when Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was released, I was well aware of its phenomenal success and still, it largely passed me by. It was only recently, fresh from my visit to Cracow, that I picked up a copy of Thomas Keneally’s book Schindler’s Ark at my local discount bookshop. This is the book on which Spielberg’s film is based.

The story of Schindler’s war-time activities is an astonishing one, minutely researched and conveyed by Keneally. For in a period in which between 11 and 17 million people were killed, including 6 million Jews, Oskar Schindler became increasingly determined to save as many Jews as he could from the death camps. As the war proceeded he took increasingly significant risks to this end. No wonder then that, with the end of the war in sight, members of the camp gave up remnants of jewellery and even gold teeth in order to make a gold ring for Oskar, bearing the inscription from the Talmud: He who saves a single life, saves the world entire.

Schindler challenges us in many ways. Keneally’s account of Schindler’s life tests simple views, for example, of what is good and what is evil. For whilst his growing passion to save the Jews in his workplace marks him out as a hero, he also carroused on a regular basis with all sorts of members of the Nazi party. And whilst some of this activity can be firmly put down to the kind of political awareness that made his commercial and other enterprises possible, other activities are not so easily explained away. Throughout his marriage, for example, he made no secret – not even to his wife – of his extra-marital affairs.

Schindler also challenges modern concepts of leadership and especially the idea that once you have acquired the skills of leadership you will always remain a leader. In the early part of the war, for example, Schindler enjoyed a large measure of commercial success. Towards the end of the war he gave this up in favour of guarding the Jews in his care (his factory in Brinnlitz did not produce a single shell and was funded entirely by the profits from the early years of the war). Following the war Schindler’s business enterprises were largely unsuccessful and his home, when he died in 1974, was a small apartment near the railway station in Frankfurt.

In a similar way, Schindler’s heroic acts of leadership on behalf of the ‘Schindler Jews’ during the war brought them to the point of freedom but no further. Keneally gives an account of the speech Schindler made both to the Jewish inmates of his factory camp and to the SS men who were responsible for guarding the camp following the announcement of the end of the war. This was a speech that was finely judged and not without risk – the kind of speech that defines leadership. By his words Schindler secured the peaceful departure of the SS guards and invited the suriving Jewish men and women to act in a humane and just way.

As an account of the extraordinary acts of the most unlikely of heroes, Schindler’s Ark is a ‘must read’ book. At the same time it raises challenging questions about what it means to be a leader, a hero, a ‘good man’.