Even in the Darkest Moments

Whilst doing something completely unrelated I came across a true story that moved me. It also reminds me that no matter what happens in life, it’s how you think and what you do about it that’s important.

I was researching some background to a change management project I am delivering for a local NHS Hospital Trust.  I wanted to accurately quote something I believed was attributed to Victor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor.  During my reading I came across his account of one experience he had whilst in Auschwitz.  I pass it on to you, with love.

... We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road leading from the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor's arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: "If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don't know what is happening to us."

That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfilment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory...."

P.s. the quote I was looking for was “When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Are You Riding a Dead Horse?

Clearly these are not dead horses, but  do
you know a dead horse when you see one?

I was facilitating a change management workshop recently and one of the participants brought in this story. It made us all laugh, but later I began thinking about a few things I was doing and whether it was time to stop. I gave it to a friend for some light hearted relief, but their response was clearly a deeper and more reflective consideration.  So maybe this story is just for fun, or is there more to it than that?  You decide.

Riding a Dead Horse?


Dakota Indian tribal wisdom passed on from one generation to the next says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. 

In modern education, advice and guidance settings, a number of other dead horse strategies have been used, including: 

1. Deny the horse is dead.
2. Buy a stronger whip and beat the dead horse.
3. Change riders.
4. Appoint a committee to study the dead horse. 
5. Visit competitors to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Upgrade dead horse working conditions. 
7. Attend a Dead Horse Motivational Seminar. 
8. Discard the saddle; ride the dead horse bareback. 
9. Point the dead horse in the opposite direction and note how well he maintains his position. 
10. Reclassify the dead horse as living-impaired.
11. Compare current riding to riding before horse acquisition.
12. Factor in dead horse savings re food, water, and maintenance.
13. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
14. Send the dead horse to a continuing development course.
15. Compare your dead horse's performance to other companies' dead horses.
16. Do a time management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity.
17. Purchase an after-market product to make dead horses run faster.
18. Declare that a dead horse has lower overheads and therefore runs faster.
19. Issue a corporate mission statement to develop more "passion" for the art of horse riding.
20. Form a quality focus group to find profitable uses for dead horses.
21. Gather other dead animals and announce a diversity program.
22. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

My question to you today - "is it time for you to do something different?"  Are you riding a dead horse, but have not yet realised it?

Hold the Front Page - Again

According to the Institute of Leadership and Management, managing change effectively is going to be one of the coming year’s hot topics. 

We are already in unchartered waters with a new political landscape. The economic and environmental pressures to do more with less and to discover new ways of living and working have increased uncertainty in an already uncertain world.

So, what’s to do?  Billy Ocean would say “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”, but that was back in 1985.  25 years on, simply toughing it out may well not be enough.  What is certain is that doing more of the same will not produce different results (Albert Einstein agrees with me).

Around 10 years ago Wolfgang Grulke wrote a book called 10 Lessons from the Future.  I read it again the other week and was struck by how many of his foretellings have come about.  What did he know that most of us missed?  Clearly the clues are out there, we just need to know what to look for.

I recently listened to a presentation by Tom Peters on Leadership in the 21st Century.  Apart from it being entertaining, it was also very interesting.  One thing he said was that great leaders are “dealers in hope”  - they help you “believe that the sun will come up tomorrow.”  To me, that means engaging staff with your vision for the future and empowering them to “do more than they dreamed possible”, to paraphrase the actor Robert Altman.

Change is definitely a constant and it is here to stay, but it is not going to occur in a straight line from the past, through the present and into the future.  To quote Doctor Who, “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly.... timey-wimey.... stuff”.  Definitely complicated.

How to manage a big ball of wibbly wobbly stuff then?  Here are a couple of ideas:-

Choose a future you want and create a compelling vision that your staff can buy in to.  Scan the horizon together as far as you can see and use your peripheral vision – that’s what fighter pilots do. Identify the distant specs that will inevitably become opportunities or obstacles in the future.

Adapt and respond quickly to anticipated changes.  Look at your products and services. Review your channels and markets.  Ask your customers how their needs are changing.  Teach your staff to be agile too.  It can be difficult sometimes, but it’s vitally important.

Have you noticed that children are often better with new technology than their parents?  Children are more able to take risks without the fear of failure.  We learn to fear failure and avoid risk as we grow older.  Some of that is a good thing – it stops you burning your fingers or getting run over - but some is not so useful.  Learn how to recognise unhelpful discomfort or fear and move beyond it.

I ride a motorbike (a Honda Blackbird since you ask) and that can definitely be risky.  But I love it.  It's not the most practical or safe mode of transport but it's not about getting from A to B.  It's about the in-between.