In the month, I managed a few days away in Hertfordshire, and my facilitation work started to ramp up – here is my round-up for October.
One clever cat
Last week, I was intrigued to find this cat collar in our garden, but there was no trace of its owner.
We have never owned a cat – but over the years, we have been visited by several. Jasper was a favourite, constantly trying to get into the house. Once, he made himself comfortable on a bed at the top of the house. On another occasion, I caught him trying to snag a chicken leg at a birthday party. Jasper was always happy to join in. ????
Boots is another regular, though he has never had a collar, so I know it’s not his. And all he generally leaves behind are flattened grass patches at his favourite garden spots.
There is one possible candidate, and I will check with his owner to see what light they can shed on the matter.
PS I have since seen the cat in question, and he is fine without his collar – but I still can’t see how he managed it. Ah, well, life is full of mystery ????.
PPS, I have seen him again, now sporting a rather striking blue collar. Let’s see how long it takes him to remove this one.
In the week that Liz Truss, the UK prime minister, resigned, I posted this on Linkedin:
Confidence over competence?
I am just going to leave this quote here because, for some reason, it seems particularly apt for the times we are in:
Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say – Andy Stanley
And I still can’t quite believe what I am seeing.
Bring up the bodies.
I cannot remember how many times I have read this book by the late Hilary Mantel. But for the first time, I can see the seeds of Thomas Cromwell’s downfall in his dangerous alliance with the aristocracy to rid the King and England of Anne Boleyn.
I have always wondered – did Cromwell see this coming? At what point did he see the writing on the wall? Did he ever put plans in place just in case – especially with an employer like Henry VIII?
Two words come to mind when I think about Cromwell’s downfall – expedient and expendable. It was expedient to have Cromwell as the poster boy for the ‘kill Anne Boleyn campaign.’ But look how expendable he was after Henry’s divorce from Anne of Cleves just four short years later in 1540.
And I have to ask myself how many organisations see their employees as expedient and expendable. (Without the removal of heads) I am thinking of the 800 people sacked unceremoniously in the UK by P&O Ferries in March of this year.
How could this happen, and where is the accountability?
All food for thought.
Meetings – less is probably a whole lot more.
This week has been relatively free of meetings, so I can get my head down and focus on my writing and onboarding for a new client. Working for myself, I am fortunate to have sole charge of my diary and can generally structure my week as I choose.
Talking with friends and family who are not self-employed, I appreciate what a blessing this is. Because I have to ask myself – how is it possible to be constantly in back-to-back meetings?
So, I am intrigued to know, how many meetings do you attend in a day? In a week? How and when do you find or create the space to get things done? Where are your gaps?
And if you want to see some statistics about meetings, look here, though it is perhaps not the most cheerful reading.
Until next month
