Talking Story

Starting new conversations in the workplace!

Reinvented Work: So many possibilities.

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A few blocks from the White House, Chris Bailey and I sat at a Caribou Coffee for three hours this past Monday afternoon talking about soulful, joyful work.

At one point, Chris whips a book out of his backpack to show me, called Joy at Work, A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job by Dennis W. Bakke, formerly the CEO of The AES Corporation (Applied Energy Services). Chris was sure I’d love reading it, saying that Bakke and I seemed to be very much in sync in the way we looked at how work, and our workplaces, can be reinvented into much more joyful and purposeful places.

Much later that evening, finding I had some extra time on my hands, I took a walk to a Borders bookstore we’d walked by earlier, and bought a copy of the book for myself, figuring it was a good way to commemorate my time in Washington DC with Chris. In the morning I had a 12-hour travel schedule looming large, and I also knew the book would help the long plane ride pass more quickly.

Well, it was a terrific recommendation Chris, for I absolutely devoured the book, finishing its final pages mere minutes before landing. The woman sitting next to me turned out to be a retired grade school teacher, and she kept watching me, smiling, as I flagged and annotated the book the way I normally do when I have something I am not just reading, but studying intently.

She said, “You really should scan that book and send a few shots to the author, for what you’ve just done amazes me. I bet he’d think it a terrific compliment. I wish my students had loved reading their books that much.”

A book review will follow in greater detail, and Chris has one posted on his Bailey WorkPlay already if you’re anxious. For now, with possible job reinventions so much on the brain, I have to share one passage in particular with you. I could barely sit still in my seat when I first read it.

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Christopher Bailey on Reinvention

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Welcome to our week of Reinvention for Business—Day 4! The Ho‘ohana Online Community has graciously agreed to some hale-sitting in Talking Story this week for me, and they are sharing their thoughts with you on our March Ho‘ohana, a challenge for us all to reinvent ourselves in business.

Our Guest Author today is Christopher Bailey. You can visit Chris at his own blog, the very insightful Alchemy of Soulful Work. Visits to Alchemy are a daily habit for me: sometimes I just can’t wait for those RSS updates in my feedreader! A fun thing Chris posted recently was Who Knew Dr. Evil was my Boss? and I’ve loved watching his success at skillfully inviting lurkers out of the shadows: An Open Invitation to De-Lurk. There’s more! Chris has been working on his own reinvention with a new blog for us: Menagerie of Frivolous Fascinations.

Chris always writes with engaging enthusiasm and optimism, and so I was thrilled that he added his reinvention thoughts to our forum this week. Look at his posts above again: the man has a way with words. With his article, Chris has added a new term to my vocabulary: can you pick it out?

Let’s Reinvent Professional Development in Our Organizations

Rosa has selected a fantastic topic to get the creative juices flowing! A hot topic lately in the business magazines has been the importance of lifelong learning for professionals. The reasons are fairly obvious: learners are more open to new ideas, more adaptable to change, and frankly, way more interesting to be around. The great innovative organizations understand this and cultivate cultures that stimulate and reward learning. However, when I ask clients and other professionals about their organization’s attitudes toward and structures for professional development, they are woefully inadequate. Too often, professional development is treated like a job perk, rather than as a systemic part of the organization’s greater purpose of growing its business and its people.

What are some ideas for reinventing professional development in our organizations today?

1. First, let’s cease calling it professional development and call it livelihood learning. Learning encourages the idea that seeking new ideas and knowledge is a process that takes place everywhere in a person’s life. That book on Ferdinand Magellan or conversation with the person waiting in line at the supermarket might just yield two or three innovative ideas on how to improve your product’s marketing.

2. Stop making professional development the exclusive privilege of managers and executives. This policy only reinforces the idea that line staff have little impact on the bottom line when in fact, they may just have the greatest impact. Make livelihood learning an expectation for everyone in the organization.

3. While we’re talking about line staff, livelihood learning goes beyond job-based training. There’s a tendency to think that as long as line staff is properly trained to do the technical aspects of their job, that’s sufficient. Yes, training is important but it is only one part of the plan. Growing people is more than ensuring they are properly skilled, it means helping them further develop their natural strengths.

4. Related to #1, not all professional development has to take place in a conference room. I recently met an engaging and energetic consultant who works for a Richmond, VA based firm called Play. They offer each of their employees the option to take what they call a "radical sabbatical." These are opportunities to climb mountains, explore unfamiliar terrain, learn to surf ”“ any experience that will inspire them creatively.

The "radical sabbatical" is only one innovative way to reinvent professional development in our organizations today. Livelihood learning is a very visible way to build a strong, healthy, and innovative organization that is ready to tackle whatever challenges that the future brings.

—Christopher Bailey

Mahalo nui Chris! Livelihood Learning; I love it!

Do you have questions for Chris? Would you like to add your voice to his? The comment lines are open, and ready for your thoughts.
— Rosa

Tag: . . .

The lab is cooking over at Alchemy.

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Chris wonders about his Muse, and before you know it he’s got four more posts AND a new blog for us to check in with. Go spend some time with The Alchemy of Soulful Work, and then take a walk midst his menagerie of frivolous fascinations.

Here’s what caught my attention in particular:
This one of his Alchemy muse releases is a great Christopher Bailey update to what we’ve been talking about here on Talking Story about being a twenty percenter: read his post called, The Sobering Statistics Point to Opportunity.

Yes, they do point to opportunity. And managers matter because we are the ones to lay out the welcome mat, open the door, and a make a big difference for those who accept our invitation.

As Chris says so well,

“I have a couple of visceral reactions to all of this. One, I think that it doesn’t have to be this way. Two, I’m optimistic that we’re moving toward a place where Soulful Work is reality. We’re clamoring for it because we know its a possibility. Deep within, we know that the bottom line and the human heart can co-exist and that the business world can only thrive when the two are integrated successfully. There is so much opportunity to rewrite the tacit agreements between the organization and worker and pave a way toward a new workplace.”

Amen Chris, Amen.

Take your cue from Chris: even when you read or hear of things that are sobering, You are the one to make the intentional, very deliberate effort to take something positive away from it. Be a good-spin master, and learn from a very thoughtful alchemist.

Somewhat related posts:
Muses, Mentors, and Self-Talk.
Optimism: don’t leave home without it.

A Coach’s Review of Managing with Aloha

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“Our organizations can be places where greater human values coexist with business goals.
That just might be the next competitive advantage.”
—Christopher Bailey

I have pointed you toward The Alchemy of Soulful Work before (here, then here and here just for starters), for I have great admiration for the heart and mind of leadership coach Christopher Bailey, and he communicates his Ho‘ohana so eloquently in his writing.

Recently Chris also did a great book review for our February Ho‘ohana on Books, and he adds to my wishlist each time he does another book recommendation on his own blog. So I was so thrilled and honored to read the review he did for MWA on Amazon.com today.

Thank you so very much Chris, you honor Managing with Aloha with your mana‘o, so generously given.
Rosa