Walking Straight in Circles

Have you ever felt that you were walking in circles? I have recently discovered that you probably are. It is not possible to walk consistently in a straight line without help. Walking without support will mean you inevitably go in circles.

Don't take my word for it. You can try it yourself. Find a big open space and start walking. The Sahara seems a decent place to try it out, else a forest on a cloudy night. Alternatively, I have 2 excellent sources. The first is a German study of a few years ago, led by a chap called Jan Souman from the Planck Institute. The second is a scene from Flight of the Phoenix (1965), where Capt. Harris (played by Peter Finch) and Sgt. Watson (played by Ronald Fraser), leave their companions in the desert to walk to summon help. They go round in circles and fail heroically.

Bottom line, if you don't have reference points, you end more or less back where you began. Career choices are a bit like that. I recall even comparitively recently being asked (or more often asking a candidate) where they saw themselves in the future - demanding purpose and clarity. These days, I am less sure this need for certainty equips people to make the most of what's out there.

Having too sure a path is as dangerous as having no path at all. Having a path where you walk in the well-trodden footsteps of others or even re-tread those paths you yourself have worn, provides surety but no adventure. No chance to fall victim to serendipity.

Finding new roles has seldom been tougher. It is so very tempting to go back to what and who you know. For many, this can be the right path. For some though I am increasingly sure that understanding how experience and know-how can cross boundaries opens up the door to success. To places that would never have been explored and bluntly to roles in organisations and industries that are very different.

I claim no specific insight here. The world is full of resources on how to amass and recognise transferrable knowledge. I am reading a decent one myself. Much of this is pretty simple stuff, if only I'd taken time before to consider it. "Common Sense" even - and if there was ever a word that described something that was not "common" at all!

So, take great care in transition to know what signs to follow. Be sure we do need signs but do not always look to the familiar. Other constellations are as valid as those that have served you well before. Strangers can indeed be friends you have just not yet met.

Takes me back full circle to Flight of the Phoenix - those lost in the desert eventually flew to safety in a full-sized plane made by a man who designed "toy" planes. That's a story about transferable skills too!

Yesterday, I learned my old boss had sailed the Atlantic in seventeen days. The romantic me wants to think that he did it in his own boat, and not on a cruise ship!  "... a tall ship and a star to steer her by." (Sea Fever - Masefield) come to mind.

Sharing - Taking Stock

I had a good couple of sessions with my wardrobe (French cabinet) this week. We concentrated on looking back to look forward. I suppose making use of what was good and bad in the past to set a course for the  future voyage. I am not going to entertain (or bore) you with the details but, like so many before me I now find that when you take the proper time to reflect you do gain valuable insights.

Naturally, so much of professional life is about analysis and judgements made on largely objective criteria. It has to be that way. Keep the unknown variables to a minimum. Recognise the business situation in which you find yourself and act accordingly. And certainly do that as you transition role. Remember the STARS model from Michael D. Watkins in The First 90 Days? No book holds all the answers but so many tell similar stories.  

I just wanted to share what I mean by using the word "proper". I see the word largely as a synonym for "appropriate", but of course curious, I discover other roots. Back to Latin about "belonging to itself", in old French being "suited to a purpose" and in modern French about being "clean". Of course, it's in colloquial English, as an adjective meaning "rather good" e.g. "That's a proper wicked pair of shoes, man". I do not recall hearing that a lot in the Brussels' corridors of power but there are certainly some very fine pairs of shoes on show!

Back to my appropriate message. The first wardrobe exercise was simple. Map out your career to date and set a barometer of how fulfilled/happy/glad to be there/impacting (pick the words that suit you best) you felt during each role. Try to find adjectives that describe the good and bad about what was going on. Maybe simple just means simplistic?

As in many things, you feel the importance to get on with the exercise quickly. I remember a saying by Rolf Harris about "destroying the white" on an empty canvas. Get something on it and then see where it goes. The good thing is my wardrobe has a talking mirror and that's where "proper" comes into play. Take the time. Measure the words and feelings. Is that first memory the true memory? Is that whole time overshadowed by one or two bad (or good) events? Was that a result of you or your surroundings, friends or perceived enemies?

I went back and looked at my efforts afterwards. And took the quiet and proper time to think a little more deeply. What struck me was the gut's feeling about a situation often held up to my deeper, second level analysis, but crucially a couple did not.

I would guess few of us take time even to do this simple exercise. I have been gifted the time to do it now. I do begin to wonder, if things might have been different had I taken "proper" time to do it before. That sounds melancholic but it is not. It just demonstrates the importance of placing self in the career management process.

What do you say when it's over?

Today, I begin a time of independence. Some call it unemployment - what an ugly word - and the irony is that I am currently very employed indeed. Of course, I do need to find that next consuming thing. Of course, the bills need paying and Belgian air can become a little too thick. But, when you fall off a horse, it's not necessarily always the best thing just to jump right back on. Riding is not for everyone. There is that thing about the Stockdale Paradox (MP3 Download) too. Face up to any dark reality, knowing that somehow you will prevail.

I am lucky to have been given time to consider and a "cabinet" to help (not yet proven to be a wooden thing that stands dumb in a corner but that delightful French term for a consultancy firm). In the coming weeks, I will share elements of my time in the furniture business. Therapy is often best practised in groups. I'm not at all sure how entertaining this will end up but writing some of it down might help someone. There are a lot of us about.

This first foray into the ether, is to say hello and share a problem. What do you say to a lover you are leaving after 20 years? My company has been somewhat like a lover to me so I don't feel embarrassed to use the analogy. We have had great times, shared hardships too, had blazing rows, brought some offspring to maturity and buried others prematurely. But the spark has gone. It's better we all move on and find someone else.

To begin, I wanted to be very fashionable and have a party. I thought just a drink wouldn't be enough. After all, I had a lot of friends to invite and years to celebrate. Remember the fashion of holding a divorce event? I even made a guest list. Then, decided that many of the professional friends I had would be unlikely to have been my friends outside the office and the best of them wouldn't feel like celebrating anyway. So no party then.

Then, came the obligatory farewell mail. But what do you say? One of the few new resolutions I take to my new life is brutal honesty. I have read so many of "those mails" before. I could not write what would have been expected of me. It's not that I have not had a great and fulfilling time in so much of what I did. I have fantastic memories of events and personalities, of triumphs and lessons learned. But on reflection, these need to be treasured like a box of memories and not paraded to a long list of people, for most of whom they hold little interest or power to inspire. So the mail hit the dust too.

So where have I finally settled? I have decided to blog. Folks can come, read and share should they wish and not if they don't. The ultimate opt-in. I get to write stuff and those who want to care and stay in touch get to hear what's the story. And this story has a way to run yet.

And here's the first reward. Just a song that captures how I think I feel and the city in which I felt it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0