Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Childhood, Comment, Corona Virus, Daddyhood, Emotion, Empathy, Family, Fatherhood, Jill, London, Love, Otis
I found this photo recently.
It’s a few years old, when we lived in London … but there’s something about it that just warms my heart.
Not just because it features my son – though that helps – but because it in a period of pandemic chaos, it shows how love can make everything OK.
Covid had just taken hold.
We were all confined to home.
No one was offering any clarity.
People were dying at unprecedented numbers.
And Otis desperately needed his hair washing.
However …
… he was also playing a video game he absolutely didn’t want to stop playing so – because his world had been turned completely upside down – his wonderful, kind, considerate Mum found a way for him to keep playing while she could do some hair washing.
Obviously it is an utterly ridiculous way to do things, but it’s my ridiculous.
A moment of twisted normality at a time where nothing felt normal whatsoever.
And while I appreciate this is an utterly indulgent photograph, I love the way he seems oblivious to his surroundings. His little legs stretched out to the tip of his toes. And a kitchen that has been rapidly turned into a school, a playroom and a hairdressers all at the same time.
While we were painfully aware of the privileged position we were in – from having an income to having a teeny garden to escape in – the fear of COVID was starting to take a hold which is why, as I look at that photo today, I realise how much my ridiculously beautifully family let me feel we were strong together at a point where everything was feeling like it was falling apart.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Honesty, Insight, Truth
Who knows if the photographer saw the irony in this photo.
Or the cutting social commentary.
Or – said another way – the uncomfortable honesty.
But regardless, it proves great humour is based on truth.
PS: If you don’t get what I’m talking about, then piss off you fresh, young, un-sad sods.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Colenso, Comment, Creativity, Culture
So I’ve been at Colenso for a few months now and I think things are going OK.
Sure, there’s some stuff I – and we – need to sort out, but I’m enjoying it and as far as I can tell, they’re tolerating me with the sort of laid-back attitude, New Zealand is famous for.
That said, there is one guy who has made an extra-big impression on me.
His name is Daine.
He’s a good person who – like everyone here – wants to do great work.
But when you meet him for the first time, there’s one thing you notice about him above all other things …
He’s also 6 foot 8.
SIX FOOT BLOODY EIGHT.
Now of course he has probably had people commenting on this his whole life, which is why I chose not to.
Instead I decided to show him.
Over the past few months, I’ve been capturing his height in a range of ways … from calling him Mr Giraffe, to littering my instagram feed with photos that capture his head-in-the-cloud tallness, like the one at the top of this post.
I know, kind eh?!
Amazingly, he hasn’t punched me in the face [yet] but I cannot tell you how proud I was of him when, having decided to annoy him further by sending him a Facebook ‘friend’ request – I immediately received the following as a text message.
Daine. you might belong in the animal kingdom, but I’m glad you’re in my zoo.
_________________________________________________________________
PS: To any HR or lawyers reading this. Breaaaaaathe … I can assure you Daine gives as good as he gets. Well, he gives less than he gets, but it’s not for lack of trying.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Culture, Environment, Management, Meetings
Meetings.
They seem to be happening more and more.
Meetings for meetings.
Meetings to discuss meetings.
Meetings to plan if there is a meeting.
And what is amazing is that anyone can call one of these.
Anyone.
And given most companies place a limit on the amount an employee can spend without prior approval – I find it hilarious anyone can commandeer thousands of dollars/pounds of employee time on a whim.
What makes it even more laughable is often these meetings are no more than a simple question that could have been handled by just going up to a colleagues desk.
But it’s not entirely the fault of the person who calls meetings …
We now live in times where looking busy is a key requisite – more than even being productive – and nothing makes you look busy than calling and attending a meeting.
Of at least an hour, of which 47 minutes is made up of waiting for everyone to turn up, small talk and then going off on tangents at least 7 times.
What I find funny is companies continue to say they want to help employees with their work life balance …
They talk about reducing emails while pushing things like slack … that are far more demanding for immediacy of response.
They talk about wanting everyone to take their holidays … and then dictate when they can/can’t be taken.
Ans they talk about wanting to aid productivity then allow so many meetings to happen that you end up starting your real work towards the end of the day.
With that in mind, here are the 4 questions to ask when you are asked to attend a meeting that you are not sure should be a meeting. Or at least a meeting you’re not sure you should be attending.
1. What is this meeting trying to change?
2. Will the people who can make decisions be there?
3. Will they have all the information they need to make a decision there and then?
4. Why do you think I am one of these people?
Yes it’s a pain.
Yes, they will think you’re a pain.
But I guarantee you, it won’t be as painful as another day of sitting in a vast majority of inane meetings that are designed to make the organiser feel important – or able to share the blame of the situation they are in/caused – while also ensuring you end up having to work late.
Again.
You’re welcome.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Business, Comment, Communication Strategy, Context, Metallica, Resonance
Once upon a time, I was invited to a meeting that frankly, I should not have been invited to.
Admittedly I was told I was only there so I could witness the behaviour of the most senior people in the company and I absolutely was not allowed to say a word … but it still was an absolutely ridiculous decision by the company.
Anyway, so I go in and I sit quietly at the back.
After about an hour, a new member of the board started speaking.
To be honest, I was quite taken aback at the tone they were using.
It wasn’t confident, it was down right arrogant … a unique ability to sound condescending, belittling and entitled all at the same time.
It was at this point, the CEO and founder of the company stepped in with words that shut things down in an absolute second.
He looked right at the individual flexing their metaphorical muscles and said:
“You haven’t earned the right to be arrogant and when you have, you will know that’s not the way to behave”.
It was brilliant and embarrassing in equal measure and I had to do all I could not to break out into wild applause.
I say this because a couple of weeks ago, I kind of had another experience like this.
A complete stranger on LinkedIn reached out to me to ask if I worked with Metallica.
When I told them I did, they said – and I quote – “How do I talk to them about my new business idea?
To which I replied:
“You have to find an old lamp & rub it. If a genie comes out, ask them to sort it for you.”
Unsurprisingly they called me a prick, but apart from the fact I am not the bands gatekeeper – I’m much more the bands cat litter tray – why does he think I would respond positively to his unsolicited email?
I’m not asking for subserviency.
I’m not asking for fawning.
But a little politeness would be nice.
Not that it would have changed anything, but I may have actually had a desire to hear what they were thinking and then see if there is someone else they should be talking to.
But no … they went right in as if I owed them something because they were brilliant and that entitled them to my desire to help unconditionally.
If that attitude wouldn’t work on Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank … it sure as shit won’t work via an unsolicited email on LinkedIn to a petty bastard from Nottingham.
I know if you don’t ask, you don’t get, but what some people don’t seem to grasp is asking is very different to demanding.
Seriously, if this is what ‘professionalism’ is on LinkedIn, then I may be the most professional person on that platform and as you all know, that is possibly the scariest proposition of all time.
Talking of professionalism, I’m taking tomorrow and Monday off … and while you may think that is the antithesis of professionalism, I can assure you everyone else’s productivity will be up.