Chris Gribble

Be yourself - Everyone else is taken (Oscar Wilde)

More on vision

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Warren Bennis said this after his study of organisations,

“In every case where they had reached epiphanies, there was a leader who was able to enrol people in an exciting, insanely significant vision. Someone who was capable of reeling in the advocates and supporters to work with him or her. They all believed that they could make a dent in the universe.”(1997)

The signs of an effective organisational vision in your learning context will be evident in your followers. The leadership will need to be evaluating whether its members are reaching their potential and whether they being equipped to fulfil their role. Secondly the question must be asked at all levels are people learning? It will be the leadership vision and effective management of the vision that will enable your organisation to achieve new goals.

Warren Bennis (1997) also states what leaders must create is the social architecture that encourages people to work together successfully. The difficulty facing leadership is to harness egos to unleash the potential that is available. For an organisation the social structure must extent beyond superficial social niceties and be channelled into the practical aspects of fulfilling its vision. The social architecture will be constructed through its reorganisation as a “learning organisation” in which each of its participants becomes a contributing learner.

Encouraging vision in your organisation

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John Maxwell suggests some of the following ideas if an environment is to be created that will encourage others to take hold of a vision:

1. Come alongside them – There are different levels of leadership that a leader can have. At the bottom level is designated authority. This is where people follow because of your assigned position and they have no choice. At the highest level is that of personhood/respect. At this level you have developed followers who are loyal and sacrificial. They are this way because they have seen you demonstrate sacrificial and loyal leadership to them.

2. Paint a picture for them – This picture should set new horizons for the individuals in the organisation; it should give hope; it should be challenging; it should provide freedom; the journey is important; it should provide a path to the ultimate goal; they should be able to see your total commitment to the vision. (Maxwell,J)

3. Put it into context – Lyall Shaller  says that the most effective leaders are those that understand and adopt the values of the group that they join.

There is a big difference between one’s personal vision and implementing a corporate vision. A personal vision will not change an organization and belongs to the leader alone. A leader must be able to rise above themselves and to see the future through other people’s perspective.

Microsoft – success against the odds

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Bill Gates always had quite a lot to say about strategy. In the manner of management gurus he has isolated six things that a company should do to achieve success in any market.

It should:

1. Concentrate on a market with big potential and few competitors
2. Get in early and go in big
3. Set up a proprietary position
4. Protect that position using every method available
5. Aim for high gross margins or the highest available
6. Make customers an offer they find hard, if not impossible, to refuse

It is interesting to note that Microsoft has not always been the best or the first but it has become the biggest. For example Gates was originally dismissive of the internet. Windows came years after Apple’s graphic interface. It’s product is often regarded as inferior to others. Windows if full of security issues.

Should we really be listening to Bill?

Career Stages

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Career Stage Age Characteristics (Super)

Growth Birth to 14 or 15: Development of self-concept, capacity, attitudes, interests, needs, general understanding of the world of work

Exploratory 15-24: “Trying out” through classes, work experience, hobbies. Tentative choice and related skill development

Establishment 25-44: Entry-level skill building and stabilization through work experience

Maintenance 45-64: Continual adjustment process to improve position

Decline 65+: Reduced output, prepare for retirement

Passion

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“For some time I have sensed that many people feel that they are careening down an unmarked road of life. We believe the road is going somewhere, but we are not sure where that somewhere is or how we will be certain when we’ve reached the destination. In transit we move at a dangerous kind of top speed, because we think that will quicken the time of arrival. And with every mile we grow increasingly frustrated and tired……The weariness is a far cry from the excitement that usually marks the beginning of the trip. What happens? What goes wrong?”

In the deepest jungles of Africa a traveler was making a long trek. Coolies had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move. For some strange reason they just sat and rested. When asked about this strange behaviour, the traveler was told they had gone to fast the first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.

The lady who told this story in her book then goes on to say, This whirling rushing life which so many of us live does for us what that first march did for those poor jungle people. The difference: they knew what they needed to restore life’s balance; too often we do not.

Incredibly these words were written fifty years ago.

Of course we are all well aware the buzzword of the today’s workplace are stress and burnout. Our workplaces are full of people who were once committed to their organisation but now no longer appear to have the will of the strength to go on. In so many organisations there are many people who were once active and ambitious but are no longer involved except perhaps to “turn up?”

Being with some people is exhausting. A number of years ago I spent an 8 hour shift with a person going through I manic phase of a psychiatric illness. After about an hour I was exhausted. It wasn’t because I had to anything physical but he was in a constant state of action. He would play several songs for me to listen to in the space of a couple of minutes. Then he would want to do watch TV but he would only want to leave it on any one channel for a few seconds. Then he would walk in circles in an exercise enclosure. All the time there would a constant stream of words sometimes they would make sentences but the effort of trying to keep track of them was fatiguing.

Of course there are some people who energize us. They leave us with a fresh sense of purpose. They give us dreams and ideas. Understanding the effect people have on us will help us to understand where our spiritual energy goes and we can anticipate when we need to restore it.

Effective fathering – Have fun

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I think that laughter is one of the greatest gifts that a Dad can give his children. One of the favourite things that my children say to me is, “silly Daddy.” This is because I am very silly sometimes. It’s true.

I really want my kids to grow up knowing that fun and laughter should be made a habit. It needs to be worked at especially if their personality doesn’t find it as natural as some. In our family Sophia is quite serious whereas Yasmin is always prepared to laugh at almost anything.

Mums tend to have the hard work of child raising. A part of a Dad’s role is to bring fun into the life of the family. It tempers the discipline that sometimes a Father has to enforce. And sometimes they need to give their wife the room to have fun with the kids too. I always find it amusing that even though I am the one who buys sweets when we are out and with me they tend to get things their own way that it still their mum that they turn to most of the time.

Our life has it share of difficulties. April and I have often reflected that the past 3 years have stretched us the most of the 14 years of our marriage. We have struggled financially, we have struggled in my work, we have found living in a new environment very disruptive. Yet we need to remember in the midst of this that we need to continue to have fun.

I like being the “silly daddy” who provides for my family.

The first time

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Actually this is not my first blog. But it is the culmination of years of interest in the internet, a passion for communication, and a genuine concern to assist people to reach their potential.

A blog is a medium that is able to combine all of these features in a format that is becoming one of the most effective communications mediums that the world has ever seen. There are millions of blogs and they are multiplying all over the web.

So what is different about this blog? Probably not much except it will be a reflection of my God ordained uniqueness. All of us will in some way at some time seek to improve ourselves this blog is an account of my journey.