Reflections on amazing workplaces - day 1

I spent yesterday at day 1 of the CIPD Northern Area Partnership conference (#cipdnap16) and before I head back into the breach today, thought I'd capture some reflections - mainly because my brain is quite flighty and I don't want today's content to push yesterday's out!

It's my first of these conferences and I was drawn in by the theme - Even more amazing workplaces - because, well, who doesn't want one of those? It's also very relevant to what's going on in my work world, as we seek to create a culture where people are empowered to work wherever suits them best, and managers have the skills to support them, and be confident that we will achieve the outcomes we need. So I approached each session studiously, pen and paper at the ready, and found loads of interest...my main highlights and reflections being:

@profcarycooper on Wellbeing - I haven't had the pleasure of hearing Sir Cary speak before and he was brilliant. I am a data geek, and he used a massive depth and breadth of research to outline why mental health and wellbeing have a such a big impact on productivity and the economy. I'd heard the message but not the research which gives it credibility before. In relation to a long hours / presenteeism culture, we discussed various IT policies to stop people accessing emails out of hours - but I can't help but feel that this is a sticking plaster, which wouldn't in itself change the culture. It surely comes back to managers knowing when and how their team are working, and being close enough to see and discourage a consistent habit of checking emails when they are meant to be resting and enjoying home life. For me the big takeaway was the focus on hr's role in creating a strategy which reduces stress and equips managers to reduce stress in the environment, rather than reactively focusing on helping employees to deal with it, or picking up the pieces when it goes wrong (though both of these are important!). The question which stayed with me was how we select line managers - how do we assess whether they have or could learn the interpersonal skills to manage humans! Slightly soberingly he estimated that around 10-15% of people managers shouldn't be in charge of people and are unlikely to be able to take on the skills they need!

My first workshop was @timpointer on culture, a really fun interactive session. I loved his image of culture being like a backpack which gets fuller and fuller - sometimes we need to consciously take things out before we can put other things in. A few thoughts which stayed with me from that session - we tend to focus on employees when we think about culture; what about all the people who aren't technically employed but are working in and closely with us? They'll impact culture too. We challenged policies which hold us back - dress codes being a popular one, I was delighted to say we don't have one! - this made me think about whether as we look at big culture change, we may need to do more to policy than just change the ones which directly impact on process changes. Some ideas around welcoming new people - I love the idea of new starters receiving a welcome card from their new team on their first day, and seeing induction as a ritual of welcome - one way of bringing it to life and using someone's first weeks as an opportunity to inspire and engage, rather than a painful period to endure of not quite knowing enough!

I wrote loads down whilst listening to the story of how James Cropper changed their culture to have more of a performance focus. Three striking things. The distinction between who wants change and who wants TO change - how to help people see they are part of the solution. Pace of change - leadership are usually way ahead of the rest of the organisation when it comes to change readiness, but if you go too fast and don't work really hard on bringing the organisation with you, people will get left behind. I think of it as leadership being in a speed boat which can turn on a sixpence, and sometimes forgetting that the organisation is a cruise ship which takes quite a lot longer to turn.

And finally the Ignite sessions - I didn't note much down during these as I was enjoying listening to them too much. But I seem to have ended up with one thought from each speaker. From @timscotthr, let's throw away everything that's stopping us treating people like human beings. Just - yes. There's a day to go but this is a top contender for quote of the conference! From @trustcallhr - it's ok for different parts of an organisation to have different cultures as long as they're built on similar principles (then highlighting the need to be intentional about working out what principles and values are fundamental to us). And @gary_cookson - ten minutes in rhyme, brilliant, with the perfectly expressed reminder that fun doesn't have to be about Google and hammocks and sh*t.

I deliberated for too long this morning about whether it was ok to wear jeans to an event with a business smart dress code, but given how many times we rubbished dress codes yesterday I decided it was ok!

A modern fairy tale: the Inbox of Horrors

Once there was a princess.

The princess lived in a beautiful castle with many rooms, and lots of interesting things to see and do.

Life in the castle was happy.

Except...

...that in a tiny room at the top of the tallest tower, the princess had an Inbox of Horrors.

The princess tried as hard as she could to keep the Inbox of Horrors under control. She kept popping up to the tower to keep an eye on it, even though this meant that she couldn't properly concentrate on any of the other things she was trying to do.

She tried methodically opening, reading, and replying to every Horror - but this seemed to just attract more Horrors to the Inbox.

She tried many ways of ordering the Horrors - but the Horrors just would not keep in order.

She tried allocating particular times of the day to look at the Horrors - but leaving them unattended for any period of time just seemed to give them time to multiply, and they were ever so noisy when she opened the box.

Eventually, the only room the princess ever visited was that tiny room at the top of the tower. She spent all her time trying to keep the Horrors under control - but they still weren't happy. And she wasn't doing any of the interesting things that she wanted to do.

She asked her wise fairy godmother what she should do. The Horrors weren't happy; she wasn't happy; she couldn't work out what to do.

The wise fairy godmother thought for a few minutes.

She suggested that the princess reread the Productivity Ninja book which she was so excited about a few months ago. The princess agreed that this might be a good idea, but that it was hard to concentrate on reading whilst sitting on top of the Inbox to keep the noisy Horrors inside.

She reassured the princess that almost everyone had an Inbox of Horrors at the top of their tallest tower, and that almost everyone felt the same way about it.

The princess felt a bit better, but thought it was ridiculous that everyone was spending their time worrying about keeping an Inbox of Horrors under control. She asked the fairy godmother why we couldn't all just stop sending Horrors.

The wise fairy godmother thought for a bit longer.

Sadly, even the fairy godmother wasn't wise enough to answer that question.

But she did at least wave her wand and say a few magic words, which was enough to neatly order, file and flag all the Horrors in the inbox...which kept them happy for the rest of the day.

Rome, Rome, Rome

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of a sneaky weekend away in Rome, child-free.

I did a lot of research around places to eat before we went (capital cities, good restaurants book up fast, there are a lot of terrible touristy restaurants...) and we had some amazing food. I'm mainly writing this post so that I don't forget the names of them for the future.

So - Rome. Wow. Really fantastic place with a lot of annoying ticket touts, and people constantly trying to give you sad looking red roses, but somehow spectacular enough that you can really enjoy yourself anyway. Spectacular churches on every corner, such a lot of amazing art, and history everywhere.

I was saddened by the number of people viewing the city entirely through smartphones mounted on selfie sticks - don't people just look at things any more? - but that's a rant for a different day.

Places to eat...

For a great lunch:

Gina (http://www.ginaroma.com/) - just near the Spanish Steps, bright and funky cafe with beautiful soups and salads and pasta, full of Italians on their lunch breaks.

For another great lunch:

Pianostrada (http://pianostrada.com/) - tiny place hidden down a tinier side street in Trastavere. Street food concept, with about 16 seats squeezed in, watching the food being prepped in front of us. Our starter decision was made easy by seeing a foccaccia come out of the oven - that, with fig jam and prosciutto, was possibly the nicest thing I've eaten. Ever. We also had a squash soup with all sorts of interesting flavours sprinkled on top (almond, orange, pickled something or other, parmesan), and a burger which was so beautifully flavoured and so tender that the meat element sort of melted into the rest of it to make one amazing whole. With craft beers. I want to go back...

For a great dinner:
Roscioli (http://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/restaurant/) - a deli and wine shop with tables tucked in amongst the shelves of wine. I had a burrata with sun dried tomatoes....basically a plateful of white, creamy cheese, with tomatoes. So. Much. Deliciousness. And two wine lists: 53 pages of Italian wine, and a second called "Foreign Wine". Really nice atmosphere and they were most kind when Martin poured his wine into his pasta...

And another great dinner:
Casa Coppelle (http://www.casacoppelle.com/) - a bit more fine dining, brilliant cocktails and really interesting menu (red prawn tartare on corn cream - for example!).

All in fairly easy walking distance of the Spanish steps.

I think my favourite sights were discovering the Trevi Fountain at night (having never seen a picture of it) - I raved about this for some time (I may have had some wine first); and also the Forum/Palatine and Colosseum - for sheer scale of archaeological interest. And for art, the collection at the Borghese Gallery (prebook a 2 hour slot) has lots of big hitters (Caravaggio, Bernini) in a very small space.

I have very few pictures - I think I was reacting to the selfie sticks...luckily I looked at things while I was there and have the memories of it!

Do go to Rome...

A new blogging project: famous "little black dress" frocks

Those who know me will know that I love a blogging project, especially one which involves a list to work through. I've been dabbling recently with a bit of LinkedIn publishing, so this one has been a bit neglected and due some attention. If my HR insights (ha!) are the reason you're here, you might find more of interest over on LinkedIn...but for the more personal sewing/parenting/random burblings, this is the place to be.

The new project, then. For my birthday, I received a book called "Famous Frocks: the Little Black Dress" (this).

It has patterns for 20 garments based on ten iconic little black dresses - each one, a dress and a variation of some kind. It's a very beautiful and stylish book. I'm ever eager to improve my sewing skills, and this book uses lots of techniques that I've not yet tried...or have tried and failed (buttonholes...I'm looking at you), so I thought it would be a good set of projects to play with.

I can't promise to make all of the garments in the book - I'm not going to spend time and money making dresses that I know I won't wear - but I will have a crack at as many of them as I'm likely to wear, and blog about the process and outcomes. A very long drawn out review of the book, perhaps!!

First: Coco Chanel. Watch this space! Fabric to source first...

Being a sewing bore

I'm conscious that I've been tweeting a lot about sewing things lately so am going to try and get (most of) it out of my system with a blog post. If you read it, and you're bored, you only have yourself to blame!

I started sewing little girl clothes about 18 months ago, and then progressed into adult clothes in January this year, after a trip to Lisbon which has amazing fabric shops, where I bought some fabric that wasn't brightly coloured quilting cotton, and realised that I could make wearable clothes. I like a challenge, so have generally tried to introduce a new skill or fabric type each time I make something different, and have made quite a lot of things I'm pleased with. However, I'm a wobbly, inaccurate and messy sew-er, usually cobbling things together which look ok from the outside, with slightly wandering hems, but are a chaos of trailing threads and frayed seams waiting to happen, on the inside.

Bearing this in mind, I was very very VERY excited to receive an overlocker for my birthday. Overlockers (or sergers if you want to be American about it) are slightly industrial machines which use 3 or 4 threads to create immensely neat edges really quickly (sewing and cutting at the same time) - if you look inside something you're wearing now, and it has seams which are sort of encased in thread, that will be the work of an overlocker. This appeals to my desire for neatness, but also my innate laziness (who wants to spend time neatening seams? That's not the fun part), and my inner geek - more techniques to master.

Having been reading about them for a while, I'd built up a fear of threading it - apparently, according to the internet, this is hard. It came threaded, so after playing around with it for a bit, I took the fear head on, pulled all the threads out, then tried to follow the instructions. Thankfully, it worked, although tweezers are supplied and very necessary, and I didn't even have to resort to YouTube. If you think this is overdramatic - this is a picture of the mechanism:

Threads in place, it all seems to be working. Slightly uncharacteristically, I'd prepared by cutting out the fabric for four different patterns the weekend before my birthday so that when I got my hands on the overlocker, with Martin away for most of last week, I'd be ready to sew. I was delighted that I did this - I might even do it more often as cutting out is my least favourite part of sewing! Things I've learned this week:

• Tacking darts makes them a whole lot easier to sew accurately
• Accuracy is suddenly a whole lot more important...cutting off the seam allowances as you go doesn't leave a whole lot of opportunity to unpick and make the garment bigger
• An overlocker is noisy
• A normal sewing machine feels very slow and tame ( a bit like driving a real car after playing Colin McRae on the XBox for a bit too long).
• I suddenly care a lot more about neatness and found myself hand sewing bits so that the seams wouldn't show on the outside, where I would normally have just used the machine for speed...I was aware of the ridiculousness of having two sewing machines on the table, whilst I was sat on the sofa with a needle and thread.
• Having two sewing machines out on the table makes the dining room look a bit like a sewing production line...the phrase "sweat shop" was used...
• I find it difficult to resist the lure of the machine - being left to myself in the house to tidy up on Saturday morning, I spent most of the time sewing in my pyjamas.

Also, very excitingly, I managed to finish three garments in just a few hours of evenings and Saturday cleaning time. Excuse the photo (lighting is terrible), and the flowery dress is one which looks much nicer on than on the hanger - but I'm pretty pleased with the results. Particularly the flowery knit - a bargain bought on our return trip to Lisbon a few weeks ago - which is lovely and soft and drapey.

And look at how neat and pretty the inside is (I still can't sew in a straight line though).

Next challenge: the straight line thing (possibly overrated), and working out what else I can with that fancy machine.

Phew. Ode to the overlocker over, I feel better now and will stop peppering your timelines with sewing tweets!

Does anyone else have an overlocker? What do you find it most useful for?

My new ninja life

Oh dear, I'm not doing very well at regular blogging here - I think because I'm quite committed to only blogging when I have something to say, and not for the sake of it, and apparently that doesn't happen very often!

So what momentous event has inspired me this time? Over the last few months, I've struggled to keep on top of volume...volume of work, information, communications, ideas, projects...and have felt like it is all a bit out of control.

I've had a book called "How to be a productivity ninja" by Graham Allcott (this one) on my bookshelf at home for a couple of years, and not quite got round to reading it. A friend ordered it after seeing my copy and then raved about it, thus inspiring me to not only read it, but to carry out the practical exercises as I went through.

And oh my word - why did I not read it when I got it?!

I'm not going to outline all the principles and tools in the book - read it if you want the detail, you won't regret it - but just to give you a flavour, it approaches time management from a completely different perspective from the traditional urgent/important/well prioritised to do list angle. Rather, it accepts that for knowledge workers (the vast majority of people doing a desk based job), the likelihood is that there will always be too much to do, and too much to take in. The focus is therefore on creating a way of working that allows you to manage the information effectively, and maintain clarity of purpose to help you understand what to prioritise, and leave space for the creative thinking which is part of most roles...and particularly mine at the moment!

The ideas which I've found most helpful are...

...viewing email as just another input of information rather than a to do list, so just touching each email once, making a decision about it, and capturing actions
...creating quality thinking "boss" time to organise your actions and projects, knowing what your specific next action is on each, making it easier to then get into productive flow in doing/"worker" mode and get lots done as you don't have to waste time working out what needs to be done before you can do it
...having a master actions list where I am confident I've captured everything (quietening the nagging worries that undermine productivity), and choosing a realistic number of items from it to achieve each day, rather than constantly being faced by an ill-defined list of everything I haven't done yet
...and more!

I'm sure that there are other ways of organising work which will achieve the same sort of clarity, but I'm finding myself able to be so much more productive (and more than that, much more creative) because I know that I've captured everything, been clear on my next action, and rid myself of the nagging fear that something is lurking in my inbox ready to catch me out.

If you're finding yourself drowning in email and other information inputs, and struggling to get to a point where you're confident that you know everything that needs to be done (let alone doing it effectively!) I can thoroughly recommend reading this. I'm not being sponsored to recommend it, by the way - I just found it really, really useful.

The side benefit (or biggest benefit?!) of feeling much more organised is that I'm more able to switch off on my non-working day because I'm confident everything is under control. Which means that I have the time and energy to spend Wednesday doing things like making enormous cardboard castles for a pending 4 year old's birthday party,making a small Rapunzel very happy:

A win all round, I think you'll agree.

Preparing to fly - or, how I use Pinterest to make my life way more complicated than it needs to be.

We are going on holiday soon and, about a month ago, work commitments for the husband were going to mean that the three year old and I had to fly by ourselves, whilst he followed later that day.

I'll be honest, I may have panicked a little. (A lot). I haven't ever flown on my own with her before, and the prospect (on Easyjet) wasn't particularly inviting.

I decided that the way to cope was by making sure she had plenty of things to entertain her on the plane...after all, we are going to be in the air for all of 90 minutes, so heaven forbid she should be bored.

So, rather than turning to the sticker book shelf at the Works (other budget sticker suppliers are available), I for some reason decided to search "free paper doll printables" on Pinterest, and get a bit over-excited by what I found. Cue totally unnecessary Pinterest overdrive...but miraculously no true Pinterest fails!

There's a lot out there. All done for you so you don't need any artistic abilities. Just a printer, scissors, and perhaps some double-sided sticky tape. And some card. And some glue. And duplo bricks. Oh, and a craft knife.

The three year old will therefore be flying with...

Frozen mix and match duplo (made using free Frozen printable from Red Ted Art - here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438897694/ and the idea from here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438901369/). To be fair she found this in the bag and played with it until I took it off her...it may have a longer shelf life than the flight.

My little pony paper jigsaw (printable from here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438897668/). Pretty but that's a lot of very tiny cutting out. Including applying a tiny bit of double sided tape to each piece so she can stick them together on the plane without a pritt stick...(it was during this cutting out that I decided on the title of this post).

And what I was originally looking for - printable paper dolls - these from here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438897702/ but there are loads out there. Again, a lot of cutting, plus a bit of sticking to put the dolls onto card, but no double sided tape this time.

As it turns out, the husband is flying with us after all, my panic has subsided somewhat, and I now realise that I have totally over-prepared for a very short flight, and have started to develop scissor blisters after two solid evenings of cutting out tiny things. This would never have happened before Pinterest...my total absence of artistic ability would have killed all of the ideas way before the cutting stage.

On a plus side, we're holidaying with my mother and sisters who will all, I suspect, enjoying reliving our childhood holidays (with less canvas and less rain) by playing with and designing outfits for the dress up dolls, so hopefully the effort won't be entirely wasted. Bring on the flight!

S Club 7 and the age question.

Last night some friends and I went to see S Club 7. *pauses to allow you to laugh*. Done?

It was a total nostalgia trip as s club were the soundtrack of our university days and have stayed with us via 14 years (eek!) of wedding receptions and nights out. We clearly weren't the only ones...it was a gig with a very specific age and gender profile.

Before we left we made the mistake of looking up the ages of the group members on Wikipedia - mistake because they range from 33-38, and feeling as though they are the same age as us gave me more empathy with them than I wanted to have. Because really, it wasn't great. The dancing was energetic-ish but you could almost see the effort it took to remember the steps...highlighted by the younger troupe of dancers who were there to do the energetic stuff. They played against a backdrop of the original videos which really just reminded us of how much older they are. And the middle of the show consisted of them taking it in turns to be onstage alone...a chance to showcase individuals, maybe, but you couldn't help but imagine the rest of them flaked out backstage, catching their breath.

I kind of wanted to be able to laugh at it...but I couldn't. Who, really, in their mid 30s, could replicate the pure springiness and exuberance of their late teens? Paul is famed for "getting down on the floor"...he didn't last night, but show me a 36 year old man who can do that with any credibility! ! I think when it came down to it, they put together a show which recognised that we're 14 years on from their heyday and made the most of it. I quite enjoyed the newly sedate Paul performing Reach with an acoustic guitar, and Jo's voice has got better with age. It made me think about how well we celebrate and make use of difference, in work and life generally. I think we spend a lot of energy on maintaining youth or trying to gain experience. ..perhaps we should focus more on recognising what individuals in their current stage and circumstance bring to life & work, and celebrate that rather than rushing forward or trying to reclaim the past. If, for S Club 7, that means outsourcing your energetic dancing and building tea breaks into your gig so you have the energy to pull off Don't Stop Movin' as the encore then fair play!

I'm off to listen to some cool contemporary music now to rebuild my credibility. Er...any recommendations?!

Today's sewing thoughts

this post will probably appeal to a very niche audience (possibly just me and my mother!), so feel free to stop reading if you have no interest in sewing!

I'm not a complete novice but have only really been sewing in earnest for a year or so. I started with soft toys, then toddler clothes, and have gradually worked up to clothes for myself. After a couple of successes with patterns in books for beginners (if you're thinking about sewing, start with Love at first stitch!), I'm working on a normal commercial pattern for the first time. It's been a bit stop start due to some sewing-when-tired which led to some unpicking-required, and thus to a hole in the fabric, more unpicking, and thankfully just enough fabric for a new bodice back!

However, tonight I've had a good couple of hours at it, made lots of progress and ended up with some random sewing observations.

1. A beer and sewing go together better than you'd think. But not more than one. Never more than one.
2. Moving the ironing board nearer to the sewing machine has significant impact on the length of my sewing concentration span.
3. There's a defining seam in every sewing project where it suddenly starts looking like the end product. There's still loads to do but you realise that you actually created what you intended. I hit that point tonight then promptly stopped (after trying it on of course) - quit on a high.
4. My habit of acquiring random haberdashery is totally justified by the fact that tonight I found that I accidentally owned the right bias binding to allow me to continue with the pattern. I feel vindicated.
5. Pattern instructions are all very well but common sense is important. I just had to read my pattern four or five times to confirm that it AT NO POINT tells you to sew the top and bottom of the dress together. Minor flaw...I have no intention of baring my midriff!
6. The zip and hem are still to do but I am Very Excited about wearing a dress that I've made myself.

Six is probably enough random sewing thoughts...I'll post a picture of it when it's finished! Congratulations if you made it this far...

Leadership lessons from Thomas the Tank Engine: Billy

Billy is a new orange train. Thomas the Tank Engine is asked to look after him and teach him what to do. Billy thinks Thomas is bossy and ignores him. Thomas keeps trying. Everything goes wrong...

As I read this book for the 3rd time in a row, I couldn't help but draw parallels with people management. There are a couple of lessons to draw out...

Context: the Fat Controller doesn't tell Billy that he's asked Thomas to show him what to do. Thomas doesn't explain this either, nor does he explain why Billy needs to do each task. Ordering someone to do something may achieve reluctant compliance but will rarely get them fully engaged with delivering a successful overall outcome. A bit of context, whether it is around the contribution to bigger picture, impact of success, or even why something needs to be done a particular way, can achieve a lot. And may end up reminding you why you do what you do too!

Adaptability: Thomas's approach clearly wasn't working but he kept trying, following Billy around giving him instructions, and irritating him more and more. If it isn't working, don't keep doing it! It's easy as managers to get locked into one mind set ("they just don't get it / won't do it" etc) and to lose sight of the possibility that there may be another point of view. If your team aren't responding in the way you expect take a step back, and think about whether there is another way to approach it, whether this is attitudinal (coaching vs directive), language (another way to explain), or, dare I say it, that your way is not the only right way! Separating the how from the outcome may help.

And finally...when delegating something as important as the induction of a new team member, make sure the person / train you delegate to has the necessary skills to engage and involve the newbie, so that no-one ends up under the hopper covered in coal - it'll save you time and money in the long run!

Being at target and the "sneaky extra"

After I last posted, I got a bit complacent and took 4 more weeks to lose those last few pounds. However, I did it, and amongst much ceremony (including a certificate AND a badge!) became a Slimming World target member.

After the excitement wore off, and my flurry of Facebook sharing eased off, I wasn't really sure what to do next. I read through the book I was given at group but it didn't say anything concrete - understandable, as everybody needs to find their own level, and there's no specific number of syns/healthy extras etc which will guarantee maintaining the same weight, but a bit disorientating after 7 months of following the Slimming World plan pretty rigidly!

The first week, I was super-strict and ended up losing half a pound. Oops.

The second week, I relaxed rather too much, and put half a pound on. Oops again.

The third week, I stopped relaxing but found that I was already back into naughty old habits, and had discovered a new food type - on top of Healthy Extras A & B, I introduced the "Sneaky Extra". This is any type of food, other than Free foods of course, which is eaten in a small enough quantity to enable you to kid yourself you're not eating it. For me, it's bits of the toddler's tea, a nibble of cheese while cooking, a bite of toast, a tiny piece of cake, a chocolate button from the fridge...etc. Added to a rather more relaxed approach to wine and the occasional dabble with white bread, I suddenly realised how easy it would be to slide (un)gracefully out of the Slimming World habits, and pile the weight back on!

Amongst this I've been running 3 times a week (and have got to the end of week 5 of couch to 5k - definitely recommend this to follow if you're thinking about taking up running) so goodness knows what weight I'd have put on without the exercise...

So - it'll have to be an end to the Sneaky Extra. There's a reason they aren't part of Food Optimising! I shall be back onto measuring the healthy extras and counting the syns until I work out what maintains an equilibrium, and am writing it down publicly to help motivate me to recognise and lose the habit. Apologies for using you as a confessional!

As a target member in our group said on the week I hit target - you have to remember that you can't have ALL the treats. A good lesson to learn!

I'm back!

Apparently it has been 7 months since I last wrote a blog post. Oops. 2014 wasn't the easiest year, and there was a lot going on which I couldn't blog about either for avoiding-professional-suicide reasons (changing jobs) or personal reasons (family bereavement). I don't think there's any point blogging if it's just to put a fake face on things, hence the long radio silence.

However - I'm back. For two reasons really - one, that I have had a post bubbling around in the back of my mind for weeks, and this seems to be the right time to write it; and two, writing is a really important part of me & what I do, and I miss it!

One thing I have been doing since the last blog post is losing weight. I didn't want to blog about that because, while people are interested in milestones etc, I didn't want to end up writing broadly the same content each week about losing or not losing a pound or 2. No issue with other people blogging in this way, I hasten to add, and in fact I read and enjoy many of them, but that level/frequency of sharing is not really my style.

So, in the middle of last year, I had a revolutionary few weeks. I applied for 2 jobs (and got one), and decided that I didn't, in fact, have to accept that I would never manage to lose weight. With much unwillingness and trepidation, I joined a local Slimming World group, and set myself a totally unachievable target so that I wouldn't have an excuse for stopping too early.



I am not a girly girl, and didn't expect to be comfortable in the Slimming World environment - after weigh-in, the "Image Therapy" group is where challenges and successes are discussed, and hints and tips given. If I'm honest, I still find some of the labels and language hard to take seriously (the word journey is very heavily used, which always makes me think of bad reality TV), but actually the concepts behind it are sound, and having a community of people who are trying to do the same thing, and are challenged/doing well at different times, is invaluable - I appreciate it so much more than I ever expected!

I also found the eating plan incredibly easy to follow, as it is not faddy, and revolves around principles which I really already knew, but wasn't really following well - eating lots of fruit and veg, choosing lean meats, and all other things in moderation. This meant that we were able, as a household, to eat in a diet friendly way, rather than me having to eat special food, or count every calorie I ate.

Having joined in July, I now find myself 4lbs off the "totally unachievable" target I set at the beginning, with 3st 4lbs lost so far. I would not have believed I could keep going for this long - and it genuinely is down to the accountability of a group, and being officially weighed, and the support that goes with that, as well as the straightforward nature of the plan. Whilst I am not actually at target, I feel broadly happy with how I look and feel so can see the end of the process in sight, hence blogging about it now!

There are really 3 things I wanted to say in this post:

1) I'm back - getting that difficult first-post-back out of the way so I don't feel under pressure to say anything meaningful next time!
2) I am not being sponsored to say this, but if you are considering losing weight, I wholeheartedly recommend Slimming World, for sensible eating principles, being realistic about having a life alongside a diet, support, achievableness (that's a word, right?), and providing a framework for keeping the weight off at the end.
3) Just to mark the near-end of a process which has somewhat dominated the last 7 months, here are a couple of photos. I appear to have largely avoided the camera since about 2011, so struggled to find a recent one, but here is a before and after.

Before:

Last weekend:

In real (rather than vanity-photo!) terms it means just over 3 dress sizes dropped, feeling so much fitter & healthier (without much exercise...that's the next project), standard knee high boots which fit round my legs, and clothes shopping being considerably more fun. Hooray for Slimming World! That is all.

**for those who are not interested in diets and my vanity, other topics will resume from my next post!**

Rare Pinterest Success - fuzzy felt dollshouse!

Having not really got Pinterest to start with, I've started finding it really inspiring in terms of getting me crafting. I'm really enjoying the process of seeing something online and working out how to make it.

So, a few weeks ago, I saw this beautiful set of fuzzy felt dress up dolls:

http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-gift-day-day-nineteen-felt-paper.html

This led me to the originator of the idea:

http://charlaanne.typepad.com/charlaanne/2012/05/made-with-love.html

She had also made a felt dollshouse to make it into a takealong toy.

I'm not going to go through my method step by step, as Charla Anne sells the pattern for this toy on Etsy, and I don't want to undermine her earning opportunity. However, I decided to have a crack at working it out for myself. I don't think the end result is quite as sophisticated as the original, but I'm pretty pleased with it, given that I drew the patterns freehand and figured out the method myself!

Rachel is desperate to get her hands on this but we have just wrapped it up for her friend's birthday today, so I am going to have to make another. Oh well!

This is what it looks like:

Cute, don't you think? I may love it a bit too much!

Slightly makes up for my previous stuffed elephant Pinterest fail which has ears sewn just above its tail. Oops!

Review: Lake District Wildlife Park

We've just come home from a sunny March week in the Lake District. Renting a cottage in Keswick with friends, we've had as relaxing a time as can be had in a house with 3 small children. One of the highlights of the week was our visit to the Lake District Wildlife Park.

Located about 10 minutes drive outside Keswick, the park has a beautiful setting - as you might expect from the Lake District, every direction gives a view of hills and mountains. On a sunny day, it's pretty spectacular:

We went with four adults and 3 children under 3, and found the park to be well laid out, and easy to get round with a pushchair and two small sets of legs. There is a wide range of animals, which adults and children alike enjoyed looking at: everything from tapirs to lemurs to otters to birds of prey to meerkats...reptiles, owls, a cockatoo who said hello, many varieties of monkeys, a zebra and more. They were well kept, in sizeable enclosures and all seemed healthy and happy (in distinct contrast to the animals we saw in an Italian zoo a few years ago). We got a bit snap happy, and here are some of our favourite pics and animals:

2 week old piglets

 

Golden eagle

There are many more - I was really struck by the variety of the animals and species there. We were there on a quiet weekday in early March, and were impressed that there was a half-hourly programme of activities, including hug-a-bunny (taken very seriously by my 2 year old):

We also saw the feeding of the meerkats - I won't share the photos of this one, but we were somewhat surprised to discover that meerkats weren't vegetarian, and in fact ripped into a bucket of (already dead) chicks with some gusto! I was glad that our kids weren't quite old enough to understand what was going on - I'd imagine parents of older children would have a bit of explaining to do!

The falconry display was impressive too - we missed the owls display, but enjoyed seeing various birds including Rupert the vulture flown. We took a lot of photos of empty space (they moved really quickly!) but managed to capture a couple:

I was particularly impressed by the knowledgeable way all of the staff talked about their animals and the affection they seemed to have for them.

In the event of rain there is a small indoor soft play area, where my daughter unfortunately found her favourite animal of the park:

However, I could imagine this being hideously heaving with children on a cold weekend day so it probably wouldn't keep you entertained for long.

Overall, it's a really nice place. We spent most of the day there, including a picnic lunch outside, and I'd thoroughly recommend it for attention to detail (for example, a safari jeep to play in whilst watching the zebra), interesting activities, and a huge variety of animals to look at. It was pretty reasonably priced for us (£8.95 per adult) as we didn't yet have to pay for our children - that kicks in from the 3rd birthday, at which point it's also £6.95 per child or £30 for a family of four. I still think it would be worth the money, especially if it is a nice day, and if you make the effort to go to all of the displays. 

One for the to-do list if you find yourself near Keswick with a spare sunny day on your hands!

Note: this is not a sponsored post, we paid for our own entry and my review is spontaneous as we had a great day there (and I wanted to show off our photos!!).

How parenting a toddler prepares you for working in HR - or vice versa!

I've been musing recently on how much synergy there is between the skills required to operate effectively in HR, and those required to parent a toddler so, eventually, I had to write about it. I'm not suggesting that working in HR makes you a better parent, or that being a parent makes you a more effective HR professional, as such, but there is a definite crossover. For example:

Knowing the answer to everything: my toddler has an endearing faith that I know the answer to everything. Generally, I can come up with something. At work, it sometimes feel like this too. Sometimes, I have to fight the urge to explain how Google works instead of answering a question...(note: this does not work with toddlers).

Negotiation: once you've mastered negotiating a toddler out of bed, into clothes, through breakfast, into a coat, into the car, and into nursery, any negotiations that come your way during the working day (whether related to agencies, salaries, complex exit scenarios) are a piece of cake. Nothing is harder than that first hour of negotiations each day.

Coping with ambiguity: toddlers are not consistent. Learning to live with toddler-ambiguity (happily eating pasta, happily eating pasta, halfway through the plate, I HATE PASTA) is a fine preparation for flexing your approach to fit the strategy of the organisation, supporting business needs, and changing your approach halfway through a disciplinary investigation meeting when something entirely unexpected comes up.

Recognition: you can't expect a lot of thanks from a toddler. Similarly, HR is one of those functions that tends only to get noticed when things go wrong (or when you deliver spectacularly on a project, obviously). Good preparation for getting your motivation from other sources than external recognition!

And finally - the struggle for definition. Theories and opinions abound on the nature of parenting, how to do it, co-sleeping, babywearing, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, working, not working, leading to a potentially constant sense of having to defend your own approach and (at times!) very existence. HR seems to have a similar struggle for identity and worth. My approach on parenting has been to ignore the debates and go with my gut instinct. My approach in HR has been much the same...rather than worrying about whether I have a "seat at the table", I'd recommend getting on with doing a good job, taking the best-fit approach, demonstrating confidence and letting results lead to influence.

Add to these key skills the eagerness to do a full week's work in fewer hours to demonstrate that nothing has changed (and overlook a slight tendency to be way more forgetful due to lack of sleep), and why would you not want to employ a toddler's parent in HR?!

HR Dilemmas from Children's TV: The Fat Controller's management style

It's been a bit too long since my last post. I'm definitely not a prolific blogger - I prefer long gaps to blogging when not inspired just to keep the blog active! Tonight, whilst reading "Emily" from the Thomas and Friends series, for the third time during that meal, inspiration finally struck! I'm slightly cheating on my theme as this is linked to a book, but the same behaviours are displayed in the TV version.

For those unfamiliar with Thomas the Tank Engine (is that anyone?), Thomas and his friends all work on the railway on the Island of Sodor. Whilst they apparently have drivers, the only human who regularly appears is the Fat Controller, and it is his management style I want to examine today.

I would describe the Fat Controller as a "JFDI" manager - he expects instant obedience when he gives an order, and regards any attempt to reason with him as argument and therefore insubordination.

Behaviours that he will often exhibit are:
- Issuing orders without context or explanation
- Shouting at his engines if they attempt to ask questions or offer an alternate opinion
- Punish the engines for perceived misbehaviour without fully investigating the situation
- Being particularly angry when something happens that inconveniences him personally
- Expecting the engines to understand and deliver what he wants with limited explanation or training

Whilst this can lead to short term results, and the immediate task will get done, there are some mid- to long-term implications of this sort of management style:
- It teaches the engines to obey because they have to, not because they want to - thus, if they can get away with not obeying, they are likely to take the opportunity to do so. For true engagement, and enhanced productivity through discretionary effort, it would be better to use a more consultative style which leads to the engines performing well because they want to.
- New, Gen-Y, engines such as Emily expect to gain fulfilment, recognition and progression through work, and to have their opinions listened to. Engines are, in the main, no longer going to work in the expectation that it is ok to be treated like a homogeneous group - they are individuals, and want to be recognised as such. Failing to engage with this is likely to lead to disengagement, higher attrition, and potential damage to the employer brand, which may cause difficulty in recruiting. The JFDI style doesn't tend to fit well with the WIIFM generation.
- The tendency to punish without investigation could lead to unfair disciplinary action and, in an extreme, dismissals, which creates an obvious legal risk. More generally, though, unjust treatment has the potential to significantly damage the employment relationship - with an unfair manager, people may leave (regardless of how good the company is), or if they stay, unjust treatment tends to lead to poor morale, ongoing disgruntlement, and lower productivity.

In short, the Fat Controller's management style is at odds with the majority of current accepted theory on managing a productive, engaged workforce, and he would be advised to adjust his style. Whilst Thomas and Friends appear to be committed, and geographically static (i.e. low flight risks), this cannot be relied upon to continue; they may leave or (possibly worse) they may remain, in a disgruntled, disengaged state, where they work to rule and only perform when forced to!

Crafty Creatives Christmas box

A few months ago, I came across Crafty Creatives (www.craftycreatives.com), a subscription service where for a reasonably small sum each month, a box of surprise crafty goodies are dispatched to your door. I was so tempted to subscribe but knew that realistically, I don't have time for a regular supply of craft items and I would just be subscribing in order to build up a stock of untouched boxes.

But oh, how I wanted to join in.

In September, they announced a one off Christmas box with no requirement for a longer term subscription and I decided I could treat myself to this. The waiting began and finally, towards the end of November, the box arrived.

I'd convinced a friend to get one too, so we have been sharing regular updates on our progress through the box.

First impressions: as many others have said, it was a smaller box than expected, but it has a lot in it! I enjoyed picking through the different kits and other bits, and spent a fair bit of time playing with it before starting to make anything.

So far, I have:

Made a beaded bauble - this involved threading tiny beads with a needle, to produce a sort of net which sits and shimmers on top of a bauble. I did this first as I've never done anything like it and it looked the hardest. In fact, whilst being a bit fiddly, it wasn't that hard. I really enjoyed the technique; I think life is probably too short to craft bauble covers but I can see myself using a similar technique in other contexts. This is what I made - I love it:

Made 5 tiny pots of lip scrub, using coconut oil, sugar, honey, and the provided pots. I was quite excited about this in concept, but found it a little bit of a let down - it was a nice idea, but my scrub didn't quite work as the melting point of the coconut was too low, meaning that it melts as soon as I touch it with my finger and doesn't bring any sugar to my lips to do the scrubbing! It was also a really quick process meaning that the crafting itself wasn't particularly satisfying. Not my kind of thing really.

Made a mobile using one of the wreath rings, covered in the ribbon, with christmas tree beads and bells:

I was really pleased with this as I thought it was pretty - the beads have a really nice feel and heaviness to them. Sadly my daughter knocked it to the floor causing an irretrievable tangled mess, so I am going to have to remake it, or design something else! The beads, bells and rings were all really nice pieces.

Used the Christmas tree stickers as an advent calendar for a toddler - really quick and simple idea, with my only complaint being that there aren't enough stickers for the whole 24 days...luckily Peppa Pig is stepping into the breach! She is enjoying sticking them on each day and I think it's creating a sense of the countdown to Christmas for her:

I could probably have spent more time on the design but I was doing it on 1st December!

Used half of the felt tree decorations kit to make this bauble:

I liked the concept of a felt tree decorations kit but would have liked more exciting felt colours - mine were brown and green which didn't inspire me particularly, especially in combination with pink embroidery thread! I have a Christmas tree in progress though.

There are also 3 wooden die cut snowflakes which I've threaded up and hung on the tree - not my most imaginative moment.

That's all I've made so far. There are two sheets of really pretty Christmas paper, which I intend to make into cornucopia - little cones with a handle to fill with sweets and hang on the tree. There are also two little gift boxes which I will make when I do my wrapping (already mentally allocated to particular presents), and three card templates - haven't quite decided what to do with those yet. Oh, and I have more Christmas trees, bells, and another wreath ring!

Overall, I have really enjoyed playing with the box and deciding how to use the contents. I would have preferred a paper or fabric based kit in place of the lip scrub one, and a slightly more coordinated felt kit but it has felt like money well spent and I will go back for more when I have more crafting time!

HR Dilemmas from children's TV: Miss Rabbit

For the second in this occasional series, I want to look into the mysterious employment status of Miss Rabbit.

Peppa Pig features large in our house, so I have had plenty of opportunity to study this. For the uninitiated, Miss Rabbit runs the supermarket, the rescue helicopter, the train, the bus, the museum gift shop, the space attraction, the kiosk at Duck World, the ice cream van...the list goes on. For me, this raised a few issues, but I am going to focus on Miss Rabbit's employment status. We'll leave consideration of Miss Rabbit and the Working Time Directive, and the discrimination which is clearly preventing married women from holding down a job for another time!

Miss Rabbit appears to work every hour of the day, running pretty much all of the service industry. How can she be employed in so many places at once? There are a number of options:

1) Everything is owned by a single organisation; Miss Rabbit is employed by the umbrella company and deployed on a just-in-time basis. If this is the case, I'd recommend that the organisation looks at their resource and contingency planning, and considers some succession planning / flight risk analysis. On the one occasion where Miss Rabbit is sick, she has to organise her own cover and send her sister (Mrs Rabbit, just in case you wondered!) in to cover all of her jobs for the day. Everything falls apart. An organisation relying solely on one person for success is heading for trouble at some point.

2) Each business is owned by a different organisation; Miss Rabbit is freelance, operating under her own limited company, and invoicing them for time spent. This explains her ability to leap between roles wherever she is required. However, if this is the case, the businesses are exposing themselves to potential risk in the event of an HMRC audit: Miss Rabbit appears to hold a key role in each organisation and it is difficult to see how she could avoid being viewed as an employee, potentially incurring tax and NI liabilities going back to at least 2003. It is also unlikely to be the most cost-effective resourcing method; Miss Rabbit is likely to command a high day rate as she seems to be the only person available for work, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around to validate her invoices and timesheets.

3) Each business is owned by a different organisation, employing Miss Rabbit on zero hours contracts, so that they can just deploy her as needed. A zero hours contract creates an employment relationship, without requiring the employer to commit to a specific volume or pattern of work. It can be viewed as exploitative, potentially demanding commitment from the worker without offering any security. It would also be difficult to manage, and each organisation would need to be aware that Miss Rabbit was accruing annual leave as she worked, and to allow her to take this. Miss Rabbit may view this arrangement as beneficial to her - she is free to hold a number of jobs, although clashes appear to be likely, and it is lucky that there appears to be a community agreement to all travel to work at the same time on the single bus journey of the morning. I presume that on the day she drives the school bus for the trip to the mountains, everyone is happy to find a different route to work! I would urge the businesses, in this situation, to consider whether zero hours contract are the best way to go; they can seem an easy alternative to workload and resource analysis and planning, but increased loyalty and quality commitment could be achieved by offering fixed work patterns.

4) Miss Rabbit owns all of the businesses, and is operating on a shoestring. As the owner of a collection of small businesses, she may feel that she can't afford to employ others on a temporary or permanent basis. However, her businesses may be suffering; if more fully staffed, it is likely that sales in each area would increase, as they would cater more conveniently for the needs of the community. She could consider starting some sort of childcare business (which doesn't appear to currently exist, except for pre-school for a few hours each day), and create childcare capacity which would potentially free Mummy Pig, Mrs Zebra, Mrs Elephant and so on to seek part time work outside the home, should they wish to do so. There is an untapped pool of potentially skilled and keen workers, who are likely to want to work on a part time basis, thus not incurring the cost of full time employees. This would reduce the vulnerability of the businesses, reduce reliance on her, and leave her with more leisure time to enjoy the profits of her work (although it's unclear what she would spend her time doing as she appears to be the only single, childless adult in the community!).

5) We all know how rabbits breed..."Miss Rabbit" may in fact be multiple rabbits, each with a separate full time job, but no-one has noticed because the Rabbit family look so alike (a cynic may think that Miss Rabbit and Mrs Rabbit were in fact the same drawing). In which case, straightforward employment status, and a community that doesn't realise it is overrun by rabbits.

What do you think? I suspect it is 5!

HR Dilemmas from children's TV: Postman Pat

I think this will be the first in an occasional series on the HR dilemmas presented by characters on children's TV. It was inspired by Postman Pat so we will consider him first.

Having recently watched more episodes of Postman Pat than I care to admit, it struck me that there is a theme. Each day, Pat attempts to deliver one thing, generally messes up / loses it, but eventually manages to get the item there in the nick of time.

This raised, for me, a number of people management questions.

Is Pat deeply incompetent, and getting away with it, or succeeding against all the odds?
How could his productivity be improved so that he can make more than one special delivery per day?
Could resources be better deployed: he has a van, a helicopter, and a jeep (at least) assigned to his sole use?
What happens to all the parcels we see coming through the mail centre if he is only delivering one per day? Is there actually an army of less photogenic (a frightening thought) of mail delivery professionals handling the rest, leaving the tricky ones to Pat?
If Pat's performance is an issue, how should it be managed - is it capability or conduct?

Firstly, we should have a look at the expectations which have been set. Has Pat been asked to focus on the careful delivery of a limited number of special items, or would it be reasonable to expect him to deliver more? Has a precedent been set so that he believes he is achieving what is required?
Secondly, we should investigate the circumstances around the bodged deliveries. What were the commercial and reputational impacts of Pat's inability to deliver a parcel without some form of mishap? Has he actually lost or seriously damaged anything, or are they all near-misses? If all near-misses, what is the potential impact, and is this serious enough in itself to require some sort of disciplinary or performance management action?
Thirdly, why is it happening? Does Pat need more training? Is he aware that it is a criminal offence to open someone else's mail? Does he know how to adequately secure the van so that items don't fall out? Has he been trained on securing parcels within the van so that items don't break? Or is he just too busy trying to control the domestic animal that he carries around with him to concentrate on what he should be doing?

Armed with the answers to these questions, I would recommend an informal conversation to begin with, between Pat and his line manager (invisible - regular one to ones clearly aren't in place). Clear expectations should be set. If no improvement is seen, a formal process should begin. This could either be a disciplinary process (if we believe that Pat has been adequately trained and instructed, and is not following procedure - i.e. conduct), or make use of a performance management process.

Following each step of the procedure, objectives and a review date should be set, and regularly reviewed. If things improve, and Pat achieves the objectives, excellent news: the people of Greendale will benefit from an improved postal service. If he doesn't pick up the pace, improve the quality of the delivery, and gain better control of his cat...well, once the appropriate steps of the procedure had been followed, I would dismiss him.

Yes, that's right.

I would sack Postman Pat. What would you do?

In praise of 2 year olds

It's really easy to get into the habit of complaining about terrible twos/tantrums/early starts/being tired all the time. I have to confess that our terrible-2-year-old is not so terrible, as they go, although she has her moments. And, a more embarrassing confession, I have been inspired to write this post by watching DIY SOS this week. **hides face in shame**

Still with me? The family featured on DIY SOS had twins born really prematurely, leaving one with cerebral palsy, who will never sit let alone move unaided, and one less ill but still fragile. They reminded me that while life with a small child may feel hard sometimes, my life is a breeze compared to families who go through that kind of illness or difficulty, whether in the short or long term. So I thought, time to celebrate a few of the things which are amazing about 2 year olds.

Like seeing the wonders of the world - as Rachel's bath drained tonight, she lay in it watching the way the water spiralled down the plughole, absolutely fascinated. When I stop trying to rush her from one place to another, it's so nice to be part of the process of learning about the world and the way she wonders at it!

The start of conversation - when speech suddenly moves from disjointed words into full sentences and you have a little person you can chat with! Particularly hearing Rachel have a conversation on the phone with Daddy when he's not going to be home until after she goes to bed.

Singing...waking up at 6am is sweetened by the fact that we are generally woken by a rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Every time she sees a bus she sings Wheels on the Bus (all verses). She sings songs I don't even know (bonus of nursery!), and is generally word perfect after just a couple of times of hearing a song.

Reading and books...whilst I've always been pretty convinced of the benefits of reading (possible understatement, see other blog!), we are already starting to see the impact of reading. Rachel knows words and phrases that she can only have picked up from reading (phrase of the day: Something smells delicious! as her tea cooked), and is starting to recite books along with us when we read them. Sometimes she even recites books when she doesn't have the book in front of her.It's cute, but it's also reassuring that there is a point to spending time doing these things!

Relationships...not only does she ask to see adults, family, etc, but this is the age where you start to see real little friendships starting with other children. It's just so nice to see your child choosing to play with your friends' children, and starting to interact rather than simply playing alongside.

Imaginative play - I didn't realise it started this early, but Rachel can play pretend games for hours, whether it be dolls house, happy land, or pretending to go to sleep/wakeup/sleep/wakeup etc time after time under a makeshift duvet!

So, amongst tantrums (don't want to put shoes on, haven't got shoes on, have got the wrong shoes on...) I think 2 is a great age so far. And a pretty beautiful one too: