Writing – Page 2 – Colins Street

01/09/202001/09/2020

Remote Working in the ‘Covid Upside-Down’

This Linkedin article is a piece I wrote with input from a client, reflecting their professional experience.

If one thing has become clear in the post-COVID world of work, it’s the notion that we may never work the same way again. If that is true, even for the foreseeable, I ask myself:

How should we motivate teams, maintain purpose, achieve goals and look after one-another?

I’ve seen a renewed focus on strengthening management structures to support colleagues and teams. This includes:

- reviewing effectiveness of reporting lines,
- regular ‘check-ins’,
- virtual mentorship,
- clear signposting and communication, and
- increased support and guidance to mitigate distance.

Everyone in the project team (me included), must understand evolving goals and aims. Managing roles and expectations and adapting them to be COVID-realistic is a must, this was especially true here in Melbourne where we have experienced a second wave with more stringent restrictions.

There’s a shift of emphasis in working dynamics. Working through the ‘COVID Upside Down’ is about employing the management techniques and tools we already know. It only requires a change of emphasis in how we deploy them and relate to our colleagues. It’s important teams are given the encouragement to step-up and engage, however it can’t all come from the top down and in truth few people want that kind of environment.

Team building is at the heart of what I do and has never been more important. Addressing known barriers and resolving misunderstandings early is a focus. Not letting problems snowball when we are remote from one another, requires effort.

Remote meetings and interactions have obviously changed. Meetings must become smarter: conceived, structured and facilitated in ways that ensure remote effectiveness. Everyone must be brought into the debate and if old formats do not work, ditch them; for example:

- avoid webcam fatigue by using alternatives like messenger, Teams chat or WhatsApp,
- talk wherever you can to improve connectivity with colleagues and stakeholders. Pick up the phone,
- use operational logs, remote forums, digital information boards and other technical aids to keep notes that can be accessed by all,
- diversifying engagement: we recently progressed stakeholder relations via FaceBook Q&As, as well as taking a digital stall at a virtual conference.

How we relate to one other is most important. Motivating ourselves through tough times requires thought and effort. My company has used support-strategies like pastoral calls and informal buddy systems. We have arranged digital socials, bringing us together for quizzes, end of week talks and banter. The key is offering colleagues a chance to not feel alone, when there is danger that any of us may become isolated. Acts of appreciation can play a part in maintaining morale; for example, in a lovely gesture, my company sent colleagues a home-hamper to acknowledge the resolve they had shown. It wasn’t about the gift, as much as it was about the recognition of effort.

Being ‘COVID-collegiate’ is something we must all focus on. Offering and seeking help, when needed, is an important aspect of ensuring we all operate safely. Compassion and understanding are needed, as the personal challenges can be different for each of us. These are tough times for us all. It’s especially important we remember that distanced-working brings different challenges – depending on our home setups. National and regional variations also create different conditions. Professionally, we need to be realistic and accept the challenges of a working world that is (for now) not the same as it was.

Find balance in the COVID Upside Down. It is incumbent on each of us to not overload ourselves or others. My temptation to over-meet, over-manage and over-control against the backdrop of a crisis, is strong. But with awareness, it can be overcome. Remote working, while great for some, is challenging for others. In my own experience, delineating between work-life and home-life, while working every day within the home is tough. It’s hard to escape that computer. The novelty of working at home was fun for a while, but now after many months, that novelty has worn thin. I struggle to escape from work and achieve necessary down-time. There is no judgement. We are all different people. We must try to achieve the balance that is best for our individual health.

It’s going to be a long-game. Finding the clutch-point that will progress our goals but avoid burn-out or drop-out, is crucial.

It’s not all bad. There are fantastic positives, as colleagues support one another and raise their game to meet the challenges. Life in the ‘COVID Upside Down’ is about finding the balance, utilising the relationships, techniques and technologies, that help us all reach our goals and maintain health.

It has been a very strange time for us all but having worked out of Melbourne (Australia’s most locked-down city), I have prepared a reflection on what has become our normal.

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Thanks to Colin Campbell for helping with the word-craft.

#remoteworking #melbourne #teambuilding #motivation #COVID19 #lockdown #newnormal #COVIDUpsideDown

24/08/202001/11/2020

The Weight of the World

This article was written for the Melbourne based arts charity, Culture Cue and can also be viewed on their pages.

The Weight of the World

Ever feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders?

Ever get that sense you’re toiling just to hold everything up? The work project, the mortgage, the bills, the commute, the boss, the kids, the in-laws … no doubt about it, there’s enough responsibilities to go around and they sure can pile up. Even the most upbeat of us feels the weight when we’re tired.

But have you ever looked around and noticed what others are carrying? They’re certainly out there, no doubt about it. No matter how easy they make it look, others carry great weight too.

I’ve been looking at the richness of Melbourne’s city environment and I’ve seen a few figures that are carrying heavy loads. Some of them might be well known, but others are true unsung heroes and heroines. They’re putting in some real shifts and holding up more than their share.

Like true battlers, you won’t hear from them, they won’t make a fuss. That’s why they deserve a shout-out, for sheer effort, for inspiration and for what they give to this great city.

A Titan of the CBD, Collins St

Halfway down grand Collins Street, a Titan (literally) of the CBD can be seen carrying the weight of the world on his broad shoulders. It’s not a CEO of industry, but mighty Atlas the legendary Titan. A bronze statue residing at 406 Collins Street, Atlas bears the world on his mighty back. Once, sat atop the old Atlas Assurance Building – back in the day – this proud giant of the ancient world, holds up the globe without ever a complaint. In our times, Atlas has been retained as a feature above the door of a modern office block.

The Titan is a sobering symbol of toil and commitment. What figure can better symbolise, fortitude, strength and solidity? As well as holding the world steady, Atlas is a reminder to any stressed executive, that they might not actually have the toughest job in the world.

In Greek classical mythology, Atlas was condemned by mighty Zeus, after the great battle of Olympians and Titans, to perpetually support the celestial heavens on his back. In later interpretations, Atlas came to be depicted as supporting the world, rather than the entire celestial sphere on his mighty shoulders. But let’s not split hairs, that’s still some weight!

The Power-Women of Old Melbourne, The Block Arcade, Elizabeth St

It’s not just muscle men that are taking the weight. Sisters are doing it for themselves.

Not far away on Elizabeth Street, we can see another impressive building where two powerful women hold up their share of responsibility, supporting the grand arch to the main Elizabeth Street façade. Above the Block Arcade, is a beautiful Victorian façade that is just one of the many impressive heritage buildings that adorn Melbourne. With Victorian modesty, elegance and real strength, you can see the two figures holding up the central arch of the grand building façade. Overlooking tram stop 2 on Elizabeth Street, these two power- women keep a clam watch over busy commuters.

Holding on by the Teeth, Flinders St

Down to Flinders Street next and another pair of heroes, perhaps brothers, are also doing their bit, supporting the grand canopy to the Rendezvous Hotel. With the bit well and truly between their teeth, these guys pull a shift every day.

Day in, and day out, these under-appreciated strongmen, do their duty and accept the job fate has given them. Often overlooked, but never complaining, they won’t say a word. These fellas take the strain with stoic fortitude.

The Strong Man of Fitzroy Gardens

The final figure of strength can be found just outside the CBD in the lovely Fitzroy Gardens. The River God is an ancient resident of Melbourne, who also has a heavy load to carry. He’s moved around a bit over the years and he wasn’t always in the gardens, but it’s a good place to go when you want to slow things down a bit … and who doesn’t want that when they get that wee bit older.

Sat aloft an outcrop of rock the muscled figure of the River God strikes a strong silhouette and provides an elegant fountain for the gardens. Dating from 1862 his original siting was on Clarendon Street and Gipps Street, before moving to the park in 1995. Bearing the weight of a massive conch shell on his powerful back, age has not diminished his physique. The River God is another figure of strength and endurance; holding up his part of civic Melbourne and providing beauty and inspiration to all that pass.

So, there it is. It’s more than just you or I that’s carrying a load. When I’m feeling tired and worn – and when I take the time to notice – some of these figures give me real inspiration. I mean, at least I don’t have to carry the actual world, or hold up a building!

I’m certain, there’s got to be plenty of other heroes and heroines out there. Do you know any others? Do you have a favourite figure who inspires and lends you their strength? Keep looking as I think they are all around us.

25/07/202018/08/2020

Noisy City

Noisy Melbourne

Have you ever stopped to listen to the city? Really listen to it in its entirety? Lifted your head and conceived of the symphony of noise that demands to be heard?

Those impatient, abrupt noises that compete for life. Only existing, only validated, if they can are heard above the din.

Noises that rudely cut across each other, jostling in their selfish desire to make their way. Barging through over-crowded space.

The sharp, cutting noises that rent the air and scream most shocking distress. Inducting others into their state of madness.

What about those low rumbling noises that fluster and bluster their laboured, ‘oh so tedious points’. Unaware – uncaring even – that no one is listening to them. They know themselves well to be bores, yet they bore on, undaunted.

And what of the angry outbursts? Those abrupt loud BANGS that forcibly interject. They will not be ignored. They will make their point! In rage they subside as quickly as they flare. Until the next time.

There are as many noises in the city as there are souls. Some loud, some, flamboyant, some soft and anonymous. All shapes and sizes, all personalities and types. It just takes a close ear to know them, but in truth, few people take the time. Other peoples noises are not their business.

Why don’t you stop and listen to them, next time you are in the city?

But remember – and keep this to yourself – listening for noises is something best done on your own. Noises can be self-conscious. More than a few hide furtively when everyone stops to listen.

25/07/202016/08/2020

Mr Pip

Mr Pip Snores

Mr Pip was a much-loved pal and family member, sadly taken far too young.

Always loved and forever remembered, his antics still make me smile to this day. He was a pup of great expectations and even greater character. We are so grateful to have known him and so sorry he is gone.

N.B. Mr Pip became something of a celebrity in his day and operated a very popular Twitter feed (not easy when you have no thumbs). His Vines were particularly popular and accrued a total viewing count of over 3 million views!

24/07/202014/08/2020

Hitting the Skids

We all ‘hit the skids’ at some point. That’s an inevitable fact. It should be expected and when it happens, it must be accepted.

However, what is truly shocking, is not that challenges come along and destabilise our lives, but that more than often, real signs of our impending catastrophe were actually all around us.

The signs were there! Sometimes many of them. In big bold colours. Some of them were even FLASHING. Yet we simply did not see or recognise them. Those signs did not – perhaps could not – prevent the catastrophe that awaited us.

Like many, when I have experienced real reversal or hardship in my life, I have revisited situations in my mind, only to realise – most shockingly – that the signs of impending disaster were indeed all around me. They were prominently displayed and they all screamed their messages of warning. The signs were doing their job, if only I had been able to recognise them.

There is no bitterness towards anything that has made me who I am – that’s the acceptance part – but it’s never wasted effort to become a better reader of the signs.

I suspect that is a true lifetimes work.

21/07/202016/08/2020

All Just Words

I put it to you sir, that you suffer from that most unfortunate condition of wordiness.

You are verbose sir!

Your discourse is slave to the misfortune of prolix. Your ideas are clearly chattel to a great weight of verbiage. Your explanations, rambling in nature, are lengthy, protracted and tortuous.

The diatribe you unleash, on innocent listeners, is digressive, meandering, long-winded and diffuse. You’re rambling, discursive nature is repetitious, digressive and disorientating. The pleonastic style of your thinking is circumlocutory, long-winded, loquacious and tedious in the extreme.

In discourse, you are by reputation most garrulous, your conversation achieving for you the status of a waffler! A chatter-box, a blabber-mouth, a windbag, a gasbag, a talker, a jabberer, a blabberer and a motor-mouth.

In short sir, your tautological tendencies are the despair of all who meet you.

You are too wordy sir!

What say you?

Though I hardly dare seek a response, how do you answer the charge?

05/06/202005/11/2020

Looking for Signs

21/05/202014/08/2020

STOP – Having Children

Melbourne has more than its fair share of interesting and colourful signs. As someone who only moved to Australia relatively recently, I think part of my fascination with Australian signs is that they are unfamiliar to me. I did not grow up with their colours, shapes or styles and in that sense I find them culturally and aesthetically very interesting.

I think signs can tell us much more about a culture than just the intended utilitarian messages that they convey.

In addition to that we have here the ‘adapted sign’ which is also a feature of Melbourne. That in itself lends a whole a new dimension. Most of the adapted sign’s I’ve seen are too raw to post, but this one was tame and made me chuckle when I saw it.

[P.S. I have no personal position on how many kids anyone has, that’s up to them.]

19/05/202001/09/2020

Letter from a Stoic – On Foreign Travel

Context: This is a letter exercise that I undertook for the Melbourne Stoic Group, written in the style of Seneca the Younger. The excercise asked for a focus on ancient Stoic virtues and principles, but within a contemporary modern context.

My Dear Friend,

You email for news of my journey and through your words, I am fondly reminded of our warm friendship. My travels have indeed brought me to the other side of the world and I have experienced many new and wonderful lands, filled with exotic animals, new peoples and strange customs. I have witnessed much to be sure, but I remain the true and constant friend that you knew from days gone by.

Travel, to be sure, can awaken growth and learning within the thoughtful, but it does not of itself imbue one with great growth or learning. It does not make one a wiser man, a kinder soul or a more moderate presence. For, the attainment of those virtues requires an altogether deeper journey from that which men look for abroad.

How many are those that one meets in the street, who define themselves, their very identity, as the embodiment of exotic and wonderful travels? How wise are they, who never satisfied, continue ‘to bag’ as many far-off places as they can? A collection of trophy-backdrops to be bagged for social media. Their constant travels lending only the semblance of depth, refinement, attractiveness and sophistication? “Kudos to X” you will hear in the market, “do you know how many places they have been?” Never settling, never reflecting and never truly learning of their true nature within. Those souls are destined to wander widely on this earth, but in fact to travel very little.

One can purchase far flung journeys, like any common commodity. Just another ‘product’ from the market. In an age of travel-consumerism we are sold immersion travel and experiential holidays.  But are not all of us immersed in life? True life. Do we not all experience it? Must mass-marketed experiences be purchased at all, by those that truly live?

If you hope buying travel will make you more interesting, you must think again. In that regard, one might as well seek to buy love, wisdom or happiness. Any commodity! Many claim to sell the genuine goods, but true values are hard to find and cheap foreign ‘knock-offs’ flood the marketplace. All too easy and meaningless to acquire. Yet still the lost soul seeks them, with those who adorn themselves with travel, being really no different from those that might buy a fancy coat, or a fine shirt. Wonderful in appearance they may be, but they are of appearance only. The imperfect body beneath, just like the imperfect self, remains unaddressed. That naked self beneath, is no more virtuous, no more interesting and no more wise form the adornment of fine clothes, or fine travels.

“Oh, but we went to find ourselves” you will hear the chorus chime.  Though did you really need to travel for that? Could you not have agreed to meet yourselves more locally?  You would have saved much time and money. You would have saved the planet something and reduced your carbon footprint. “But hey! Just to check. Did you attempt at all, to find yourself, before you left?” Or is it easier to find one’s true self in hot weather, at a nice hotel, by a lovely beach or a pool?  Just asking.

And how much travel is enough for the unfulfilled soul? How restless and relentless becomes the insatiable desire of a troubled mind to keep seeking new lands, new mountains and new cities? Each one offering nothing more than temporary distraction from the inner self. Each one offering but a fleeting respite from reality. While the greater journey, the true journey within, remains un-begun.

Most do not journey to find themselves, alas, they travel in order to lose themselves. A short distraction from our lives as they truly are.  To travel in the hope of escaping oneself is the horizon that never gets closer. An endless journey. You are destined to meet your same self on many landings and on many foreign shores. A kind of holiday Groundhog day. How disappointed are they, who, on escaping their own problems and wretchedness, is perpetually greeted in each new port by their very own, troubled self? Guided through foreign lands by the same avarice, fears, ignorance and selfishness. Poor travel companions indeed. Companions one would rather leave at home. Travel does not moderate a person, it does not curb the temper, end one’s selfishness, or in itself impart new wisdom. It makes no better, no saner, no less flawed you. A runaway you might be, but you are still the slave.

Some say they travel to experience new culture, but who these days cannot experience all the exotic flavours of the world, in their very own home? Who cannot appreciate the iconic sights and sounds of the world, with just the click of a mouse? Who cannot, if they really chose to, meet and speak with refugees or immigrants from any far-flung corner of the globe? Yet how many really seek to do that?

“Ah, but it’s not at all the same as being there” the chorus rallies. Though who can even get close to the great sights of the world these days? When legions of tourists lay siege the places they seek to appreciate. When wooded groves, pristine coasts and tropical jungles all succumb to invasion. Buried under soulless hotels, visitor centres and concrete carparks. What reflective being can rejoice to see the very last native animals of this earth laying as roadkill, while tourists drive mindlessly in cars to conservation parks in search of ‘wildlife’?

What wisdom does ‘blind’ travel offer? The greatest cultural sights of our world obscured by forests of smartphones and tablets, all held aloft. Impenetrable.  All capturing blurry imperfect shots. All pursued in the travellers’ portrayal of a perfect digital life on Facebook or Instagram. Snaps that validate the owners’ digital worth. Trophy hunters capturing just another commodity. Just another consumer experience. Would the experience be as valued, were it not so conspicuous to others?  Yes, I also was at that place, the place that everyone has to go.  “Yes, we’ve done Rome.”  “Yes, we did Angkor Wat” “Yes, we’re doing Vegas next year”. “The Mona Lisa, the Taj Mahal, they’re all on the bucket-list.”  All going on my Facebook. All going on my Instagram. One has to be accepted by the tribe.

“Yet, travel broadens the mind”  I hear the descant. Surely it has that value? The great hero Odysseus was not praised amongst the Greeks for travelling to the edge of the world. No, he was lauded for his forbearance and resolve, for never giving up and persevering through epic challenge. For resolute desire to battle homewards. It was his virtues and not his travels that made him a hero. He was no pleasure tourist, but a wretched exile, a shipwrecked sailor and the plaything of fortune. Discomfort, ruin, risk and hardship were his guides, for manliness develops much strength from challenges. Travel in distant lands provides but a backdrop to true wisdom, just as any home city might, but that backdrop of itself, is immaterial. It is not the genesis of virtue and wisdom. Those only come from within.

You cannot outrun yourself by fleeing to far flung shores, you will always be met by your failings.  You can at best distract yourself and inevitably you just exchange the backdrop to your suffering.  I would not wish myself a well-travelled man, if I had failed to make that greater journey within. We must seek inner wisdom. Without self-reflection and the reference to wiser thinking, exotic temples and foreign mountains are but a distraction from the un-enlightened state.

Salutations Dear Friend

P.S. Enjoy that next holiday when it comes around.