Hello 2016 pleased to meet you

It is the time of year when commentators, consultants, “futurologists” (whatever they are) and those with more time to chatter than those who must do, rise up to share their predictions for the year ahead.

I am one of those people. I’ve not had a proper job for years. I seem to swan about making a nuisance of myself and hoping that a few people may stop long enough to have a conversation. I sometimes reflect that being a consultant is quite a needy way to make a living. The only certainty really is that if I do nothing, nothing happens. I guess we can call that a well defined focus if nothing else.

So what have I got to say at the start of a brand new year? The challenge for a New Year article is how to compete with all the others and not sound a bit of a twerp, especially a needy twerp. I have now read lots of them and they broadly fall into three categories: 1) We are all doomed 2) Isn’t it great, look at my robot, or 3) Can we have a group hug and play nicely.

My contribution however is not about these three things. I don’t really believe them. For a start we’re not all doomed. Our worlds are less about revolution, more about trundling along. Second it isn’t “great” for most people and if it is “great” for a few that will probably change. Being “Ok” should be the summit of our ambition and if it is currently “ok” for you then thank your lucky stars. By the way, if you have a robot, unwind yourself from your own self-regard; you may have the latest “thing” today, but someone else will have another latest thing tomorrow. Finally, yes we can of course have a group hug and we should all play nicely, but don’t pretend it changes much. It just makes one shit day a little bit less shit.

So, scene set for an uplifting read, I wanted to share a few brief thoughts about why I am grateful for my world and what I take from it right now. It isn’t a wish list or a call to arms; it isn’t clever and it doesn’t involve promiscuous use of acronyms.

1. The people who you most want to work with are more likely to ask for your help if you are not a prize tit. It is quite easy to be one if you have an answer looking for a question; or if you constantly interrupt their reflective dissatisfaction in the way of someone who has gate-crashed a wake in a fancy dress costume.

2. No one really cares about your development, your career, your ideas or any of your issues until you appear before them as a rounded human being. This generally means that you have been kind, funny and/or useful. Useful is quite important, being kind much more so. Funny counts less than useful or kind, but helps given that most things have the potential to be a bit shit.

3. The difference between being useful and not is less about talent (although obviously a bit of talent helps) and more about timing. Timing isn’t about luck (although a bit of luck helps too). Timing is about listening. So my best advice, which I try to follow myself, is to shut-up, tune-in and offer to help.

4. Following the crowd can feel comfortable; there is safety in numbers and all that, but crowds may also obscure your view. If you are happy looking at the backs of heads then stay in the pack, but sometimes it is better to look in different less populated places. Not just for new ideas or new thinking, but to be honest about what you want and how you want it. My slightly hippy-shit notion is that it is a properly good experience to challenge one’s own conventions first before bleating on too evangelically about challenging the conventions others may hold dear.

5. Finally, in my opinion, it is quite the best achievement in work and, for that matter in life, to make a positive difference to another person. Making money, seeking status, hoping for praise are all a part of what we want at some level, but if we make these things our entire focus we slowly drift to the shallow end. If our focus is on the difference people feel when they work with us, then we have a fighting chance of doing something quite special and not being grumpy as hell this time next year when I write another bloody New Year message.

Anyway, enough of my din… I hope, whatever the year may bring you, your truly rubbish days will be few and your irritations will reduce in number and intensity. I also hope that you will not just glimpse the blurred outline of opportunity as you rush by in a race with your talent.

Take care.

Paul