Two calls in one day February 11, 2010
Posted by Liz Mead in : Coming Back , 1 comment so farI have a brother in law battling cancer – he spent the day in hospital and it was his birthday – you could put all sort of labels on that – extraordinary, sad, lonely, karmic or just shitty.
On the same day I get a call from a good friend battling a challenging work situation – for him this day, 11 February, was an exciting reportable day – a day to ring a friend, a day to regroup, to gather forces to make sense of things. To take stock.
Each day, on an average, we take at least 30 calls from strangers, friends, recovered pals, Indian call centres, real estate agents, car repairers, sisters, work mates and possibly random accidental calls like the people who emailed you when they should have sent their message to someone else and rang to apologise.
Or the older compatriot who picked a fight the day before and needed reassurance that their tone was not too overkill and necessitated calling up personally even though a phone call wouldn’t replace personal interaction and the chance to diagnose body language.
Or the follow up sms from i-phone emails first thing this morning (because you seem to lose all etiquette when it comes to I-phone apps) to confirm the weekend movie session or luncheon location. Calls that feel as familiar and real as if heard by voice over the phone. Everything merges – the boundary blurs. We are, in many instances, on automatic pilot.
Every day something’s coming in – we either want or don’t want; we either allow or restrict. Like a restructure that brings us closer to the thing we rejected ages before. Or an estimation of value on a thing we’d invested much more than money into. Or a surprising drive to work when someone else in the driving seat enables one to relax into the concept of trust, of gratefulness and of surrender. To share their just about to begin adventure into Positano and Florence. A drive to witness their lives- now that’s a treat.
These days, on the day – someone new wants to follow you on twitter, or connect on facebook or linked-in. And on these days I play my part in equal part, inviting people to join me on linked-in or twitter; unseemingly chasing a number that equates with successful social skilling.
On this day 11 February at 20.30 in Sydney Australia all I know is that this allowing, restricting, directing, canvassing, receiving, acknowledging, mining, retrieving, researching, consolidating, reassuring, and consoling has buggered me completely.
I’m knackered – and I’ve no real reason to be so tired except that I was alive on 11 February 2010 in this fabulous city of mine on a day with no fires no rain no hail and no snow and that sort of balance sheet costs something.
I’m also happy that right now, as I write this and breath in and out, my darling brother in law does so with me and lives with the violence of love and faith and trust that binds us across time, cities and belief structures. And that right now, my friend, all my friends, online off line, in line or out of step are rising to the challenge to breathe at the same rate as each other.
Om shanti
Making magic magical and work workable September 1, 2008
Posted by Liz Mead in : Matters Blue , add a commentI have a visionary friend: an entrepreneur and a cultivator of talents in others. He sees what others can’t sometimes, because he works with generosity and talent and he takes his time. And I have a talented friend who is caring and nurturing of others. She works often “unwitnessed” to change the lives of others in tangible and sustaining ways. One day I brought them together and we made magic.
I like to think of my friend, James being at the pointy end of communication. He uses new media to sharpen and re-work old practices.
For instance we have the age old practice of needing to inform others of something newsy. But our audience is either chasing a clock or moving around so much we can’t reach them. We get our information “on the run”. There’s nothing new here, but James has been mulling over the idea of using new media in a sustainable way within corporations - enabling them to run it for themselves. Visionary and nurturing. It makes good business sense as well.
My friend Martha is at the educating end of communication, perhaps even the “warm and fuzzy” end. As an entrepreneur, she works for herself. Her services utilise programming techniques like Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), hypnosis, time-line therapy, huna, engagement skills, selling skills and stories to help others remove barriers and limiting beliefs to get them out of bad habits. In this way she helps them improve their performance across all facets of their life. And to be free of the need for trainers and coaches like herself. Nurturing and visionary.
Last friday we bought the two together and made a series of podcasts at James’ fabulous network studio. And voila the first of a series of great talks is avaliable on his Lifestyle PodNetwork. The podcast is called Making Work Work. Its core message is to enable people to get over the barriers they put up, and reach their true potential. By putting these two people together, James got to push Martha’s message out to more people in a new way.
Who yet knows who will listen to this new podcast? Who will subscribe to Making Work Work? Is it a niche market of trainers? HR Specialists? Or is it a technical savant checking out the latest podcast products? Or is it the person, chasing the clock, driving home listening in their car and questioning why they even went to work at all – given the nightmare day they’ve had! Whoever it is, they get to hear some profound and helpful messages in a digestable time savvy way.
I love to work with James. I rush in and he waits. I keep hitting my head against a brick wall, because people aren’t ready, are too scared, don’t understand, or it’s a lousy idea…. whatever. On the other hand, James prefers to envision a project from start to finish even before he takes the first step. When he steps though, it is fast, and appears to the outsider, in this case, Martha, as seemingly effortless.
By now I’m quite used to how he works. It’s as if he gestates ideas, Sometimes there’s no sign of movement, as if in his Leo-nine way, he’s lying asleep in the sun, with only a flicking tail, waving away the flies who buzz: ”is it ready?” “What do you think”, ”should we do it now”, ”can you fix this here” “can you do that over there” What about a blog for the boss?”, ”what about a new website to fix communication”, ”what about…..”.
He stays quite still, non-reactive, thoughtful. Nothing for a while, then springing into action, he lifts off with a comprehensive leap right across the program: to link this to that, put that over there, move that piece under there to shift this one over here. And it works, because it’s been mulled over, chewed over, sat with and envisioned. If you ignore the flies, you save your energy and secure the entire carcass with one big bite!
That’s why when Martha arrived at 9.30 in the morning and left at 4.30 that afternoon, with no idea of what a podcast was, let alone what she’d say, and how it was done, we were able to record 5 engaging, interesting and believable shows with cogent messages, branded, posted and live by the start of the next day. Inspiring, easy and fun.
I am looking forward to the new communication podcast, he and I will be recording each Friday. It’s linked to our Working with Sparkle blog. We are meeting together at the end of each week to discuss the week at work – what we did, how we did it and whether it worked. A sort of a week wrap. I’ll probably buzz like I always do, and he’ll probably ruminate like he always does. By looking at the week just gone, we’ll keep it anchored to stuff that resonates with other practitioners. We’ll keep it real.
A sort of magical reality, though.
I have a wonderful nephew May 16, 2008
Posted by Liz Mead in : Coming Back , add a commentI had a farm in Africa… well actually I had dinner in Athens, in the Plaka, with my most extraordinary nephew!
We are thousands of miles from home. I am holidaying in Athens with my twin sister and her twins, Michael and Georgie, our closest girlfriend Rosey, my beautiful niece Madeline and tomorrow my sister Gabby.
So wer’e here miles from home and we are counting every blessing, every sight, every sound and every part of the story.
We spent the day in Delphi. Well my sister, Cate, Rosey and I went to visit the Oracle, whose advice “know thyself, and “no excess” (what dumb advice is that!) made us gob-smacked with awe, so much so that all we could do – on the return to Athens was retreat to a quiet taverna, order a gin and review the photos and mental shapshots of the day.
How do you explain to your dinner companions what it was that made you cry at Delphi? How do you translate that moment of gob-smacking, oh-my-god-I’m really here- response to hearing the guide say “down to your right is the road where Oedipus met and killed his father”. How do you explain why you want the Oracle to tell you, in 2008 what you you should be doing with the rest of your life?
It was my nephew who asked me “what was it that was so special about Delphi”?
“It was my nephew who “tweeted” with me today – and read what I saw at Dephi (while I was seeing it)
It was my nephew who offered to show me and Rosey around Lycabettus Hill tomorrow,
And it was my nephew- who at 4 years old told me to “go home to Australia and find myself a husband” (which, for you disbelievers, I did!).
It was my nephew who get’s what moved me today, who sees me in pursuit of gnosis and beauty.
I love you kid.
