Development Culture vs Bonus Culture

So.

The sole strategy of investment banking and other companies relating to the financial markets for finding and retaining effective people, ie. stuffing ever larger quantities of cash down their throats and hoping to produce ‘foie gras’ performance, has been found wanting.

Performance has indeed often been ‘high’ but resulting in heroic value destruction. At some point, I believe during the mid-late 1990′s, there was a de-coupling of reward from recognition of risk. So performance and productivity of business units and individuals was measured only on the ‘upside’, and when the bubble bursts….

There’s nothing wrong with hard-working and creative people being rewarded richly for entrepreneurial wealth creation – it’s been happening for centuries. Dreams provide incentive, and we need dreamers and leaders in our system. But an institutionalised mega-salary and bonus structure is fundamentally different to true equity risk where identity, passion and purpose is inextricably linked with fortune or bankruptcy. It’s just institutionalised greed and, as a result, ‘investment banker’ is now seen as an insult rather than a term of admiration. Which is a shame because there are a lot of very capable, hard-working people involved – including some good friends of mine – and I don’t believe their intention was ever to be seen as an embarrassment to their family, or their society.

However, there is an opportunity for a more sustainable culture to emerge which can once again bring the best out of these resourceful and motivated folk. And the clues for this can be found in some research from many years back by Herzberg who identified that, in the workplace, there are ‘motivational’ factors and ‘hygiene’ factors. The latter are things like salary, bonus, job security, company policy and relationships with co-workers – which give dissatisfaction when they are absent – whilst positive satisfaction arises from the motivators, which include achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth and the fulfilment of the work itself.

Now, Herzberg’s work has been superceded in some ways over the the past 50 years, but at its core it seems essentially true to me. And so I look to growth, fulfilment and achievement as an alternative mantra for institutions in the financial markets to find and retain the good people we need to get us through and out of this almighty mess. There is a need to foster an environment where identity, passion and purpose can flourish at both an individual and systemic level and where the reward is growth (including of wealth and fulfilment and capability) rather than just incomprehensible quantities of cash.

The first step is awareness – so if you agree with this, please help spread the word!

Wisdom Dice

This week I have been inspired from an unexpected source – a poem from a friend titled, ‘Conversation, that’s my drug’. I will leave it to him to decide whether or not to share his poem and his identity as a comment on this blog! I hope so.

Anyway, I found myself ashamed that I hadn’t got in touch with this warm-hearted friend in over a year. I hadn’t found time for him because I have been focused on building my business and, despite connecting with all sorts of contacts and friends over the past year, rather than *seeing* him as a source of friendship and thoughtful stimulation, I *didn’t see* him as a potentially useful contact for business. He is a bit like a human bumper car because his eyesight is failing him – but perhaps it’s me who could see things better.

So this poem got me thinking about all those times when my conversations stay at a superficial level, often appropriately. But maybe life can be richer if more of those chats (and more time) was spent exploring more meaningful subjects.

With a little help from a couple of books I have read (see below) and some thinking time in the bath, I came up with an idea for randomly stimulating deeper conversations: Wisdom Dice -one with 6 challenging concepts, the other more aspirational. It’s important to use both at once, and whatever two subjects come up, that’s what you have to include in your conversation. Simple. You can give yourself time limits if you want and then roll the dice again! Why not make some up and give it a go – I’d love to hear how it goes!

Here are my suggestions for what to put on the dice:
1. Meaningless; Complicity; Aloneness; Death; Expertise; Judgement
2. Uniqueness; Belonging; Purpose; Freedom; Accepting; Noticing

nb. I accept no liability for any tears, anger, hugs, laughter, love or energy which may result from using these powerful dice.

Take care

Books:
‘Love’s Executioner and other tales of Psychotherapy’ – Irvin Yalom
‘The Dice Man’ – Luke Rhinehart

A conversation with my pelvis

I’m having a conversation with my pelvis
which is a new experience
and I don’t know where
to start
I’m feeling rather tongue-tied
and prone to inappropriate questions
that really aren’t connecting
or creating ‘rapport’
with my pelvis.

For a start
I don’t know what language to use
words or feelings
or pictures
or something altogether more abstract
maybe movement
or relaxation

relaxation

yes
I think
that’s it

a gentle lowering into calm
and peace
and then quiet
and still

quiet and still

don’t hurry to ask

listen

notice

emerge

and what is it you want to say?

“I want to dance”

“I want to move freely”

“I want to love and be loved. I want to be released
to heal
and to be alive”

“Can you help me?”

How amazing is the raisin

How amazing is the raisin

in comparison to all of us.
It’s such a tiny fruit
but with steep hills
and dark valleys,
gorges and ravines
too, rugged and soft
like a volcanic island in the tropics,
seen from the air,
its sensual richness hidden
beneath the canopy.
And the skin of my palm can feel
the touch
of its highest mountains.

And when I’m raising the raisin
to my lips
I appreciate its sacrifice,
the generous cycle
of an offering of sustenance
in exchange for distribution
to an unknown place
and a fertile landing.

In appraising the raisin
in my mouth,
with my tongue, the tip
of my tongue
and the roof
of the front of my mouth,
I slowly roll it
and notice
how its cool roughness
warms and softens
as the raisin grows
and begins to release its
gentle sweetness
and the flavour of sun-baked afternoons
with the hot air stirring
and full of the scent of thyme,
rosemary and marjoram.

And as I start to squash
and break up
the now supplicant raisin
with my hard and merciless
front teeth, savouring
its gifts of energy
and taste and dreams
from lands afar,
and this moment in time
of pleasure
and exploration,
I feel guilt.

For all the other amazing raisins
which have just been
gobbled
and chomped
without thought,
without appreciation,
their richness ignored and forgotten.

And I wonder how life can be
if we take care
to notice
how amazing a raisin
can be
and
if that is true
for this tiny fruit,
what is possible
for such a gigantic and extraordinary organism
as a human being.

You
me
and all of us.
And all of us
together.
Noticing
ourselves
and each other.

with thanks to Alister Scott for his lesson in mindfulness.

to Steve

I’m not so smug as to say ‘I told you so’ or had any real clue about timing, but one of the reasons why I’m not surprised about the ‘crash’ and the coming depression is that Kondratiev’s ‘long term cycle’ has always struck a chord with me. It’s something to do with generations passing and the loss of a collective sense at an unconscious level. And it’s not just about money.

Anyone who is old enough to have had their key life values formed by the direct experience of the ’29 crash & ’30′s depression would now be in their 90′s, or older. Most are gone from us. And with them we lost that direct intelligence – a body of wisdom. The lessons and values which were picked up by the next generation were indirect, and the echoes into the following generation are much diluted. And so the same mistakes were made.

I was moved a few days ago by a photo on my friend Steve’s facebook page of his father’s arm. Steve cared very deeply for him. His arm still had a six-digit number tattooed on it, his number at Auschwitz. He survived, and now he has just died. One less direct survivor of this most terrible manifestation of the Holocaust. And the body of wisdom, the collective intelligence about this horror, is that little bit smaller.

Humanity couldn’t make the same mistakes again, could it? How can we be different today, to make sure the next 10 years are different to those between 1929 and 1939?

Personally, I’m going to try and understand more about what happened in those years, as the more knowledge we have, the more we can be aware of how to be different. And I’m also going to try and notice more carefully how we all live with each other because I suspect the seeds of hatred are in the mundane. And I’m going to talk again with Steve, when he’s ready, and try to contribute to the maintenance of that unconscious collective intelligence.

An Epicurean’s Delight

The warmth of the first sip of the first cup of tea of the day in the dark of the bedroom.

A memory of my sons and their friends performing their music to an enthusiastic audience.

A clean pair of socks with no holes. Fresh crusty white bread rolls. Home made plum and apple jam.

The pale solid strength of an ash dining table in a modest, warm room.

The gentle touch of your partner’s hand.

A click, as a text message arrives from a friend.

Cool air on your face and in your lungs as you walk briskly outside.

To know that you have been listened to.

A blackbird briefly sings. A birthday card from my parents to my child. The satisfaction as another task is completed with the quality that is important to me. A decision to make a phone call and engage with the unknown, possibly to make something happen that could change everything, or not.

Relaxation that spreads as the heat of the bath-water permeates the aching muscles in my back.

Some words on paper which capture the thinking of another person at another time and another situation – which affect me like ripples in a glassy lake.

The time to reflect, to think.

And then there’s lovemaking, but I won’t go there now.

To be an Epicurean, to be devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, doesn’t have to include luxury, gluttony or loads of money. Just to notice how wonderful the simplest things can be, in life and in work, and to be present for them, is to be as lucky as can be.

with thanks to Alain de Botton’s ‘The Consolations of Philosophy’

It’s a new world

The crash in financial markets – and the following depression in the global economy as it deleverages/contracts over the coming years – will cause undoubted difficulties and hardship for very many people. The changes and challenges we are going to live through are biblical in their scale. They will affect all of us profoundly. And that makes me feel quite uneasy.

What we make of this new world will depend in large part on our individual and collective reaction. So how fantastic it is that such an inspirational and human leader has come to us at this time as the new President of the world’s most important economy. He can’t fix all the broken bits by magic, but he could make a real difference to how we think and behave.

It’s a responsibility for all of us to exercise care and tolerance if we are to protect our society. Indeed, there is a bigger opportunity now. This is to change and strengthen society’s values and collective behaviour to live and work together, with each other, in a fundamentally healthier way for generations to come.

The days of obscene salaries and bonuses are over. Greed is now bad. Instead, the symbols of achievement and value in the working environment will be around fulfilment, relationships, teamwork and, hopefully, humility. Perhaps teachers, nurses and scientists will once again be valued and respected more equally with traders and lawyers. What will your reaction to the new world be? Are you ready for change?

For me, the sense of unease around the economic outlook is more than outweighed by the excitement of playing my part in the new world values – helping to bring people together in a more accepting way; to communicate more sensitively; to notice what is important and true for themselves; and at all times to be present as an ambassador for our shared humanity.

Take care