So the Olympic Games are in full swing and I think it’s safe to say ‘so far so good’. True, there is a nagging feeling that the greatest show on earth is being stage managed a little too precisely by its hosts, but despite this the Games are doing what only the Games can do – creating a real ‘feel-good factor’ that connects almost all the countries of the world. True, Football’s World Cup does have this feel-good element, but it’s only for the select few who have qualified – so there’s no doubt that the Olympics really are unique.

And what about Team GB? As I write this blog we are third in the medal tables behind China and the USA with 16 Gold medals and more almost certain to follow. That’s the best result since London in 1908 and something that was unthinkable before the start of the Games. In fact, the British Olympic Association (BOA) had stated a goal of fourth place for the 2012 Games in London – not for Beijing. Add to this, the startling fact that the two Countries at the top of the table, USA and China dwarf Great Britain in every way: China has a population of around 1.4 billion compared with the UK’s 60 million and this is also reflected in the size of the teams - both China and the US have teams of over 600 athletes compared with the UK’s which is under 350.

All of this means that Team GB’s achievements so far are all the more remarkable and certainly makes it one of the strongest pound for pound teams at the Games. This starts to explain the positive buzz that these achievements are creating back home in the UK  - the performances, achievements and emotions at the Olympics are creating a genuine sense of national pride that is offsetting the bleak economic and weather outlooks this summer. As in our working lives, the hardest achievements are valued the most.

Success for team GB also creates connections and a greater sense of togetherness among the members of the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. When the Olympics are not around it’s so easy to focus on our local rivalries – even down to the level of rivalries between cities (football supporters are the prime example). But when we see people from all over Great Britain representing us and doing us proud these divisions are blurred or removed altogether. It would be nice to think that some of this pride and togetherness could roll forward after the Games. It also sets an example for organisations – aspiring to develop a sense of pride among our workforces similar to that which is generated by our Olympic achievements has to be a good thing.

One more thought – I think a word of congratulations has to go to our Government for the investment they have made in Olympic sports such as swimming, cycling and rowing. You don’t achieve the kind results we have seen in Beijing by getting lucky with talented athletes. It takes investment and more than a little dedication from those who are charged with implementing the plans – the managers, coaches and, of course, the athletes themselves. I’m looking forward to seeing how much better it can get and this is all before 2012 in London!

On a number of fronts these past few months, we have all been caught up in “panic mode”, whether it is about the price of houses, food, petrol (price and availability), Council Services, the security of our jobs or the competency of our financial institutions.

So why the panic? Why do we see irrational “binge buying” when petrol distributors go on strike? People buying fuel they don’t even need when, if thinking rationally, they would see that usually plenty of fuel will be available by the time they need it and that the problem will be short-lived. The government knows from past experience that this is human nature and in these situations they now go to great lengths to put out messages that downplay the factors reinforcing such behaviour.

There may be several reasons driving irrational buying behaviour. The first is the most obvious: the natural “herd mentality” of people. If people see queues at petrol stations, they will worry about why people are queuing – “do they know something I don’t” – they then reinforce and perpetuate the panic by queuing themselves. As Albert Einstein once wrote, “imagination is more important than knowledge”. So, in these situations the quicker individual petrol stations get people in and out, the better. If queues occur, forecourt managers should consider putting a sign out indicating that there is no point in waiting, since there is at least four days’ worth of petrol at the station, even if there is high demand.

The second reason is slightly more serious and deep-rooted: it centres on the underlying insecurity in society at the moment, regardless of any particular shortage or strike action that may occur. People at present are feeling worried about the economy, about our financial institutions, about the cost of food and, ultimately, about the security of their jobs. When people feel insecure, they often feel they have little control over events, which makes them susceptible to panic situations and irrational behaviour – behaviour designed to stand them in good stead if ‘the worst happens’.

Perceiving that you lack control over your environment lays the foundations for protective behaviour, which in the case of the fuel strikes means acquiring as much petrol as possible. The “control issue” also extends to how much control we think the government has over the situation – in effect, becoming a “trust issue”. Therefore, the more the government is perceived to be doing something, the less the panic – it’s like control by proxy since the consumer has little or no control in this situation. The recent lorry driver blockades are an example of individuals trying to gain some control (over petrol prices), by influencing government policy and action. Of course, when a nation doesn’t trust a government anyway panic can kick in even sooner.

And finally, as we become more and more dependent on technology like the car, we become worse and worse at rationally thinking through alternative travel strategies. Our lifestyles are now fashioned around the car, rather than the car being fashioned around our lifestyles. This makes the insecurity more profound than it would have been 100 years ago when most people were used to living their lives in their local community. All this panic behaviour is very natural and evolutionary, but it pays to take a moment to think a rational thought that might help you to avoid an irrational act!!

So the Olympics have got off to a positive start with an incredible opening ceremony and gold medals in the pool and the cycling for Team GB. But not all athletes have been as successful as we saw in the case of the 14 year old Tom Daley and Blake Aldridge, who came 8th out of 8 in the final of the 10M synchronised diving event on Monday.

However, it wasn’t until afterwards that the bullets started to fly as Aldridge (almost twice the age of Daley) told the press that he blamed his partner for their failure. He said:

“Unfortunately it’s a partnership; you both have to be on the top of your game. I wasn’t on top of my game but Tom was nowhere near the top of his.”

These kinds of comments are dangerous in what is essentially a team event and there are parallels with the world of work here, where blame cultures never, ever deliver good results. When blaming others for failures and looking for scapegoats becomes the norm in organisations it becomes toxic for those involved and for the business as a whole. Trust and responsibility breaks down, people resent those who should have taken responsibility and take this behaviour as a message or role model that gives them permission to do the same.

People often find it easier to blame ‘the system’ or the organisation and, by extension, its leaders as a group of people. However, this is no better than employees blaming each other and is just another substitute for taking responsibility and working together to solve the problems that arise as part of working life.

I hope the swimming coaches in Team GB have taken the time to sit Aldridge and Daley down and explain the value of sticking together to solve their problems, rather than trying to do so in the media. They should also be taking steps to ensure that this is not the start of a blame culture developing in Team GB, where individual athletes value their own success over that of the team. The Olympic silver medalist Leon Taylor, who acts as mentor to Tom Daley, had it right when he said,

“Synchronised diving is a partnership and the last thing you need to be doing is apportioning blame.”

He could have substituted the words ‘Synchronised diving’ for ‘Work’

With just a day to go before the start of the Beijing Olympics the run-up feels very different to the last two Games. In 2000, we had the excitement of the millennial Games in Sydney which was so well organised that the biggest question mark was over the size of the firework display. Then in 2004, the Greeks pulled it off, answering the doubters who said that they wouldn’t be ready in the best possible way. Looking back, both hosts delivered the one thing that all Olympics must deliver – the feel good factor!
 
This time, as the athletes travel to China it’s much more difficult to predict how the Games will play out. At home we’re all affected by the gloom of the credit crunch, the terrible weather and a summer without the buzz of the England Football team being involved in a major tournament. In China, there are concerns about human rights, the occupation of Tibet (and arrests following protests), the smog, a terrorist attack in Xinjiang and allegations of certain websites being off-limits to members of the press. All this makes the questions that were asked in the run-up to the Athens games look easy!

At the start of the games it’s hard to know how the world’s biggest sporting festival will play out. The Chinese people are undoubtedly looking forward to it and it’s almost certain that the event will be very good for their already burgeoning economy. There’s also a good chance that the westernised nature of the games will give the Chinese a taste of a somewhat more liberal society, but it will be interesting to see whether the Olympics will have a real impact on Chinese society and the happiness and well-being of its people. Like the rest of the world, I’ll be watching with interest over the next two weeks….. no doubt more Olympic posts will follow!

In my last post, my colleague Ivan Robertson wrote about how UK plc is doing in relation to working smarter. On a lighter, but related note, I have noticed a major shift to more informal dress for men in the workplace. In particular, far fewer men seem to wear ties these days, which gives the workplace a much more informal and relaxed feel – I, myself, stopped wearing them years ago so, generally speaking, I support this move!

But I was talking to someone about this trend recently, and they explained it to me as a very positive signal that there is more flexibility and autonomy in the workplace – as well as lower levels of formality. But then I also noticed that The Financial Times just carried a piece about the sales of ties bucking the downward trend in high street sales – and actually increasing! Their explanation was that just as politicians like Gordon Brown and Barach Obama have reverted to wearing ties to project a more serious countenance during the downturn or running up to an election, working men are becoming worried about their jobs and have decided that “smartening up” might help them to avoid redundancy. This is backed up by sales figures from Moss Bros., Tie Rack, Jermyn Street’s Hilditch & Key and John Lewis, who have all reported significantly increased tie sales.

So, if this is true, the more casual approach to wearing ties is not a symbol of new ways of working or the new informality of office life – but instead it indicates that men who adopt it are supremely confident about retaining their jobs!!

You can see the article from the FT at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/69725d96-4962-11dd-9a5f-000077b07658.html

Once again I’m really lucky to be able to share my blog with Professor Ivan Robertson, I hope you enjoy his post!

Professor Ivan Robertson

A new report by CIPD on Smart Working set me thinking about the big changes that are taking place in our workplaces. In particular, which ones are important, which are not? For example, globalisation and the latest technology are generally seen as good things, but they also mean that many people have to work long and unsociable hours to communicate with customers or colleagues in other countries.

In their report, the CIPD authors focus on several key areas which can drive smarter ways of working, such as job redesign and high performance work practices. They describe smart working as:

“An approach to organising work that aims to drive efficiency and effectiveness in achieving job outcomes through a combination of flexibility, autonomy and collaboration, in parallel with optimising tools and working environments for employees”.

According to the report the kinds of things that exemplify smart working include more flexible working practices (such as home-working and tele-working), increased autonomy and empowerment for employees, greater latitude in decision-making and more participation for employees. The report also makes it very clear that there is no single or simple collection of changes that move organisations smoothly towards smarter working practices.

So, we’d all probably agree that these are generally good things to be aiming for, but when we look around the workplace what should we make of new ways of working such as tele-working, empowerment and flexible working?  Things are definitely changing, but maybe not as quickly as elsewhere. The Equal Opportunities Commission recently accused British companies of being among the least successful businesses in Europe in terms of flexible working practices and a study that they released last year showed that just 20 per cent of UK employers allowed workers to tele-work, compared with about 40 per cent in Germany, Sweden and Denmark. And apparently, flexi-time is available at only about 48 per cent of UK companies, compared with 90 per cent of German and Swedish employers. So maybe we haven’t come as far as we thought!

If we are lagging behind in terms of important changes in the workplace – that may help to explain the “productivity gap” between the UK and many other developed countries and also why the UK consistently is ranked low in worldwide and European Happiness Indices.

To find out more about the CIPD report go to: http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/corpstrtgy/orgdevelmt/_smrtwrkgri.htm

Reflecting further on the British Open and reading the coverage in the papers this week, I realised that another lesson about pressure management was played out at Royal Birkdale last weekend. The eventual winner, Padraig Harrington almost had to pull out of the tournament after injuring his wrist in practice. He got through an Open Championship that was played in hellish weather conditions to win out – and when he was interviewed afterwards he cited the wrist injury (and the threat of its return) as a positive factor in enabling him to win and, more specifically, in helping him to manage the immense pressure of the situation.

When questioned about why this was the case, he revealed that he actively used the injured wrist as a distraction from the pressure over the four days of the tournament. By focusing on protecting the wrist and how he needed to flex his game to take account of the injury he found a way of improving his concentration for ‘managing’ his way around one of the toughest courses in the world. It also enabled him to focus on his own game and not worry unduly about what the competition was doing. Harrington gave us all a great example of how a positive mindset can work to our advantage in adversity – he took a potentially disastrous situation and made it work for him in the context of defending the championship.

Another player who used a different perspective to his advantage was the leading Amateur Chris Wood, who like Justin Rose ten years ago, managed to beat the majority of the professional golfers by coming in the top five. Unlike Harrington, no one had any expectations of him, but he used this lack of pressure and attention to put in an amazing performance. Because he had not been there before there was nothing to be afraid of so he used his inexperience positively and to good effect. I suspect that this week he will not be ruing the fact that, as an amateur, he couldn’t collect the £150,000 his finish merited, but will be celebrating the performance, media attention and the experience it gave him.

Both of these great sportsmen have shown us that by taking a different mental approach and by being positive – great things are possible. And Harrington, in particular, reminds us that when things go wrong at work you can still have a happy ending!

I’m no golf fanatic, but I couldn’t help but be struck by the remarkable events of the last four days at Royal Birkdale where the best golfers in the world battled it out by the sea in the wind and the rain.

The tournament was remarkable for several reasons – not least for the sensational performance delivered by Greg Norman as he bid to become the oldest ever winner of the British Open at 53, competing as only a part-time golfer. He led after the first round (a nice story, but surely he’d fade away as the full-time pros got used to the conditions?); he led after the second round (this was getting interesting!); he led after the third round going into the final day and he even held the lead jointly going into the last nine holes. Although, in the end, the brilliance of last year’s champion Padraig Harrington came through, Norman’s third place has been widely hailed as one of the great Open performances of all time.

It’s also testament to the powers of physical and psychological well-being. Norman looked in great shape for a 53 year old (he looked ten years younger) and he also looked incredibly happy and relaxed. Much has been made this week of the bitter divorce that cost him dearly. On the other hand his recent marriage to former tennis star Chris Evert has reportedly been the key to his rehabilitation, he spoke in interviews about the strength and balance he took from having his ‘soul-mate’ around.

During his glittering career in the ‘80s and ‘90s he was the World Number 1 for over five years (a record), but he only won two major tournaments and earned a reputation as someone who threw winning positions away under pressure. Norman’s battles with his demons were well known, but this weekend they were banished - I suspect permanently. He displayed a mental approach that was characterised by well-being and positive psychology, as he coped with the enormous mounting pressure. And you could see him using his maturity to enable him to smile when things didn’t go his way – he was resilient.

Unlike, the eventual winner Padraig Harrington, Norman had no official right to be walking onto the 18th green at Royal Birkdale to receive the adulation of the huge and appreciative crowd on the final day of the Open. Although he didn’t win, I suspect that as someone who never thought they would experience that buzz again he feels like a winner this morning!!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an article on the BBC news website about Ian Usher, who decided to make a clean break after splitting up with his wife, having emigrated to Australia 6 years ago from the UK. He did this by putting his entire life up for sale on ebay! Yes, everything – his house and all its contents, his car, motorcycle, Jet Ski and parachuting equipment. He even included aspects of his lifestyle such as an introduction to his friends and a two week trial run at his job in a rug store – so he really was selling it all.

He states his reason for doing this on his website (http://www.alife4sale.com/index.htm) and the main driver is to do with moving on from all reminders of the life that didn’t work out with his former wife. This is despite the fact that he enjoyed his lifestyle and job in Perth, and had great friends. Before the sale went through he wrote on his website:

“On the day it’s all sold and settled, I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else at all”

Now, we’ve all probably had days where we’ve felt like doing this – but how many of us would actually go ahead and do it? Mr Usher is clearly hoping that selling his life will be the major cathartic experience that enables him to move on psychologically and start to live his life again. I sincerely hope that it works out this way for him, but there is a fine line between healthy unloading of issues and running away from them - it will be interesting to see how he feels a few weeks / months into his new life.

Interestingly, Mr Usher is not hanging around – since selling his life he has launched a new website which focuses on his new life (http://www.100goals100weeks.com/index.php) where, as the address indicates, he has laid out 100 goals to achieve in 100 weeks. Now, this is a move that we could all probably learn something from - because by giving himself clear (mostly) achievable goals he has restructured his life in a way that will stretch him to seek new experiences and learn new skills. All of which is great provided that it’s anchored by an overall goal or vision of the kind of new life that he wants to lead.

Of course, Ian’s position is rare because he is unencumbered by the responsibilities of a steady job and a nuclear family, which makes it easier for him to do this than for most of us. But he’s earned that because of the huge risk he’s taken and I wish him luck over the next 100 weeks…..and I hope that Richard Branson is at home when Ian calls by to meet him!!
http://www.100goals100weeks.com/goals_List.php?page=1

Have you ever dreaded going in to work in the morning? And I mean really dreaded it. I’m not talking about those mornings that we’ve all had when we’d rather stay in bed and avail ourselves of the infamous ‘duvet day’. I’m talking about something more fundamental than that – where a particular aspect of your job makes you feel so anxious, uncomfortable - or even fearful - that you just can’t face it.

Joseph Heller, the author of Catch 22, captured this feeling in his book Something Happened when he wrote the following about life in the office of his main protagonist, Bob Slocum:

If you asked any one of them [employees] if he would choose to spend the rest of his life working for the company, he would give you a resounding No!, regardless of what inducements were offered….. If you asked me that same question today, I would also give you a resounding No! and add: “I think I’d rather die now.”

Elsewhere Bob adds “Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”

While not all of us have experienced this feeling at work, I’d be willing to bet that there are plenty of people out there who have done or are doing right now. There are many sets of circumstances that can cause these feelings – work relationships, feeling that you are going to lose your job at any minute, lack of role clarity / sense of purpose, unrealistic workload / timescales, unbalanced working hours, the general climate / atmosphere of the workplace, your depressing working environment / office, the level of autonomy you have over your deliverables …..the list of potential causes goes on and any combination of these that might lead to feelings of dread.

What’s interesting is how many of these ‘sources of dread’ stem from relationships – particularly that with your boss which, of course, can be such a key determinant of what work feels like. Other aspects influenced by your boss include level of pay, whether you know what’s going on higher up in the organisation and whether work feels like fun.

But what you can do if you feel this way? The first and most important thing is to take control. Stand back and look at the situation to understand which of the above factors are at play. But also consider your own role in this – have your needs gone beyond what this department in this organisation can offer you? Have you played any role in causing this situation?

Once you understand how things have got to this situation you have to take appropriate action. You may need to discuss the matter with a work friend to get a reality check and find out whether others share your perceptions. You may need to speak directly with your boss and find a way to raise the problem in an open and honest way. Or you may need more help with understanding the problem from a counselor or welfare officer. You may simply need to leave. The important thing here is that you move yourself on, that you don’t accept the status quo and drag yourself to work every day for the next five years hating every second. Taking action will change your perspective and help you to generate options for change: Change the job design, change the environment, work in a different part of the organisation or even a different organisation. The bottom-line is – if you don’t like it, change it.

Most importantly, don’t be like Bob Slocum who said “No one understands that carrying on bravely was the easiest thing to do.”