I am... a sailor (lessons 6)

Lesson 6: there is bliss in unison

These are Dave's three rules for teamwork: 

* Everyone has to know which tasks to complete, when to complete them, and how to do them.

* Everyone should concentrate on completing their tasks well. They should not interfere with anyone else who is doing or not doing their tasks the way they think they should do them.

* If anyone asks you for help, no matter when you help them.

When teamwork works, there are moments of bliss for all. This feeling of unison is truly marvellous.

Conclusion: good teamwork is not rocket science 

I am... a mentor

In forty years of working as a trainer and (agile) coach in various German companies, I have often been asked whether I would be willing to be a mentor. Usually, I was the only woman and foreigner in my department, so it is not surprising that those who asked for mentorship were often women and/or foreigners. Strictly speaking, my mentorship did not focus on opening new doors for the mentees, but acting as a sounding board.

Women and foreigners generally lack what Germans call Vitamin B. 'B' stands for Beziehung, or personal relationships or a strong network of people who are willing to help advance your career. It is almost impossible to break into the Old (White) Boys' networka that rule in most German organizations or corporations. I've only known a handful of women, two or three foreign men, and three foreign women (Shoutout to Charlotte, Dagmara, and Marine, whose tenacity in this high-stakes game has been nothing short of inspirational) who have managed to pursue a successful and dynamic career within German companies.

So, when I say I am a mentor, it is a matter of helping them get an invitation to an interview, negotiating better contracts or salaries, or coming up with strategies for moving up one or two steps on the executive ladder. Once or twice in recent years, I have delighted in helping a mentee realign their career paths. It is exciting to accompany someone transitioning from one industry or field to another.

What I like about being a mentor is seeing a mentee become serious and intentional about their careers. It is a process of supporting them while they make their dreams come true. Even having a dream is a rare thing for those whose otherness have been stripped of ambitions. Each success story is a testament to the quiet power of resilience and a reminder that even in the most rigid systems, change isn't just possible—it's inevitable.

Perks of my job

Perhaps I have mentioned this before… maybe numerous times, but one of the perks of my job is being able to travel and stay in nice hotels. Something that was unthought of when I was a child. I vaguely remember staying at a motel maybe once or twice on the way to visit friends. Yet, maybe it is only my imagination. 

The years of working as a trainer allowed me to travel and to stay in mom and pop B&Bs or something along the lines of trucker motels. These places have their charms because there is always something about the decor and amenities which are shared no matter where the place is located. The morning rooms are always filled with people from all sorts of walks of life. I love sitting there over a long breakfast and make up stories of their lives.

With my current company, for the first time, I have been able to stay in luxury hotels. Or at least what I call luxury. Places where the staff is usually separated into the managers who have been working at the hotel for possibly decades and the new young eager employees who are using this stint as a springboard. No matter the size of the hotel or where it is situated, this younger set of employees are often coming from every corner of the world.

Generally, I find it far more interesting to observe the employees and how they do their jobs and how they work together than I do looking at hotel guests. For as is the case for most service jobs, they often forget there are other people in the room and behave naturally. At the moment there are two women working the reception desk for Sunday morning check out. They probably started hours ago. There are no guests checking out at the moment, so one of the women is do a funny calisthenics routine to get her energy back, while the other looks on laughing. A guest arrives and, pink-cheeked, she reverts back to her role. Good for her!

I am (still) a... businesswoman

One of the most delightful parts of my job is travelling and working with colleagues all over the world. Today, for example, I had to choose between going to Mallorca to participate in a three-day global event or to Copenhagen for ten days to do a proper handover with Anna. Even though it should not have been much of a choice weather-wise, I decided on Copenhagen for the people and the pleasures of enjoying this fabulous city one last time as a businesswoman and not a tourist.

(Note: the hotel I am staying at is on the harbourfront. What a luxury.)

Photo by Rolands Varsbergs on Unsplash

Broken feedback loop

Deep down exhaustion
Six months of non-stop pressure
Too old for this shit.

Farewell to the company

Yesterday was the last of the workshops I facilitated for the company I worked for for the last six years. Over the last 40 years or so, I have had the joy of facilitating learning and development at numerous companies, training (I guess) thousands of participants on a veryvery wide range of topics. Now, I am going into retirement. Halleluja!

Many of the participants from this last workshop came over to say a special thank you. Some I have worked with closely over the last six years. For others, it was their first time doing leadership training with me, and yet they were delighted and grateful for my facilitation. I tried very hard to "stay in the moment" and to accept their compliments and hugs (so many hugs) with grace. 

(Letting in praise and opening my heart to others has been a long inner journey. It took me over 60 years to believe in and value praise. So, for all of you reading this, learn to do this. It is invaluable to making connections with those around you.) 

I will still work as a coach, facilitator and consultant, but I will be able to choose my contracts. Fortunately, I already have two or three contracts on the list, not enough to be alarming, but certainly those I am very much looking forward to doing. This is a soft entry into retirement. 

I am... an editor

This is rather strange, but I love editing other people's works. I am something between a development editor and a line editor. It is not a skill I have learnt formally. My editing skills have been honed through years of reading, writing, and, most importantly, being given the privilege to help colleagues, friends, and family polish their work.

Currently, I am editing a PhD titled, "The role of innovation for the implementation of the Circular Economy in the construction and manufacturing industries in Germany". I am around a third of the way through. This means that now it starts getting interesting. Thankfully, it is so well-written that I am under the illusion that I understand what is being said.

There is a feeling of joy to dive down deeply into a world I know next to nothing of and rise back to the surface with a new piece of treasure in my hands. 

Daring darling Dylan

 

Our daughter is about to start a job at the German Space Agency. Yup, you got it; she's found a unicorn job in her field of space security. Feeling so chuffed about this.

Tripped across this photo of her making her first attempt as a rocket pilot. Following valiantly beside her is her cousin Dylan. You cannot see it in the photo, but there is a long decline and she's picking up speed. 

First morning of my last business trip

Opening my eyes
Sunrise over the harbour
I'll take my shower.

Doing Small Things Well

The wonders of doing something well. Whether it is a freshly ironed shirt,



Or making a good cup of cappuccino,



It is delight seeing these two people doing something with elegance and care. Don't you think?

Sleeping in trains

Today I held a seminar in a place quite a few hours away. I had to get up a 4:30 am to be there by 9:00. Taxi, train, another train, street car, and then taxi... this is the sequence of transportation I had to take to get there (and then again coming back).

I was sitting in the taxi or train anywhere from 5 minutes to 50 minutes at a time. As you can imagine, this was not enough time to unpack a picnic or dive into a new book. Instead, I dosed away the hours in-and-out of sleep, watched the various commuters get on and off the train every few stations, and listened to bits and pieces of my current audio book.

I was going to write a post about this book, The Once and Future King, but since I probably will not get around to it, here are the absolute highlights:

•  it is 33 hours and 3 minutes long
• the reader, Neville Jason has a very soothing voice (especially for those of us who suffer from insomnia)
• the story is delightful and entertaining, even though I know what is going to happen
• I am very nostalgic about this book since a dear friend of mine and I discovered about 30 years ago that there where numerous version of this book. We went about reading every edition we could find
• it is just a walloping good tale

I loved the whole experience of traveling far (for German standards) just to give a few hours' seminar. Not necessarily something I would do all the time, but it was a fun experience nevertheless.

Zero Inbox

Years ago, I watched this video of Merlin Martin explaining his method of Zero Inbox. I was intrigued with the idea of making instant, quick, possibly radical, decisions daily about how to handle the constant flow of information arriving in my inbox. So, for a while, I followed his methods (more or less).

Then like most practices stemming from good intentions, I digressed and even regressed into bad behaviour. Things went from bad to worse, when I tried embracing a new idea, "only touch once". This idea states you should only handle a piece of information once. Read, think, respond, act. No previewing. No hesitation.

If you get an email or phone message on your voice mail and you know that you are not in the position to act upon the information given, don't open it. Do so when you can complete the task. If you only partially read an email and have to go back later to look at it, you are wasting time that first glance (previewing).

"Touch on once" does make sense on many levels. Yet, it also means that I amassed nearly 100 unread emails in the last six months.

Today was my day allocated to reading my nearly 100 "unread mails" and zeroing my inbox. Mission Accomplished!

Starting up a freelance business

It has been nearly a year now since I started up my freelance business. I am working as a project manager, trainer, and technical editor. I do quite a bit of the former and later tasks, but the bulk of my work is, for the moment, working as a trainer.

This year has certainly been a roller coaster ride between breathless optimism and existential worries of looming failure. I thought I would write down my Top Five Lessons about being self-employed during economical times like these:

1. Even at my age, I am capable of regularly and frequently working 12-hour days.
2. Even after all my business experience, it is necessary sometimes to start with the modest contracts and build from there.
3. Even if the media says otherwise, social media does not rule; word-of-mouth, person-to-person, face-to-face, straight-from-the-heart, are all top strategies for building a loyal customer network.
4. Even if the economy is in crisis, people want to do their jobs well and are willing to pay if I can help them do that.
5. Even though everyone is far too busy, it is surprising, and touching, people's willingness to find time to help me move forward.

To those of you who helped me learn these lessons, I am so very grateful for your enduring patience. Thank you so much.

New World

Many many years ago, I wrote three scripts for computer games for women. It was an idea before its time...the games blended video sequences, digital storylines, and mini-games into a gaming experience that was quirky and entertaining.

In order to try and find a game publisher, I attended a few game shows. And, while I was there I did manage to speak to people (men) involved in the business. They kindly introduced me to the ins-and-outs of the publishing business.

The gaming business is huge and exciting and a massive sub-culture many people never "get". Yet those who know their way around in this world have great stories to tell.

P.S. The scripts are still in their numerous binders in a storage cupboard. I got as far as having a few meetings with production managers of Sony Europe. Their final thought, "interesting, but too expensive to produce". One of these days I'll take the scripts out again and brush off the dust and see whether there is anything worth salvaging.

Small Doses of Happiness

I volunteer once a week at a local charity shop. It is sometimes a strange world to move around in. Strange is probably the wrong word, but it is a new sub-culture of sorts.  Most of my fellow volunteers are older than I am, though I am no spring chicken. They are nearly all women, and I have for the last 30 years worked in a male dominated world.

My fellow workers come from all walks of life, as do our customers. We have our "regulars", people who drop by every few days to see what new products we've brought out for sale.

Not only does the store have it's regulars, we, the volunteers, have our personal regulars. Inadvertently and over time, the customers find out who is working when. Now, not a shift goes by when my regulars drop by to browse around, but also to exchange a bit of small talk. Each encounter is a small doses of happiness.

Taking Baby Steps

These last weeks have been filled with various work on various projects. Most of the work seems like a hard build up to a specific goal and then a long tail slug afterwards to get all the odds and ends collected and properly put in place. Thought I'd write about some of the stuff I've been involved in:

The group I work with in Kenya, has finally received the money from the charity tea party and various other donations (bank here sent the funds to Mombasa and not to Nairobi). If all goes well, they will buy 5 drip irrigation kits this week and head up to Kimilili on Friday and hold two best business training workshops this weekend. I am kind of excited because another women's co-op from Kitale is also attending one of the workshops and they will receive one of the drip irrigation kits for their community. It is our hope that once the two communities see what drip irrigation is all about they might find the means to make their own DIY systems.

I've (finally) finished writing a project proposal for our Gardening Vocational Training Program. This is a program targeted towards women's co-ops and our youth project group. We want to set up a garden project where groups work in collaboration learning and implementing "modern" sustainable agriculture techniques. (The reason I say "modern" is that many of these methods, such as polyculture, mulch systems, organic composting, etc. were techniques western countries took away from indigenous farming cultures in developing countries over the last 70 years. It is ironic that we are in the position of trying to reintroduce these techniques back into those countries so many years later.) The project proposal is for approx. 8,000 USD for the purchase of land and materials (e.g. treadle pump and drip irrigation systems). If anyone knows of an organization that might fund such a project please send me a link.

We are in the process of setting up a clean cooking fuel small-scale business co-op between the Makerere University in Uganda and various rural communities. This project is going to take a while to develop because we haven't the proper technology as yet. We are trying to establish a pilot project to make clean burning cooking briquettes out of bio-waste (e.g. maize cobs or sugar cane). These briquettes burn nearly smokeless and set out no toxins and save on the need to burn wood. I'm still at the stage of trying to figure out the technology needed and set up a feasible collaborative business model. The outline of the project currently is to have a) a youth vocational training program that mass produces and sells the corn cob crushers (a wooden box with a coarse roller to crush the charcoal bits), b) a central briquette-making press where people can come with their crushed charcoal and make the cooking briquettes, and c) a series of small-scale businesses to sell the cooking briquettes at markets.

We are trying to set up a NGO so that we can do all the project work mentioned above more formally. This would mean that those individuals who contribute donations or micro-loans would be able to make them tax deductible. It would also mean that we could approach more organisations and foundations for funding.

My son managed to hand in a research paper titled, Web 2.0 Revolution (Consequences for Corporations), last week. This was a volunteer paper he researched and wrote in the hope of improving his final grade when he graduates from high school next June. I volunteered to yield the whip to get him to set up a schedule, work on the paper regularly, and not get preoccupied with all sorts of other activities. This was not an easy task, nor one that I did with any grace or sense of authority. Contrarily, it consisted of a great amount of petty hysterics, long plea bargainings, and mini breakdowns on my part.

Time to go off to the office...

My dear friend just doesn’t get it…

Recently, a good friend of mine wrote that she is “amazed by all the stuff you do outside work”. This reaction, to be honest, sort of miffed me, since I consider all that I do, except for writing blogs and creating collages, work. Then I thought about her comment for a while and came up with this:

all the stuff I do outside work – monetary compensation – filling out lots and lots of forms – dealing with the Difficult Colleague – having to attend numerous weekly meetings that are often just a whole waste a lot of time – the really fruitful discussions I have with my Favourite Colleagues – the wonderful technology to be found in my office = Work

So, if you consider that “all the stuff I do outside work” is shared with some amazing people at different corners of the world and the work can be done just as well without the wonderful technology that is found in my office, it is not only Work, but work with perks because those negative aspects of my job fall by the wayside. Except for the fact that I am not being paid to do the work, it is a cushy job.

The Wonders Of The Internet (3/3)

The last of this series concerns a skype conversation I have with Millicent in Nairobi. During our talk, Millicent tells me about reading a newspaper article about how Carbon Manna Unlimited is compensating Kenyans for reforesting their land by planting trees.

After some investigation, I still am not able to find any information about receiving monetary compensation for replanting trees, though this is probably true, but just hasn’t come up in my search. There is though a series of articles pointing out their program that allows people in Kenya,

“to claim by mobile phone on a bi-weekly basis the carbon offsets they produce by converting to more efficient cooking methods such as a modern charcoal stove or solar cooker, instead of an inefficient 3-stone fire burning biomass. As a result, each family becomes a micro-profit center and is able to monetize directly its own contribution to mitigating global climate change, while also slowing regional deforestation and desertification”

I am not so sure how successful the mass introduction of solar cookers and the modern charcoal stoves will be, since they are still quite expensive items to purchase. Which brings me back to smoke-free briquettes created out of bio-waste…. Don’t you think that Carbon Manna Unlimited might have an interest supporting (funding) the manufacturing of corn cob crushers and the use of smoke-free briquettes?

So, my goals for this year:

* Create two instruction manuals for building a corn cob crusher and how-to-make briquettes
* Create two small scale briquette making businesses in Kimilili
* Get in contact with Carbon Manna Unlimited and start communications about the possibility of them helping to set up a corn cob crusher manufacturing carpentry shop
* Get in contact with the Kimilili community elders and start talks about setting up the above-mentioned shop

Of course, my goals are not going to be achieved all by myself. It means involving all sorts of people from all sorts of different countries. To date that would be, Kenya, Zambia, Canada, USA, Switzerland, and who knows how many more before this project is up and running in Kimilili.

The wonders of the Internet, don’t you love it?

The Wonders Of The Internet (2/3)

Continued from yesterday's post...

A few weeks ago, Millicent and Ericah (Kenya), go from Nairobi to Kimilili to hold a business-training workshop. Initially, the workshop is intended for the eight women in the CBSM women’s co-op who are starting up two Village Phone Salon businesses. When Ericah and Millicent arrive at the CBSM school at 7 am on the day of the workshop, over 20 persons show up and cannot be persuaded to leave. They all want to learn about business practices.



Amongst the group that came of their own volition, are various youths desperate to learn as well.

After some reflection, I wonder whether it wouldn’t be more practical to set up a Corn Cob Crushers manufacturing business as well as of creating clean fuel briquette-making businesses. If we could set up a youth vocational training program and show the young entrepreneurs how to make the a Corn Cob Crushers, they could manufacture them on mass and sell them to local residence either for private use or to set up a briquette making business.

The Wonders Of The Internet

A few days ago, I mention I am on an oxygen-high. After months of research and communication with various people, I’ve figured out a wonderful green business idea for the rural communities I work with in various countries in Africa. It is not only the idea that is so fantastic, but how the idea evolved that is so remarkable. The serendipity and beauty of being able to form new business ideas with people all over the world through the Internet, makes me want to jump up and down with delight.

I’d like to write a few posts and take you on a journey about how the new green business idea formed. I won’t say at this point what the idea is because that would spoil the fun, so, if you only want to know that, you can skip the next two blog posts.

The journey starts off in California listening to Amy Smith’s talk on “Life Saving Design”. In this talk, she informs the illustrious TED audience: how fumes from indoor cooking fires kill more than 2 million children a year, how millions of women and children spend upwards of 2-4 hours daily searching for wood fuel, and how many countries are rapidly being deforested because of this practice.

Ms. Smith goes on to explain how she and a group of designers constructed a prototype Corn Cob Crusher that produces smokeless cooking briquettes from bio waste materials (principally sugar cane or corn cob waste).

So, I contact Sumit (India) of the above-mentioned design group and ask where I could get more information about the crusher. We have some people interested in opening up such clean fuel briquette-making businesses in Kimilili, Kenya. We are hoping to find someone in Kenya that can teach these business entrepreneurs how to build crushers.

Sumit introduces me to Joshua (Zambia), who is also in the crusher group. Since
Zambia isn’t Kenya, and Joshua obviously can’t just hop over to Kimiilili, I talk to a Nabuur friend (Toronto) and she suggests approaching another Nabuur friend, Misheck, in Zambia to see if he can help.

Simultaneously, I meet up with a graphic designer and book publisher friend of mine for a cup of tea (Germany) and she asks me all sorts of questions about the Corn Cob Crusher project. It becomes obvious during our talk that we what we need are instruction manuals explaining “How to make a Corn Cob Crusher” and “How to make cooking Briquettes with a Corn Cob Crusher”. She offers her assistance in the project.

Upon inquiry, Joshua and Misheck both prove willing to work with us in making these manuals. It will probably take a few months for us to get the script written and the monies together so they can buy the materials needed, but it is all looking rosy in that department.

These manuals will be published and made available in various formats (e.g. pdf, html, ppt, and mp4), so that any one wishing to build a crusher can do so.

The next post talks about how my original idea evolved from one of creating clean fuel briquette-making business start-ups to an idea including youth vocational business training and crusher manufacturing start-ups as well.

To be continued...