Wind of change

I haven't posted for a little while and to tell you the truth I haven't got a clue what to write now. I am alive and well... 'well' meaning things are pretty much the same. Except that I have been feeling pretty much demotivated by work and the feeling is so acute that it is spilling over into the rest of my life despite my best efforts to contain it and leave 'work' at work.

Change is an inevitable part of work these days and the team I am in are being subjected to a lot of change. I use the work 'subjected' advisedly. I am not one to balk at change. It has always been highlighted as one of my strengths in work appraisals and I have long since realised that change can be for the better and that if not, nothing lasts forever and things can always be changed back, or they will change yet again. I have long since learnt to sway with the wind of change like the reed in Aesop's fable, rather than break like the unbending tree. So why is this change causing so much stress?

While I was studying for my MBA I learnt that change is not just inevitable, but necessary in the business world. Organisations need to be able to adapt to the changing context they operate in. They need to meet evolving customer needs and they need to roll with the punches like the current recession in order to survive. I also learnt that there are methodologies that make such changes easy for everyone involved and that the flip side of that coin is that there are less than satisfactory ways to manage change.

Change is like a journey and if you are leading or managing a change initiative you need to take those affected on the journey with you. You need to be able to communicate what the change is about, why it is necessary and where you are heading.

You must involve those affected, consult with them and ensure that stakeholders are kept up to date and their views considered.

You must be cognisant of cultural factors, particularly when two teams are being amalgamated - all too often the meaning of words can be different as well as the accepted way that things are done.

You must plan how the change is going to happen and delegate areas so that people feel involved. You must get a senior manager to Champion the change and actually lead it in more than name.

You must review progress to ensure you are on track and address any concerns - remember resistors to change are not the enemy, sometimes they are resisting for a very good reason and it could be something you have overlooked!

Last but not least people should know what is happening and when and disruption to normal work should be minimised.

All this is is a 'should do' list, not a 'don't do' list! Change is never easy to manage and it is a learning experience for anyone involved, no matter at what level of the organisation. I have personally helped scope and manage two large change initiatives in the recent past and together with my Masters degree I feel I know the good from the bad from the down right ugly. From where I'm sitting right now, the view is not pretty at all.

If change is managed badly it can leave those affected demotivated and resistant. At best they will shut up and productivity will decline; at worst they may leave, taking skills and knowledge with them or they may undermine the change effort. Change is about making the organisation more effective and perhaps more financially efficient. When change is done badly it can become costly so why is it so often done badly by so many organisations? Essay answers please, on the back of a stamp or delivered by carrier pigeon.

Hats off...to me

verb /gradyooayt/ 1 successfully complete a degree, course, or (N. Amer.) high school. 2. (graduate to) move up to (something more advanced). 3 arrange or mark out in gradations. 4 change gradually.

Friday 29th May 2009 was the date of my graduation ceremony for my Masters degree. It symbolically marked the end of a journey that took me 5 years to complete, but I did it, against what seemed like insurmountable odds at times. Sitting in the vast hall, shoulder to shoulder with fellow graduates of the Open University in my light blue robe and gold and blue hood I allowed myself to feel proud of my achievement. I had done it. I had gained my MBA and here I was having it bestowed on me.


I posted the definition of graduate at the top of this post and for me three of the definitions are pertinent. My MBA has precipitated great change in my working life with two promotions over the past five years so I have moved up to new challenges equipped with the skills of my course. I have also seen gradual change in myself. I am much less naive than I used to be, both professionally and personally and some of this is due to the opportunities that have opened up because of my studies and some of it is due to personal experiences over the same period that are intrinsically interwoven with my studies, such was the commitment to it over the years.

The ceremony took place at Cheltenham Town Hall, which has a wonderful marble pillared hall with balconies on three sides and a stage at one end. On arrival I collected my robe and had the obligatory photo session and then we set off into town, down the promenade to take my parents to lunch. On the way I spied many other robed students, most in dark blue robes denoting it was their first degree, while a few were also in the light blue which denoted a Masters degree. We found a nice little Italian restaurant and I enjoyed a nice pasta dish that fused Italian pasta with Chinese duck in plum sauce and it was very tasty. Afterwards we took a leisurely stroll back for the ceremony.

The ceremony itself consisted of the usual speeches and presentation of the graduates but the tone was set for an enjoyable afternoon with a band on the balcony that played hits from shows such as Oklahoma. It sounds cheesy, but the tunes were upbeat, the air in the hall was alive with the spirits of people who knew they had earned the right to be there, and with the pride of those that had come to support them. The combination of all these made for a very pleasant afternoon which was rounded off by a glass of sparkling wine. It was a fitting end to five years of blood, sweat and tears and I had a great time.

The force is strong in this one

I did it! I got my Masters degree! After all the study, the time sat in front of a computer willing the words to join together in comprehensible sentences and the sentences to join together into a cohesive argument, after all the blood, sweat and tears (yes, there were some), after all the time pouring over books and journals, all the research and all the sacrifices I finally got my MBA. It has not been easy. It has, in fact, been very, very, very hard. It was a challenge juggling full time work with study and it was an even bigger challenge trying to have any sort of a social life on top of all this at times, but ultimately it has been worth it because I have passed.

Here are some stats:

It took me 5 years to complete
24 essays
4 exams
1 project
1 dissertation
4 residential schools
Approximately 1200 hours of studying (possibly more)

During this time I have gone through separation and divorce and two lots of surgery and assorted treatments, my mother was ill for several months and I lost my little niece. There were times when I wanted to give up, there were times when I thought I would never finish and that I had entered a sort of private hell where I would be writing business essays and deconstructing case studies forever. However, even while I was studying my learning has benefited me at work. I have been promoted not once, but twice during this time and I attribute some of this success to my studies. Part of me still can't believe it's over, it has become so much a part of my life, while another part of me is so relieved that I can close the books. A big part of me is chuffed to pieces. What I want to know now though, is when do I get my Jedi cloak and light saber if I am a Master?

Let's Pretend

"I keep thinking I'm a grown up, but I'm not"
~ Victoria Tennant as Sara McDowell in LA Story

Do you ever feel like a big kid in an adult world and wonder how long it will be before you are 'found out'? I find myself feeling this way at work sometimes. I feel like I am playing 'let's pretend I'm a business woman', like a kid in her mothers wardrobe the shoes I am wearing are much too big so I am in fact clumping around. I have been dealing with some pretty important big things at work that my boss (who is 2 grades higher than me) would normally deal with but as he is off ill it has come down to me. So far my secret is safe though. I might even be doing good work.

It is strange though. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I have my own house which I run myself. I earn money, I manage my own budget and pay bills, vote and feed and clothe myself. Inside though there is a big kid who has a big sense of mischief and who enjoys to play. I think the child inside me is a little frustrated at the moment though. All work and too little play. I have been super busy (no change there) so I haven't been around much. Here is a quick run down:

• I am tired! The pre-Easter rush to get things completed has had me working long hours.
• My boss is still off sick so there is so much to do.
• Work politics are still rife. 'Alpha Male' is still trying to take advantage of my boss being off ill to undermine my work so he can grab the resources.
• I did score a small victory against him recently though. I am not the push over he thought I was but it is still stressful dealing with this rubbish.
  
• My home is a mess as I have had precious little time to tidy and clean.
• I am normally a fastidious person so having a messy home has added to the stress.
  
• I have been suffering from migraines lately. I have had at three in the last couple of weeks.
• The upside is that I now get 5 days off in a row. Bliss!
• I am not even going to think about work.
• Good news - I passed my MBA project! How on earth did I manage that?
  
• Yay for me. Now I have one open book examinable essay left to do.
• The light is at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT a train!

I am now looking forward to a few days off. I will have to do some work on my Masters essay and I will be cleaning the house but I also intend to indulge in something I have precious little time for these days. Myself.

Pics of the big cats from my visit to the Wildlife Park coming soon.

Words by music

I am up to my ears in study at the moment. I am coming to the end of my MBA and all that stands between me and getting my life back is 8500 words, 49 days and 2 written assignments. Unfortunately 6000 of these words have to be done within the next 10 days. On top of work. It stands in front of me as if I was stood in front of the Hoover Dam looking up. I am having a little trouble with this one for a number of reasons. It seems insurmountable and yet, word by word, paragraph by paragraph the assignment appears on the screen.

This will not be my best piece of work. Events at work and in my personal life have ensured that, but I will hand something in and I will pass. I have no choice having come this far. Like the sign I wrote to myself and hung on my wall where I can read it says: "I am NOT stupid. I CAN do this".

I often listen to music while I work. One of the CDs I am currently playing is by Sophie Zelmani. Very underrated outside her native country of Sweden, she is a superb singer songwriter who's songs have an unpolished feel which I like. I have linked to her official website (click on her name) but I thought I would share this video with you. It's a gorgeous song, somehow melancholy and joyful all at once and the video is good too. I just love the symbolism of the red runner as a journey. Or at least that is how I see it. I hope you enjoy it.

It's a matter of perspective

It's been one heck of a week. I got back from my residential course with the Open University mid week and then it was straight back to work. Boy was I bushed though. These courses are always hard work and incredibly intensive. Still when I got back Bob the cat was pleased to see me. He sat on the sofa and headbutted me lots, purring like some sort of pneumatic drill and then demanded to be fed before throwing up a fur ball. Yep, you don't always get a welcome as fine as that!

I returned from my Masters' residential with several things:

• The tired look of someone who had been stuck in a room to brainstorm, mind map, deconstruct and analyse and reflect
• A suitcase of dirty washing
• Several flip charts covered in Post-It notes
• The rest of the free toiletries from the bathroom
  
• A blister on my foot where my shoes had been rubbing
• A moment of clarity

The last one is the most important and was as a result of all the brainstorming and mind mapping and caused the tired pallor.

When you are involved in distance learning it can be a lonely experience. It's just you, a pile of books and a computer. Sure you get the occasional tutorial but never often enough to really bond with the tutor or the other students, and once you start a new module it's all change. That is why the residential courses are good. They are intensive but they cocoon you in a learning experience away from other distractions, like work and chores for the time you are there.

The course really helped me sort out my final project. It went from being a big messy heap of issues in my head to being a scoped and bounded problem that could be investigated further. All the key issues were teased out and stakeholders identified. We looked at the issues from the perspectives of different functional stakeholders to identify where tensions might exist. Uncertainties and ambiguities were highlighted for further exploration and research.

It's amazing when you work with others and they bring a whole new perspective to something, and with it a clarity that was proving elusive. All of a sudden you can see the wood that is made up from all the trees. What is more, you get the chance to help others sort out their issues in the same way.

This is something that isn't just the preserve of business studies though. It is true, that a problem shared is a problem halved. If you discuss something with someone then they can often see something from a different perspective as they are not in the middle of all the tangled mess of stuff in your head. I had more than one 'Road to Damascus' moment in the last few days and not all of them were 'in session'. Some were in discussions in the bar afterwards. Sometimes it's nice to know you're not the only one who has been struggling with a concept, dropped behind in their reading or is finding it hard to fit everything in. It's easy to feel alone when you're studying via distance learning. The residential course provides an opportunity to show that there are plenty of others in the same boat. It's reassuring.

It's a developmental thing...

I am on the final course that makes up my MBA (Masters in Business Administration), Yay! I finish next May and it will be the culmination of 5 years study which I have undertaken whilst still working. I won't lie. It has been hard work and not just in terms of doing the actual work, but also in planning in the study time around work and trying to have a life and all those other things that demand our attention on a daily or weekly basis.

I am studying with the Open University which bases the majority of it's courses around programmes of distance learning with tutor support and residential schools. I am currently in a hotel near Oxford, participating in one of these. It's basically a guided group learning experience where the knowledge and experience that the other students have are a key resource. It's intensive, hard work, and incredibly rewarding (if you gel with your group) and fun! Oh yes, the days may be long (12.5 hours) but there is a social element too.

So far I have braved the peculiarities of the British train timetables, survived the convivial talk of the taxi driver who knows a captive audience when he sees one and even sallied my spirits at being put in the brown group in stead of the ones with much prettier colour badges. I am even smiling at having to walk around with a name badge on, but that might be because of tiredness and the well earned glass of wine I am currently enjoying! I have sat through two PowerPoint presentations and contributed with many Post-it notes to one group activity as well as introducing myself through the medium of art! Tomorrow it is my turn to present my work problem for the group to dissect and this will eventually contribute to my final project. Wish me luck.

Internet access is limited so I won't be able to visit until I get back home mid week. I feel I might need some recovery time once this is over! I will post again soon too, and let you know how this goes, I also have a meme to do as, some pics from an airshow to share and a Festival of History to post about that I went to at the weekend and had a fabulous time. I figured I was owed a day to enjoy myself before this residential course! Back soon :)

Good news!

I passed my exam!!!

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased and relieved I am. As some of you might remember I took my Strategic Human Resources exam back in April and I have not been completely confident that I would pass. But I did and what is more I did much better than I believed!

The reason I wasn't confident was that my revision time was very much compressed due to my text books and laptop being stolen not long before and so I had to catch up on my last essay but this impacted on my reading and revision (in fact there were a couple of areas I was forced to make the decision not to study as there was no time).

Now I am on the last leg of my MBA which is a work based project and also involves much reflection on myself as a manager and my development. I have been studying now for 5 years and although this learning has been great and so useful at work I have now had enough and want my free time back without having this hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles. For now though, I am just happy I have passed. It's the little boost I needed and what is more it's my birthday next week and I like birthdays :) I also had a great day off and went shopping as well as to see my mum and bought myself one or two little treats - a new pair of earrings and some lovely Molton Brown shower gel.

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Update on mum

Thanks as ever for your well wishes for my mother. There is not much change to report though the dermatologist is happy with how the infection is responding at last (it is less angry and red) and she is to see a lymph specialist next as her poor legs are so swollen and she can't have diuretics due to her tired kidney's. My mum was weepy again yesterday as now she just wants to go home. Fingers crossed, if they can get the swelling down it might be next week.

Study Partner

Sooooo... the exam is over. I put my pen down at 1pm today which was a relief quite frankly as my hand ached. Alot. I am so used to tapping away on a keyboard (computer, not musical instrument), that writing continuously for three hours always comes as a bit of a shock. By the end of the exam, my handwriting had definitely decended from the the free flowing articulate form which is usually a trademark of my letter writing, to something more befitting an illiterate inebriated spider. I can only hope that the marker has completed his course in advanced handwriting deciphering.

As ever I have no idea as to how I have done. I feel that I fluffed one section but I'm pretty sure I did better than I expected to on the first section. I really don't know about the final section as it was a very open-ended essay question. I guess it's wait-and-see time which is always what my mother cooked for dinner, or at least that is what she told us when we asked. But I digress.

The nice thing about getting an exam over with is the feeling of freedom that envelopes you afterward. Freedom from the bonds of revision and the confines of a small study, freedom to do with my time whatever my little heart desires. At least for a while, once the chores are done and around work, but the rest of it is mine! All mine until the next part of my MBA starts in May.

As promised I have some photos I have taken to share with you, but until I get around to posting them I thought you might like the pic below of my study buddy, who sits on the window sill by my desk and purrs, and also occasionally wanders across my desk to see me in a helpful manner, more befitting a bull in a china shop than a small cat, with items tumbling to the ground after being toppled casually by his passing. Still, his company was appreciated. The pic is of Bob alfresco earlier today.


Photos of my day out to Raglan Castle coming soon as promised. Right now I am off for a relaxing evening.

Too many books, too little time!

Anyone for cake? I am neck deep in books and drowning folks. I have a big exam coming up and I'm starting to feel just a teensy-weensy bit stressed. I've been playing catch-up on my studying ever since a thief stole my books and laptop and due to restructuring at work I just changed job so I'm on a steep learning curve there too. Great timing huh?

My exam is on Strategic Human Resource Management which looks at the strategic management of people to deliver long-term business success (in a nutshell). It basically takes the Resource Based View and looks at the inter-relationship between organisationsal strategic decisions and employees and if you are really interested you can read more here. I just need to get through this exam and then I have my final year of study left before I (hopefully) get my MBA. It's at time like this I question my logic about taking on studying on top of full-time work but I am sure it will be worth it in the end.

Anyway, I need to concentrate on my revision now so I probably won't post anything much new before then. I have some great photos of a couple of castles I have visited over the last couple of weekends, including some of a medieval re-enactment fight between knights and some other photos that I would love to share with you. However, at the moment I just haven't got the time to do them justice. I will take time to pop by your blogs and say hi, but probably not as often as I ususally do. I'm just sayin' so you don't think I have gone AWOL.

As Arnie says...I'll be back! Wish me lots of luck as I feel like I need all you can spare right now. My exam is on the 25th. Thanks.

While I'm Busy...

Picture this:

A small study with natural light filtering through the blinds in the window. The light picks up particles in the air and makes them shimmer while a black and white cat sits on the window sill and regards the scene before him sardonically. Around the desk, books are piled up like a New York skyline. Some of them are face down and open marking an important page. Many pieces of paper with scribbled notes are scattered about the desk and around a laptop computer where fingers tappity tappity out something which hopefully makes sense. The only other noise is the occasional muttering coming from a blonde frazzled woman sitting in front of the laptop who is attached to the fingers. Her blonde hair is in a pony tail and she is wearing a black jumper and tracksuit bottoms with fluffy purple slippers. Tappity tap...delete delete delete...mutter...check notes...tappity tappity tap...

Yep, you guessed it, this is my worls at the moment! While I am engrossed in this ritual of study I thought you might enjoy watching the following clip. It's a 'Best of' of the penguins from the movie 'Madagascar'. I loved this film, it amused me alot. My favourite bit is when the penguins arrive in Antartica which had me laughing like a drain when I first saw it. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for stopping by! :-)