Yesterday I visited the Learning and Development Centre on a huge manufacturing site owned and operated by a global leader in their field of heavy engineering.

I was taken on a tour of the company’s Heritage Centre by a retired member of staff with more passion for his work and team than the average England footballer (and being paid far less – volunteering in fact). I learned that the company was so committed to innovation that in the early 70’s its wholehearted commitment to solving a certain, “impossible” engineering problem and its failure to do so within the necessary timeframe led to it going into receivership (it is back out and it has solved the problem long ago). I learned that its engines powered the Spitfire 60 years ago and power you and me as we fly today.

I learned about the contribution that its research and daring is making to environmentally sustainable travel. I learned about its commitment to the recruitment, training and support of apprentices of all ages and its commitment to and investment in life long learning and world class leadership talent. I learned about the extraordinary level of thought and innovation that goes into making travellers safe at 30,000 feet. I learned about resilience in the face of tough and complex engineering and commercial challenges and repeated victory in these situations after long periods of head-scratching in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

I learned, above all of that, the professionalism, discipline and pursuit of excellence that go on behind the scenes to make the words “Rolls Royce” a by-word for quality of the highest level and the attitudes that have sustained that reputation for over 100 years.

And the point of this blog? I was reminded, in this digitally obsessed age, to remember the inspiring role of engineers and manufacturers that underpins so much of our daily lives. I want to pass that thought on and to ask what lessons we can each draw from the world of the engineers. Personally, I was struck that Rules 2 and 9 were in daily use in this corner of Derby – and had been for a century before I included them in the Ten Rules.

I was invited to Derby to inspire a division. They inspired me back. My thanks to all at Rolls Royce.

Jim.

Click on the image to view the Rule 2 video.

Click on the image to view the Rule 9 video.

One of the most rewarding things about writing a book is hearing from, and making friends with, strangers who get in touch after reading it. Stu Williams wrote to me in 2009 to tell me about what he had done with the Ten Rules for Taming Tigers and is now a friend. He wrote to me last week to ask if I would be interested in publishing a blog that he had written. The answer was “yes” and Stu’s message to you appears below. I found it inspiring and very moving.

Thanks Stu.

The Devil You Know?

One Monday morning recently, I caught myself daydreaming that I’d spent the whole weekend training under the guidance of a great Olympian and World Judo Champion, and getting to know both he and his Olympic Judo Silver Medallist wife a little bit; and I was struck by just how much it matters who you listen to while you write the story of your own life.

If I had a pound for every time I have been advised – sometimes with my best interests at heart, sometimes definitely without – not to try to run before I can walk, to be realistic, not to spread myself too thin etc. (you get the idea I’m sure) I’d spend most of my life at home in front of the tv with about two hundred pounds, and for some time that was about as good as it got, except I didn’t actually have the two hundred pounds.

But about eighteen months ago I happened upon a book called Taming Tigers. I read it with increasing amazement. Read it again, thinking, Well that’s really great, for him, I guess – and then a strange thing started to happen. I found myself compelled to begin putting the principles it contained into practice in my own life, sometimes with spectacular results, sometimes with little ones, but always with a new feeling of satisfaction that I was at last beginning to truly live.

And here’s the rub: the weekend I described daydreaming about actually happened. I stumbled on the training event on the internet shortly before it was due to take place, and thought the chance to mix with people of that calibre was too good an opportunity to miss out on. I sent some e-mails, made some phone calls, and went along – I mean, why wouldn’t you?

And I know what you’re thinking, that it’s OK for superfit Judoka like me to go along to these things, but that in the real world things aren’t so easy, and maybe you have a point. Except that for Tiger Tamers things go a little differently.

At the time I discovered the event online (quite by chance) I’d never done any Judo. And the event was two hundred and fifty miles away from home. And I couldn’t spare the time from work. And I couldn’t afford a hotel. And my partner needed the car that weekend. And it was too little notice. And I was 48. And bald. Still am.

I didn’t have a British Judo Association licence. Or even Judo pyjmas. So it couldn’t be done. Obviously.

But I’d read Taming Tigers. So I knew otherwise. And had one of the best experiences of my life so far. Obviously.

Check out the The Rules, from One right the way through to Ten. I had to use them all on this occasion, and this was not an isolated event in the life I now live – a far cry from the insecure, sleepless, under-achieving cigarette and alcohol craving body I inhabited eighteen months ago.

You might be thinking about now that a five hundred mile round-trip on a thirty year old motorbike to be tripped up, pushed over, strangled, choked, and flung to the ground repeatedly is not really your cup of tea, and that’s ok, I fully understand. But the really good news is that this is part of my story not yours; and that the delicious hot beverage of your own choice is simply a decision and some actions away. You could start with rules One and Two, which are my current favourites, especially helpful when someone with a vested interest in your continuing mediocrity counsels that the grass isn’t always greener, or, that the devil you already know is a better bet. My own experience has been that of fresher, sweeter grass; and escape from a devil who seemed set to kill me with boredom and frustration.

When you get to spend time with motivated successful people you come away with the powerful realisation that they find nothing surprising in you wanting to live the best life possible. They’re already doing it, and are generally very open to the idea of helping you to as well. When a great champion looks you in the eye and tells you you did well today it’s not easy to remember the advice about knowing your place, or discretion being the better part of valour. Or to keep the tears back.

Ladies and gentlemen, Tiger Tamers everywhere, I give you the entirely awesome and gracious Neil and Niki Adams – brought to me and you by way of the impressively effective Tiger Taming principles laid out by Jim Lawless. All we have to do is apply them, and trust ourselves to know what’s best for us; and as hard as I try I cannot think of a single statue or monument put up to the glory of someone who urged caution, but I’m willing to be corrected. If you know differently give me a call and show me where it is.

We can tear it down together.

Stu.

“Hello, in case you don’t know me, my name is X. I look after Y and today I’d like to take just a few moments of your time to ZZZzzzzzzzzz”

So the Stepford Wife Manager begins his presentation to the senior management team. Just like last quarter. Just like the woman that preceded him this morning.

Stepford Wife Manager Syndrome or Middle Manager Syndrome. It is exhibited in many ways. It is safe, mediocre and dull. I can see nothing wrong at all with having a middle management role. Acting like bored “Stepford Wife” middle managers the world over is the problem.

I get to sit in a lot of presentations across all sectors and I get to see a lot of Stepford Wife Managers. They are good people. But their Tiger has given them a real chewing and they are using the Rulebook and the safety of numbers to stay safe from it. It’s not safe, though.

You know who they are. But how do you know? Make a list of their collective attributes, their badges of honour and their tribal customs, the Rules and norms that they cherish. Then take a long look in the mirror.  

The world is changing fast. The industrial age is over. A new age has dawned and the Stepford Wife Manager is lagging dangerously behind.

Over to you.

Jim.

Click on the image to view the Rule 2 video

Click on the image to view the Rule 6 video

Answer: When it earns you a fortune and people blog about it forty years later.

I like this quote from John Cleese: “High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought”

Aha! Easy!

Except that critical thought is just our old friend the Tiger in disguise. “What if I get it wrong?” “What will they think of me?” “Could this be a career limiting move?”. Roooar. The Tiger and his demand for “critical thought” just killed the creativity and spontaneity.

How do you do it? Here’s one tip: Explore random juxtaposition.

For example – let a random object (ask a passing child to pick you one or ask your partner to bring you anything they like from the kitchen) influence your thinking on a problem. What is/are the object’s history, uses, oblique uses in the hands of an improvisation expert, smell, texture, imagined history from creation, imagined future until destruction, colour, what emotions or memories does it evoke in you? Relate these qualities randomly to your problem, the people, the history, the way you might approach a solution and so on. Now discard the object and create a little speech, out loud, in the car, perhaps, about the problem that you are looking to solve, linking words and thoughts from the previous stage into the speech. Do not judge it, nobody is listening (and after all this is just a silly exercise, right?).

Did you get an answer? Did you get to the unexpected, central, real nature of the problem that you have to solve?

Over to you…

Jim

PS Blaire Palmer, MD of Taming Tigers wrote about creativity in our July newsletter. Email enquiries@tamingtigers.com to request a copy and sign up for future editions at www.tamingtigers.com (there’s a box on the top of the homepage)

Click on the image to view the Rule 2 video.

When you are standing in front of a room presenting, what are you really trying to do? Most presentations I see re-enforce the presenter’s position as a Stepford Wife Manager rather than as a leader.

Most people are, really, trying to survive – to get it over with without major damage to themselves or the project. Some are trying to enhance their image – “make” people see a certain aspect of themselves that they wish to portray. Some people, however, are there to create a powerful shift in emotion and comprehension in the audience backed up with a call to action. We react to them. We are glad of them. We know that we need them.

The problem with the first two approaches is that they are internally focused. It’s all about you. If your mind is on “you” when you are presenting – you lose. Don’t misunderstand: yes, you have outcomes that you are seeking and they are important. It’s just that you cannot achieve them if, in the room, your mind is on you and how you are doing – surviving, impressing, etc. These things come to the third type of presenter as a natural by-product of creating that shift in the audience.

Here are some thoughts to get your juices flowing:

• Why are you presenting today? How are you moving the world forward?

• How would your presentation – preparation and delivery – alter if your main goal was to create an emotional shift in the audience, an “aha” moment, a desire to interact with you and ask questions, a desire to act to support your aims?

• No professional presenter starts her preparation for the big day by firing up PowerPoint – even if she intends to use slides in the presentation. Do you?

• When you are standing up there, is your brain fearful about what the reaction will be or whether you will be better than last time? Or are you focused on your message and communicating, in that moment, with other human beings? (the other thoughts are important in the preparation, but dangerous during the presentation)

• If it is a new and contentious message that you are delivering – do you really want to test it out live on an important audience for the first time without taking soundings and winning allies?

• Review your last presentation. If it was an “information download”, why did you present it rather than sending an email (“I was told to” doesn’t count – at your level of seniority, you can do “what you’re told” whilst taking control of the outcome and content). Is presenting the right medium for relaying information to people – unless that information is included merely to back up the creation of emotion and a call to engagement and action?

• How do you feel when you are ”we’ve been good” dry facts (the “I’m a good girl, I know my stuff and have prepared – so you can’t get me today!” presentation style). Do you do that to others or do you act boldly and stand apart from the herd, as a leader must?

• Can you see the Tiger at work in every one of the questions asked above, driving you away from the your courageous self, stopping you speaking your truth and pushing you back into your box? Can you see the Tiger at work when your colleagues present. Are you content with that?

Remember the leadership Rules – 4, 5 and 6. A presenter who does not take leadership of the room is not a presenter. She is choosing instead merely to put herself forward as a candidate for the job she already has.

Over to you,

Jim.

Click on the image to view the Rule 4 video.

Click on the image to view the Rule 5 video.

Click on the image to view the Rule 6 video.

I live on the river Thames. I have a balcony where I work. The view from my balcony informs my perspective on London, the City I see when I am working or thinking.

When I check in for a flight coming into Heathrow airport, I always ask to sit on the left as I enter. This means, weather allowing, that I will have a fleeting view of my flat if we approach the airport from the east (as is most frequently the case). This gives me a completely different view of my flat. A new perspective on where I live and work and on my place within the great City. If I run along the towpath by the river, past my flat, I look up to my home as I pass it from a third point of view. Another very different perspective.

Approaching the stands on the racecourse, accelerating up the home straight, the noise of the commentator and the crowd is very different to the noise one hears standing in the crowd. The noise of thudding hooves is very different. The shouts from jockeys to mounts are more clear and urgent – and personal. The view of my horse’s neck, mane and ears, pumping in front of my still eyes, of other horses, opening and closing gaps and jockeys silks and backsides (unless you are on the winner) is unimaginable to most spectators. The smell is of grass and horses and rushing air and of being alive. It is different to the smell of alcohol and burgers that one gets in the stands and balconies.

The actor’s view in an intimate conversation that we witness on screen is of a camera lens, a crew behind and of coffee cups and another set behind that again. We accept our view as being directly through the eyes of the listener: intimate, detailed, emotional.

When we approach the front of the room to present, the room alters before our eyes. The view is different. The sensation of having eyes upon us rather than being behind one of those pairs of eyes is different, our thoughts and our physiology alter merely in response to the shift in perspective.

The view I have of you when we meet is different to the view you have of yourself as you look out from behind your eyes at me. The point of view that I have of a person causing me pain and distress is different to the view they have of me, of the world and their place within it and my place within all of that, the history and experiences and expectations that they are acting from when they forget the now and forget that they can choose love. I suffer identical myopia when I am causing that pain myself.

Seeking to experience, physically and so mentally, new perspectives, creates growth and develops empathy. They can intimidate initially and this scares most of us off, but this is natural and surmountable.

Seeking to understand perspectives we cannot physically or mentally experience: through our imagination, our understanding of what it is to be human, our careful questions and our listening creates growth, develops sympathy.

Contemplating perspectives opens us up, makes us vulnerable and demonstrates the limitations of our limited view of the surroundings, the situation, the problem. It facilitates emotional intelligence, creativity, understanding. It creates humility and wonder and possiblity.

We cannot be right. We cannot be perfect. We can seek to grow, to love, and to be aware, accept and laugh at our short sightedness.

Or maybe that’s just my perspective?

Over to you.

Jim.

It was the Stoic philosopher Epictetus who said that “people are disturbed not by the things that happen but by the views which they take of those things”

Now let’s try it by an American, Franklin D. Roosevelt, delivering his first inaugural address in 1933 against the backdrop of a nation wracked by the Great Depression: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”. A great definition of what is no longer nameless: the Tiger.

Our tendency to fear fear; our mysterious mental process of being disturbed by the view that we take of things; our need to defeat the collective Tigers – these are the reasons why we urgently need our politicians to stop spreading messages of doom. The medicine of the budget has been delivered, so there is no more need to set expectations in order to make it palatable. The election campaign is over, the opposition has become the Government and their rhetoric needs to evolve to meet that responsibility. The only people they can defeat with repeated “historic economic crisis” statements are the people of Britain.

Now we need politicians brave enough to follow FDR’s example instead of continuing to follow the media’s lead in using fear as the primary tool for survival. We need our leaders to be brave enough to speak of a bright future, if we all work for it, and to inspire the nation to strive to deliver that future. There is a risk inherent in speaking of a vision. The risk is that people desert you if you fail to create it. Community and business leaders face that risk daily. The Government’s servants and Northern Rock and RBS face that risk daily. It is now time for our politicians to be brave enough to face that risk also. It is now time for all politicians to put the risk of further harming the country above the risk of losing the next election.

It is now time for our politicians to demonstrate a selfless and courageous commitment to the nation’s future.

I disagree.

Let’s be honest. There are only I’s in team. It’s a group of unique people, isn’t it?

The 21st Century corporate concept of a team of people working together to create something profitable has not managed to do what it may take committed yogis several incarnations to achieve – the defeat of the ego.

Once we’re honest about this, we can get to work on creating a brilliant and cohesive group, committed to success and to each other. And I can get to work on bringing the best “I” that I can into the group. Whether that group is family, work, community or sports based.

Let’s respect the “I”s and their different personalities and personal agendas, let’s let the “I”s discover and create very good reasons to bring their whole selves to the group, let’s involve the “I”s so that they are a part of shaping the group and its aims and the way it works and the plan of action to achieve success – let’s let the “I”s co-own it.

If we fail to do that, we may find that there really are no “I”s in our team –and then there can be no “we” in there either.

Over to you…

Jim.

OK, so you’re sitting in front of the doctor. He has a grave face. He tells you the news – good and bad. The bad news is very bad. The good news is that if you change some part of your lifestyle today – you’ll be fine!

So you change it. Today. Easy! What a lucky escape. You’re very grateful to the universe for that one. The change is easy.

OK, so you’re sitting in front of the mirror thinking about the change that you desperately want to make. Then you write a little plan. Maybe buy a book? Chat it over with friends. How long will the process take? A week? A year? A decade?

Why don’t you just do it?

Creating change for ourselves does not take a long time. What takes a long time is committing. Really taking the decision. That’s one of the things that Rule 1 is there to do – to help us get to the decision buy interrupting the patterns and maybe also bringing other people into the equation.

If you are hungry to make a change that you believe will make you happier, healthier or move you forward. Today is a good day for it. Now do the bold action that you think will take you most directly before the Tiger gets involved again.

Exciting, eh?

Over to you.

Jim.