Being stranded is such a test of resilience

I'm embarrassed that I can't drive a stick shift, but it's true. Oh I'm a rock star driving one in a video game, even the kind of video game with real, physical pedals, but I've never driven one in real life.

Well, most cars in the UK are stick shift. So if you rent a car, ahem, hire a car, be prepared to drive stick. 

I'm on business travel and I did my best to hire an automatic car. I arrived at the airport, the hire agency was closed but the keys were right there waiting for me. I walked outside, pressed the remote lock button several times and found the car. Guess what, it's a manual. Oh no.

So, what do you do? Everything is closed, it's a small private airport in the middle of no where. Well, how hard can it be? Let's try to drive this thing. It's probably not safe to learn this way, but I felt stranded. I started the car, although it had to tell me to press the clutch to do even that. I popped it in first gear and stalled. Ok, maybe more brake and less gas, nope, stall again. Maybe neutral, nope. Well I'm about out if ideas and if I can't even start moving, how would I safely downshift on a real road.

Ok, so now what. Google how to drive stick? Maybe but still, prob just not safe, and of course now the rain starts. Text the wife, she'll save the day. She helped me relax and looked up a taxi number. Wait, I have to drive an hour away, more like 1.5 hours, and they might only take cash, it's gonna be crazy expensive. Hmm...

Ok, deep breath, there's gotta be something. I walked back to the terminal, hoping anyone would be there. The door was locked but I knocked and sure enough someone came out! She let me in and I explained my embarrassing sob story. She agreed the taxi would be expensive and only cash, so she recommended the closest hotel, then to call the hire company in the morning. She then went out if her way to call the hotel, book me a room, even asked for breakfast and the company rate?! She had to hand me the phone for final details and the hotel told me it's only a 20 minute walk. Well c'mon, I walk in sets of 4-8 hours, so that's no problem. 

Google maps gave me great walking directions but I had been to this hotel before so I knew it was on back country roads, probably not good to walk in the pitch black, pouring rain. The woman there said, I can clock out in 20 minutes, how about if you get a drink and I'll drive you. Amazing.

So I waited right there patiently, I called my original hotel for the night and tried to cancel. It was too late, they would have charged me the full rate anyway, so I had to keep it. Better than an expensive taxi, I guess. 

The incredibly helpful woman dropped me off, I got a meal and went straight to bed. 

The tie to km is pretty fascinating here. The lady helped me learn how to drive stick while she drove me, plus I used google, wikihow, and YouTube. The lady helped me understand the nuances that weren't mentioned online. Worst case I might still try the manual tomorrow because otherwise I'm not exactly sure how I'll get up there. Driving a clutch might start being one of the tacit knowledge examples I use along with hitting a curve ball, tying your shoes and baking with a recipe.

Wish me luck!

Rugby, it's about nonstop teamwork

I got the chance to photograph a rugby game from the sidelines today. Let me be the first to admit that I've probably watched a total of 60 minutes of rugby in my life, so I just tripled my total knowledge. 

A "kit" is a uniform. The team I watched had four sponsors, which I thought was great for such a young age. They approach their games much different than we do in the states. Everyone was an hour early for the game, first they practise as separate teams. Then they get in their kits.

I heard words like fire, focus, rucking, scrum, hoop, mate, chap, pitch and brilliant. I think I know what they all mean, except for maybe rucking, I might have to look that up. 

As the game started, several things struck me. They never stop. It's like soccer in that there are zero play stoppages, no water break, no separate offense and defense, it's just non stop action.

At one point a boy got hit pretty hard. He layed somewhat motionless for a few seconds so of course that caused an injury stoppage. I was thoroughly impressed by how it was handled. The players all backed away, formed huddles, without coaching. Several adults lined up closeby not to watch, but to create shade from the hot sun for the boy. One adult went straight to the boys head and neck to stabilise it. As he did, the ref yelled "are you qualified to do this", the adult responded yes and handled the situation absolutely brilliantly, like a real pro. It was fairly clear it was not a neck or back injury, thanks to the questions he was asking. He even announced his progress to the nearby parents as he worked, "thinking out loud", if you will. Took about 5, maybe 10 minutes, they got the boy sitting up, into a chair in the shade. At that point he was more embarrassed than hurt, which of course is sad but good news. 

It was a very close game, one team led at the half and the other team won in the second half. I learned after the game that a score is 5 points and a "try" (kick) is 2 points. Pretty close to football.

After the game, both teams went into huddles and I could hear immediate feedback, not only from the coaches but also from the players. Beautiful.

They gave a trophy to the MVP. Not to everyone, but to one great player of the day.

Then it gets really interesting.

I didn't notice this when I parked, but right by the main entrance is a pub. Right on the field (ahem, the pitch). After the game, everyone, and I mean everyone goes to the pub- moms dads kids dogs friends, everyone.

The kids eat free and the parents talk. All together, all teams. Are you kidding me, how great is that? In the states we'd typically arrive 15, maybe 30, mins before the game to stretch, not practise, then we'd play, then we'd get a drink from the rotating parent, then we'd all run home. For today's game, (I did verify that "game" and "match" are both proper terminology), I arrived at 10 and left by 1, with all of the practise, playing and socialising.

Sure, some might say the alcohol is controversial, but no one can argue that there's anything better than good conversation - and teaching kids to sit down, relax, and talk to people. The whole European culture all of a sudden made more sense to me, they start young!

I learned that they do wear pads in rugby, they're basically just .5 inches of pads attached underneath their shirts. They talked about putting on a "smart kit" (ie nice clothes) for the food, but this time they stayed in uniform.

The knowledge management tie is simple, it's about teamwork, knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses. Helping each other out in the moment, as well as reflecting afterward so that you're better next time. I was heavily reminded how important sports are today. Those kids learned that they can't do it alone, it takes a team to do anything worth doing. And it's downright fun when you do it well.

NFL UK

19 degrees and partly cloudy this morning, which is known as 66 degrees and perfect football weather in the states. I'm on the train to London right now to go experience something called NFL UK. For the past few years, the National Football League has been playing one game in London to try and globalise the league. Apparently they throw a huge public party before the game. This year they're expanding to 3 games and the party is today!

There's a website that explains all the activities, and you can pre-register. It took me about 3 different times trying to register before it finally worked yesterday. They shut down one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world and turn it into a huge football party. There will be performance stages, players, music, "American" food and several football activities. 

There are at least 200,000 people here, probably more than that, it's been shoulder to shoulder on the entire street for 6 hours. Such a great feel to the day, you can see almost every single NFL team represented by jerseys that people are wearing. I saw lots of Raiders, Giants, and Dolphins. I was happy to see a number of Redskins jerseys, including good ol Riggo. 

First I stopped at the main stage where they kicked off the event with a great 80s rock cover band. The Brits do love their classic music. 

I walked up and down the entire street, decided to wait in a long queue to get a photo with the Raiders 3 Lombardi trophies. It took just over an hour to get to them, but right as I got close the Raiderettes came out to dance. The trophies were very cool, 3 Super Bowl rings were in the glass case with them. As I walked back to the main stage, Andre Reed was on screen throwing passes to the crowd from the main stage, cool. After lunch I saw Dan Marino speak on the main stage. The Sons of Pitches performed not once, but twice, which was great for me because that's been the name of my fantasy team for several years now.

The English word of the day is "knock on", which means domino effect. I think that phrase ties to the knowledge management aspect of today's event too. If done well, KM helps grow a business, or helps it succeed. Bringing the NFL to the UK is a huge mindset shift for many Brits. If the NFL is working closely with the British culture and leveraging change management, I'd say there's a decent chance it's successful. I'd want to see discussions where the Brits are saying how to make it work here, as opposed to NFL execs coming over and saying what they're going to do. Sure, a little give and take is healthy, but I'd say there's high risk that the NFL wouldn't "knock on" with people here. 

In my humble opinion, I'm sure they've thought of this, I think the best bet would be to form 4-8 teams around the UK, let them battle themselves while the American teams battle in the US. Then have an international Super Bowl where the winners of each league play each other. In English, they'd probably call it the Final Match. I'm sure America would win the first few by a lot, but you'd be surprised how that's actually a good thing. Having local teams would build interest and keep the momentum as opposed to a game or two per year. If you think about it, the NFL is actually moving quite slow by only doing one game per year for several years. They could have just setup a league in year one and let it grow. It'll be fun to see if this slow incremental approach works, I keep hearing slow and incremental is the way most successful things happen.

Amazing schools do exist, education is changing

Two phrases have popped up several times recently and I don't think I've mentioned them here yet. One of them is "throw the toys out of the pram" it means something near "throw the baby out with the bath water" and "threw a fit". The other one is "faff", I have no idea how to spell it. It seems to mean "mess" or "annoying" or "fake", it's an interesting one...

I had another great meeting with Stephen Heppell (thought leader in global education reform). We met at a school he's working with, about 3 hours from London. Funny side note, my google maps app automatically picked up a British accent for literally one turn and then went back to American, wonder what caused that...

The school was absolutely amazing. They've custom built a physical space that is an absolute dream for learning. What's even better is how they built it, they collaboratively worked with many kinds of people and included all of their perspectives (engineers, architects , students, teachers, parents, professors, locals , etc). 

It's hard to describe what it looks like. You start in an open space, almost an outdoor courtyard kind of look. There are four areas linked to that courtyard, each are identical. When you walk in one of the areas, you see a room about 40' by 40' with wide open spaces for learning. All the tables and chairs are moveable and the lighting and sound is top notch professional. 

There's a separate building with more learning spaces, things like a movie studio, football, etc. There's a cool wall that's made of plywood and people tack stuff up on it. They've started posting all the post cards they receive from visitors. They got the idea from their visit to Google euro hq in London. 

It looks like we'll be doing a STEMmerday at their school, amazing!!

On the drive home I stopped to get gas (petrol). I had been to this station before and my "signature card " (credit card) works almost everywhere. I was a little shocked that the card didn't work and the guy said no signature cards - which I had only heard once or twice before in the UK. He said there's a cash machine outside, so I tried that and it also didn't work. I ended up using my business credit card which has a pin (which is what they all prefer ), but now I have to go through the expense system at work, which is a little unnecessary.

Back to the good news, it's so great to physically see schools taking chances and really demonstrating how to rethink education. Two students gave me a tour and I was blown away by their intelligence and professionalism. I could just see how great the system was. Let's do even more! :)

13 mile London hike with Uncle Joe

I posted a few videos on YouTube and the British Premiere League blocked my video from the football match, that was interesting and fast. I had actually wondered if that would happen, but the video was so short I thought it would be ok, guess not.

One of my uncles was in town, so we met up to walk and talk. On my way into London, I realised that flow makes things better. What I mean by that is that change and adaptation are key ingredients for change and improvement.  For example, run down areas tend to be more static in terms of people moving in and out, not to mention investment and upkeep. Whereas, areas with the exact same kinds of houses/people that have movement, are more likely to continuously improve. I wonder if that makes any sense the way I've written it :)

You wouldn't believe how many realtor shops there are here and how many people stop to look at them. People seem to always be moving. I think the same is true for knowledge, it needs to move. The phrase shouldn't be "knowledge is power", it should be "knowledge shared is growth and success", but I guess that isn't as catchy :)

Back to the train ride to meet my uncle, I stood next to a group of 4 people that were clearly together. Looked like a Mom dad son and friend of dads. The boy was jumping around a bit, hanging from a high bar on the tube. Accidentally he smacked his mom as he fell off bar once. Mom was startled and instantly said "stop it, I see you wanting attention because the boys are talking". The Boy was about 9 years old, and he said it's an accident. mom then said "it was an accident likely to happen because of what u were doing, your behaviors we call that. You're a good lad just be aware of your behaviors and the likely things to happen". Things instantly went back to normal. Pretty fascinating piece of parenting?

Uncle Joe and I walked to Holland Park and Kyoto Garden, then Buckingham Palace. We went through green park, Hyde park, regents park, up to Abbey rd, stopped at a few pubs. Mostly it was all about really good conversation. At the end of the day he checked his fitbit (which I didn't know he had ) and it said we walked over 13 miles. Good day :)

Balancing the Pendulums

We've been discussing two pendulums at work. One is individual vs team and the other is bold vs timid. If you place those two in a 2x2 matrix, you get an interesting set of four approaches. Jumping to the chase, it's all about bouncing in and out if those 4 areas to the best of your ability. Sometimes be a bold team player, and other times you can be a timid individual. 

What we're thinking is that these are often subconscious choices, you might not realise the choice you're making. There's a popular concept these days called "mindfulness". The thinking is that we can all be more aware (or mindful) of our own thoughts and feelings, you know, the "voice in your head ". It's hard enough to bring those voices to your conscious, it's even harder to try and realise "what's true" compared to what the voices are saying. I guess it all boils down to maintaining a positive attitude and regulating your "self talk" to be as helpful and positive as possible.

Share our hunches in realtime

Thanks to David Gurteen, I was invited to a KM Forum at the Henley Business School. Showing my ignorance, I assumed Henley was in London, but it's actually about an hour outside the city in the beautiful countryside.

The business school sits literally 100 yards from the Thames river, and across the river are wide open fields. It's quite a learning, pensive, reflective environment.

There were maybe 60-80 people there. I knew a few people and I was very excited to meet Chris Collinson in person. I've watched his work for years, and of course, he's even better in person. In fact, I sat right next to him for the entire morning!

We sat at round tables with about 8-10 people per table. The Henley folks explains the school and the day, then we listened to 3 presentations. Then we had a great lunch, then a workshop all afternoon. I learned several things and I'll share a few here...

Most people have a hunch about what's going to work or not work, how do you make those hunches available to the org in real time? As opposed to looking back (which we often do), it's more about looking forward (which is hard).

We learned about an interesting tool. One company uses a real time process to collect feedback on process effectiveness. They call it "analysing weak signals and early warnings". They use an analogy of "if you drive your car only looking in rear view mirror you'll be in a ditch pretty quick". One question they ask in their tool is about how well their employees understand the specific change that is about to happen. They also ask people if they think the project will finish on time and/or on budget. 

A different company described their km challenges as "projects and staff turnover, knowkedge transfer between projects and people to build customer confidence and enhance our capability"

I saw a matrix that I immediately went back to work and used. The left column listed 9 flows of knowledge as well as 4-5 other categories. The column headers across the top listed key processes and tools. So, for example, the 9 flows were employee to employee, external org to internal org, employee to external org, etc (eg all 9 combinations of the Venn diagram that includes employees, groups and external). The tools would be internal examples such as communities of practise, expertise location, etc. Where the columns and rows intersect, you can put a red amber green status regarding their effectiveness. It ends up being a very nice heat map chart visually showing you effectiveness and use of tools.

One company shared what projects they're working on in km. Those projects were Knowkedge maps, identifying knowledge domains, Organisational network analysis, identifying experts and lists of expertise, capability catalogue, storytelling events, defining km responsibilities for people, getting sr buyin, aligning k strat to biz strat, putting km in performance reviews, promoting networked knowledge and working km into their university. I'd be interested to hear more about why they chose those activities, some of them cause concern for me.

One interesting comment was "we need to get km beyond the activists and the interested". They called it Knowledge mobilization.

I heard a fun comparison of organizations to musicians/bands. Musicians practise all the time. How do we practise in our orgs? Music has many "layers", what are the layers in our orgs? In jazz, they feel the pulse, adjust (improvise) and move on. Do we do that, should we? What would "Organisational improvisation" look like? Some might say that's exactly what we do every day :)

I'm a fan of the Snowden Cynefin sense making framework. I think I heard someone named Ralph Stacy defines "complexity as a process". I'll be looking into that.

The workshop was interesting. We studied three things - stories, forces and solutions. At our small tables, we each told a story, a real example of a current challenge at work. Then each table chose their favorite story (at their table ). We then studied the "forces behind" the story. "Unconscious bias " might be a similar framing for "forces behind ". You're basically looking to list what might be invisible, assumed, and causing some of the mini challenges in the story. 

After hearing the stories and forces, you then collectively brainstorm solutions. It seemed to be pretty effective in our little group.

Another interesting quite was "It's more impactful to re-live than to report". And "What techniques do u use for problem preventing as opposed to problem solving"

I enjoyed the day, met great folks and had great conversations. The Henley KM Forum is a good group.

My First Premiere League Match!

I learned my lesson from April and bought premiere league tickets way in advance. It was still hard to get tickets, so I chose to drive a few hours to get good seats and watch a great match. 

The day started perfectly as a Scottish comedian was on the radio making fun of the election. His opening joke was "you can tell from my accent that I'm Sc...British", and it got better and better from there.

I mentioned my plans to a brand new colleague at work and she went out of her way to give me lots of recommendations. She lives somewhat close to Swansea, which was where I was going to match the match. Such kind people at work, and in the whole area!

I took some of her recommendations plus I googled some ideas. I started at a place called Caerphilly Castle. Good luck pronouncing it, it's a welsh word. That was the most shocking part of driving through Wales, they truly have their own language it's like no other language I've ever seen before. Lots of interesting combinations of consonants, and of course the pronunciations are a whole separate story.

Then I had just a couple hours to hike the "four waterfalls trail". The southern part of Wales is known for it's waterfalls. Sure enough, they're beautiful! 

The biggest waterfall is one that you can walk behind. I'm pretty sure I've never walked behind a waterfall so I was exited about that. I got my camera settings all set, made some friends by the falls and asked if they'd take my picture. I made my way up to the waterfall, which was (shocker) very wet and slippery. As I got behind the falls I saw one other couple there and they seemed so happy. I thought that was cool but then they said "hey mate, I just proposed and she said yes !". Fun! So I took their picture and shared their joy for a few minutes, then I had to run back and get my camera :)

At that point, I knew I was going to be a little late for the game, so I jogged back to the car. I drove the hour to the stadium and parked right at kickoff. I could hear loud chanting as soon as I got out of the car. I walked up to the stadium and it was like a ghost town outside. Security had to let me through huge gates (like 15-20 feet of steel). Then I walked through a tiny little portal to get into the stadium itself. The portal was so narrow I had to turn sideways to fit it. These are all crowd control measures, I'm sure.

I walked up to my seat, with very nice help from guards and security. I was right behind the goal, front row of the upper section, nice! Stadium held just over 20,000 people and every seat was taken. They sing and chant the entire game, quite an experience. When I booked the tickets it was the #2 vs the #8 ranked team (realising they do points, not ranks). By the time the game day arrived, it was number 3 versus 4, nice! It was nil nil most of the game until Southampton (rank 4) scored right in front of me!

I was near the visitor section, but not quite in it. You should see the number police in bright yellow vests , and the number of "response stewards" in bright orange vests.

I've been watching baseball my entire life and I realise now that I see layers and layers, and nuances in the game. In soccer/football, I'm lucky to know the rules, let alone see the strategy and mistakes. I think it's like that in busibess for people in different functions and projects, which is why there's such value in verbalising/sharing what you see. I find it's hard to choose the words to speak to an expert I'm a field, when I'm such a beginner. 

After the match (yes, not called a game), I took my colleague's reccomendation for a tiny village for dinner. The village was called Castle Combe and wow was it quaint. It looked exactly like a storybook village. Google it and check out the photos, or I posted some on Instagram too. Those tiny villages have such a special feel to them, I ate at a pub and the bartender was so great.

Loving Wales, I'll have to come back soon!

Anyone for tea?

One of the "things you do" in a UK office is make tea for each other. I'd say it's about 2-3 times per day where someone stands up and says "anyone for tea" (not spot of tea, or fancy a tea). It's ok to say no, but most of the time people will say yes if they don't already have some. Yesterday, I was sitting with a group of folks that I don't normally sit with, and I jumped up to make my round of tea. (I'll post some other time about all the tricks for making it.) I came back with the drinks and one person said "where's my ladder". I had no idea what that meant, so I just smiled and nodded. She said, no really, and then someone else looked in her cup and said "oh, low tide". Finally I got it, I hadn't put enough hot water in there. Live and learn :)

I'll probably say too much on this next topic, but here goes. I've been working for a few months on a knowledge strategy for one of our businesses. I presented a draft to some of the leadership team last week, and if I'm honest, the work got beat up. It wasn't what they were expecting and it turned into a debate. I was pretty disheartened after the call, so having a good relationship with each of them, I called or emailed each of them afterwards. Bottom line, I had to learn my own km lesson of "working out loud". I had gone too much into a black hole, and didn't check in with them enough, so as the effort morphed, it didn't go the best way. It's turning out to be a good way to practice resilience too. I sent an update today and I think it might already be turning around.

While I'm sharing too much, let me go a personal route. I've been having a lot of headaches lately, really bad ones. After having two in one day, I decided to checkout the healthcare system here. It's known as NHS (National Health Services), and each person has their own opinion of it, quite a few extremes of like and dislike. I looked up doctors and hospitals and knowing the costs are covered by social medicine, I decided to walk to a hospital. Took about 10 minutes to get there and when I walked in, they said sorry, we're not an A&E, you'll have to go across town. So I walked home and drove to the A&E. I paid £3 to park and walked in. The woman at the reception desk was very nice but she basically said "is it an emergency", I said "well it's happening too much and I'd like to figure out why". She said they don't conduct investigations, she'd recommend a general physician for that, but she was more than willing to treat any symptoms right now. By the way, its currently a 4 hour wait. It was about 10pm, so I decided to drive home and sleep it off. I think the health system is fine, I think I just had to go and see it one time before I could understand it better. To end on a happy note, today was headache free and hopefully lots more of those days are ahead!

As the leaves change colour, so changes the season

The leaves on the trees are beginning to fall and change colour here. The air is becoming a bit more crisp and cool, yet the temperature is about the same. 

I've noticed there's a slightly funny little ritual that people do at the end of phone calls. Each person on the phone says "bye" twice, and if it goes perfectly, you VERY quickly alternate between each person. The second "bye" has a slightly higher tone to it as well.

In the states, we have a few different accents, I'd say it's probably northern, southern, central, you might toss in Boston, New York, New Jersey and maybe North Dakota and Wisconsin as unique accents or dialects. Now that I write those out, I guess we have quite a few. I'm noticing quite a few accents in the UK too, over very small areas. There's definitely a northern/southern, but there's something in Wales/central too. In just 6 months of listening, it almost feels like each major town has it's own accent/dialect. If you google "accent and dialogue map USA" (or UK), there are great ones out there. These accents are important to know because there are helpful ways to shift your wording, and even thinking, when building relationships.

Strange thing happened yesterday, I was driving to work and a guy in a suit on a bike hit my side mirror with his handle bars. He immediately raised his hand, said some kind of apology and kept going. I guess it was no harm no foul. Most of the roads have marked areas for bikes, and if there's a traffic light, there's often a marked space up front for bikes. So I guess the bumping of cars and cyclists must actually be fairly common. 

I've been invited to a formal dinner event. It's not called "renting a tux", it's called "hiring a dinner jacket", in fact the stores call it a DJ (which is even more confusing :) ). Oh, on a side note, we don't call them sneakers or tennis shoes here, we call them trainers. It cost me around £80 to get the full tuxedo, ahem dj, which sounded about right to me. My trainers actually have US and UK sizes written in them, so it was easy to share those with the tailor. UK sizes tend to be one number lower than US sizes, for example a 12 shoe is an 11 shoe. A 17 neck for a shirt in the US, is a 16 in the UK.

It's now Sunday morning and I'm going to make the same French toast I made yesterday. It's a recipe from Gordon Ramsey, so of course it's amazing. It's called Eggy Bread w Sugared Apples. You hear up some sugar, toss in some butter, then chopped up apples with the skin. Then you slice French bread, dunk it in pretty standard French toast batter (eggs, cinnamon, sugar, milk) and you're good to go, delicious!

Playtime is Over, It's Time for Business Collaboration

I was fortunate to be invited to a small dinner party last night. The "keynote" was given by Bonnie Cheuk, whom I've been a fan of for years. 

There were 21 of us in the cozy, yet swanky "back room" of a hotel in London. It was literally called the back room. If I recall correctly, it had all white walls covered in some stucco white design, with one huge glass window facing the street. The room was probably 25' by 25' with one long dinner table diagonally across the middle. In one corner there was a secret little table in a cutout area of the wall, people put their bags and belongings there. The chandelier was overwhelming, the ceiling was only 10 feet and the chandelier was just feet above you and purposefully way too big for the room. A posh white couch, chair and side table anchored the other side of the room.

For the first 30 minutes they served drinks and we stood and chatted. It always fascinates me to watch group dynamics. We started in a small group standing in a circle, once we hit 8 people, a side conversation started. That spurred several other side conversations to start and all of a sudden there were 20 people each talking 1:1. 

We were asked to sit down so the evening could begin. We were literally shoulder to shoulder and yet we had just enough room to not feel over-crowded. Some people would say it was perfect for group conversation.

Bonnie Cheuk kicked off the night and shared her thoughts on global knowledge management, having just lead km for a multi billion £ organisation. I've admired Bonnie's work for years, so it was great to meet her in person. 

As the fantastic food came out in course after course, I was slightly surprised that conversation remained at the full 21-person group level. It felt like a family dinner, quite nice. Several key points were made, and it was a bit of an "information versus knowledge, culture vs technology" tone. 

Here are some of the key points I heard:

-Believe in yourself, KM is hard

-Change is one conversation at a time

-Drop the "social solution", focus on business needs

-Focus on business processes, as opposed to tools

-Focus on user experience (which later became a debate about "users" vs "employees" vs "people")

-Replicate the success

-Be passionate, find the other passionate people (one org called them "agents" as opposed to the popular naming of "ambassadors")

-Find the ppl in your org that are on linked in and twitter and send them an email, use them as a first pilot community

-"We have an org memory of about a year, older than that, it may well have not happened"

-"All of our reward is based on heros, how do we change that?"

-"After completing a task, we don't think about 'who else should know this', and how would you know?"

-"If you've been here 20 years then you know who to go to, how do you get employees that have been here 2 months to know who to go to?"

-"Playtime is over" (I thought that was a cool quote)

-"Better to get punched in the face on your intranet than to be stabbed in the back on glass door[.com]" (wow, there's a backstory there for sure)

After dinner was over, a few people stuck around to do a bit more networking. The whole night had a great feel to it, very comfortable and validating. I'm hoping to keep in touch with several of the folks I met, I definitely appreciate the invitation and where it might take us in the future.

How to get out of our own way

I've grown very comfortable with driving around roundabouts. It actually didn't take long at all. I often think about the parallels between driving and life, or driving and business. My buddy Nimmy recently wrote some of them so I don't need to recreate those of course (http://nirmala-km.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/driving-and-life-13-metaphors.html?m=1). I do have many more that I'd add to the list and one of them is "get out of own own way".

The beauty of the roundabout is that it handles traffic as it arrives. It rarely uses any electricity for street lights and it barely needs signs. On one hand it's a bit of wasted space in the middle, but really, it's often beautiful landscaping or even just nice simple green grass reminding you to take a deep breath.

Contrast the roundabout with the traffic signal. You know, the 4-12 traffic signals needed at every single intersection, not to mention all the secret hardware nearby to control those lights. Or the confusing, wait for me, I'll go, no you go, I got here first, my car is faster, stop sign. 

I think we often think that more control, more direction, more structure is better. Just look at airport security as another example. We over analyze the problem, over engineer the solution and the result is expensive, frustrating, inefficiencies. 

I was reading a great book recently that said, actually it's not the leaders that make the employees, it's the employees that make the leader. It's not the parents that guide the kids, it's the kids that guide the parents. It's not the teachers that teach the students, it's the students that teach the teachers. It's not speaking that creates listening, it's listening that creates speaking.

I'm not trying to sound anti-establishment, or oblivious to group dynamics, or even unaware of good intentions to make things better. I think I'm simply saying that maybe we should consider spending more time understanding the true problems at hand, and consider many more possible solutions. Roundabouts dynamically handle traffic as it arrives without any unnecessary stopping. On a grand scale that keeps everything moving as efficiently as it can. How many times have you come to a stop at a red light when no one else was around, wondering why you're waiting? How many times have you had to ask for permission at work, or wait for a decision/approval and wondered if you're empowered?  Google "wirearchies" and "org network analysis" and "value network analysis" and "expertise location" and "talent markets" for potential new approaches to get out of our own way in organizations.

My first ever Cronut

I wandered over to London on Sunday with three slightly strange goals: eat a cronut, see the red poppies at the Tower of London, and meet a celebrity. 

I started at the Tower of London since that was the only goal I was fairly confident I could achieve. First I looked up if you had to go into the "pay area" of the tower to see the poppies. Several people on twitter said you could see them for free. They were correct. You can see the almost 900,000 red poppies as you approach the tower. Each one represents someone who gave up their life in World War One. Its an emotional piece of art if you think about it. You can buy a poppy online for £25.

Like a local, I grabbed a sandwich and grapes at Pret as I set out on my next two goals. If I haven't mentioned, there are pre-packaged sandwiches at all of their chain coffee spots, M&S, Cafe Nero, Pret a Manger, Costa, Eat, Starbucks. You'll see Burger King, Subway and McDs here, but you'll see many many more of the coffee shops.

I'm not a big car guy, but I saw a stunning Ferrari as I walked out of the coffee shop. In fact, I noticed many amazing cars that day. 

I stumbled upon a very small wedding at a beautiful little church. I noticed the church was connected to a "free house". I can't remember if I've mentioned that a free house is a pub that isn't tied to a single brewer. Many pubs will focus on a single type of beer or two, but the free house has many options. Maybe I'm the last to know that.

So I'm not big into cars or celebrities, but celebrity houses are exactly what I did next. It's pretty easy to guess that the houses probably aren't really theirs, and even if they are, it's probably just one of many homes they own, but I thought I'd look anyway. 

George Clooney supposedly owns a place next to the courthouse for his wife, and when I found the place, it looked empty and there was a for sale sign up. Oh well.

I found myself walking through really nice neighborhoods in the heart of London so that was actually pretty fun. I noticed a store called Maplin a few times. Story on that place is that I've walked past the one in Guildford literally dozens of times and never noticed it. Then my daughters hard drive crashed and I learned that Maplin was the closest computer shop. Now that I know it's there, I see it every time. How did I miss it? Reminds me of knowkedge management, there are collaboration approaches hidden right in front of us, but we rarely see or use them until someone calls them out, or sees a specific need.

There's a restaurant called Heights that supposedly always has celebs in it, plus a great view, so I popped up there. It's the 15th floor of a hotel that's somewhat close to the BBC One radio tower. There were two people eating up there, but I didn't recognise them. The view was nice though. 

Next I stopped by Lady Gaga's new flat. Pretty quiet spot right next to a tube stop, which is strange to say. No sign of lady.

I feel like I visited other houses but if course no one was home. I was the most excited when I got to Gwen Stefani and Gavin's house next to Regent Park. It felt the most "real" to me and I think they're great. I chatted with an older lady at the park, she was from Bari, Italy. A high school English teacher, she enjoyed speaking in English with me. I thought she was very wise and I could tell she's probably a great teacher. Photo below would be the view out the front door from Gwens house.

There's a secret little river walk in the nice neighborhood (Mayfair, Marylebone). I thoroughly enjoyed that walk. Although I realised I'm old, had walked about 10 miles at that point, and my feet/knees were starting to hurt. The view helped it feel better though.

I ate some brick oven pizza from a pub in Marylebone. I had a vibe of actors and actresses in there, but no one I recognised. The family right next to me had a mom that was a dead ringer for Sandra Bullock but I'm pretty sure it wasn't her. She could def play her as a stunt double though, it was that close.

Took the train home, had a great conversation with the people in front of me, watched X factor when I got home and went to bed. 

Wait wait, how am I forgetting the highlight of the whole day?? I researched the places to buy cronuts in London. There are about 5 places and they're all a little different. The idea of geniusly blending croissants and donuts fascinates me. I was a little scared to hear they have cream filling, but I'll get over it. So the place I wanted to find was called Cocomaya. I knew these places sellout very very quickly and it was 15 minutes before close when I got there. I walked in and sure enough, 2 cronuts left!! I talked to the guys there, saying it's my first ever and how excited I am. They were very funny, telling me how much better theirs are compared to NYC. They pulled one more out if the back and gave it to me for free, and a plain croissant too. I walked to Marble Arch to sit and try this piece of food heaven. Oh man, that first bite was beyond words. I couldn't believe it was actually better than the hype. It's food genius. I'll try to not mention the km tie, but c'mon, combining two great ideas to make an even better one...with some effort and collaboration to pull it off... :)

The devil has a punchbowl

I hiked another AONB this past weekend, the Surrey Hills. They have endless trails for cycling or hiking. I was overwhelmed by options so I started with the trail that was recommended by locals. That stunning trail was called The Devils Punchbowl. 

There are several local stories as to how this huge crater was created. I like the story about the devil throwing dirt at the god Thor. There's also some scientific story about how springs created the hole and now it's this fantastic blend of hundreds of types of trees, wildlife and flora.

I ran into five wild bulls whilst I was there. I had been hiking for about 2 or 3 hours when I ran into this guy. 

He was about 15 feet from me and there was no where to hide. He was very nice though and didn't seem to mind a few photos. 

You wouldn't believe how many big time authors and poets have been inspired by this hike. Here's a few:

http://www.surreylife.co.uk/out-about/places/literary_surrey_lewis_carroll_arthur_conan_doyle_agatha_christie_and_other_famous_authors_1_1568831

I felt it. It's a special place with clean crisp air. A view that's stunning yet visually manageable. Each turn provides a glimpse into a different set of leaves, sounds and smells. The crater teases you as you try to look down, often blocked by small trees, bushes or flowers. Every once in a while when you catch a glimpse, it's like a finishing chord in a major symphony, it just all comes together. 

Art of the Possible

I'm feeling strangely nervous to write this post. I think it's even more personal than normal, or something. I've grown accustomed to presenting to British audiences. I've adapted my presentation style and the words I use. 

Last week, I "presented" via the phone to an all American audience for the first time in 6 months. As always, I asked for lots of feedback from the group and from individuals after the call. The feedback was exactly opposite to what I normally hear, this time it was "speak with more enthusiasm". Fascinating to me because in the past I've heard "keep your believability high by not over-selling it". I wonder if I've over-corrected? Or if audiences are that different? I'm so thankful for the feedback because it helps me be aware, and improve.

I left the office very late after presenting to the American audience, since it was an afternoon presentation for them. There was a road closure on the way home, so I had to quickly adapt. I instantly had that strange feeling of "wow, I kinda have no idea where to go now". I circled a roundabout or two, thought really hard, and eventually made my way home safely. 

There's a popular show here called the Great British bake off. It's a reality show where about 10 people have to face individual cooking challenges. It's full of innuendo, but in a very very subtle way.  I think it's intended to be a comedy, but it's so subtle that I'm actually not sure what the intent is. 

A phrase I've heard a lot lately is  "Art of the possible". Related, they don't say "create and share a vision" here, they say "envisage the future". Art of the possible is somewhat used in the states I guess, but I don't recall hearing as much as I do here. It basically means to create a vision statement, or better, discuss the possibilities of the future.

I had another great dinner with David Gurteen. It's quite surreal to me because I still look to him as a European, if not global, KM leader and here I am having all kinds of group and individual activities with him. We're already planning our next event. Awesome.

Have I mentioned before that they don't say "at 10pm" here, they say "from 10pm". (Or whatever time) Just another little difference. 

I stumbled upon a Gordon Ramsey cooking show here. I just watched one episode but I found it fascinating that he was so so kind and thoughtful on this show, his whole approach was the exact opposite of how it is on American shows. 

The X factor with Simon Cowell is in full swing here. It's very good, lots of talent and I'm a little surprised how emotional the shows are, I would have expected it to be more subtle?

I stayed up very very late last night to watch the Virginia Tech Hokies play Ohio State in college football. The game STARTed at 1am local time and didn't end until about 5am. I felt like I was in undergrad again. It was worth it though because the Hokies pulled a great upset and I felt lucky to be able to watch it live across the pond. Costs £9 per game by the way, again, completely worth it.