Singular Scene

So Singular in Each Particular

How to Get Ahead in Business

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I had the great fortune today to spend time with a man who in one conversation taught me volumes about the kind of employer I’d like to be.

I’d like to see the value in each of my staff, recognizing that many of them will be able to do things I could never do myself, and furthermore are likely to already be able to do the things I can do even better than me.

I would like to cast the vision of my business to my team in such a way that they too can catch the vision, but I’d also like my team to know that my vision is useless without them being involved.  I’d like my team to feel like we’re all in it together.

I’d like to pay my team every penny of what they’re worth, not just in current employment terms but every penny that they’re worth to me as people with families depending on them and as co-workers in the vision of my business, bringing my dreams to pass.

I’d like my team to value the people they come in to contact with in the course of my business as more than just a means to an end, but as people with lives and families of their own who we’re partnering with to make their dreams happen too.

I’d like my business to have a heart not just for my community but for our planet as well.

I would like to be open to the ideas of my team; I’d like to be able to value their input into my business without feeling threatened. 

I believe that getting my team on board with where we’re going owes more to my belief in them than it does to me telling them where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.  Of course, telling us where we’re going is important, but I’d like to be open to their input about the journey to that destination.

This is the kind of employer I want to be.  Amazes me that I heard it from the mouth of an un-lettered builder from Harbord (and one who prefesses no association with God or the church).

Of course, this is all dependent on me wanting to own a business that employs more than just me… I really can’t see that far ahead!!  Right now, all I want to do is blog, and code.

Sigh.  Decisions, Decisions.

Across the Great Divide

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It’s a delight to me that one of my favourite jazz musicians is an old friend, and better still, that she’s made the trek ‘across the ditch’ to set up in my little corner of the world. 

Charmaine and her husband have been here since the beginning of the year and last Friday night was her first official gig in Sydney.  So I bundled up a bunch of the girls to go and hear her support Kristin Berardi at the Stamford Plaza in Double Bay.

It amused me to hear a bunch of Northern Beaches people get excited about going across ‘the bridge‘… The harbour is a definite geographic divide, but it’s also a cultural one…  it really isn’t a long distance trip but we really do get excited about getting out of our neighbourhood and going somewhere different… and I don’t mean Manly to Dee Why… people we went to Double Bay!!! (oooh lah,di, dah…).

So what’s the cultural divide in your neck of the woods?  And what does it take to get you across it?

A Question of Faith

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I know you guys don’t keep coming back for the ‘religious’ posts, so I keep them to a minimum.  I try not to work out my faith on the blog, it’s bad enough that you all think I’m a crazy cat lady, let alone a religious zealot…

I guess I’ve been around a few blogs written by Christians, and I have to be honest, some of them are sweet, schmaltzy, ‘pie in the sky when you die’ kinds of blogs.  Guess I’m not that kind of a Christian – or blogger… I also wonder whether they’re genuine or if they’re putting on a brave face for non churchy types.  A kind of ‘throwing out the welcome mat’ or ‘hey, Jesus makes your life brighter’ advertiser.

I’m afraid the whole Jesus thing isn’t actually an innoculation against ‘shit happening’.  Would be nice – it’s also true to say that working for the church isn’t necessarily a sweeter option than working in a secular workplace.  Mate, people are people wherever you go, they do stupid stuff, and they get it wrong both in church and out.  So it begs the question, why believe in all this stuff anyway?  I mean, what difference does it make if people behave no better for it in the end?

That’s a question that makes this post different than my orignal intent actually, but I’ll follow the muse… it’s worth answering, for my own benefit more than yours… so indulge me a little if you will, or flick back to the gratuitious cat photo.

I guess the context of these thoughts has been dissatisfaction at work/church.  I think it’s good to get a bit shook up now and again so you don’t get complacent about where you are and what you’re doing but I have to be honest it feels like crap.  Especially if you’re doing what you’re doing because of some ‘vocation’ or ‘calling’.  If all the material elements of your world are out of whack it causes you to call the spiritual elements in to question…

Further fuel for the muse is that there are a bunch of people in my world who are struggling, in all sorts of areas.  Real Life isn’t matching up to what they want out of it, who they are in it, or how they feel about it.  For some of them I want to shake them and say ‘enough is enough’  stop wallowing – bitter and twisted isn’t amusing or fun or the real you, the one we love…  you have the tools and the people around you and access to help…  sort it out…

For others I wish I could translate just how much of a difference a ‘real-life’ authentic experience of a real-loving, alive and powerful God made in my world and why I think it’s the beginning of the answer for them. 

And so I come full circle to the potential of a sugary schmaltzy post… which is the complete opposite of the God I know.  He’s full fight, balls on the line, down and dirty, dust up kind of a God.  One who’ll wade in full force to a situation when he’s invited, and while he’s that kind of beefy, solid solution he’s motivated by love.  His love is so all consuming that we can barely accept it… because our frailties are so embarrassing by comparison with his awesomeness…  However, he snorts in the face of our frailties.  His love covers all of them and more…

Arrgh… as soon as you say that ‘L’ word there’s schmaltz potential… but that’s what I’m talking about… this is love that puts on the gloves in defence, one that stands his ground, one that will defend our honour, our courage and who doesn’t quail in the face of our own very real weakness.  One who doesn’t see real life and go, "here’s my magic wand, let all the bad stuff disappear"… instead one who says, "I’m sorry, I know this sucks, but here, hold my hand, we’ll go through it together, see that light? See that Hope?  That’s me too… we’ll get there and at the other end you’ll be stronger, better, brighter and braver than you ever thought possible and you’ll be able to lead other people along this same path and help them see that light as well."

So here I am, walking out the other side of a pit,  still not sure about work, still not sure about my church and some of the people in it, still not sure we couldn’t do things SO much better… but sure of the one thing, the one person that I’m doing all this stuff for, the ONE who really matters.

That’s why I bother and it’s also why I am wishing I could translate that certainty so my troubled friends could be that sure, that confident, that peaceful and that hopeful for the present and the future too.

Blog Mojo and Gratuitious Cat Photo

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I think my blog mojo might be on its way back… I think this largely because I find myself once again formulating blog posts in my head!  I have a couple on the boil… I’ll start with the one below because it takes less brain power to recount and doesn’t require much thinking… the next one needs some thinking…

Below is Lulu, you probably know that already, she’s been mentioned before.  What I have never related is the reason I fell in love with Burmese cats (which is, of course, her illustrious breed.)

Gizmo was the first Burmese I ever had a lot to do with, there were others but Giz was a friend rather than acquaintance.  He owned the family I worked for and was, as most Burmies are, all personality.

His dominant traits were that he LOVED to be around people and he LOVED to be up high, so the minute any of us walked in the door Giz would run up your front and sit on your shoulder for as long as you would let him.  Seriously, he wasn’t ever in any hurry to get down, he’d make himself comfortable and sit there!!  I loved this about him and tried valiantly to encourage Chino in the same direction. No Dice. He was not into it.

Lulubelle, however, is an up high freak, loves to be snuggled into your shoulder and even will sit across the back of your neck, along your shoulders a la fur collar.  Awww… adorable.

So yesterday, I spontaneously invited her to run up my front to my shoulders and lo and behold she did!  Now that she’s figured out she can do it she’s done it often enough for me to know she’s got the trick in her head and will make use of it…

*note to self, don’t encourage such behaviour when all one is wearing is one’s dressing gown…*

That may further cement your impression of me as a ‘crazy cat lady’ I’m ok with that.  I’ll be honest here, it took a little while for the ghost of Chino to leave me and Lulu to get acquainted.  Love him though I did, I can honestly say there are lots of things about Lulu that are way less high maintenance and way more lovable… not the least of which is the sleeping through the night… and, of course, the running up your front…*

*Ed, who writes this rubbish?  Please, get back to online dating so there’s something worth coming back here for… sheesh…


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