My mother once introduced me to a rather deaf elderly gentleman: “Meet my daughter, Hanli Buber.” To which the gentleman replied: “Honey Bluebelle! What a charming name!” My mother did not correct him, and neither did I. I have been using the name as a pseudonym ever since.

Who is Hanli Buber? At the moment I am a sniffing, coughing, wheezing, shivering Zanzibarian recoveree. I spent a deliriously glorious ten days on the island-of-spice and it was very, very, very nice! But now I am waiting to hear whether I contracted Malaria, which is endemic (and epidemic!) to Zanzibar.

At Avo, I am jacqueline-of-all trades and master of some. I am the key account manager (I love that title! It sounds so grown-up; like a real job!) for SAB and Standard Bank. I rustle up new business, I develop new training products, I project manage and I train Avo courses.

I love networking, discovering the hidden webs of people who know other people. My best is when I meet people who have problems I know the solutions to. I get a lot of satisfaction from linking people together in new, satisfying and creative ways. A job I would probably love to do would be managing an exclusive dating agency. (An issue close to my heart at the moment, but more on my dating life when I know you a little better…)

When I lived in a small town called Donnybrook in the Southern Drakensburg, I used to throw notorious parties, to which I would invite anyone and everyone I liked; hippies, rich landowners, farmers, politicians, artists, rasta’s…anyone. I would feed them lots of cheap wine and watch new groups of people develop almost organically.

By the end of the party, new friendships and partnerships and insights were formed. And I, as the catalyst, would watch from the sidelines, like a satisfied deity. I still do that at Avo. In the business world it’s all about Networking; about being a ‘Connector’, like Malcolm Gladwell refers to in “The Tipping Point” It’s something I want to get better at this year.

My Strengths (Gallup, Marcus Buckingham) are Communicator (hence long blogs and long emails!), Individualisation, Input, Maximiser and Woo.

Apart from Connecting, I also develop funky Avo products like Pirates, Popcorn and the Corporate Fable and the Ama-Zing-Zing Race, I am a trainer and I facilitate meetings using a process called Participlan (which I love because it is so interactive and engaging) (Secret about me: Meetings freak me out. I can’t sit still, or shut up or listen. I hate all the talking, talking, talking and the knowing that work is piling up while the most verbose attendees verbally compete for floor-time, or slap each other on the back, or insult each other politely or just chew the fat. Meetings suck!) (Except Participlanned ones!)

I love working for Avo because of the flexibility and the alternative avant-garde way we structure “work”. It doesn’t feel like work. I get to be creative and productive and innovative and self-directed and sociable and trustworthy, all in a day’s “work”. Avo is like the seven-day-weekend workplace (Ricardo Semler, eat our Avo’s!) I love telling my friends who work for big corporates what it’s like working for Avo. They usually shake their heads in disbelief, groan and sigh and then beg me to get them a job with us!

I met with my friend Mark Kahn yesterday and we spoke about ‘core values’…interesting dilemma if your core values are in conflict with what your work expects of you. And your values are not what you think they are, either! I want to talk to him about it some more, then I’ll blog a thought-summary.

(I have a feeling I am going to be banned from Blogging, ‘cos I don’t know when to stop, as usual. Maybe I should just get my own site?) Ok, enough already.