Hey Avo Bloggers, it’s been a great long weekend and I know we all wished it was just a day longer, so instead of having a blue monday I thought I’d share with you a Dilbert comic strip to raise your spirits for the rest of the week.

I challenge you to find a South African who has been completely untouched by the crime and poverty in South Africa. I can’t think of anyone. Our country is so alive with possibility and hope, but sometimes the darkness of the realities of living here overwhelm even the most committed optimists.

We have all felt the paranoid collective conciousness that swells whenever we have a couple of weeks of horrendous news reports that batter our sense of safety about living here. Every now and then, some company or organisation takes it upon themselves to build ‘anti crime’ campaigns, marches or petitions, and huge amounts of creative energy and, may I say, budgets, go into marketing the ‘anti-crime’ message. I think this is a way for people to take back some of the powerlessness they feel in the face of the darkness: marching or campaigning seems to help people feel they are ‘doing something’.

I’d like to suggest that there is a different, more constructive way to take back the power. In my new talk, the Seeds of South Africa, I make the case for building the people of this country. Many of us who have the means, the time, or the skills, are already doing small things to help the immediate people in our own communities: paying for our domestic worker’s childrens school fees, or helping out at our local churches or community support programes, or providing employment for other South Africans. This talk inspires South Africans about what is possible for individuals to do to make this country a better place.

When each of us is buiding a little piece of South Africa, we take back our power and our pride: I think it is one of the most important ways of holding back the darkness. By knowing your life has meaning and purpose because of the value you are creating for other human beings!

Check out Graeme’s site http://www.tmtd.biz/2007/02/07/crime-where-facts-politics-and-emotions-clash/ for some fascinating insights into crime stats and roots

Thank you, Sharon Jansen, for this special poem. I know it speaks truth to me. And I think to many of the Avos, and maybe some Avo friends too. Avos: develop your Mastery - the prize will take care of itself.

The Archer
Chuang Tzu

When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets.
He is out of his mind!
His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him.
He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting.
And the need to win drains him of power.

Perhaps you own one. I don’t. I barely write anymore – most of my thoughts get hammered out on a keyboard or spoken directly into a digital recorder. But I’m intrigued. Not by the odd Moleskine-bearer strolling nonchalantly around Melville or Rosebank (I usually dismiss them as artsy-types), but rather by the phenomenal online following the ol’ Moleskine brand enjoys.

The Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen-a) is simply a brand of notebook manufactured by Modo & Modo, an Italian company, bound in oilcloth-covered cardboard (Moleskin) with an elastic band to hold the notebook closed and a sewn spine that allows it to lie flat when opened. Not particularly high tech, or particularly sexy, for that matter. The pocket notebook’s reputation has grown in stature through the endorsements of the likes of Bruce Chatwin, Neil Gaiman and Pete Doherty, and rumour would have it that the Moleskine was a favourite accessory to the likes of Picasso, Hemingway and Van Gogh.

Whether all the folklore is verifiable or not the Moleskine brand, through its product’s minimalist design and stylish simplicity, continues to enjoy a formidable, almost cultish following. I’ve never heard Moleskine notebooks advertised on the radio, nevermind on the telly, and yet everyone who’s anyone either owns one or can tell you something about them. That’s exceptional - the immense power of viral marketing, personified by a wad of blank pages.

I was interested to hear Jackie Huba of the Church of the Customer blog talking about her Moleskine-fetish, and she listed some fascinating links to some of the more fanatical Moleskine Evangelists in the online world. Moleskine blogs, a MySpace site and even a comprehensive Wikipedia entry (from which, just by the way, I got most of the information for this article). All this free marketing by unpaid, enthusiastic citizens, who believe in the unobtrusive allure of an overpriced notebook.

How many citizen marketers does your brand have?

I had the privelege of spending the day with Meg Wheatley at a Nedbank Women’s forum.

She shared such simple, but profound insights with us, which I’ll share with you over time.  But I think my most profound insight was my own, derived after a really lovely facillitation method called ‘world cafe’ (more about that later too!

‘Trust your intuition’!

Maybe it sounds ‘duh’ to you, but to me it is huge!  I’ve always been a reluctant ‘gut’ girl.  Although I make many decisions based on that ‘feeling’, I’ve always had a bit of ‘imposter’ fear about it.  I have always considered my intuition to be a naive voice - primitive in it’s perceptions and understanding of what’s really going on.

But on that day I suddenly saw that my intuition has travelled the same road as me.  It is (nearly) 40 years old, and has access to everything I know, plus some things only my subconscious knows! When it sends me panic signals, huge ‘NO’s, ‘YES!’s’, and ‘DONT GO THERES’, it’s speaking with a lot of experience and wisdom, and is not naive at all!

I’m going to work with it some more, and see how far it takes me.  Maybe that will become my message to the world: trust it - it really is my true north!

Thought you may be interested in an article in the latest Financial Mail: I was interviewed for my insights on mentorship and the retention of skills across the generations.

Click here for more…

This is an excerpt from the Human trend alert newsletter I get weekly:

Herman Trend Alert: Ubiquitous Cell Phones Blocking Relationships

March 15, 2006

The rapidly growing use of cell phones throughout the world will lead to significant changes in the way people relate to each other. While we are so well connected as individuals, that connection is relatively impersonal. We are laser-focused on our conversation with one person to the point that we do not interact with other humans who may be standing right next to us.

The world is rapidly becoming a collection of people in isolation bubbles who have no connection to each other. Wherever we go we see people talking on cell phones. They talk while driving, while shopping, while engaged in recreational activities. Last night we saw a family at a restaurant. Five people were sitting around the table, while three of them were talking on cell phones. Etiquette and manners are ignored when the cell phone rings. Japan has the right idea: cell phones are banned from restaurants there.

Conversations with people who are not present supersede speaking with people—family and friends or business associates—who are right next to us. If cell phones have already made us less connected to people close to us, what might we expect in the future? We already have challenges with e-mail, instant messaging, Skype, Blackberrys, and our cell phones. This technology allows us to be linked with the world at the same time we are becoming less connected.

Look at your own behavior. Have you ever talked with someone on the cell phone within hearing distance? Interpersonal relationships are at risk. Our on-the-street surveys over the past few days suggest that an amazing proportion of people actually prefer a phone conversation to the opportunity to talk face-to-face with an individual. What does this observation say about people wanting to talk one-to-one with their neighbors? Do you ignore your ringing cell phone or your colleagues?

We hear stories about workers located close enough to talk with each other—or at least close enough to walk a few feet and see each other—communicating by cell phone and instant messaging systems. Technology is disrupting face-to-face communication, making the workplace—and our lives—impersonal.

“At the core of Leadership is communication. And at the core of communication is the ability to listen with empathy.”

(By the way, Avo helps people learn how to do this)

“The front line delivers the bottom line”

Deep.

I went to the ‘never to be repeated’; ‘one day only’; ‘Steven Covey in person’ day at Gallagher the other day.

I think my biggest mistake was reading the 8th habit in advance.

I suppose I was expecting a profound AHA. That somehow being in the presence of the world-famous business guru would give me a life-affirming instant of insight and I would never be the same again. Umm…well… na.

Maybe it’s because I was feeling a bit dof on that day, so I wasn’t joining the dots as well as I should. Or maybe because I left an hour before the end and therefore missed the climax.

Or maybe it’s because a lot of what he said is already part of how we live at Avo. That we already see our people as assets and seek to help not only our own selves, but the clients we have the privelege to interact with, to find their voice.

Maybe I was there to really remind myself not to take the Avo space for granted - that I need to remember that our role is to guide, coach and drag our clients into the thinking that helps people recconect with their soul at work? Not sure, but I’ll figure it out…