What's the point of it all?
What's the point of it all?
Plus exciting plans for 2023
Hi all,
I hope you are doing safe and well. I’m finishing for the festive break this Friday and looking forward to a week of personal projects until the rest of my family break up. I plan on finally getting my “25 years too early for TikTok” video done, and yes, I’m hoping to finalise the draft for the “Take A Day Off” book. No doubt I’ll simply end up doing household chores and DIY, but at least I can plan.
I will post one more newsletter before Christmas - that will be next week. In keeping with tradition it will be an annual review. I know many of you enjoyed the last two years reviews.
Today, I will share with you the plans for 2023 which I hope will elevate this newsletter to new levels and bring you even more wisdom, information and practical goodness.
Before then though, I thought I’d muse on an idea that runs through my latest book “Take a day off”. That idea being - what’s the point of work?
The point of work
At a basic human level there is a need to put food on the table and pay bills and enjoy what’s important to you - and this typically requires some money. It’s much harder recently with rising costs, inflation and the energy crisis making simply keeping a roof above your head and food on the table a real challenge.
Above this though - what’s it all about?
I said goodbye to some colleagues recently who’ve moved on to other engagements. I’ve worked in a startup all the way through to the sale - and then left that company, saying goodbye to those who remained - as well as the product I’d invested SO much energy and attention into building.
Companies close down, products get canned, people move on. Look at what’s happening at Twitter, Meta, Google etc - people being made redundant, new owners are changing the culture overnight, products are getting shelved that people have spent years building and major change is sweeping in for many people.
Things come and go - as do people. And it can sometimes feel a little futile. When we invest so much energy and attention into products and companies, we can be left feeling like it may not have been worth it when things change or come to a natural end or the market dries up.
But I look at this differently.
Work, at least as I see it, has two fundamentally rock solid principles at play that I hold dear.
The first is that we’re always learning. Every day we get a chance to become a better person, to learn more skills, to nudge our behaviours, to grow in our capacity as a person. I use this as a yard stick for all of my work. When I stop learning how to be better - and start demonstrating weaker or worse behaviours - I know I need to change jobs if possible. I’m in the wrong role, or the wrong company, or sometimes just the wrong team.
More importantly though is my second belief, which is that we should leave the business, and the people who work in it, better than when we joined.
We should try our hardest to enrich the lives of all we work with. When the product closes or the company changes or you move on - there is a lasting knowledge that you made it better.
You cared, you nurtured others, you inspired people, you built them up, you looked out for people and you made the business better (nicer place to work, more profitable, better run) than when you joined. This stays with you forever, long after the work and people have moved on.
This is what it’s all for; building strong relationships and enriching the lives of all who’ve worked with you.
We won’t always get it right and sometimes it’s truly really hard in some environments, but I believe this is what work is for. To pay the bills, to learn and to help enrich other people’s lives.
If you get this right you’ll be able to weather the storms and have the self-satisfaction that you helped others along the way.
Maybe I’m getting sentimental in my old age, but the money, products or services we built, kudos, job titles and role power are all things that can be taken away. Knowing you enriched the lives of others will stay with you forever.
Plans for 2023
As I have mentioned before, I moved to substack for easier writing (I still love writing in Substack) and the ability to offer subscriptions.
Starting in 2023 I will be turning on subscriptions. I’ve yet to settle on a price. I want to make it affordable but equally I’ve spent years giving away a LOAD of content and insights and value for free. My goal is to at least cover the server and tool costs :)
The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the newsletter name change. It’s part of a shift in focus for my business.
I have new brand images and a simplified focus on the intersect between communication, hr and management - and how getting synergy between these three things allows organisations to release epic amounts of agility.
Here are a couple of sample brand images being worked on - and below that, the subscription model for the newsletter.
The "Cultivated" newsletter - this one you’re reading now
The Free Version will be published every 2nd and 4th week.
In the free version of the Cultivated Newsletter, you'll get ideas around communication, HR, management and business agility delivered straight to your inbox. It will contain useful ideas and practical guides. The same as the last 4/5 years.
I will also share behind-the-scenes insights as well as interesting links from the web.
The subscriber only version will be published every 1st and 3rd week.
Subscribers get extra content and some seriously good goodies.
The newsletter : I share ideas, thoughts and steps on how to Release Business Agility - by bridging the gap between HR and management, and of course, with a focus on communication.
This will basically be implementation guides, workshops and consulting material that I use with clients. It is a mix of leadership, management and HR interventions, systems levers and playbooks on how to Release Business Agility.
I have 130 “articles” in the backlog to post - so plenty to digest. There will also be a Trello Board running alongside with each of these ideas in it - the same Trello board I use with clients.
Playbooks : You'll get my very own coaching and consulting playbooks, workshop ideas, slides and other goodness as I release them over the year. You'll get access to the very things I use with clients.
Personal Knowledge Management : I’m super excited about this one!! Subscribers also get access to my learning notes in my Personal Knowledge Management System (Nimbus Notes) to read, learn from, give feedback on - you’ll be able to develop your own thinking and writing and then hopefully share it with the community; thus perpetuating a cycle of transmission and transformation of knowledge, ideas, and experiences.
I’m constantly learning, reading, making notes and growing - it will be interesting to see if we can build a community around our own knowledge management systems - and you’ll get an insight into what I study and the things I believe are interesting (which you may disagree with).
It's note-taking as communication.
Community Chat : Subscribers will also get access to the Substack chat tool. The chat tool is impressive for sure and we can get conversations going about the latest content or any other subject related to communication, HR and management.
Rich Media and Ask Me Anything : Subscribers also get a monthly podcast or video (or if I'm feeling extra adventurous, both) where I answer questions from the community chat, or anything people have asked me about.
Archive : Subscribers also get access to the archive as it builds up.
Discounts : Subscribers also get discounts on books and courses and more!
Some epic goodness to contemplate.
I’ve put a lot of thought into this and I feel this is a good balance. Plenty of free stuff (the newsletter, YouTube, blog, free guides on the website etc) and some subscriber based material for those wishing to learn more about management and HR and communication - and how bringing both together helps an organisation release business agility.
I will turn on subscriptions in the first two weeks of January. If you don’t feel subscriptions is right for you, you won’t need to do anything and you’ll continue to get this newsletter every two weeks.
I look forward to sharing my annual review with you next week - and if you do one also - let me know!
Interesting Links
I’ve had a mad week so only a few nuggets today.
Interesting to hear that novelist Ann Patchett schedules thinking time. I wrote about that in my last book “Energy and Attention” and the need to schedule time to be creative, to think, to relax. Sad that we need to, but if we’re keen on exploring our creativity, it’s a trick that works.
How to get promoted. Some good ideas in this one.
Labelling yourself may be holding you back. I often say that when you define something you confine something - and there may be good reasons to do this about topics and ideas at work - but not people.
You need a creative manifesto. I like this at a personal level. Imagine what would happen if we had something like this at a team or company level.
Until next week
Rob