Lewis – An ordinary inspiration. Facing the Facts...

I met Lewis a month or so ago.  His quiet inspiration astonished me - no frills; Just absolute bloody-mindedness to overcome the facts.  I was asking a group bout what facts they face in their day.  They talked about traffic, early mornings, the weather etc etc etc etc……  Lewis came to me in the break.  He told me about a few facts he had faced.   Here is how he told me.  Be inspired.

"My story begins from the age of 11, when – on suffering from a constant high temperature - I was rushed to hospital where they removed my appendix. They assumed that was the problem but were wrong.  My mother was with me when I stopped breathing on the ward.  My heart stopped and I had to be revived by the staff.  I was unconscious for so long that my brain was starved of oxygen and left me in intensive care in a comatose state with severe damage to the brain. 

I spent a whole year in the infirmary.  I had to relearn all basic motor skills just like a young infant. I had to go through schooling and relearn basic maths and English skills and worst of all was the intense Physiotherapy.  When I stood up for the first time in one year the pain was unimaginable and two floors of the hospital heard my screams.

I was then transferred to a private hospital.  This sounds great but I was separated from all friends and family so that I could purely concentrate on my recovery, which was very difficult.  Once I was there I had to undergo further occupational and physiotherapy, speech therapy and more schooling, I had to learn how to use a wheelchair and crutches to walk.  I had to use two bars in which to support my weight and after some time I used my physio for support.

When I was there it felt more like a prison at times due to the strictness and set rules.  However, it was a beautiful building with beautiful grounds, I learnt how to cook and prepare meals and drinks and we went on day and evening trips in order to build our social skills.  I spent the best part of a year there.

The rebuilding process has continued over the years.  Now I am an undergraduate at University.  They said I would never walk or talk again. 

Here I am; I walked in here to tell you this story."

Customer Devotion - Its a 2 way thing - Genius!

So I went to the Apple store today.  I know, I know - everyone talks about how great Apple is and it has almost become a cliche.

However, what they did demonstrated how real customer devotion works.  I had experienced a real issue with email the previous day - where basically everything had seized up on me.  It says a lot about the world when I can honestly say that without email I was lost - without contact.  (Of course this isn't true - but it felt like it at the time!)

I had spoken with the email host company and they had blamed the situation on my mac and the difficulty it has in communicating with certain email formats.  I went to the Genius bar at Apple - such a great name - and they spent the next two hours pulling various people of the shop floor (a very busy shop floor) to solve my issue.  An issue that it turned out was nothing to do with Apple or my hardware and completely due to the email host's internal issue.  In fact, none of the Apple geniuses actually understood what was happening and why - yet they still ploughed on to solve the issue.

They were devoted to me - the customer.  Is it any wonder therefore that I am devoted to them - real bonafide 2 way customer devotion?

The culprit - who was at fault - made the most serious of mistakes - blaming someone else and demonstrating customer irreverence - such that I will now devote myself to leaving them as quickly as possible.  Devotion to customers drives customer devotion.  That simplicity is the genius of Apple.

Do It Or Don't Do It - Then Choose to be Happy

Life is a set of choices.  It's a fairly bold point to make.  People may argue that there are things that are not a choice - but when you really come down to it - we all choose to obey the law (or not) - we all choose to live by certain standards or values (or not) - and we all choose to prioritise things deemed to be important (it's just a question of what you deem to be important).

Of course there are certain things that are not actually a choice.  Where I was born, my genetic make-up, history and things from the past - to name but a few.  We can, however, choose how we then deal with those things.

Take something simpler and a little less controversial.  I 'choose' to be an inconsistent and distinctly average golfer.  Why?  Because I don't practise enough or dedicate the time to improve.  I would 'like' to play well - but I actually choose to prioritise work or family over golf.  I could 'choose' to improve at golf - and face the consequences of less work time or less time with family as a practise night after night.  Either way, I can then 'choose' my response.  I am 'happy' with my choice.  I play golf and don't get wound up when I hit a bad shot.  It would be silly to get wound up - I have 'chosen' not to practise so bad shots will remain a part of my round.

I know some people who 'choose' to be bad at golf (by not practising) and then get really frustrated and miserable with it.....I even know some people who 'choose' to improve but then moan that they cant get their work done or that they are upsetting their family.  What if I didn't have the money to learn golf?  A valid question.  Seve Ballesteros practised by hitting stones with a rusty old iron on a beach.  If you want it enough you'll find a way.

Either way - if we realise more things are a choice - we can then choose our response.  Give up smoking or don't, lose weight or don't, practise hard at a hobby or don't, work hard or don't, do your kitchen extension or don't, go on holiday or don't - either way is fine.  It's a choice - so make it and be happy with it.

It Really is a Good Friday - Laughter is Contagious

Sitting in a continental European airport lounge, having worked on Good Friday (I think for the first time in my full working life) at 20.15 - waiting for a cowboy time flight (10 to 10 - get it?).... I couldn't feel better about life.

Yes I would like to have been at home today with my family.  Of course a drive from Heathrow to the North West until 3am is not my idea of fun.  Airports are lonely old places at the best of times - but tonight this place is positively ghostly.  Yes I made it to the airport in time to catch the earlier flight only to be told my ticket was non transferable so I had 3 hours waiting or a £300 transfer (3 hours will be fine thanks).  No, the lack of a really good night's sleep whilst travelling this week has not left me feeling the most spritely I have ever felt - a tad shattered really.

But you know what? Life is great. Time is short - and I have too much to do to get down about these minor things.  Richard Carlsson said "Don't sweat the small stuff." How right he is.  This weeks' project has gone well and I've been with great people.  The programme was well received - and I delivered a course for the first time with a live translator in some people's ears.  I felt like a speaker at the UN or the European Parliament.

And besides - when I wake up tomorrow morning in my own bed with a roof over my head - my daughter will be stood there smiling the best smile in the world.  My son will want to play lightsabre fights (nothing better) and my wife will take pity on my tired form and make me a lovely cup of coffee delivered with a kiss (I hope!).  And all will be right with the world.

I realise this blog is totally cliche'd and sentimental when compared with others I tend to write - but you know what.  I don't care.  Its time I indulged myself a little.

How can you learn anything from this?  Go and make your long weekend count.  Life is great - time is short.  What can you look forward to and be grateful for?  Its easy when you're prepared to look.  And if that isn't enough for you - take a look at this video for absolute evidence that emotions are contagious - what effect are you having on people around you?  Are you a drain or a radiator?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeauvE1M7qc

I Love it When a Plan Comes Together...

Isn't it great when an experiment goes well?  I realise the idea of an experiment is actually to test a hypothesis.  Sometimes though, I run live experiments with an audience on a hypothesis I know to be true and its always nice when the point is demonstrated with gusto.

I ran a conference recently with a session focused on innovative and creative problem solving.  This is a huge topic these days, with organisations looking to drive efficiency, productivity and ultimately the bottom line and having to find different ways to achieve that because existing patterns of thought have been exhausted.

To shift our patterns of thought, in order to drive different ideas to better solve an issue, its important that people have the right mindset and that the environment (including the social aspects of that environment) allow them to 'just go with it' without fear.  The great thing is that both can be worked upon.

I ran a game of word association with two willing volunteers, in front of an audience of 150, with penalties for 'failure' (remember Mallet's Mallet?).  The point to make was that it becomes very difficult to shift those patterns of thought with that kind of 'pressure'.  For the record, other types of pressure may actually help the process...

Somehow, one of the competitors (interesting word given the competitive pressure we added) managed to bring the game back to one particular word 4 times out of 7 games.  The word was 'hard' (Cue immature giggling from the audience each time).  He just couldn't get his mind away from that word and any opportunity to associate back to it, no matter how spurious the connection, was taken.  His mind was locked into a certain pattern and a big part of that was down to the ' social pressure' of the situation.

Release the social pressure on people to always be 'right' and then, with other tools to hand, creative solutions can start to flow. After the 4th time, he finally stood up and said - "OK point proven".

"I love it when a plan comes together." Hannibal - The A Team.