April 2022
#MonthNotes
Hi, I’m continuing the practice I developed last year of writing MonthNotes. They are reflective notes looking back over the previous month, loosely based around a set of questions I use to help me reflect. I find writing them helpful.
1. Who inspired you?
I went to the thought-provoking ‘The Liberty of Doubt’ exhibition at Kettle’s Yard:
I went back to watch ‘Cockroach’ — his powerful documentary film about the democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and how they were crushed.
‘Expressing oneself is a part of being human. To be deprived of a voice is a denial of humanity.’ Ai Weiwei
As in April last year, I continued my emerging practice of getting up at least once a year for the dawn chorus.
I attended a two-day workshop Giselle ran in London. It was an introduction to Somatic Experiencing (a body oriented approach to relieving the effects of stress and trauma, which is often called ‘SE’). I first met Giselle in June last year for the first of six SE sessions. She is a wonderful person. She has incredible depths, understanding and insight, and her work touchs that part of me that is beyond words. Last year she gave me tools and awareness that I continue to use and that have given me a richer life. And, whilst I found being at the workshop difficult at times, the two days rang with truth, humanity, magic and warmth.
2. Who did you work with outside your organisation/sector?
- Thanks to Mark Dalgarno, I hosted a fishbowl discussion on “autonomy & alignment in agile teams” at the Lean Agile Exchange online conference on Wednesday 27 April. Neil Vass and Sara Bowley were my two main discussion partners in the fishbowl, and they were ace.
3. What went well?
- Feedback from early users (internal colleagues) on guidance we produced in a project on developing new products
What they said led to a dawning realisation in me that we have created something that has the potential to be really useful for teams.
- A lean coffee discussion that I ran for our leadership community
The discussion involved a mix of people, with a variety of experience (from first-time managers to people who manage managers), who work in a variety of functions (people who work in product, sales & tech), and who are based in different geographical regions (US, UK, EU, China). This diversity is part of what I find so interesting about these sessions at Elsevier.
- Recruiting two new trustees to join our board at Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination
4. What did you learn?
- There is a global ‘normalcy index’ generated by The Economist to indicate whether the world is returning to pre-pandemic life
It is composite metric comprising 8 indicators, including public transport use, cinema attendance, traffic levels and retail footfall. I find it rather sad that we look at these activity measures and not other indicators (eg mental health) to signify what is ‘normal’, as if once we’re all back being busy and spending as much time shopping as we were before covid then the world will be right again.
- I’ve also learnt a bit about what is involved in acquiring another company.
5. What was fun?
- Going out dancing on a Friday night, and staying in dancing on a Monday morning
- Meeting up with a colleague/friend who I’ve not seen in real life for over two years
- Meeting up with friends in London
- Going on holiday with friends to Snowdonia in Wales
- Unexpectedly coming across a jazz group practising in a shop in Machynlleth
6. What did you enjoy?
- Seeing my parents for the first time this year
- Visiting Magingley Hall and garden
- Seeing a vapor trail in the shape of a figure 8 against a blue sky on sunny morning
- Listening to Kiran Millwood Hargrave & Tom de Freston talk about their book Julia and the Shark at the Cambridge Literary Festival
- Truffled camembert — delicious!
- Nature — I feel life is bubbling up and sprouting forth everywhere: the camellia in our garden, tulips, pear blossom, rabbits, hares, a pair of red kites, a pair of muntjac deer, lambs, bats, woodpeckers, skylarks, cherry blossom, forget-me-nots, field crops, wisteria
“Just as you have to stop talking to hear what others have to say, you have to stop thinking to find out what life is about.” Alan Watts
7. What are you looking forward to in May?
- Our team’s first face-to-face meeting
- Meeting Judy Verses — the new head of the part of Elsevier I work in (my boss’s boss):
- Discussing ‘leading from behind’ with On Deck’s chief of staff community
- The RELX product meetup
- The FA cup final
- Camping in the woods for a couple of nights
