And now for something completely different….well almost…

I’ve got a couple of meetings in London this week, one at the University of East London over in Stratford. Last time I went to London I just bought tube tickets as I went along; this time I thought I should look at getting an Oyster card, which I thought would definitely save time and maybe save money as well.

So I looked at the Transport for London website for information about the Oyster card, and costs of ‘normal’ tube/bus/train tickets to compare it to. After searching various web pages, at last I found a 20 (yes twenty) page brochure of tube/bus/train ticket costs for 2007 called “Your Guide to Fares and Tickets…Tram, Tube, bus and DLR”. I’m sure to find the answer here I thought…Not a chance. Having trawled my way through tables, capping rates, travel card and season ticket options, I was simply delighted to notice that at the end, as if the previous twenty pages weren’t enough, the brochure listed the titles of five other leaflets I could pick up from the Tube Station if I needed further information……Sacrebleu!

Compare this complete fiasco with my travel experience in France just after Christmas, when I wanted to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to central Paris. I get a 1 page summary of all the ticket options from the information desk. That’s it. One page. Admittedly it wasn’t a nice glossy brochure, in multicolour with graphics and a lots of diagrams. In fact, it was pretty poorly photocopied sheet of paper in black and white…in fact, it wasn’t even one page, it was HALF a page (the other half is left blank for notes), and it’s A5 at that….But it did the job superbly. I got the ticket I wanted straightaway.

The French definitely know something about Customer Service that we in the UK don’t. Plus, and this is where they have a huge advantage, they know how to be concise when it really matters. None of this “business speak” that we so love and revere in the UK.

Think about how much time it takes to write a 20 page brochure, check its accuracy, and keep it up-to-date. And all the time (and money) it takes to maintain the myriad of different pricing tariffs that the brochure tries to explain. According to the Economic and Social Research Council, the good news is that UK productivity has increased substantially across each of the last four decades. However, they also quote data from the Office for National Statistics which shows that France has higher labour productivity per worker than the UK (see the paragraph called “Comparative Productivity – International”), and this has been the case for many years. Another example of where ‘less is more’.

Well-being vs well-doing

Maybe it’s the traditional British reserve but whenever I mention that I’m interested in the subject of happiness, people tend to raise their eyebrows and look a little bemused. Very often they say ‘that’s simple, if I had more money I’d be happy’, or at this time of year in particular, ‘if I lost a little weight/stopped smoking I’d be happy’. Happiness is worth a closer look because, actually, it’s not that simple; research has shown that health and wealth might bring happiness to a point or temporarily, but that it doesn’t last…

Happiness is becoming big business now. If you type ‘happiness’ into Amazon, you get over 5000 books on the subject. There are TV programmes about it and websites devoted to it. But why does it matter to organizations what makes people happy?

In his article ‘Happiness is a serious business’ quoted in People Management, Nic Marks, head of the Centre for Wellbeing at the New Economics Foundation, refers to the CIPD employee attitude survey 2006, part of which looked at the relationship between positive and negative emotions and several key performance indicators (KPIs): job satisfaction, meaningfulness of work, absorption in work, commitment to complete work, loyalty and performance.

What the survey found was that, with the exception of job satisfaction, positive emotions seem to have more than twice the impact on these KPIs as negative emotions do. In the case of job satisfaction, says Marks, “people’s satisfaction ratings and assessments of others are more clouded by their negative feelings than their own experience and behaviour”. He concludes that organizations could therefore have more impact and improve individual, team and organizational performance “by promoting a climate that fosters positive emotions at work”.

In short, there is a very serious point to ensuring that people are happy at work. In the past, we have thought that feeling happy was a result of good functioning i.e. ‘life is going well, therefore I feel good’. However there is a growing body of research (e.g. by the psychologist Dr Barbara Fredrickson, a world expert in the field of positive emotions) which suggests that feeling happy is also a cause of good functioning. So happiness is important to organizations because feeling happy actually helps promote creativity, resilience and resourcefulness; all qualities that we need to improve our performance and succeed at work.

The Knowledge Economy - why soft skills matter

According to Will Hutton, Chief Executive of the Work Foundation , the "knowledge economy" (not easy to define, in fact there is a 31 page paper 'Defining the Knowledge Economy' on the website) - illustrated by sectors such as business services, education, finance, telecoms - is fast becoming the biggest contributor to UK GDP. The growth of the knowledge economy started in the 1980s, he says, when traditional manufacturing (steel, transport, coal etc) started to decline.

One can take a systems view of these changes - that as one economy (manufacturing) shrinks, another (knowledge) grows to take its place. One might be tempted to think "well that's OK then, there is still equilibrium". But the more important point is that the kind of skills you needed to survive then are not the same skills you need to survive now and in the future .

As Hutton points out, what distinguishes the survivors from the casualties of the declining manufacturing sector (or indeed any declining sector) are soft skills. Now, in this particular programme (' What Makes Britain Rich?' ) he didn't elaborate, but we can guess the kind of things he was referring to - maybe resilience, emotional maturity, empathy, creativity, leadership, negotiation, team working, willingness to learn, self-awareness...there are many more.

This leads me to question whether the changes in the UK education system are really keeping pace with these changes in the world of employment. We do seem to be somewhat more focussed on league tables and targets than on developing our children's soft skills, and preparing them to become adults, workers, parents, inspirational leaders and responsible citizens. Hutton states that the new knowledge economy in the UK is here to stay - we can't turn the clock back. Therefore we need to ensure that the development of soft skills appears higher on the agenda.

Where am I now, and where do I want to be?

With 2006 now almost out of sight and the New Year on its way you might be wondering...where am I now, and where do I want to be?

Thanks to my experience of living in Asia, and being married to a person of Chinese origin, I have developed an interest in Eastern philosophies and religions. Although I can by no means claim to be an expert, I subscribe to the view that there must be something in it. In fact, it seems to me that the wisdom of the I-Ching is somewhat akin to what we know today in the west to be a 'systems view' of life. A systems view, put simply says that everything is inter-related; there is no cause without effect. The system of life in Chinese thought is largely determined by yin and yang - or opposites such as male/ female; black/white;hot/cold etc.

The I-Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the world's oldest books. The wisdom of the I-Ching as a system has been consulted as far back as 1100 BCE. It is used in modern times to offer solutions to human problems .

Our company logo is based on the Contemporary I-Ching. Hexagram number 10 (hence 10 Consulting). It suggests that there will be success if the qualities of sincerity, honesty and modesty are applied to all interactions. These are the qualities that underpin all of our interactions and that we apply when offering solutions to our clients.

Reference: Palmer, M, Kwok, MH and O'Brien J (1989) The Contemporary I Ching

Why are Danes the world's happiest nation?

The following is a summary of a recent article in the on-line British Medical Journal, called "Why Danes are smug: comparative study of life satisfaction in the European Union". You don't have to read the full article, although it's quite short and an easy and fun read we think; but the main message is that having realistic expectations in life is key to maintaining happiness. As this is the time when a lot of us are thinking about New Year's resolutions, this is something to bear in mind.

"Earlier this year, Denmark came top in a world map of happiness (the UK ranked 41st out of 178 nations). And for more than 30 years it has ranked first in European satisfaction surveys. So what makes Danes so content?

Researchers in this week's Christmas issue of the BMJ decided to find out why life satisfaction in Denmark substantially exceeds that in Sweden and Finland, the two countries most similar to Denmark.

Their hypotheses range from the unlikely (hair colour, genes, food and language) to the more plausible, such as family life, health and a prosperous economy.

However, their analysis points to two explanatory factors. Firstly, winning the 1992 European Football Championship put Danes in such a state of euphoria that the country has not been the same since. This may explain the high level of life satisfaction in Denmark after 1992, they write.

Secondly, while Danes are very satisfied, their expectations for the coming year are rather low. In contrast, Italy and Greece, which rank low on life satisfaction, rank high on expectations for the year to come, together with Swedes and Finns.

The causes of the stolid depth of Danish wellbeing are undoubtedly multifactorial, they say. The Danish football triumph of 1992 has had a lasting impact, but the satisfaction of the Danes began well before 1992, albeit at a more moderate level. The key factor that explains this, and that differentiates Danes from Swedes and Finns, seems to be that Danes have consistently low (and realistic) expectations for the year to come.

So the key to happiness may lie in the fact that if you lower your expectations enough you might feel a bit better next Christmas, they conclude."

Contact: Professor Kaare Christensen, Danish Twin Registry, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark Email: kchristensen@health.sdu.dk

Now I'm not an avid football fan (i.e. I watched the World Cup, but that's about it) but I was intrigued by the reference to the beautiful game...I wondered what it is about the Danish psyche that still leaves them feeling euphoric some 14 years after their greatest footballing victory to date, whereas in England our approach is to try to live up to the standard we set in 1966, and then beat ourselves up every time we don't succeed. I was reminded of something I heard Professor Raj Persaud and Dr Chris Johnstone say at a Bristol University lecture last year, that continual comparison with others (who are better-off in terms of good looks, wealth, status or whatever) or even with our own previous good fortune, is a surefire way of making oneself dissatisfied most of the time. But more on that another time.

How to Keep your New Year Resolutions

If you still haven't broken your New Year Resolutions yet [ :-) ... of course you haven't, just teasing...] you might be interested in taking part in some scientific research which is being undertaken at University of Hertfordshire in the UK.

It was reported in the Guardian on Friday 30th December ("Psychologists seek key to successful new year resolutions") that Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University, is hoping to get around 10,000 people to take part in this on-line experiment. The point of the research is to find out what are the best ways of motivating people to keep to their resolutions.

So, even if you don't succeed, you'll still be providing some useful input to the research! If you want to take part, simply log on to newyearscience.co.uk.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Last year, I experienced a particularly unique and simple approach to goal setting. I'd like to share it with you:

1. On a piece of paper write 3 statements about your experience of 2006: Both Good :-) or Bad :-(

2. Once you have digested these statements, take note of your over-riding thoughts or emotions

3. Walk to a waste-paper bin

4. Tear up the piece of paper and put it into the bin

You may find this difficult to do, especially if you have had a good year - do it anyway. Last year is gone, and you will never get it back again; good or bad. This is a chance to experience 'closure'.

Now walk back to your work surface:

1. Take out a new piece of paper

2. Write 3 statements about your aspirations for 2007

3. Think about the first step you need to take to make a new start, or to continue with work-in-progress (it may be one overarching step or 3 distinct ones)

4. Begin

Enjoy the journey!

With special thanks to Antonella Shorrock for first introducing me to this technique