by Andrew Burke (MC2012)

The London Sinfonietta has been commissioning new work since its inception in 1968. Over 350 such commissions and countless more world-premiere performances later, we still have an unquenchable thirst to make new music. In March last year, as well as our normal round of commissioning concert work from composers, we launched a new phase of work through the Blue Touch Paper programme* – a scheme that gives composers the time and budget to explore collaborations with other artforms, through workshops with players and reflection with mentors. We were interested to see what the programme could teach us about the process of creation of new music, and what we could do better to support composers in making new music.

Through the enlightened nudge of our principal funder on the Blue Touch Paper programme, The Jerwood Charitable Foundation, I attended a talk at Sadler’s Wells by American choreographer Liz Lerman, who had, for many years, refined her process of ‘Critical Response’, offering a way for artists in dance and theatre to get feedback from audiences and producers about the work they were making. Her technique is a carefully curated conversation in four distinct stages allowing the artist to ask how their work is being received, and for audiences to express opinions about the work. The process ensures a constructive response from everyone – unnecessary and thoughtless criticism from audiences and an overly defensive attitude from the artists are avoided by a careful use of language, open questioning and the structure used in the conversation. As Liz says: “Everyone involved can say everything they want about a work – but you have to be patient.”

Her presentation reminded me how different the creative process is between different art-forms. Dance and theatre evolves more iteratively – making new work ‘on’ the performers during extended devising and rehearsal periods, in a way which can shape the content and final structure of a piece. Similarly, the work of an author can be altered before publication by an editor in order that it connects more directly with the readership. But it is still striking how little development time and process of this kind exist for new music composition. One-off workshops with players are becoming more common – often at the composer’s request – yet repeated opportunities for one work are rare, and the possibility of audiences feeding back to composers about how their new work is coming across while it is being made almost never happens. It seemed a worthwhile experiment, therefore, to see what we could learn by running the Critical Response process on the new work being made on our Blue Touch Paper programme; so three groups of 15 audience members spent 50 minutes discussing the works with the composers and artists involved immediately after a ‘work in progress’ showing at the end of the programme in mid-May.

The response from the artists was enlightening. “I am massively suspicious of processes like this” says Seonaid Goody, puppeteer, on the project ‘Half of Me’, at the start of the process. “Do we really need to analyse how an audience responds? Can we not just get on with it, and make the work?” And yet, by the end of the process her reaction had changed: “There were some very exciting practical ideas [in the feedback] about how to stage certain moments, inspired by what we had done, but taking things further….it left us feeling that we want to get back in the rehearsal room.” Anna Jones, director on the same project, added: “It was empowering to hear what had been experienced as meaningful [and also] helpful to hear about specific moments and ideas which were potentially confusing or perhaps could benefit from another look.”

For the composers, the feedback about their music was also formative: “Some people commented on feeling that the singing and words made them aware their emotions were being directed in a way they hadn’t when it was purely instrumental in the first half,” explained Elspeth Brooke. Philip Venables has already begun to incorporate the process in other work he is developing: “[the Critical Response session] encouraged me to stick to my guns with the concept and style of my writing. I would definitely recommend the process. I am trying to use it on an opera project I am now working on.” It was striking from the experience that none of the composers and artists felt compromised by going through the process – rather energised and excited to continue their work. The feedback just gave a reality check on how their artistic intention was being received. The choice of how that affects the further development of their work is still completely within their artistic control – and it will be interesting to see how it affects the progress of these pieces.

The positive reaction to Critical Response has encouraged us at the London Sinfonietta to plan to use the technique more often on work being written for us: the process is now embedded in the Blue Touch Paper programme for work that will be shown in May 2013. And because we think the benefits are worth sharing, we will also be running a one-day conference with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama exploring Liz Lerman’s technique as it relates to music and interdisciplinary work in general.

Andrew Burke is Chief Executive of the London Sinfonietta.

Taken from the arts professional magazine http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/Magazine/view.cfm?id=6459&issue=257

by Meyler Campbell

For years good business coaches in the legal sector have often been the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, now it’s at last our chance to be the fence at the top. Much of the misery, or confusion, we see in our coachees is caused the fact that traditionally, in complete contrast with say the accounting profession, even the most basic management skills (eg. how to give feedback properly) were not, some honourable exceptions apart, taught in legal training. And coaching was not included, taught, or even mentioned. Now we have a once in our working lifetime opportunity to fix that: the Legal Education Training Review (LETR) is coming to a close after a long period of searching scrutiny and we have been invited, indeed encouraged, to comment on the final draft report.

 Tactically, while Meyler Campbell would be happy to co-ordinate as much of the profession’s input as we can, we have been advised this would be unwise, as it would then be treated as only a single submission – much better for the powers that be to see the breadth and range of professional power behind as many as possible separate submissions, no matter how short. Also it’s good business for the major names in coaching in the legal sector to stand up and be counted, be respected as serious contributors to the profession, named in the report.

But we all care about our work far beyond the simple business sense of it – many people come into business coaching to make a difference, well here’s a chance to leave a legacy not just for one year, or ten, but for decades to come, and to make a positive impact on thousands of lives, and the hundreds of thousands of people with whom more focused, effective and fulfilled lawyers will then come into more positive daily contact.

For more info on LETR please go to http://letr.org.uk/about/faqs/#faq1.

http://letr.org.uk/publications/briefing-and-discussion-papers/

Your submission must be in by 28^th September 2012

by the Meyler Campbell Team

For years good business coaches in the legal sector have often been the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, now it’s our chance to be the fence at the top. Much of the misery, or confusion, we see in our coachees is caused the fact that traditionally, in complete contrast with say the accounting profession, even the most basic management skills (eg how to give feedback properly) were not, some honourable exceptions apart, taught in legal training. And coaching was not included, taught, or even mentioned. Now we have a once in our working lifetime opportunity to fix that: the Legal Education Training Review (LETR) is coming to a close after a long period of searching scrutiny and we have been invited, indeed encouraged, to comment on the final draft report. More info on LETR here http://letr.org.uk/about/faqs/#faq1.

Tactically, while Meyler Campbell would be happy to co-ordinate as much of the profession’s input as we can, we have been advised this would be unwise, as it would then be treated as only a single submission – much better for the powers that be to see the breadth and range of professional power behind as many as possible separate submissions, no matter how short. Also it’s good business for the major names in coaching in the legal sector – Praesta, Sherwood, Moller, QV Career Counsel, The Professional Career Partnership, STS, The Alliance, Hayfield, TXG, iOpener, Peer Professionals etc etc, plus the accrediting bodies – WABC, EMCC, ICF, AC, APECS etc, plus any other bodies we have not thought of and even more importantly the many crucial individual coaches, to stand up and be counted, be respected as serious contributors to the profession, named in the report, etc. But we all care about our work far beyond the simple business sense of it – many people come into business coaching to make a difference, well here’s a chance to leave a legacy not just for one year, or ten, but for decades to come, and to make a positive impact on thousands of lives, and the hundreds of thousands of people with whom more focused, effective and fulfilled lawyers will then come into more positive daily contact.

Tony King of Clifford Chance has very kindly agreed to host a conference call for our community in early September briefing us on precisely what we should do (submissions close couple of weeks later.) If you would like to be on that call, or have a representative on that call, please email Claire Maidana with LETR CALL in the email heading.

Thank you and we hope you will join us in this major campaign.

by Saiyyidah Zaidi-Stone (MC2011)

Its just over one month to the start of Ramadhan, the 9^th month in the Islamic calendar, where Muslims fast for about 30 days. This year Ramadhan is due to start on 20/21 July 2012 and will require fasting Muslims not to eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk. This can have an impact on individuals ranging from boosts of activity during irregular parts of the day through to irregular working patterns. The question is how can you accommodate your Muslim employees and not disrupt ‘business as usual’? This article introduces you to the Working Muslim Guide to Ramadhan and provides a brief summary for how you can support your Muslim employees at work, and respond to requests in a pragmatic way.

Fasting is the third pillar of Islam (the others being declaration of faith, prayer, charity and pilgrimage) and is an important tenet for Muslims. Fasting is not just limited to avoiding food and drink, perhaps the greatest practical benefit is the yearly lesson in self-restraint and discipline that can carry forward to other aspects of a Muslim’s life such as work and education. In addition, many Muslims see Ramadhan as an opportunity to ‘reset’ the system- to think about how they will change their diet, re-charge their spirituality, increase community activity and charitable donations.

Given the diverse nature of the practice of Islam, you will find some Muslims are very strict and protective of their fasting and others will not fast at all- my advice is do not generalise, but assist all your Muslim staff by supporting  their choice.

A typical day

The typical day of a fasting Muslim in the summer starts at about 2.30am when they wake for the shuoor (pre dawn meal). After this meal and morning prayers many Muslims will go back to bed at about 4am and then wake for the usual routine of getting to work;  others will continue to spend time in worship and then take a ‘powernap’ before leaving for work. The day is then a typical working day except without the coffee! Lunchtime might be spent going for a walk, praying or reading. The afternoon will consist of usual activities. After work people tend to go home and have a short nap and then get ready for the meal to break the fast, get ready to go and pray taraweeh in the mosque and then get home at about 11.30pm. Some will stay up til the pre dawn meal, others will take another few hours of sleep. If at all possible a short nap in the afternoon will help to regulate the body (recent neuroscience research shows that a 60-90 minute nap with REM sleep improves both physical and mental regulation for all humans)- appreciating that this is not always practical, but does have very positive impact on our productivity over a 24 hour period.

There are many special activities that take place in Ramadhan- with the daily taraweeh prayer being one. These prayers include long recitations from the Quran and this year they will start at about 10.30pm and finish around 1 hour later. They are not compulsory but are highly recommended and the majority of Muslims will partake in them usually at the mosque so they might not get home until late, then having to wake early in the morning for the meal before dusk means that the usual sleeping pattern is out the window. It is good for employers to be mindful of this when arranging early morning meetings or dealing with requests to work half days.

Productivity

Recently there has been a lot of research about the impact of fasting on performance- this is no surprise given the Olympics are just around the corner with the dates for Ramadhan overlapping the Olympics. I believe the majority of 3500 Muslim athletes will observe the fast; however a couple will fast after the Olympic having been given personal special exemptions. Some athletes will not participate at all, similar to the decision by Michael Edwards, a devout Christian, in the 1991 Olympics where he did not participate in a Sunday race.

Generally research shows fasting will have an impact on performance, however it depends on the individual and the results are conflicting. For athletes who have events in the morning their performance is unlikely to be affected as they will have had a meal a few hours earlier and the energy will still be in their systems, for those with events in the afternoon or evening it might be an issue. If we take this and relate it to the typical working day it pretty much matches performance for many people regardless of whether they are fasting or not- most people work better in the morning, then the mid afternoon slump hits in (especially if you have a large lunch!), and evening working can be unproductive. The point in all of this is that it is individual and really does depend on your physical and mental make up. Awareness is key, and knowing how fasting makes employees feel will enable you to manage levels of productivity so output is hardly affected. As a manager I suggest you look at service needs and see how you can support any requests for temporary changes in work patterns or leave.

What can I do?

Employers can let their workforce know that you are aware of Ramadhan- this itself is a huge help and takes away the stress for employees wondering how to raise requests for annual leave or a change in working pattern. Most importantly for you it removes late or unusual requests.

I suggest that you look at the Working Muslim Guide to Ramadhan for Employers and provide copies of the Employee guide to your Muslim employees so that they are able to plan ahead. Based on past experience, it is reasonable to allow a temporary change in working hours, subject to business continuity; consider requests for annual leave reasonably; and be mindful of breakfast or lunch meetings. Last year these guides were downloaded by over 3000 people in a single day! This year, the guides are available in English, French and Spanish. To get your own free copy of the guides go to www.workingmuslim.com. If you would like assistance with developing your own guide or a presentation on Ramadhan in the workplace please email info@workingmuslim.com

Saiyyidah Zaidi-Stone

Bringing together professional practice and academic research to create innovative, efficient solutions is Saiyyidah’s strength. Having spent over 15 years in local government she now works with the public and private sector negotiating PPP contracts, implement change and enable individuals and organisations to flourish.  To contact Saiyyidah please email saiyyidah@mcleanstone.com

by Liz Gooster (MC11)

Coaching fishbowls always put me in awe of both the coach and the person being coached, awe of their bravery in exposing themselves, their expertise and some of their innermost thoughts and doubts to public scrutiny. Alex Linley’s fishbowl on Realise 2 was no exception. The room was spellbound as Alex – calm, composed, comfortable in a deep aura of gravitas – debriefed his ‘fish’ on his strengths and weaknesses. As an observer, it’s impossible to know how the experience felt for the person being coached, but it seemed as though some clarifying nuggets were gained and several pointers for change and action taken away. This is exactly what you’d hope for as a coach using Realise 2 with a client.

Realise 2 is a strengths assessment tool which seeks to give a holistic picture of a person, viewing their strengths and weaknesses against the three axes of performance, energy and use. It gives a 3D image if you will, based on the 4M model. Having filled in a questionnaire which asks you to rate attributes on how well you perform them, how energised you are by doing them and how often you use them, your personal 4M profile is generated in the form of a 2×2 grid. In the top right quadrant sit your ‘realised strengths’, those things you do well, you do often and which energise you. These are strengths you should marshal (the first ‘M’). Moving clockwise, which is the recommended order for a coaching debrief on the profile, because this means you end on a positive, developmental note, you reach ‘learned behaviours’ in the bottom left. These are things you do well, but which you find more draining than energising. You may or may not use these skills frequently and the advice here is to moderate (second ‘M’) their use. Next up are your ‘weaknesses’, deliberately labelled as such to counter the popular preconception that we need to conquer our weaknesses, which Alex refreshingly describes as ‘garbage’! No one can be good at everything and while we can mitigate the negative impact of our weaknesses – and Realise 2 can help us do this – Alex likes to quote Peter Drucker, who exhorts us to ‘make our strengths productive in order to make our weaknesses irrelevant’. In Realise 2, the guidance is to minimise (third ‘M’) your use of these behaviours.

Finally we come round to the top left quadrant which contains our unrealised strengths. This is possibly the area where we have the greatest potential to make positive change, as these are the things that we do well, are energised by doing but don’t do very often. If we could do these things more, it stands to reason that we could raise both our levels of performance and satisfaction. The advice here, unsurprisingly, is to seek to maximise (fourth ‘M’) these behaviours and how to do so is part of the Realise 2 coaching session.

One of the things which Alex does so skilfully, based on his deep familiarity with the instrument and his experience of using it with a large number of people, is to draw out connections and dynamics. For instance, he points out how strengths, especially if overused, can squeeze out other possible strengths and helps clients begin to identify strategies to allow other abilities to come to the fore, even if only occasionally. I’ve used Realise 2 before, but watching it in action while being enveloped in ‘the great Alex Linley aura’ made me see its benefits operating at a palpably different level. For me the fishbowl was gripping proof of the value of this tool when used precisely and thoughtfully. In Alex’s words, Realise 2 is ‘not a surgical instrument, but a tool to start a conversation’. I’d like to be able to have conversations like the one we witnessed. So much so that I’m already in the process of signing up for Realise 2 training!

More

If you’d like to take the Realise 2 test yourself, or use it with coaching clients, you can download it from http://www.cappeu.com/Realise2/StandardProfile.aspx

For more coaching fishbowls like the one I attended, see the Meyler Campbell website at http://www.meylercampbell.com/programmes/fishbowls.html

by Saiyyidah Zaidi-Stone (MC11)

We are all seeing an increasing number of professional articles and academic journals regarding happiness in the workplace, but does it really matter? Well, when the Harvard Business Review is writing about ’The Economics of Well-Being’ and independent research confirms that firms with a higher level of happiness amongst employees experience a higher level of profitability we pay attention.

The problem is that while money is easy to count, happiness is a tricky thing to measure. In many ways the impact is like the change from black and white TV to colour- it can be revolutionary. Embracing workplace happiness may require a leap of faith but from working with corporate and public sector clients it’s a pretty short leap and provides the basis to nurture a stronger bond between employee and organization. Imagine the impact of knowing that what some of your employees really want is fruit bowls in the kitchen rather than a monthly night out? A small intervention which saves money and gives staff what they want rather than what you think they need. Research confirms that companies which provide genuine emphasis on not just making a profit but also on positivity increase loyalty; reduce attrition; enable higher creativity, motivation and confidence whilst increasing productivity. It’s a no brainer to me!

As a business coach how do you take this new knowledge and apply it in the coaching context to enable your coaching clients (and their teams) to maximise performance and productivity?

As a positive psychologist I am familiar with many positive psychology questionnaires used in the workplace and for me one of the best is that created by Jess Pryce-Jones and her team at iOpener. The People and Performance Questionnaire is easy to grasp and provides results framed around the framework of the 5C’s: Contribution, Conviction, Culture, Commitment and Confidence. On 18 April 2012 on behalf of Meyler Campbell I hosted a coaching fishbowl where we were privileged to witness Jess coaching with the tool. Without going into too much detail lets just say that the insights created for the coachee through the use of this tool were incredible. The attendees were mesmerized and many had questions relating to the use of the tool and the impact on the coaching session. The use of questionnaires in coaching sessions increases insight and awareness for the coachee and enables the coach to serve the client better through the rich information available for discussion. Given that many of us are already using personality and strengths tools within the coaching setting I see the iOpener tool as a significant addition.

Following on from the success of the coaching fishbowl Jess has made an extraordinary offer to Meyler Campbell Business Coach graduates. The full accreditation for the use of the iOpener tool for organization development, team and individual coaching usually takes 2 days and costs £1500.

In recognition of the calibre of Meyler Campbell business coaches Jess has offered a one-off online webex to accredit anyone wanting to use the iOpener People and Performance Questionnaire on a 1:1 basis only. This will take place on 14 June 2012, 5pm. You’ll get 3 credits to use the tool and be asked to do a small write up to achieve accreditation as a coaching practitioner. The cost would be a minimum £100 donation to the Art Room, a charity which offers art as therapy to children to raise their self esteem, self confidence and independence www.justgiving.com/theartroom. Once the donation is made business coaches are then asked to email Racheal.butcher@iopenerinstitute.com with the name in which the donation. You will then will receive information on how to join the online event. There is limited availability and donations should be confirmed by 7 June 2012 to secure a place.

Assessing well-being can serve many purposes beyond merely enhancing well-being- it can be used to re-craft jobs, negotiate development challenges and build relationships with colleagues and superiors tools like this often play a central role in business coaching- my advice is for you to take up this offer as soon as you can!

To find our more about the People and Performance tool go to www.iopenerinsitute.com. There’s a free mini report so you can see what you’ll get.

Saiyyidah Zaidi-Stone
Dip Arch, RIBA, FILM, FAPM, MSc (Dist)

www.mcleanstone.com
saiyyidah@mcleanstone.com

The following is the speech given by Jules during the  launch of, “Uncommon sense and common nonsense: why some organisations consistently outperform others”. I hope you enjoy it.

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by Jules Goddard

The best moment in my academic career was an email from Stephen about a month ago, beginning “a very very handsome book has just landed on my desk”. I don’t think Stephen could have understood the weight of emotion that this simple statement released in my mind.

I first conceived the idea for my book in 1978 when I wrote a short essay called “A minimal definition of strategy”. My argument then was that what separates success from failure is not goals, or intentions, or values – but assumptions and beliefs. I thought at the time that this essay might be expandable into a book.

Now 34 years later, the result of this idle speculation is upon us.  The book has finally come out.

34 years.

This works out at 3 words a day.

To say that I was suffering from writer’s block would be like saying that Russell Brand was a confident young man or that Stephen Hawking was good with numbers or that John Prescott was sometimes irritable.

On a typical day, I would start to construct the first word of a new sentence over breakfast.  By lunchtime, the second word of the sentence was beginning to form in my mind.  Imagine the excitement as the third word came into focus just before bedtime.

I remember one day in 1984, a whole sentence came to me in a flash and the rest of the day was spent joyously writing it out in full, leaving the details of spelling and punctuation till the following day after a good night’s rest.

The breakthrough was 2003 when Tony came on board as my co-author. Immediately, the ideas became clearer and the pace quickened.  On one occasion, we had written three full sentences before elevenses.

Clearly, the tempo was killing us.  There was nothing to do but to step out for lunch in St John’s Wood and recover from our exertions.

In the time it took us to write a chapter, Mozart’s whole life could have been lived.

If Tolstoy had written at the same speed, we would still be waiting for Napoleon to be at the gates of Moscow.

Dostoevky could have written about not just the brothers Karamazov, but the sisters, the mothers, the nieces and the God Parents Karamavov as well, with time to spare.

Wagner’s Ring Cycle was composed in the time that Tony and I were rephrasing a particularly tricky paragraph on key performance indicators.

I worked out that if Cherry had done her line drawings for the book at the same pace that Tony and I were sculpting our immaculate prose, she would be drawing lines at 2mm a day.

Penny’s copy editing would be spotting grammatical errors once every three months.

And the printers would be churning out a copy of the book every 47 days.

So please buy this book.

Thrillingly relevant to the issues confronting the country in 1979, you will relive the excitement of the Callaghan years and the winter of discontent.

And by buying it, you will encourage us to write Part 2, so that in 2034 we can re-assemble to celebrate a pithy reminder of what life was like in the year 2012.

If you don’t buy the book, we will assume that you felt we’d rushed it into print without giving the ideas the attention they deserved.

This could radically slow down the speed and confidence with which we write the sequel.

So, my thanks to Tony, my co-author, for his patience, his intellectual companionship, his wisdom and his help.

We’re actually rather proud of the book and we think you will find it a refreshing antidote to most books on business.

When you read it, bear in mind that we had agreed long ago a straightforward division of labour – he would write the sense, and I would write the nonsense.

And finally, a very big thank you to Stephen, our extraordinarily kind and compassionate publisher, to Penny, our unfailingly optimistic copy editor, to Sue, the brilliant designer of the book and to my daughter Cherry, for her lovely illustrations.

And just as important, thank you all for coming this evening to pay homage to the speed with which the right words have been put together in the right combination over the course of a third of a century.

To buy please go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncommon-Sense-Common-Nonsense-organisations/dp/1846686016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337067223&sr=8-1

by Stephen Newton (MC04)

I have just read this book by Dr John Reed called ‘Pinpointing Excellence‘.  I raise this only because I feel that it may be the way that the coaching market is going and that buyers of coaching may seek to use what is proposed as a selection process, without necessarily thinking it through, which will therefore impact on MC graduates.

Reed makes the point that the Executive Coaching (his term) market is fragmented and that there is no widely agreed / common standard for admission or certification to a profession that has the power to change lives for good or ill to a tremendous degree.  As you may know, he proposes a toolkit for buyers of coaching that evaluates coaches by allocating points in four dimensions:

• Coaching expertise
• Business expertise
• Psychological expertise
• Ethics (which he seems to equate with certification by e.g. WABC, ICF etc.)

A reasonably high score would be gained by a combination of Business Coach Programme, WABC certification, Master’s degree in psychology plus some clinical practice and 20+ years of “C Suite” experience in a Fortune 500 company plus a Harvard MBA….

Whilst what he proposes is arguably better than nothing and is a way to push qualification rigour into the coaching market, it seems to miss the point that qualifications alone do not necessarily mean that an individual can coach successfully.  It seems similar to the investment management industry which has been heavily and increasingly regulated for a generation.  Has investment performance improved as a result?  No; there are still only a handful of managers that can consistently beat the relevant market index.  The difference now is that the rest can explain in agonising detail and with mathematical precision why they failed and how.

Just a view.

By Jess Pryce-Jones (BC2005)

Wall St Journal have taken the first steps to launching a new happiness at work global index using our research. Please can you help us make that happen by going to this link, completing it and sending it on? http://tinyurl.com/WSJ-HappyAtWork

That would be fantastic! So far, so good!

by Meyler Campbell

“Manager as Coach – how the world famous store uses coaching in a retail environment ”