Great international networking, lively discussions, co-creation and thought leadership…  I look forward to your contribution and to seeing you there  :-)  Louise

Cause and effect have changed.  If we do this we get that.  Actually, if we do this, we get a lucky dip.  Perhaps curiosity is the only sanity.  If we do this, what will we get?  And if we do it again, what else will crop up?  Somehow, one has to have a sense of humour regardless of the outcome.  And fluidity – are we able to move with the tides, the natural ebb and flow and stay on our toes knowing we can control little above our state of mind or the context we operate in – or in navel gazing speak, our consciousness?

A great dins last night with a diverse, influential group of people.  All involved in the markets in some way shape or form.  And the debate, well it was varied.  And it was fluid.  No conclusive answers and many searching Q’s?

Taking stock in a new year seems to be a natural phenomenon.  What was 2011 all about, am I doing more than treading water, and what do I want to achieve this year?  No small Q’s and yet little steps are the only solution.  Stay fluid, take a small step at a time, be mindful and present to every nuance.

This, incase you are wondering, is as much of a note to you as to self!   Wishing you and yours the best of the best this 2012.

“The Wall Street Journal Europe Global Survey of “happiness at work” has yielded some surprising findings. Over 2,000 individuals completed the recent survey hosted on this site over the past few weeks. People who completed it represent 90 nationalities, work in over 80 different countries and represent over 30 sectors of the global economy.”

Jessica Pryce-Jones’ article introducing the survey garnered over 15,000 hits, becoming one of the most successful articles ever on The Source, the Wall Street Journal blog on which it is posted.  You too can read the original article and complete the survey by clicking on the link.

The survey used the iOpener Institute’s iPPQ, a questionnaire that measures five components, the 5Cs, of happiness at work:

• Contribution is the effort you feel you make
• Conviction is your short-term motivation
• Culture is the extent to which you feel you fit at work
• Commitment is your long-term engagement
• Confidence is your belief in your own abilities at work

There were five lessons learned from the first round of this research, which may surprise you:

1. It’s an unhappy time in finance, but it’s not all bleak
2. The happiest nationalities may surprise you
3. Once again, the Netherlands is the place to be
4. Happiness at work increases with age but you might have to wait for it
5. The senior VP wobble

“People who are happy at work put in far more effort, work longer hours, and are more productive than those who aren’t. They remain at their jobs twice as long and they work 25% more time than an unhappy employee works”  Jessica Pryce-Jones

If you want to learn more about happiness at work personally or for your company, contact me…

In September 2008 I was in London – the markets crashed and the world changed inextricably forever.  Never again shall we view conspicuous consumption as aspirational, never again shall we buy brands unconsciously.  We want to know we are spending our money where people are as important as profit.

I am so inspired by Gina Hayden’s keynote this evening on Conscious Capitalism at smartLab – thank you Gina, you have managed to distill, analyse and make sense of all that matters to all of us right now – and I suspect forever more.  We know that capitalism will never be the same again and I won’t begin to regurgitate your message – rather to point the reader in your direction.

I also know that it takes an outside-in approach.  And first we have start with inside-out.  That is, know thyself… then get thyself out of the way and begin to think outside-in.  Once you truly know yourself and are able to manage yourself despite how you think or feel about things, only then can you have the freedom to think outside-in.  And the research shows that the most successful people in life have this perspective.  They lead with their passions, come from a context of curiosity and are able to put themselves in their stakeholders’ shoes, which determines what they do.

And it all begins with purpose.  What is it that you really want, what drives you, what are your true passions?

I do hope you enjoy this animate from Dan Pink and the RSA as much as I do – says it all in terms of what truly motivates us.

Yesterday I delivered the third in a series of lectures for Big Fish, the digital filmmaking school in South Africa.  Such an eye-opener for me to experience at first hand the commonalities between the young English graduate I coached for the Tonight Programme and the students of Big Fish – many of whom are about to go into the real world of work in South Africa.

What they all have in common is a good, albeit theoretical understanding of what’s out there, which I put down to digital media.  Saying this even with the ability to research everything online, very few had a real savvy sense of what it means to live their values, how to build their personal brands and to get on in the world of work.  And even fewer had a real connection to taking full responsibility for consciously causing the effects they want to see in their lives.  Fortunately coaching and lectures work… students are keen to take everything on board and we are in the process of co-creating a new and ‘switched-on’ way forward.

And the differences are as ever all cultural… here in South Africa I really believe we need to go some way in supporting young women to not only study, but to build their own careers before falling into the trap of ‘becoming a woman’ by having babies from get-go.

Note:  Big Fish is NGO run by Dr Melanie Chait and is doing great work – let me know if you would like to support what they are up to and I will put you in touch.

I am currently reading The Passion Test by Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood.  At first the title grabbed me, then the logic stepped in.  “Not another self-help book”.  Saying that I bought the book and took the test.  Wow!  Finally something that speaks into being in action of my passion rather than my goals.  Passion is sustainable, it’s authentic – we can do it without effort.  The truth is that we all crave to live in passion and all else is a poor substitute.

And what if we held real, deep Curiosity as the context of our enquiry?  Active listening, insightful questioning, empathy and the ability to have difficult conversations.  Good old fashioned relationship building.  If we can hold this context we develop our ability for real human compassion, connection and intimacy at levels that serve us and them.   And yes this applies to business.

When we examine all the research – powerful, concrete, quality research – we know that what feels right – living with curiosity as the context and passion as the driver, we too can be as successful in our chosen paths as those who are leaders in their fields.  It just takes a little curiosity to get the ball rolling and a real determination to live in passion…