| Conversaction Newsletter October 2011
BY STEPHEN QUIRKE, ON NOVEMBER 10, 2011 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Perspective – Change can only happen when you acknowledge the needThe film “K19 The Widowmaker” covers an event in one of the first Russian nuclear submarines in 1961. In the movie, they are under intense pressure to launch in time. The nuclear technician knows there is a leak in the reactor. However he chooses to tap the gauges and hope for the best instead of reporting the fault. This has disastrous effects which come close to precipitating a nuclear detonation. All members of the onboard repair team die within a month.
This is Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev, commander of the submarine at the time of the nuclear accident. You can read the story in Wikipedia. So, are you tapping the gauges? Or have you chosen to acknowledge what is happening in your conscious and unconscious world? Here are some questions on which you way wish to reflect:
Is it time to stop making excuses and start creating results? Time to be truthful about what isn’t working in your life? You can read the full article here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Technique – Shades of DependenceOne of the most common rules for workshops is “Candour”. “Speak your mind!” But this is often the most difficult to practice. To understand this reticence let’s consider our growth process and development from dependence. We grow in cycles. Starting out from clinging, we reach out, take risks, get frightened and return to our care-giver. With each cycle we have the opportunity to grow. This can be shown in the following diagram.
This cycle is repeated throughout our lives. When we receive the right feedback in the process, with each great turn of the cycle we learn to trust ourselves and build boundaries allowing us to engage effectively with other people. Challenges by definition are scary and we learn to balance fear with the joy and excitement of discovery. This is a good way to understand how we deal with change. Growth also describes a path from dependence through independence to interdependence,where we learn to work together in teams. But the development process is seldom perfect.
I created this graphic to illustrate these relationships.
So where are you in your team? You can read a brief description of each step here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Small Adventure – Betty’s Bay TriptychHow is social media working for you? When I started the StrategyWorks blog I was excited about collecting and sharing my insights online. Shortly after this I decided it would also be a great idea to share my watercolours and sketches in a blog. Well I thought that was an innovative idea. So I set up a blog called Deg34South in which I put every painting I completed, sometimes before the paint dried. And I made some good friends there. On special occasions I wear a New York City Police Department T-shirt. A gift from an artist who is married to a NYPD cop. How cool is that? Later I transferred my blog to my online site SJQWatercolour.com. Since then I have sold paintings to people I have never met before, and would most likely not have met had I not been online. I just love this idea. This month the small adventure is from the other half of a commission I described in August. I have been asked to paint a triptych of the beach in Betty’s Bay. And here is the latest version:
This is on three sheets of Arches 300gm rough, each 760×560 mm. And here is the first version, based on photos taken early in the morning:
This is also on three sheets of Arches 300gm rough, each 760×560 mm. You can read about the painting process here:
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