Author: Jon Lavin

Chickens coming home to roost?

Chickens, farming and global issues.

We keep chickens at our home in Devon, England and, thus, we have an account with a local farming supplies organisation called Mole Valley Farmers. Once a month we get a small news letter which I find fascinating. The first page always has The Chairman’s Newsletter and I love reading about the current price of grain, what’s current in the dairy world and a bit about food politics – usually very little about chickens but then I’m biased!

The Chairman quoted a British Government minister at a recent conference making a reference to the need to increase food production but then spending most of his speech talking about “rewilding” the countryside by reintroducing lynx and elk.  (The link is to a slightly tongue-in-cheek article in the Times Online.)

Quite how that would help food production was “incomprehensible” but it shows a complete lack of understanding about the serious threat to the UK, and other countries, as we now import so much of our basic food needs and many local farmers have been underpriced out of farming by the monopoly of the supermarkets. An interesting parallel with the banks  and greed in general.

With a world food shortage affecting many parts of the world it makes me wonder what is in store for us, especially our children. So far, I am unaware of anyone in UK politics making a link between pollution, food shortages, global warming and the fact that unless we wake up soon, we stand a big risk of reproducing ourselves out of existence.

By Jon Lavin

Feeling safe is good!

Safe, as in psychologically as well as physically, has its rewards.

Jon 05'I had a very interesting session recently. I did some coaching work with a client company who managed a small team. The day was split into two – the morning with the client and the afternoon with the whole team.

What struck me about the day was the power of good leadership and the importance of leaders who are aware of how they come across and are capable of forming a relationship with their teams. My client was struggling with her team because she was unaware how she was communicating, not only with her team but with other people in the organisation.

Unfortunately, becoming aware of how we are in a relationship with others brings us face to face with ourselves and requires a willingness to accept ourselves, warts and all, before trying to change anything.

After we all had lunch together and broke the ice a bit we focused on what was working (not what was not working), what was missing, what inspired and what was possible. By examining these areas and so creating a safe environment, everybody was able to reveal more of themselves and what they needed to have a satisfactory, safe working relationship with each other.

By Jon Lavin

A view of England – from France.

A work trip to Brittany, France and a chance to reflect on the differences.

I’m sat writing this in my hotel room on the outskirts of Quimper in Brittany. Usual overcast and drizzle but considering I’m only a couple of hundred miles south of home, that’s the only similarity with the Devon weather.

Quimper
Quimper

They simply seem to have no comprehension about the recession. There are small signs of some new office building being empty but more buildings seem to have appeared and business appears to be booming. The super market where I have lunch is even busier than last year and the shops are full of people buying things.

What’s the difference?

I’m sure my friend Chris [Chris Snuggs, another author on this Blog] who I used to work for here will be able to say, but I can’t believe it’s all about the main business of food and agriculture, which predominates in this part of the country.

Back home in Devon, the same set of circumstance ought to hold true as it’s mainly agriculture and tourism, just like in Brittany.  However there is a vibrancy in Quimper that I find refreshing.  And a lack of charity shops!

What can we learn from this?

I was bought up in an environment that did not trust the French and it wasn’t until I got an opportunity to work here 10 years ago I realised that it wasn’t all that I’d been told.

I really like Brittany and its people who are friendly and very welcoming. There is definitely something to learn from this.

By Jon Lavin

Transformation

These are hard times for millions – transformation is the only practical option.

I’ve been working with most of my clients recently through painful transformation brought about by the recession.

An interesting metaphor really because, since the first wave of uncertainty in the UK banking system triggered panic, I deep riverhave been picking up on that uncertainty.

That uncertainty feels like it’s stalking the globe at the moment; one has been aware of an underlying fear that was difficult to name and source in me. It has been rather like a deep river in that whilst the surface feels slow moving, currents are moving things powerfully below.
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What really matters – to you!

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what is really important.

We went to a funeral last Monday. It was special in that a friend of ours had died and her husband had phoned to tell us.

They had emigrated to Spain 12 years before to become self sufficient in growing their own food, putting on workshops and working with ‘holistic management’ techniques. I have the feeling that it was quite tough as the climate was becoming more and more arid in the mountain area that had moved to.

She had decided to come home to Totnes (Devon, SW England) to die and had obviously planned the whole thing.
The service was lovely and relatives and friends had written poems and the vicar had been briefed on her life which was quite amazing. Born in Africa, boarding school in the UK, rose to be high up in a large company and then had decided with her husband to follow a completely different holistic route to self fulfilment.

The vicar had asked her how she wanted to prepare for her death and he she had answered that she wanted to saviour every moment whilst she was still alive and had asked him to recount this tale at the service.

A man who was being chased by a tiger and had fled up a tree to escape. He looked down to see the tiger pacing up and down, looking longingly up at him. After many hours, the man must have fallen to sleep and awoke as he found himself falling towards the tiger, waiting eagerly below. As he dropped, he noticed a beautiful fruit and grabbed at it focussing intently on every fine detail of it.

After the church service we retired to a nearby woodland where we all took it in turns to carry her wicker coffin up a hill, into the woods and after music and a blessing, we buried her.

It was a truly beautiful day and one that had echoes back through the millennium. It touched me deeply, not because of sadness but about putting things into perspective – what’s important and what isn’t.

By Jon Lavin

Journey into (inner) space

The journey into inner space is just as fascinating as the one into outer space.

Many, many years ago, 1973 to be precise, an English author, Tony Buzan, was involved in presenting a series on BBC

Tony Buzan
Tony Buzan

television called Use Your Head.  Tony released a book to accompany the television series.  There is not a lot that I remember about that book but one thing I never forgot.  That was the number of neurons in the brain, 10 to the power 200, give or take.  I will return to this aspect in a later Post but now to the main point of this, my introductory Post.

Read about an extraordinary man

A little later than I would have wished!

Jon Lavin.

You will see from the Hello World post at the head of Learning from Dogs that the idea of integrity being a topic for wider discussion arose a while ago.  Busy lives (and a big misunderstanding about Blogging!) put off us doing something until Paul got the Blog under way in July, this year.

I still have, thank goodness, plenty of work demands on my time and a busy family life but, at last, will be finding time to explore the importance of integrity.

As I say in About this Blog, I had noticed that businesses that were operating largely with integrity, tended to be happier places, got better results and it was possible to develop levels of awareness within teams that enabled them to work together far more effectively. Levels of self-awareness are important because they allow people to develop closer business relationships with everyone internal and external and this leads to increased levels of trust.

By Jon Lavin