WE'RE GOING TO LIVE TO A HUNDRED

Do you remember the 1980 TV series “Fame”? It was about the New York School of Performing Arts. This week I remembered one of the songs in it.
“Fame …. I’m going to live forever
Baby, remember my name”

It was no surprise to hear at the London Business School this week that we had moved into an era where there was a fair certainty most would live to a hundred. Hurray… that’ll keep King William pretty busy. 80 million telegrams….or will they do it the other way round - send e-mails to the families of those whose members miss the century - “hard luck!”

The thesis is this. Governments and Corporations don’t know what to do with the oldies. But we can’t afford to support people for 35 years after retirement. Pensions used to pay out for only 5 or so years and then “aagghh!”

So we’ll have to work to 80….and the question is doing what exactly? Bricklaying, digging, riot policing?

The plan on paper looks fine - we learn up to 22 then hone that learning into practical, high earning work for 20 years then take a new learning sabbatical and emerge to do good work but much less well paid and at age 65 - 70 pause before embarking on a decade or so of creative mentoring before, aged 80, heading for Southampton for the cruise ships.

Talking about an abrupt change to pension arrangements is not something governments will ever do - suicide is something they tend to try and avoid.

Do you remember the film 1976 Logan’s Run which depicts a dystopian future society in which population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by killing everyone who reaches the age of thirty thereby preventing overpopulation? Thought not.

Nature will use its cocktail of plague, pestilence and natural disaster to control population growth but what are those who make it through this going to do? The alarming data from a US University who’ve conducted research into MBA graduate aspirations over 20 years is that the new cohort is a bit different.

• 1/3 say they won’t have children
• 1/3 say their work is all
• 1/s say they’d negotiate equal work rights in marriage (if they got married…. If!!!)

We are considering the intractable problem of irreversibility. If you marry at 20 and make a mistake it’s an 80 year error or worse - it could turn out to be 4 errors of  20 years each with a devastating impact on your wealth.

But don’t despair.

The solutions are threefold:

• Grandchildren
• Technology
• Creative thinking

It’s seriously time to stop thinking about WORK but to see work as life and creative and fun and carry on doing it as long as we can disguising our visible age by technology and cosmetics.

After all did anyone know the genius PD James was 90 odd when she died still writing? Oh and Melvyn Bragg above is 80.

A RECIPE FOR INSANITY

I want you to do a simple task whilst driving - multiply 14 by 27. Ha! You can’t do it. Of course you can’t.  Or if you can you’ll be wound around a lamp post by now. Proof that the multitasking myth is just that: a piece of dangerous fantasy. 

Juggling is clever. It’s a skill people get to learn and get better at it but it’s pretty one dimensional. It’s a circus act.  Juggling is for clowns.

The current story is that this new technophiliac generation is being hardwired differently to the rest of us and that they can learn how to do a series of thinking tasks concurrently - like do homework, watch TV, send a text, play a video game and make a phone call. They claim to have seen it happen with their children. They speak of it in awe. All I’d ask is that they take a good, hard look at that homework.

Quite simply, although our brains are wonderful and currently beyond most of our comprehension, we do realise that they aren’t set up to do conscious tasks in tandem. The most successful people blinker themselves and focus (yes I’m forced to use that word I hate) on addressing, thinking about and completing the task in hand.

The most precious commodity in the world is probably “attention” - the capacity to engage one’s mind on a single thing. We are bombarded with messages and stimuli which are exciting and enriching but this also presents us with a big challenge.

We have to make choices about what we do first - hang on - be back in a second I’ve just had another e-mail - yes that’s increasingly our default mode. We’re constantly being interrupted and what we do is give all the attention to the most recent communication for a few seconds until something new happens. Our ability to be disciplined and concentrate will determine our success in thinking.

The psychologists describe this dilemma as being ‘cognitively busy.’ It impairs social behaviour making you more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language and make superficial judgements.

So if you think multitasking is the sign of a dynamic executive think again - you’d be better off taking a break and sitting quietly and thinking.

How to solve problems and make brilliant decisions. (Business Thinking Skills that really work) published by Pearson is coming out on November 12th 2014

I LIKED THIS BOOK FOR MORE THAN ITS TITLE

Having said which, “Les Halles Cookbook” has a kind of poignance to it doesn’t it? But what I like even more than the recipes, good as they were, was Anthony Bourdain’s no nonsense philosophy of life. Quite simply this is the best management book I’ve read for ages. Because it talks about a real service business with the gas turned full on. His kitchen is hot. Bourdain tells you how to stand the heat.

Here are some of his observations about work just to give you a few amuse bouches of his style:
It’s about perspiration, he says, it’s not in the blood, it’s in the energy and effort and, despite his protestations, the training.

“They are some of the best cooks of cuisine bourgeoise in America. I would proudly put them up against any cheese-eating, long-lunch-taking, thirty-two-hours-a-week-working socialist clock-puncher from across the water. Any day. They’d mop the floor with them. This is less a testimonial to my training abilities than it is evidence of the triumph of persistence, hard work, pure hearts and a sense of humour”.  

It’s about pragmatism. It reminds me of the Lord Rutherford quote “We have no money. We shall have to think”.

Poverty and tough times can produce genius.
“It is no accident that in just about every country you might want to visit, the good cooks seem always to hail from the most ass-backward and impoverished backwaters.”

So straitened circumstances can bring out the best. It’s about the ability to transform by using your brain.
“Something magical……that’s what cooking has always been about at its very essence…..it’s all about transformation, about taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. That’s magic.”

It’s about learning from your mistakes. This is what great training can do….teaching skaters to “skate to fall” so they learn their limitations and teaching cooks how close they can get hot before burning.
”Screw-ups are good. Screw-ups – and bouncing back from screw-ups – help you conquer fear. And that’s very important because some dishes know when you’re afraid. They sense it, and will….misbehave”.

The art of preparation has always been key. It’s the biggest timesaver there is.

“Mise en place (means) that you know where everything is. You know how much you have. As a result your mind is similarly arranged, rested and ready to cook – a perfect mirror of your work area.”

And the best lesson of all is that life is a balance of time versus perfection.

“It’s what we do every day in restaurants. The age-old question of durability versus quality. The quest for the perfect balance between what’s good and what’s serviceable.
Prioritize.”

It’s seldom good being brilliant but very late in the workplace. Compromising brilliance is what I call a “value-added trade-off” – it works if we can present brilliantly and sell it well enough.

Read Bourdain and you’ll learn a lot.

It’ll also improve your cooking.

An unashamed plug for my latest book

It’s called “Brilliant Creativity” and it’s out on January 1st 2010. You should, soon enough, see it on the shelves of WHS in airports and stations.

I wrote it because I believe passionately in the need for the human race to be more creative in the way they think about all the issues we face – from global warming to educating our children.

Creative thinking does three things – when it’s done well. It provides an action framework which

• does things faster
• does things cheaper
• does things better.

The book provides an array of techniques which enable you to run dazzling workshops or if you want me to run them or arrange someone else talented to do them, e-mail me on richard@hallogram.freeserve.co.uk

Being creative is easy once you discard your reserve, your desire to be a statesman and your foolish wish to be a person who ticks all the boxes. The best creative people are a bit rebellious, have a strong sense of curiosity, are always trying to find new ways of doing things and generally have a great sense of humour.

I hope this book helps.

Buy it and see if you agree. If you don’t, you know where to reach me.