Oblique Strategies…or what to do when you get stuck.

I am a great admirer of Brian Eno’s work, both what he does and how he does it. A unique individual and also an excellent collaborator, not always easy to be good at both. Some people know him as part of the original Roxy Music, some due to his producing credits, others for his “ambient” – way too small a word – music. His 1996 memoir, A year with swollen appendices is a fascinating read and gave me some insight into the way he works. One of his collaborations, Oblique Strategies, is used regularly in the Woodshed here at ReesAcres.

Here’s how Eno’s website describes them: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. In 1975, Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno created the original pack of Oblique Strategies cards, through thinking about approaches to their own work as artist and musician. The Oblique Strategies constitute a set of over 100 cards, each of which is a suggestion of a course of action or thinking to assist in creative situations. These famous cards have been used by many artists and creative people all over the world since their initial publication.

When I get stuck I turn to the box. Sometimes when I am coaching clients, I will pull a card from the box for inspiration and share what it says. I have one favourite, permanently on view, which never fails to get me off my backside or (to quote Hemingway) to apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. Today is one of those days.

210428 – #1855

The Monday Morning Quote #655

“Never miss a deadline. Never waste a word.”

Alastair Cooke

I should have listened more to those eight words….it would be easy to blame WordPress, which I find less than intuitive but that’s my problem and I should not seek the easy way.

The Monday Morning Quote #654

“We are a culture of people who’ve bought into the idea that is we stay busy enough, the truth of our lives won’t catch up with us.”

Brené Brown

19th April 2021

Happiness (via Gethyn Davies)

Thanks to Tony Barton from Red Kite for sharing. Tony was one of my teachers during my Coach Training.

ReesAcres from a cloudless sky

Taken a couple of weeks ago from the Space Station, a picture of Ireland from a cloudless sky. For those who wonder where ReesAcres is, it’s in the County of Cork, the Townland of Fahouragh, and the parish of Castlehaven, comfortably close to the sea about 3 miles or so from Skibbereen. Right down the bottom (if you’re looking north south).

 

The Monday Morning Quote #653

“Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose.” 

Edward de Bono

Monday 12th April 2021

The people I read – Seth Godin

Sunday 11th April 2021.

Every day Seth Godin writes a blog post which he circulates to his subscribers.

Yesterday’s (Saturday) was particularly insightful and should be pinned to everyone’s wall.

The plan for day 100

What do you want to be doing 100 days from now?

What change do you seek to be making? With which skills? Surrounded by which people?

For that to happen, day 99 will need to different from today.

And so will day 98.

In fact, so will tomorrow.

If we keep focusing on ‘what’s next’ we might never get around to doing the work we need to do to get us to day 100.

PS happy day 100 of 2021.

(It’s now number 101…subscribe here)

#I do wish I had said that. You will, Alun.

It’s hard work to get out of your own way.

Saturday 10th April 2021

It’s hard work to get out of your own way.

But well worth it.

One of the regular conversations with clients who I describe as “getting in their own way” goes something like this:

Me: Have you thought about how you work?

Client: I’m working as hard as I can!

Me: I’m not suggesting that you aren’t working hard. In fact if anything you are trying too hard.

Client: But I can’t work any faster. I’ll start making mistakes.

Me: I’m not talking about speed. I’m talking about working better.

Client: I’m trying as hard as I can.

Me: OK let’s put this a different way. “Have you thought about why you do what you do?

Client: Surely that’s obvious?

Me: Can I ask you to take 10 minutes to tell me?…

There usually follows a one-sided (on the client’s side) conversation where I learn more about them than they had ever thought to share before, it turns out clients are like patients in that they really only tell you what they think you want, or need, to know.

The time it takes to get to this point of truth is directly proportional to the speed they realise that to become truly successful they must take full responsibility for what they want from life.

 

 

The people I read…Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell of the Campbell Clinic writes a blog… daily, which I read….daily. I don’t always agree completely with what he writes, I doubt he agrees completely with me, but I would defend his right to share his experiences for the benefit of others, which is what he does well. This is an excerpt from yesterday’s blog, the full entry is HERE you can subscribe there too.

“If we could lift our heads up from the hamster wheel for just a few minutes and wonder how we could do something today that would make it better for us (and maybe for everybody else) 5 years from now, that would be a good thing to do daily. “

 

What would you do if I took away your handpieces?

Deep from the recesses of my mind came a memory of a challenge issued to me in the days when I was starting to come to terms with being a practice owner. “If I were to take away your handpieces for a day, or even a week, and not allow you to change any of your appointments, how would you deliver the same value to the patients?”

At first I thought it was a joke and plain silly, but as time went on I started to give it more and more thought and realised that too much in Dentistry is around the doing, doing, doing rather than helping patients to understand their mouths and associated systems and helping them to come to terms with controlling the diseases in their mouths. 

Until dentists become more like physicians rather than out and out surgeons who are always looking to be doing, doing, doing, under a system that is calculated to reward repeated intervention, I don’t think that Dentistry can be said to have come of age. 

Thankfully there are some enlightened souls around who build for the future, who plan to treat patients only once and  make sure that they only work in stable mouths. Unfortunately they are not rewarded by the NHS because it can’t or won’t place a value on the absence of disease. 

To be continued…