Something Funny Happens on the Way to the Widget.

A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.

You make a decision.

Ping! (You.)

Listening....listening....listening...

      ...   ...   ...

PING! (Your boss or your team or your client or your family or The Universe reacts.)

Hmm....Ah-ha. Adjust course to Widget: zero-two-niner degrees...

Often the speed and path of the Decision Ping and therefore our measurement of the distance between us and where we want to be is distorted by passing through media of varying density.

Mostly other people.

Which is the Big Revelation of good decision making; namely:

Good decision making teaches more about where we are in relation to others, than our distance to our Widget.

It's all about the Widget.

It's never about the Widget.

Course Orderly Creep.

Officers Training School Morning Parades with Inspections by the Flight Commander were at 0750.

The Warrant Officer Disciplinary 'suggested' we form up at the rear of the Parade Ground by 0740 so that he could do an inspection before we marched on for the Inspection.

Our Drill Sergeant assembled us by 0730 to inspect us for the WOD's inspection for the Inspection.

The rostered student Course Orderly wanted us to be in place for the Sergeant by 0720.

We agreed to march off from our block at 0710 for the ten minute march to the Parade Ground.

We formed up outside at 0700 for the Course Horse to inspect us before the Sergeant would.

The Course Horse would begin yelling 'One Course...On the ROAD!' at 0650.

An hour before Morning Parade.

We called it COC. Course Orderly Creep.

We were 24 trainee leaders who submissively aided the theft of our sleep, trustworthiness and sense of humour.

A ritual designed for a commander to personally assess the well being and morale and therefore combat fitness of his troops - depleted all three. 

Every organisation has versions of COC.

Pre-meeting meetings. 

Hierarchies of pre-decision decisions.

Layers of redundancy filtering or distorting information on its way to the decision maker and destroying trust along the way.

Mostly good, professional people efficiently and competently working hard to successfully perform self-contained often inherited duties - innocently oblivious to any drag on the Widget - yet each with a gnawing dissatisfaction.

Inevitably a cry arises from management - 'We need leadership!'

Code for: 'What's our Widget?'

If You Build It - Happiness Will Come (Maybe).

'Alastair Clarkson [Hawthorn Coach] ringing all his players asking them if they like him and if there's anything he can do to make them happier.'

- A wag's riff on the 'resignation' by the Bulldogs' coach after his captain asked to leave. 

Alastair Clarkson coached Hawthorn to the 2014 AFL Premiership. 

The wag implies that winning the Grand Final is the Widget. Do this as coach - and your players will be happy. Happiness may be a by-product of the Widget.

('We're a happy team at Hawthorn' begins the team song.)

The word 'Happy' comes from the middle English hap meaning 'chance' or 'good luck'. Hence the word 'happenstance'.

It's your Widget.

If you want to use Happiness - someone else's or your own - as your Widget, then good luck and God's speed.

Alastair Clarkson also coached Hawthorn to the 2013 AFL Premiership.

Three days later his champion Lance Franklin left to play for Sydney.

Successfully Failing Your Way.

'If you're going to fail - fail my way.'

- Ron Barassi, six time AFL Premiership player, four time Premiership coach.

A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.

At home - choose where you want to be and how you get there and by when.

At work - your boss pays you to advance her towards where she wants to be.

Where she wants to be.

It's her Widget she's paying you to make.

Her Widget.

You don't get to tell her what her Widget is. That's her boss's job.

You don't get to tell her she's making her Widget wrongly. Again - her boss.

Your boss is paying you money to do whatever she has employed you to do to contribute towards making her Widget to her boss's satisfaction.

You're paid to tell her anything about your widget that is relevant to her Widget.

Once you've done that and you're sure she's understood you - then shut up.

That's why the boss is always right. Always.

Yours is probably one of many widgets that the boss is coordinating to make her Widget. She needs you to make it to her specs so that the other widgets will fit.

She's entitled to ignore your opinion on your widget because it's ultimately her Widget.

Your boss can lead you to failure if she wishes.

It's her Widget.

Let her fail her way.

The Only Way to Learn.

Sergeant Mortellaro - My Drill Sergeant during Officers Training School

“I have already chose my officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician...
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows...

- 'Othello', William Shakespeare

'The problem is that when we're new to something or when we're approaching intermediate skill at something, it gets dangerous. Because you need to have an awareness about how much more you could learn. There's the cataract of not being great at something that makes it difficult to know what you need to learn to get better. The only way to learn that is from other people. It's very difficult on your own.'

- Merlin Mann

When you become the boss for the first time, you're dangerous.

Lots of positional power and no experience of how to use it.

You've made lots of widgets so well that you've been put in charge of other people making widgets. They're completely different skills with only the widget in common. You're an arithmetician - full of the theory. Or maybe not even that. 

Sure - you've had lots of leadership role models:

Parents. Older siblings. School teachers. The drill sergeants in the movies.

That's not the worst of it. As Merlin Mann says, you may not know that you don't know. Or if you do, you can't show it. Your people will eat you alive. Your boss wants you to deliver from day one. You've got to be strong. Decisive even. That's what they do in the movies.

So you set about being Mum, Dad, older sister, home room teacher and Gunnery Sergeant Carter. You stop being yourself.

Your people will teach you what it takes to be a good boss. Ask them. Engage them in good decision making.

Yes it's risky. They may take advantage of you.

Which is why they won't.

Anatomy.

He tells how he trusts his gut. 

He's an entrepreneur. 

She shows how she trusts our wisdom.  

She's a Leader.  

Amplify.

'Watch Robin Williams while Craig Ferguson is talking. He's not leaping - he's not waiting to leap and say his next funny line. You can see him always pausing a beat to see where Craig Ferguson is taking it. And that's a sign of real generosity. He's so great at throwing the next ball that's going to respond to what you just said - amplify it - then also have something that he can throw back to you that you can make twice as funny too.'

- Merlin Mann

Grand words. Big words. Vision words.

Such as: Teamwork. Collaboration. Transparency. Learning. Disruptive. Creative. Accountable.

As simple as pausing a beat in a conversation.

Listen.

Generously.

Step back to allow another to step forward.

Amplify them.

Step back.

Invite them the next step forward.

Beat.

Dying to self.

Love in the workplace.

They.

'The school was closed after the teachers alerted the Principal to items in other rooms that they thought may have also been asbestos,' Mr David Axworthy, Deputy Director General Department of Education explained to the interviewer.

Interviewer: 'Why was it that teachers initiated this action and not the Education Department?'

Mr Axworthy: 'The teachers are the Education Department.'

Touché.

Partnership.

You want to make a Widget. 

I like the Widget.

I can help you to make it.  

It can be Ours.

Let's call it Employment.  

We'll define the Widget.

We'll agree what each will do by when.

Let's call it a Contract.  

I'm not serving you. You're not controlling me. We're equals.

Creating the Widget.  

There will be uncertainties during construction. One or both of us may feel anxious. That may be difficult. It will demand effort from each of us to resolve it to the satisfaction of the Widget. It will be hard.

Let's call it Work.  

Theory.

'Whether you think you do or not, you do have a theory of human behaviour. The only choice is in deciding which theory you will use. And the choice is an important one. It will determine how you see people, how you treat them, your assumptions about them - including yourself. It will affect your values, your views about motivation, the quality of your interactions and your leadership.'

- Elliott Jaques

Requisite Organization: A Total System for Effective Managerial Organization

Dr Elliott Jaques was a psychoanalyst by profession. He believed that you don't change organisations by changing people, you change people by changing organisations. Or perhaps you free people to become who they are, by changing organisations.

He had a lot to say about decision making in his book Requisite Organisation. Here is a selection.

'Retrievals and calculations are often confused with decision-making, a confusion which weakens our understanding of true decision-making.'

'All human thinking, and therefore all human work, is a continual and powerful interplay between non-verbal mental processes and the knowledge which we use to direct and focus those processes.'

'The work which you experience as the effort in decision-making is the effort in giving energy and direction to the non-verbal mental processing and bringing or allowing the outcomes into verbalisable awareness, so that they an become part of your knowledge and available for conscious use in problem-solving.'

'Decision-making has to do with human uncertainty:

• It is precisely the uncertainty inherent in human work, the feeling of never being quite sure, that makes you close your eyes and agonise over decisions.
• You do not have all the words, and as you agonise you get hold of raw ideas, clothe them inwards, and dig them from the unverbalised recesses of your mind.
• If you are given tasks of complexity beyond your capability in a role with too long a time-span you become anxious and eventually confused - there is a longer run of uncertainty and more variables than you can cope with.'

'Decision-making and action call for judgement and discretion based upon non-verbal mental work. I term our ability to do this our complexity of mental processing.'

'But never forget, at the actual moment of choice, the choice or decision just gets made, as though on its own, and we become aware of what we have chosen only after we have committed ourselves to some specific particular choice.'

'Skilled knowledge helps to organise and simplify work by enabling a person to carry out parts of a problem-solving activity without having to think about them, thus freeing discretion and judgment which would  be otherwise engaged.'

'The important thing is not to confuse the skilled knowledge with the work.

• Skilled knowledge you do not have to think about: work is the part you have to attend to, think about, and make decisions about.
• When you are skilled at touch-typing you no longer have to think about which keys you are seeking - that is automatic: but you do have to think about whatever it is that you are using the typewriter to record.'

'The art of the good society and of the good organisation is to ensure opportunity for the use of their full potential by all of its people.'

'My whole orientation is towards the performance of individuals in carrying out purposeful goal-directed activities.'

'What we all really yearn for is to have work at a level consistent with our current potential and for progression in line with our maturation, and the chance to get the necessary education and training. That is the true democratic dream.'

'What is more, subordinates yearn for someone above them to sit down with them and discuss their careers and opportunities: and this includes not only those with growth in potential ahead of them but also those who know that they have matured to full potential and seek assurance of continued opportunity to work at that level.'

'You have no idea of the positive galvanising effect upon your people of having their intuitive awareness of their own true potential confirmed by understanding managers-once-removed who have been charged with this duty. Indifference is annulled and a flow of creative energy is released.'

'Manifest Organisation: the organisation structure as it is represented on the official organisation chart: at best a very rough approximation to what is actually going on, if you can even make sense of it.

Assumed Organisation: the structure as different people assume it really works; likely to have as many variations as you have people, and produces confusion.

Extant Organisation: the system as it actually functions, as demonstrated by systemic study. It will always be an approximate picture. It requires that you dig in and find who is actually being held acceptable for what, and what authority they are in fact able to exercise in relation to whom and toward what.'

'If you want each and very one of your managers - at all levels and in any and every function - to be able to be held accountable for deciding what outputs each of their immediate subordinates is producing...then you must ensure not only that they have the following minimum authority but also that they have been taught that they have it and have been instructed in how to use it:

• Veto any new appointment
• Decide types of work assignment
• Decide effectiveness appraisal
• Decide removal from role.'

'To ask a manager about specific tasks which she/he assigns to a subordinate comes as an unfamiliar experience for most - and the managers find replying equally strange and awkward until they get used to it.'

'There is a very important point to be noted here, which will save a lot of susbsquent confusion if taken into account.

• Work (and its complexity and difficulty) is not the traversing of known paths.
• The work is to choose pathways or construct new ones, and to adapt them as you encounter unanticipated difficulties in traversing them.
• Obeying known rules and regulations is not work: it does not constitute a problem: deciding how best to obey under particular circumstances may do so, for rules and regulations set boundaries (prescribed limits) within which your choice of pathways is constrained.'

Slack.

'One thing I said I could help him with was Leadership. Because I was thrust into that with West Coast. 

'And I'll be honest as I have said to him privately...probably not publicly as much as I am about to now...but I probably let him down a few times giving him...probably cutting him too much slack to go home and do all those sorts of things.

'So I don't think I actually helped him. I thought I was doing the right thing by him keeping him happy so he would continue to play football which is...ultimately...I was trying to help the Club.

'But from a Leadership...from a pure Leadership point of view...would I have done that in [his home town of] Melbourne? Well...I would not have had to have done that in Melbourne...to give him a training session off here and there so he could stay back with family and friends back in Melbourne.

'But I thought to keep him happy...to keep him playing happy...I thought that was the most important thing from an early point...

'I went to him and said 'I've probably let you down'.'

- Guy McKenna, Coach of the Gold Coast Suns AFL Team, speaking about Gary Ablett.

The first job of a Leader is to create the Space. Allow people to stretch and become who they are. Whack them if they breach it. Not as discipline or punishment. Not as an exercise in power. Not to diminish the person. To invite them to become as she knows they are.

Evidence that Guy McKenna is a Leader. His humility. His honesty. His measure of himself by his service to others. He doesn't wait to be criticised - to be complained about - for him to proactively admit - 'I failed you. Sorry.'

A month after this interview, Guy McKenna was criticised for allowing Gary Ablett too much freedom leading up to a big game.

The day after the article was published Gary Ablett led in possessions as he captained the Gold Coast Suns to a 40 point win - its first ever - over his former club Geelong.

Advocate.

"The real hell of life is everyone has his reasons."

 - Jean Renoir

The Premier of Western Australia Mr Colin Barnett has not supported a push to remove one of his party members who continues to criticise his government, including calling for Mr Barnett to resign.

Another example of a leader who is on top of his game.

Allowing a critic to remain within the ranks is the sign of a confident leader. And not because of her ego blinding her to the criticism.

The good leader knows that there is wisdom in testing arguments and positions inside the tent before they are released into the wild.

As Dr Tim McDonald says: 'Private honesty. Public loyalty.' 

Mr Barnett's accommodation of a dissenting view is also his compliment to the community he serves. He assumes of us what he is demonstrating himself: the maturity to accept that difference is not to be feared.

Mr Barnett is not afraid that the voting public may assume that his party's internal dissent calls into question the ability of his government to run our hospitals and schools and keep our streets safe.

This is what leaders do. They create a space that invites us in to see the version of ourselves that we want to become. 'See?' Mr Barnett says to us. 'I can run an entire State amidst criticism from one of my own. I'm not fleeing. I'm not fighting. I'm smiling. Try it in your own family, workplace, community.'

Very, very few people or organisations can do this. Basically, we don't know how. We don't have the skills. We haven't practised accommodating dissonance. We actively discourage dissent - often quashing it under cover of a breach of 'values' or 'code of conduct'. We drive the our critics to the fringes - until they have to scream so loudly that any merit in their shouted message is dismissed with labels such as 'vexatious'. 

If you want to test the maturity and confidence of an organisation or person - say 'complaint'.

Mature people and organisations will seek out dissenters to join their decision making process to kick the tyres.

If they can't find such a critic, they will appoint one. The 'devil's advocate' was someone appointed by the Catholic Church to argue against the canonisation of a person into sainthood.

The mature organisation knows that a dissenter is one of the ways to avoid the trap of groupthink.

The critic - whether internal or external - demands that we explain ourselves - rather than just declare, or even be satisfied by giving reasons for a decision.

A recent study showed that people who were asked to give reasons for an opinion remained convinced of its rightness. While other people who were asked to give a step by step explanation of how they arrived at their opinion were more likely to recognise an error in their thinking and start reviewing their assumptions.

(Herein lies the value of the Five Steps to a Good Decision.)

Therein also lies both the solution and the problem.

Better to cling on to the flawed certainty of our understanding of the world than to expose ourselves to the panic of finding out that we've been wrong.

It's a rare person who can accommodate the distraction in time and energy of a critic.

Which is why we need leaders like Mr Barnett who have the confidence to show us that whether we label it criticism, dissent, disloyalty, or even treason, it's just information.

Another opportunity for us to measure how we're going with our Widget.

Good leaders are rare.

Important.

'It's only in our decisions that we are important.'

- Sartre

Next time you're bored in a meeting, try this.

A Decision will be made.

It can be now. In a few seconds. Later today. Tomorrow. Next year.

One absolute certainty is that a Decision will be made. (Even by default.)

You don't know what the decision will be - you know there will be one. Thus it's almost irrelevant.

Use this certainty as a reference point to work out who are the managers and who are the leaders in the meeting.

The managers will be the ones assembling their dot points for their post-mortem speeches in case the Decision goes wrong. (Most likely to be delivered in hushed tones and with eye rolls in the tea room. 'I tried to tell them that....but they...')

The leader will be holding the space. (She may not be the person at the head of the table by the way.)

She's allowing for the Five Steps - the deliberate process of inquiry - to run its course.

She knows that if she makes a decision that advances her towards where she wants to be - that she cannot make a bad decision.

Her wisdom about the answer liberates her to focus on others.

Watch the leader bravely hold the space. She listens. Asks questions. Listens. Questions. Listens. Listens.

Listens.

Watch the managers and others compete to fling the most words, statements, fears, challenges, complaints, criticisms, and egos within and against the boundaries of that safe space being held for them by the leader.

Spot the manager promoted one or more steps above his competence. You can tell him by his confident assertions. His aim is to declare his opinion rather than to allow it to be tested by the evidence. (That would be too risky.) He wants to be seen as decisive. Sure. Stable. Knowledgeable. Courageous. He does so with the luxury of knowing that he doesn't have to make the decision.

The real bravery in the room is in the leader. Risking being seen as weak. Indecisive. Uncommunicative. As she's talked over. As she holds the space. As she listens.

As she serves everyone else.

Including you. Learning from her as you watch, safe in the space she's created for you. (Guess what - she knows you're watching.)

Regardless of whether it's her decision that is made or followed, she's a leader. Because she created the space and invited you to enter and become who you are.

Allowed you to advance towards your Widget on the way to building hers.

Decisions don't make us important.

The Deciding does.

[Never spotted a leader in a meeting? Of course not. Good leaders are rare.]

Trust.

'People do not have to love each other, or even like each other, to work together effectively. But they do have to trust each other in order to do so. Trust between people is the basic social glue: suspicion and mistrust are the prime enemies of reasonable human relationships.'

- Dr Elliott Jacques, 'Requisite Organization'.

A witness in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was asked why he didn't act on a report by one of his staff.

'Because I didn't think that I had enough information to act upon,' was the essence of his explanation.

'If you had witnessed the behaviour yourself, would you have acted upon it?'

'Yes,' he replied.

Here was a rare glimpse into the dirty little secret of almost every organisation and the root cause of their dysfunction.

Bosses won't delegate decision making power because no-one else has the skill to see and interpret information and act upon it as effectively as they can. They're the Boss, after all.

Workers who have delegated decision making power but don't use it because they assume their boss must have a superior understanding of the same information. They're the Boss, after all.

If we fail to act on information given to us by another in the same way that we would if we had first hand knowledge of that information, we declare:

'I don't trust you.'

In which case cancel the off-site team building exercises, Myers-Briggs Tests, Christmas party, external consultant reviews, coaching, values statements, and staff surveys.

And spend the savings on the glue in Payroll to retain the untrusted people who remain to service their mortgages, and to hire the extra managers needed to supervise them. 

If.

If I write a good job description for you.

If I write a good job ad for you.

If I write good questions for your job interview and write down the ones you ask back.

If I write to your last boss and ask her if you make good Widgets.

If I write a good employment contract for you.

If I write good policies for you.

If I teach you a good job induction.

If I teach you about my Widget.

If I teach you how your Widget fits into my Widget.

If I teach you with feedback and a pay cheque.

If I get out of your way.

If I Do all of this for everyone who you rely on to help you to Do your job.

If - after you Do it - I say:

Thank you.

If I keep Doing for you all I said that I would Do.

I'd have done my job.

And you'll go on Doing yours.

You don't need to be managed or led.

You just need to be left to Do.
 

We don't need more leaders or managers.

We need more Writers and Teachers.

We need more Doers.

Job.

The entertainment reporter Michael Idato gave us a rare and brilliant example of the relationship between Widget Thinking and Defining Moments in the workplace wild.

A leaked two year old internal email from the former executive producer of the 'Sunrise' television programme to Network management proposed replacing two presenters and the newsreader.

The leak led the 'Sunrise' presenters who remain on air to not just dismiss it, but to ridicule it and cite their continued tenure as evidence that the former producer was wrong and the email was meaningless.

Yet as Michael Idato observed:

'Sunrise's former executive producer....would not have been doing his job if, at every turn, he was not considering alternatives, lest the happy Sunrise family he had assembled passed their use-by date and started to creak with age. His first loyalty is not to them, it is to his employer, and the promise that he will deliver them an enduring hit.

'The same could be said for the Nine Network's management, who would not be delivering value for their stakeholders if they were not examining the on-air performance of their entire talent stable in minute detail, regularly, and willing to do whatever it takes - or sack and replace whoever they need to - to win.

'It was that attitude that saw Jessica Rowe wrenched from the Today line-up several years ago. Make no mistake it was appallingly handled at the time, but it was a brutal and vivid demonstration of the business of television and the very small role that human decency has to play in it.'

Amidst the denials and damage control rose the refreshing voice of Karl Stefanovic, host of the Sunrise rival, 'Today', who said (in a text book use of the three most powerful words in the English language - I Don't Care):

'I know that [network management] is actively planning to get rid of me, and I like it, I embrace it, I don't care....It's best to go, 'it's TV, eventually they will [get rid of me],' so I'm just gonna have a great time and sail on into the sunset.''

A similarly healthy response to the email came from former Sunrise co-host Melissa Doyle, who was one of the three presenters that the email suggested changing:

'It was one view....Television, radio, newspaper executives the world over are probably discussing staff, columnists, et cetera, all the time....I figure that's the nature of the job. It's television. If they didn't have that conversation then you would probably wonder.'

The producer who wrote the email was doing his job - deciding to give his best advice to ensure the success of the Widget - albeit at the public cost of three people's jobs.

The management did its job - deciding to reject the advice as not serving the Widget.

The three current presenters did their jobs - deciding to reassure viewers that they are one big-happy-family, which protects ratings, which dictate the price of advertising which brings in revenue which buoys the stock price which is their boss's Widget.

Three different decisions that may look in conflict on the surface but each serving the Widget.

Perhaps it's Karl and Mel who are the best examples of a healthy shrug at the inevitable clanging of our professional and personal Widgets.
 

Follow.

Interviewer: 'We are supposed to do the right things...'

Retired US Navy SEAL: 'Do you know what the right thing is?'

Interviewer: 'Well...not to kill innocent civilians...'

Retired SEAL: 'You don't have any idea. Not to be rude or anything, but one person's...what they think is the right idea is, is completely opposite from what the other one is. That's why we have to solely focus on our Leadership, our Admirals, who have been around and have been through all of this and they make the calls and it flows all the way down to us and we follow our orders to the T. Being in the SEAL teams we're outside of the box thinkers. We're not idiots. Most SEALS have their degrees and a lot of them have their Masters and we've been in this game for a very, very long time. So the thing that we ask - not out loud - we hope and pray that the American public has enough trust and faith in us to do and make the right decision....It's war and there is no right or wrong answer...'

To dismiss this response as the predictably military gung-ho blind 'We just follow orders' is to ignore some powerful insights into good decision making in the most extreme circumstances that also translates to the every day.

Navigating a good decision requires a fixed north - the Widget.

The Widget is designated by the Leader.

The decision maker accepts the Widget as the creation of a person who they trust - even if that trust is that there will be money in their bank account each fortnight.

Implicit in the dynamic between Widget, Leader and decision maker is that the decision maker continues to choose the Widget.

If I sneer at this equation it's either because my Leaders are managers or I choose not to choose.

'Right' and 'Wrong' are irrelevant.

It's all about the Widget.

(It's not about the Widget.)

Smiling.

Hamish Hamilton's good decision-making and Widget Thinking have led him to be chosen to camera direct U2, the Oscars, the London Olympics ceremonies and earned him a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award.

He was once asked how he dealt with the stress of multi camera directing.

'My talent is definitely remaining calm. Remaining polite. And in extremely stressful situations, making other people smile. Motivating people on a human level. And just providing a safe environment in which they can excel. 

'I can take on a lot of the crap and a lot of the stress and if I can take it and I'm holding it in within myself, it's not permeating out into them. Sometimes that's not possible. But I do try and keep it jolly.

'Because actually you know what?

People make better decisions when they're smiling.'

Joy.

It's half time during the NBA Playoffs. 10 million people are watching you at your desk making your Widget.

Hamish Hamilton is a Director whose work directing a U2 concert in Boston in 2001 was played live around the world during the 17 minute NBA half time. He was filmed at work and these images were included in the U2 Elevation DVD.

It doesn't take an expert to recognise that we are watching a pristine practical example of how good decision making, technical excellence, widget thinking, teamwork, structure and artistry come together to create excellence.

Listen to Hamish spontaneously and sincerely praise others' work as they do it. (He doesn't wait for the annual performance review to give them feedback.) Listen to him urge the team on with raw passion. (He doesn't need to act serious, aloof and boss-like when he's really feeling like shouting 'C'mon!') Watch him sway, gesture, dance and even sing in sync with the band, losing his body in his work while his brain stays focussed on the complex director's steering wheel. (He doesn't have to wait for the staff social event and a few drinks to be himself.) Listen to him drop expletives of delight at his team's work. (He's built enough trust with his co-workers not to need to worry about a bullying or harassment complaint.) Listen to him shout 'This is what we're good at!' because he knows the real meaning of team. (He doesn't have to take them on an artificial off-site, outsourced team building day.) Hear him say 'Thank you'. (He's not so self-absorbed in his creativity to not be aware that there are people at the end of his barked directions.) Watch how he harnesses the chaos while his Assistant Director Hayley literally calls a cadence beat of structure amidst the noise, lights and confusion. Watch his sheer joy as he executes responsibility for co-ordinating dozens of people and millions of dollars worth of equipment to produce a widget that will be expected to make tens of millions in sales.

Here is proof that we can make our serious widget and dance.

Hamish is a worker who loves his job and is exceptionally good at it. He has directed an Academy Awards ceremony among other high profile events including the London Olympic ceremonies.

Yet the most powerful evidence that he is truly in the élite is among the 42 comments below the Youtube video of his work. Amidst the expressions of appreciation and praise for his direction is the inevitable criticism posted in 2012 for the world to read:

'Sorry to say this, but Hamish Hamilton was the WORST ACADEMY AWARDS DIRECTOR EVER after last year!!! The execution was such a mess, especially with "And the winner is..." replacing "And the Oscar goes to", and although I taped it I won't even bother dubbing it to DVD. I guess Louis J. Horvitz and Glenn Weiss were too busy, which is why they tapped Hamish instead. Thankfully, Don Mischer will be directing and co-producing this year's Oscarcast.'

This is the comment that Hamish Hamilton posted in response:

'Glad you liked it johnnyafairbank ! Don is indeed directing and co-producing the show this year. He will do an amazing job - he is a fantastic director, a gentleman and crucially will also be a co-producer. It may be worth noting that the show was nominated for more Emmys than any Oscars ceremony ever so some people did like it. Enjoy this years show's - your obviously glad its not me ! I can send you a DVD of last years if you wish. Respect Hamish'

The level of self-confidence that produces this measured, dignified response - written with subtle humour yet without a hint of malice or attempt at public retaliation or humiliation of his critic - can only come from someone who knows in their soul that their work is very very good.

If Hamish Hamilton hasn't found who he is - then he's very close to it.

Hamish was not misplaced in believing in 2012 that his decision-making speaks for itself. A few weeks ago it was announced that he will direct the 2014 Oscars broadcast.

I.

 'There is a lot of learning between 'It fell' and 'I dropped it'.

- Anonymous

'You got a sec?,' the strike pilot asked me. His cheeks still had the outline of his oxygen mask. 

I followed him to another room and he pushed a video casette into the VCR. 

'This is vision from the package that I just led.'

The black and white infra red images filmed from an F111C aircraft earlier that night three nautical miles away at 600 knots began playing. He was about to narrate when he paused, smiled, leaned back in his chair and gently closed the door from where three pilots from one of our allies were looking in. 

'See the cross-hairs?' he resumed. 'You'll see me move them over the corner of this intersection.' He jabbed at the screen where the white cross was settling on the outline of the top of a building. 'This was our target. The telephone exchange in the centre of the city. Top left hand corner. Remember it?'

I nodded. I had reviewed and approved all the strike package targets for the Commander earlier in the day.

'See those numbers here?' He pointed at one of several sets of readouts along the edge of the image. 'They are simulating my laser guided bomb coming in. Three, two, one. Perfect. Bang on. Target destroyed. Well, simulated. Now watch.'

The cross hairs remained in place for a few seconds. Then glided to the ghostly outline of the building on the bottom right of the intersection. Then back up. Pause. Then diagonally down. The image flickered to black. 

'Wrong building,' he said, punching the tape out of the recorder. 'I bombed the wrong corner of the intersection. I need you to tell me the consequences. I need you to brief me and the rest of the Squadron on the legal implications of my error. Can you do that?'

'Yes, Sir.'

'Good,' he said. 'Thank you.'

There was a knock at the door then it opened to five bearded, filthy and grinning Special Forces soldiers. 

'Come in fellas,' the Air Commodore said, then to me 'Sorry - these blokes just want to see the video of us tracking them along a creek bed last night from five miles away. They're curious. Didn't hear a thing. Want to sit in?'