Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Hard and Harder.

It’s very hard to change, improve, or innovate when defending yourself from attack.

But that’s when most people and organisations are forced to change.

It’s much easier to change when peace reigns.

But that’s when most people and organisations don’t.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

The Middle of the Forest.

An idea is like a vehicle appearing in the middle of the forest.

There are no roads to take it anywhere.

The idea is the easy part.

It’s building the roads that’s hard.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Give Up to Get.

Whenever I want something, I should also know what I’m prepared to give up to get it.

Convenience for security and privacy.

Autonomy for income.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Another Reason Why.

Four out of five children are abused within their extended family.

In families - healthy and otherwise - interactions between members have the characteristics of ‘grooming’ behaviour.

Thus, when we frame our vigilance towards and responses to risks to children around ‘grooming’, we’re describing families.

How does a child - or the adult observer - distinguish between healthy and harmful in a family?

Another reason why codes of conduct in schools are so important.

They create and reinforce healthy behaviours between adults and children.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Uh-oh.

I didn’t realise that I was criticising behaviours I didn’t realise the boss thought were virtues.

And a type of person who the boss thought was him.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Sinister.

The most sinister illness is one without symptoms.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

The Last Emotion.

For parents, it’s unsettling to know that, if you do a good job with your children, the last emotion you will cause them to feel will be sadness.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

The Linchpins.

Points scored - and even assists - (in sport and in life) are all measured and can be acknowledged and rewarded.

But what about the passes that lead to the dribbles that lead to the assists that lead to the score?

Only an astute coach or observer notices, let alone keeps count.

Otherwise those ‘link’ players’ efforts and skills go unnoticed, unacknowledged, and therefore uncultivated.

Until the game (or project) where the points aren’t there, the turnovers and errors are ‘unexplainably’ higher.

Coaches and supporters (and managers) scratch their heads.

What went wrong?

Look for the player who was injured or wasn’t in that game (or meeting, or project, or service delivery).

That’s how you discover -

The linchpins.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

A Force That Won’t Bow.

A bad boss who has always relied on positional power, feels utterly impotent and frustrated when confronted with a force that won’t bow to them.

They have no experience and therefore skill to navigate their way beyond it.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Validation.

Here is the priority order in which a healthy person seeks validation for their actions.

Internal. (We do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.)

Nocturnal. (We do the right thing to sleep soundly at night.)

Eternal. (We do the right thing because we serve something greater than ourselves.)

External. (It’s a bonus to be praised.)

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Scripted.

The Universe patiently waits for us to pick up the script and read our lines.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Insecurity.

The boss who sits in on every meeting you have with their boss.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

We Choose to Stay.

Often when confronted by an employer’s stupidity or unfairness, we choose to stay.

It’s not that we’re afraid of taking our labour elsewhere.

We fear that by leaving we will discover that their assessment of us - was correct.

Better to stay and not confirm our self-doubt - and have someone to blame for our lack of progression and success -

Than to leave and swallow the bitter truth alone.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Blame.

Don’t blame the band aid for the wound.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Stealth.

I once interviewed an applicant for a support role.

When I asked him where he saw himself in the organisation in three years, he answered:

‘Doing your job.’

I assumed he was aspirational and thought he’d get there on merit.

Instead he got there by stealth.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

The Default Should Be.

The default is for organisations to express their values in writing

Codes and policies.

Whereas the default should be to express them in behaviour.

Routinely.

People shouldn’t think: ‘Oh I read somewhere that I’m supposed to …’

It should be ‘Nobody/Everybody here says/does…so I should too…’

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Pedantic.

Knowing a pendant will check your work makes you less careful.

Knowing someone less careful will check your work makes you a pedant.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Indignation.

Could it be that the indignation we express when the boss catches us out, is less about a true injustice, and more annoyance that the boss saw through our ruse?

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

The Salute.

Once appointed as an officer in the armed forces, every rank junior salutes and calls you ‘Sir’.

For most officers that is humbling and slightly awkward. You know you’ve done nothing to earn that respect and you know that they know you know. It’s almost as if each salute is accompanied by a knowing wink.

For some officers, that is the natural state of affairs and they never grow in response. Those officers give commissioned ranks a bad name.

For the rest of us, the first salute began us on our path to earn and be worthy of the institutional respect.

Each crisp salute and curt ‘Sir!’ a reminder of our unearned status and our need to keep trying to earn it.

To get better.

To serve.

Returning salutes never made me feel superior. Decades since my first, it remains humbling.

Then you get promoted and there’s another layer of saluters below you.

Then another.

One day we leave full time Defence and go out into the rank-less, salute-less, Sir-less, corporate world.

No more knowing what courses the person above and below us has passed to reach their place in the outfit, nor the pay they receive.

No days punctuated by salutes given and returned.

Nudging us to remember we serve something higher than ourselves.

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Bernard Hill Bernard Hill

Imagine a Workplace.

Imagine a workplace where an employee could say this to their boss:

‘I don’t have the self-confidence to apply myself fully to the work you expect me to do. So instead I spend a lot of energy thinking of ways to appear to be as competent and diligent as I think you require me to be to keep my job. I’ve worked out the minimum I need to do to keep up appearances, including a menu of excuses I have for both myself and you if I fall short. I know that you don’t have the time or will it would require to monitor me enough to gather the evidence you need to prove what I know about my mediocre performance. So I rely on this to get away with my mediocrity. So, in a way, I blame you for me not pulling my weight.’

And the boss could say this back:

‘I just want the work done so I can do mine and we can be successful. I haven’t go the time or desire to supervise you enough to either lift your performance or have enough evidence to ask you to leave and not get sued.’

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