Do I have to put up with this nonsense? A blog about interrupting

I started off being polite then when no one listened I lost it! 

Ever imagined or dreamed that you are doing something really amazing. You see yourself achieving something winning a prize or completing a goal that you set yourself. Getting recognition, wealth and gratitude for it? That is good but... 

In reality you are total idiot a buffoon. As you step up to the stage you trip, just as you are about to deliver that crushing performance, you lose your notes, or your words. Or are you caught in a state of ‘continuous partial attention’? constantly running to do the next thing or answer the next digital ping? Time to stop!

Time to practice Interruption. The art of stopping in your tracks and recognizing when you are heading for a catastrophic moment. Change direction, do it differently. Go a different way, read different stuff, say different things.

How can you do this? how can you positively interrupt yourself, change a scenario?

Begin by going home a different way tonight, have another alternative conversation to the one you were going to have. Make it about the thing that you want talk about. Find the people who will listen to you. If they won’t then INTERRUPT THEM! Haven’t got an invite to their meeting? Then just turn up, set up your presentation, tell the media. They will INTERRUPT you but other people will start to listen to you. Society will judge you but that's good. Ask yourself some questions at the critical moment. Just that moment that you were going to do the exact same thing that you always do. That moment that you normally give in to convention, STOP.

On your way home? Stop at a different café, read a  different newspaper or book. Make sure you consciously do different things every day. Listen to someone else’s news. Or watch a random TED talk. Not one about stuff you know about. Go see a band or play you’ve never heard of. Write a different soap opera, invent your own plot and ending. Learn a new skill or piece of music, or a poem or a song.

It’s about being present, in the moment. There’s a lot of chatter about mindfulness at the moment but that’s a bit polite and nice. No! Interruption is where it’s at!  I’m not talking about rude interruption like Kanye West on Taylor Swift. Instead, take note of Martin Luther King, or Ghandi no one could ignore them could they? King had no platform, Ghandi had no platform. They interrupted the status quo by creating their own. 

Remember punk? When they couldn't get heard they didn't carry on courting the same old dinosaur record companies they made their own! Music for example Young Fathers, the maker revolution, crowd funding, Bitcoin. They are all examples of interrupted ideas that challenge the obvious, the mainstream. They will be the new economy that takes over when the old one is asleep. Kodak caught napping by digital cameras. Record companies rendered obsolete by streaming music. What next? what will you contribute?

The key is to DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT – INTERRUPT YOURSELF –do these things and You will find that you start to think differently. 

Then you will find the power to INTERRUPT their story if you aren't happy with it. When you get to the door of people who don’t want to listen to you, don’t fight them. DON’T GO IN. In the film Jaws the shark ate people because they went on a long flight to the beach where the sharks were. 

Hacktivism activism, action is the key to change. You can change everything. Yes it's scary, setting out in a new direction, saying a big no to the norm. But it will change your life! Taking that first powerful step is awesome. I remember marching against the war in Iraq looking around me at all those people and feeling at the same time proud and scared. Exhilarating feelings. 

Interrupting, avoiding habitual patterns, might well be the key to avoiding technology that targets you for advertising. After all you'd want to hear new music for the first time that is like nothing you ever heard before. Not just music based on recommendation from Amazon or some other monolith. 

Basically go to a different space, or place to work. Or open an alternative set of doors, behind which you will find a set of people who are ready and willing to listen to you. In the book 'Roots for Radicals', Edward Chambers describes how Saul Alinsky  founded the Industrial Arts Foundation. And then reformed the Bronx. They did it by talking to people for 30 minutes. Then only worked with people who would listen to them.

Ask yourself the question, “why do I need anyone’s permission to do this?”. I ran a session at a conference last year on ‘permission’. The need for people, grown adults to have permission to act on their ideas amazed me. Their fear of acting without permission staggered me. The reaction of ‘leaders’ to requests from their people to do something differently left me stunned. It was so negative!

Start today interrupt yourself, you don't need permission. Break those old long running habits now. No longer stand on the edge of the crowd looking in. Form your own crowd, your circle that want things that you want. If that circle outgrows its usefulness start another one. Vote with your feet, don't stay and be bored by people who aren't worth listening to.

There is something very scary about doing new and different things. But when you find the power to do them they become very exhilarating. Be your own leader not a follower. Find that power and you will never let it go.

Will work really be the same in the future?

Lately I've been pondering the future of work . I've asked myself four questions; Where will I work? How will I work? How long will I work each day? Will I have just one job?

Where will I work? I've read many things this year about creativity and location. Among the best was a blog  that suggested coffee shops were the best locations. The article makes a good case and is interesting. I also enjoyed the article in Wired talking about Liam Casey setting up business in China. At no point was it suggested that expensive offices and the overheads they carry were the way forward. Cue the growth of co working spaces like the Generator in Exeter or Thinqtank in Plymouth. Like Google's hub in London you can hire workspace and meeting space. It's a great place to meet people and a godsend for those who would normally work from home. Home working can be soul destroying hubs can provide the answer to break the monotony.

How will I work? It's no surprise that with the growth of collaborative spaces has come the growth of collaborative tools. There are many variants, my fave being Google docs. That allow collaboration across project members and outside the project too. It's a brilliant experience to sit and co create a document and watch as colleagues contribute from wherever they are. The time saved and the pain of email chains and tracked changes received is brilliant. I cannot for the life of me understand why these tools are not the norm. Others are taking advantage of crowd sourcing their designs. They have benefited from critique and positive additions, for example the Tesla electric car.

Of course once your product is ready you can share it with the manufacturer even if they are on the other side of the planet. I use Google hangouts to great effect. I've hosted meetings with colleagues from around the UK and find it easy and convenient. It reduces my travel time and cost too!

How long will I work each day? I think the days of Monday to Friday eight hours a day are on their way out. I've met so many people who are now prepared to adjust their lifestyle to work less hours.  This is really encouraging. flexible working taken to extreme can be really productive, we are not designed to sit in an office eight hours or more. Working when we are happiest and most productive judged by results not 'presenteeism' must be the future. Serious writers like Anna Coote of the New Economics Foundation have described how this can work. She suggests a 21 hour working week  . The benefits in terms of sustainability and personal well being would be immense.

Will I have just one job? Good question, again I think the notion of working for just one employer on just one task is fast disappearing. Portfolio working is on the increase and can be immensely rewarding. There's no secure jobs anymore and no loyalty. Moving from project to project developing and demonstrating your skills will help to keep you working and current. Stagnating in a so called career can actually damage your prospects. Many in the human resources world advocate never spending more than 3 years in a post. The added benefit is networking with a myriad of potential collaborators who you can call on in the future should you need to.

I’m writing a whole other piece on the ‘maker revolution’ embracing new ways of producing things that don't need armies of people. A recent Guardian article features a blistering range of new ideas from the ‘startup’ do it yourself culture.

When I floated similar ideas to a major employer for a management discussion they'd freaked out. What they don't realise is that just like the dated products they produce new businesses will supersede them.  Their hierarchical organisational structure will be out of date too. Like Kodak and film, old businesses will lose their place.  Lost in the deluge of clever collaborations and startups that no longer play by their rules. Already many organisations are beginning to change working practices to accommodate millenials Not to mention generation Z.

Wake up to the work revolution, change now. Less hours, greater flexibility, less formality, creative working location and environment.  For me it can't come soon enough.

Since writing this the Financial Times has cited Exeter as a top location for work life balance in an article. They mention many of the same thing as I have in this blog. I'm flattered.

Book Recommendation

Read this fascinating, thought provoking book.
Here

I can't quite bring myself to have a digital break. But I can see the point.