Letter to Marlis Sept-Oct 2019

Altona, 6 November 2019

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are well and enjoying the warmer weather. I started this letter in very cold Berlin (zero degrees!!)  over the weekend and kept writing while travelling back home to Altona. It’s been a busy two months, so it’s about time for an update.

Chameleon Cards events

Remember those cards I showed you when I last visited? Well, we sold out the 250 boxes by now and decided to print a final 50 more so that we wouldn’t have to disappoint the pre-orders and the people at our last event in Brisbane on 21 November. My partner in all this, Peter, is going to do the Sydney event on 13 November alone because I’ll be working all the way in West-Victoria that day and can’t make it back on time. I did the Adelaide event on 17 October alone because he was holidaying with his partner and her family in South Korea. At least we’ll do the Brisbane one together and get to finish the trip how we started, together.

Yumi’s business

Business is still very good for Yumi & Co. I know that doesn’t really surprise anyone, but I am just so very happy for her. It’s one thing to think that you’ve got something worth telling, but it’s something completely different to back yourself and go in business with nothing but some money and your wits. New clients seem to find her every week and collaborations spontaneously emerge every other day or so it seems. She works as hard as ever and seeds that were planted a few months back now all seem to burst out in flowers all at the same time. It’s still a bit of a challenge sometimes for me to hear how they approach things and what priorities they set, but then I just remind myself that this is not my business, literally AND figuratively 😊. As long as she’s enjoying herself, I will do my best to support her and we’ll find our way, as always.

National Homeless Collective

I’ve been super busy with the people from the charity I got involved with as volunteer project manager in July and we’ve made good progress on many fronts. They had the money and ideas, but not the time and organisation to get the projects done. Say no more, here I come! In a span of 6 weeks, I cleaned everything up, reorganised a couple of things, painted lots of things, got an aircon system and bathroom installed, painted some more, created a meditation room, prepared for a new kitchen and had a pergola built. There’s a method to the madness here, let me explain!

There’s a store in the building that drives it all. It employs women coming from homelessness or a domestic violence background, the sales of clothes go towards their wages and offers employment and training. The meditation room will be used to make money by offering meditation sessions and that money will go towards supplies and resources for one of the 10 projects run from that space too. Then there’s the kitchen that will provide food for a small café style space, under the pergola and the bathroom is for people without a home or safe place who would like to freshen up and maybe take a break for a bit.

Aside from all that I am helping them build an organisational structure and better website so that the organisation can grow in a way that allows the boss to not have to do everything herself. It’s very satisfying work and I can almost always do what I want. By the time we have the reveal party (21 December) they’ll have so much new and cool stuff that it’ll be a completely new place. Yumi and I will then go on holidays and I’ll let them decide how they’d like to continue on and what I could do for them. The boss asked if I’d consider being on their Board, but I think they can do better than me. We’ll see how that goes.

SES activities

I’ve been quite busy with the people in orange the past few months too. We’ve got a whole bunch of new recruits and getting organised around them took some doing, but they are doing quite well and it’s good to add some fresh blood to our thinned-out team. It’s also good practice for all of us to remind ourselves how certain things are done the right way, instead of the way we do them… 

I also participated in two events where we visit people’s properties that have been affected by bushfires and we cut up trees that have fallen in inconvenient or dangerous spots. The first day was rainy, working in swampland with fairly small trees. After 6 solid hours we’d worn out most chainsaws and ourselves, scoring about 50-75 cut up trees. Not a bad day’s work and the elderly lady owning the property was so very grateful it made us all feel very good that we’d been able to help her, never mind the blistering rain, hail, snow and mud! The second day a few weeks later could not have been more different. Bigger team of 4 instead of 3, no swampland, no rain and we even got help from the very legendary 75-year old owner and his massive chainsaw. Score at the end of the day? 2 trees.

Well, 1.5 really, but they were massive and real technical challenges to our chainsaw skills. We ended up almost finishing the job (it got dark) and very impressed by the old guy who just kept going, and going, and going! They also had two dogs that were very funny and not afraid of the saws, but the true hero was a totally fearless chicken. She was just everywhere around us, sometime just inches away from the blades and not giving 2 hoots about anything, pecking away at the ground for snacks and bugs. We almost crushed her a few times just rolling big cut-offs, but she managed to scoot out of the way just in time every time. Cheeky bird!

Ah, looks like we’re about to board here in Berlin, I’ll continue writing in Amsterdam when waiting for our flight to Dubai.

New Career update

It’s a few hours later now (20.00) and I’ve safely arrived at Amsterdam Airport, met up with Yumi and her parents and did a bit of shopping. Now we’re waiting to board the bird that will take us to Dubai. Since the last time we spoke my resolve to change careers has not diminished, actually it only got stronger. Every time I go online and see what people are doing and saying about change management, it doesn’t seem to apply to me anymore and I often just feel annoyed or frustrated, where I used to feel inspired. If nothing else, that’s a good signal to start looking for other things to do. I went to the intro session for a carpentry pre-apprenticeship, where they teach you what side of the hammer is the business end and how not to drill your own hand. I liked what I heard. 3 months of practical training to no longer embarrass myself and then a 3-year apprenticeship to become a carpenter. There are a few practical things that I will have to think long and hard about before committing to that, but let’s see how the 3-month pre-apprenticeship goes first.

I’ll have to accept that I will only earn a fraction of what I can earn now, have a very different work environment, different kinds of people and I’d basically start from zero. Yumi is mostly supportive (as always), but rightfully pointed out that she now feels a bit of pressure to make sure that we have income. I think we’ll be fine, but of course I think about that too. I’ll go to another info session next week to do the required tests (literacy and numeracy) and paperwork and then, if all goes well, I’ll start in February. It’ll be something else entirely, but I think I’ll enjoy it.

Netherlands and Berlin trip

It now seems a very long time ago and almost as if I was a different person when I put in a proposal in January this year for the Berlin Change Days, but I did and I got selected, so we decided to include a trip to the Netherlands as we would be so nearby it would be a shame not to stop by. We stayed with my parents in their new house for 5 days and then Yumi stayed with her parents for another 5 while I left after 2 to go to Berlin. It was such a good experience to see everyone again. All our friends and family had made such an effort to make themselves available and suit our schedule, that alone made us feel very welcome and every single time we met with people it was like we’d never been gone.

That being said, already on the flight in, Yumi said that to her it didn’t really feel like going home and that stuck with me for the rest of the trip, because she was right! The Netherlands don’t feel like home anymore and I don’t know how I feel about that. Is Australia home now? I guess so. More than the Netherlands anyway. That was totally unexpected for us, but it is what it is, maybe it’ll change again in a few years.

We also had a chance to do a real tourist trip through my favourite city Rotterdam with my parents. We explored a ship called the Rotterdam, a cruise liner from 1959 with lots of history and stories. Then we had lunch at Hotel New York, which is housed in the old offices of the Holland-America Line and then we went and visited the Euromast, a 185m high tower that offers good views of all the places I know and love, as far away as Belgium. Rotterdam changes all the time and not all change is good, but it is and will probably always be in my blood, just how I like it.

I also took the opportunity to visit our old house (felt no connection) and do a few of the walks Yumi and I used to take around town (all very much the same, but the trees got bigger). It was very strange to hear Dutch all the time, but great to visit the shops, eat typical Dutch things, see familiar things and be amazed at how tall the Dutch are, especially the women!

Then it was time to go to the conference in Berlin for me, while Yumi stayed with her parents, had some work meetings and ate some more. We ate soooo much, I still feel full now flying back! Anyway, I arrived late Thursday in Berlin and it was freezing! Found my hotel without incident using public transport, which is a big deal for me because normally I get lost in 2 minutes if Yumi is not with me. Didn’t do much else but eat and a bit of work, taking it easy for what promised to be three busy days.

I started the day early and went for a 3-hour walk through Berlin to revisit a lot of the places I went to when I was there with Yumi and later with my dad. It’s still a great city and even though it was cold (-1 degrees) the sun did it’s best to make the Fehrnseeturm, Brandenburger Tor, Museuninsel and Unter den Linden look their best. There are building cranes everywhere you look and Unter den Linden has changed so much I had to check if I was on the right street😊.

I won’t bore you with the conference stuff, that’s really not that exciting, but it was fun, my friend Sarah and I did a reasonably good job with our workshop (there were 30 workshops across 4 sessions to choose from) and everything else was a bit different in a good way. I was happy to find that my German is still pretty good, I could follow most conversations and at some point, I even noticed I translated German to English before Dutch, which was a bit strange.

I finished the conference on Sunday just before noon because I didn’t want to hurry back to the airport. It was raining, I rode the metro and bus and they were so crowded it was insane. Somehow, we made it to Tegel, where boarding took 3 days, no, just kidding, but it felt that long because security checks took very long and then I get to the gate and the flight is delayed by almost an hour. Pffff, let me go home. I met Yumi and her parents again on Amsterdam Airport and we’ve been travelling ever since. We’re now in the air from Dubai to Melbourne, all 12 hours and 45 minutes of it. Good thing we don’t mind flying!

Holiday plans

The Great Australian Road trip is not happening, booohoooo! Yumi just didn’t see it come together and it takes two to travel, so we decided to go diving on Christmas Island which is literally as far as you can get from the mainland and still be in Australia. You might know of it because of the terrible stories about the immigrant detention centre, or perhaps you’ve seen the Planet Earth documentary about the red crab migration that floods the island every year. Apparently, everyone drives around with a rake in their cars to sweep the crabs out of the way when they need to get past on the road. I hope we don’t end up making a lot of crab pate when we’re driving around. We’ll be in the water most of the time anyway. I hope to see whale sharks, hammer heads, big rays and lots of wildlife under water. We plan to go from 23/12to 3/1 and dive 5 to 7 days. It will be good to be under water again.

We’ve been home 24 hours now and I’ve been jet lagged and really sick from a cold I picked up from my parents who got it from their grandkids. I can’t remember being this sick in a long time. Because we hardly ever take medication, the pills really work, so Yumi and I both took one tablet and we were knocked out until 11.30am…Wow, maybe next time we share one, haha.

I think that’s me done for now. There will be lots of things happening over November and December, wrapping up one career and starting another, stopping some things and starting others, holidays, bit of travel, bit of work and that’s 2019 done!

I’ll be in touch early 2020, which seems like a ridiculously long time away, but it’s exactly 8 weeks from now.

Be well

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis May-June 2019

Altona, 9 July 2019

Hi Marlis,

It’s been another eventful 2 months since I last wrote and Winter is trying to arrive in Altona! I hope you are keeping warm too. Before I launch into all that’s happened, let’s get the logistics sorted first. I will be coming to the ACT for some ‘work’ related stuff! I was hoping to stop by for a visit on Thursday 5 September around 10.00 perhaps? If that suits your schedule, could you maybe give me a call closer to the date? A week in advance should be enough 😊. My best contact number is 0438 724 364. I could also do Friday morning if that works better, but then I have to drive back to Melbourne again to help Yumi with her event on the Monday after.

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, here’s what’s been going on for us:

Canada trip

We are nearly ready to go, just 3 more weeks and we’ll be landing in Calgary. Yumi has the whole schedule sorted, the GPS is updated for all the main and back roads and the grizzly bears have been told to expect us. I really do hope we get to see some of the bigger wildlife, but it’s the peak of tourist season, so I’m trying to keep my expectations low. We’re actually going there to see our friends from the Netherlands get married, but as long as we’re there, might as well make a 3,000 km road trip out of it, right? Canada is like Australia that way. You can travel for 3 weeks and then look at the map and realise you’ve basically seen nothing yet, just a stamp-sized piece of a table-sized map. Oh well, it’ll be fun for sure and we can do with a bit of a break from Melbourne.

Yumi’s business

Yumi has been really busy (and happy) over the past 3 months and now she can finally take a breather after having worked 12 weeks non-stop. Her clients love her, the work and money is coming to them! She’s doing what she wanted to do for years, so it’s all completely as expected and no one is really surprised. But I am very proud of her all the same. They are planning another event, still not doing their promotion as impactful as I could do it, but I’ve come to realise that I am the worst possible advisor for them. Everything I say is 100% true, but because I say it, they just have to do something else. At first, I got a bit upset with that, now I just let them do their thing, like those millions of other businesses that somehow all seem to manage just fine without me too, haha. She’s got work lined up until next year and now national organisations are starting to find them as well. It’s great to see her do so well and learning all these new things. I hope she never goes back to working or a boss!

Chameleon Cards

Today my friend Peter Phan and I launched the website for a game we’ve been working on. It’s a set of 120 cards that’s supposed to help all sorts of professionals make sense of the roles for change managers in the near future. It started as a bit of a joke, but we got so much positive feedback on what I wrote and showed as a prototype that we’ve decided to just give it a go. It turned out to be (sooooo) much more work than anticipated, but also very rewarding and full of learning. By the time I come to Canberra, I’ll bring a set for you so you can see what that’s all about. I could try and explain, but I am not great at explaining and if I show you, you’ll immediately get it 😊. It’s the other reason I am coming to the ACT. A long time ago I promised I would do a presentation for the Change Management Community of Practice and now I’ll bring the cards, talk a bit about the Change Rebellion and hopefully inspire a few people along the way. Not bad for something that started as a joke!

Clean ups

Yumi and I have been keeping up with the clean ups. I think I am now up to bag 750 or so, since I started. I have lost count a bit, but still enjoy keeping the town free of litter on most days. A few weeks back I did a 2-hour super-clean in an area so polluted I didn’t really know where to start. I waited for a sunny day and then got into it. 20 (!) bags and a lot of walking later, it looked a lot better, for now at least... We also had a good community event with a group called Fishcare as a joint event with Beach Patrol. As a vegetarian I couldn’t really get excited about someone telling people about how to enjoy themselves while hurting animals, but at least they are trying to make it less painful and look after the environment. Also, I am just the coordinator, no need to make it all about me and my values 😊. The kids had a great time and the parents learned a thing or two as well. It did help that the sun came out right on time, so we got a lot of work done and had a good time. My proposal from December 2018 for a community-based approach to clean-ups is still on the council’s radar, but it’s all so slow that they’ll get around to it by next year or so. Whatever, we’ll just do it ourselves then! The current coordinator has moved and now lives a bit further away and she’s a mom with lots of other commitments, so Yumi and I take on a little bit more every now and then. Sometimes it’s a bit annoying, but then I remember that we’re all volunteers, she’s trying her best and it should be fun, not like work!

Designing a Change Masterclass for Deakin MBA

About the time I left Deakin, the director for the fancy Master of Business Administration school asked if I would be interested to get paid to deliver a series of classes on change management. It sounded very interesting and it certainly was fun to design and put it together! We had to go back and forwards a few times to get it right though. I designed something truly challenging, lots of topics, the real deal for what change management is. He basically just wanted some tools explained, but I could not agree to that. I compared it to giving an 8-year old a loaded gun. They’ll just shoot at anything and never consider the consequences. We landed on a happy compromise where I get to do 2 classes about context and big picture stuff and 2 classes on the tools for change. It will only start in September, but with our month away to Canada, it’s good that I finished my first draft on 30 June. It’ll be completely online, so everyone will be on a screen and camera in their living rooms, bathrooms, offices or sheds, who knows?! 😊. I am hoping for people from all over Australia and possibly even abroad. We’ve limited it to 25 students, to see how we go. If it’s successful, we’ll do a more elaborate design which will use more and different media like video, audio, books, articles, real-life scenarios. I hope that happens, because that’s the education of the future I think the profession needs.

Coffee-dates I go on

Now that I have a lot of time on my hands, I go out and meet all sorts of people for coffee, lunch and sometimes just walking around town. I could be fancy and say that it’s networking, but I just like listening to their stories, what keeps them busy at work and how their lives are going. I do get lots and lots of ideas and inspiration from it for all the things I am working on, so we both get a lot out of it. Sometimes it’s just a quick pitstop 30-minute conversation or a 1-hour Q&A sort of talk, but I’ve also had times where we sat there for 3 hours exchanging ideas and thoughts. Yep, there is that much to say about change work, haha. There’s this mindset in corporate land that you should not give people free advice and I see where they are coming from. That being said, I get wonderful cards, lovely messages and heartfelt expressions of appreciation that are priceless. I also get the opportunity to talk to people all across Australia, Denmark, Germany, the UK, Canada, the USA and Singapore about change management. That’s over the internet of course, but such a good experience still. I’ve never gotten any work out of it, but I’d like to think that I’ve improved the lives of some people at least. Another benefit is that I get a good idea about venues to meet and work from as I travel across the city a few times a week, always good to know where to go for good food and free wifi! Every now and then, I just need to get out of the house and out of my head a bit, I guess.  

Reading

I’ve been doing massive amounts of reading of late. I read a great book called “The Land Before Avocado”, which is all about how Australia used to be in the 60’s and 70’s and it made me think of some of the conversations we had. The writer talks about how people today think that Australia of yesteryear was the promised land, but it really, really wasn’t. Not for women, gay people, foreigners or anyone else who was not white and male. Food was not awesome, coffee terrible, politics about the same and professional standards nowhere near what we have today. But we like to pretend that it was much better anyway. Another book was about Eating Animals and it was beautiful and terrible at the same time. It made me give up eggs after I researched what was available and it turns out that despite paying for ‘free range’ what I am getting is not what I imagined. The writer asks this question near the end: “What will you do now you know the truths of eating animals” and that’s been on my mind a lot ever since. Don’t worry, I am not turning vegan any time soon, it just sounds too hard and sour, but I might be closer thank I think anyway. Then I also read a ton of books about human behaviour and change management, to prepare for my performance as the ‘expert’ for the masterclass, but it was all rather disappointing. I know a lot more about it than I thought and after book 10, I decided I knew enough not to embarrass myself when lecturing for students.    

Walking and baking

Well, not at the same time of course, but both in equal measures! A few months back I found this recipe book for colossal cookies. As a life-time fan of Cookie Monster, of course I needed to have this book. Just looking at the pictures makes me genuinely happy. They’re just cookies, but plate sized and so very good. And terrible for my diet of course, hence the walking. I’ve tried a few different recipes and found that even more than eating them, I enjoy the creative element of it. Putting everything together, working with my hands, throwing in a few new ideas and changes and then see what happens. I’ve not yet landed on a masterpiece just yet, but Yumi and I score most of them 7 to 8/10, so not too bad. All that baking, sugar, butter and chocolate wreaks havoc on the diet, so I now walk between 10-15km a day to stay in shape. So far so good. Sometimes I run out of places to walk to, but just yesterday I created a new route trough an area I hadn’t been before and got some beautiful view over the bay in return for my efforts. It also helps with the litter picking, so everybody wins.

SES activities

It’s been a busy time with the people in orange the past couple of weeks. We’ve been out on jobs, but because some people have work, life, family or personal engagements I keep seeing the same people turn up for jobs. I don’t care too much, as long as we can work and return home safely. We’ve had some very big tree branches that required a few hours to cut up. One of them even impaled a roof and missed a bed by about 30cm! Yikes! Then we had a roof collapse in a bedroom (no one was hurt) where we waded knee deep through insulation in the dark, surrounded by really creepy clown masks. I mean, who has 40 of those? And in their bedroom! Ah well, we had a good laugh. I’ve indicated that I want to hand back the finance role, but so far no takers, so I guess I am stuck for a while longer with it. I am now finishing up the books for next year and the paperwork is just so stupid. But we’ll get it done. Much more fun is that we’re recruiting new members and the interviews are so much fun. I am really impressed with some of the young people wanting to join. They seem to have really thought about it. I can’t remember being that together when I was their age. Wait, I am not even that together at this age, haha. It’s still quite enjoyable and you truly get out what you put in, so I’m happy to continue a while longer, which is remarkable in itself, because I generally don’t stick with things that long.

Berlin and Australian Change Days

Last year I put in a proposal to do a presentation for the Berlin Change Days on a dare and never thought of it again. And then they told me I could come and present. It was all a bit unclear and weird, but I don’t mind that too much anyway. Then I got the idea that we might bring this to Australia or even Melbourne, so I reached out to the organiser and then things got a bit strange. About 10 people got involved, everybody talked about all the reasons why we couldn’t do it and that only people who had already been to the Berlin Change Days would be ‘allowed’ to work from a mindset of ‘humility’ and be grateful for the opportunity. Excuse me?! Even if accounting for some things getting lost in translation halfway across the world, I don’t deal very well with asking for permission or being told to be humble if I raise the idea and am willing to invest what will be 100’s of hours of my and other’s time…So that died before it got started and I was ready to throw in the towel for the Berlin Change Days as well, no longer feeling that this was ‘my crowd’. Talked to Yumi and my co-presenter (Sarah) about it and decided to still go and do it, if nothing else so I can at least honour my promise and have an informed opinion. It was supposed to be the cherry on the cake, now it’s just something to do. At least Sarah and I get along really well and I am sure I’ll enjoy it once I am there. After all, Berlin is still one of my favourite cities, change days or no change days!

Career changes

I’ve mentioned it a few times in various letters, probably just slowly working towards it, but I really need a new career. This whole change management thing is starting to get to me and as I only have one life, I feel I need to do something else. Yumi and I have been talking about it since October 2018, when she (jokingly, I think 😊) said that I should find a real job. But then work finds me and I tell myself that I should just stick it out a bit longer, which never ends well. I am now at this point where the doubt and uncertainty are staring to negatively impact my mood, so it’s about time I get decisive and stop worrying about how to make things work. We’ve come this far, we’ll probably be fine whatever I choose to do next. I am thinking of picking up a trade like carpenter, cabinet maker, stone mason or shoemaker. Not sure where that will go, but it requires me to reimagine myself in a whole new role. Maybe I am making it harder than it is, won’t know until I try, I guess. I hope that I can tell you what’s next, come September.

Small stuff

·       Mentoring: I’ve picked up a new mentee, another Sarah, who works in a hospital as a change manager and I help her not go insane, ehrm…help her to make effective decisions about change and communication activities. She’s great and doesn’t really need my help, but she has to figure that out for herself.

·       Volunteering changes: I’ve said goodbye to a few things I’d been waiting for more than a year or with organisations that only call me when they need something of me. It’s a lot easier to manage if you do 3-4 things instead of 6-8 is my experience!

·       Not writing a book: I was planning to write a book about how to make change management better, but through my reading I found that basically everything you need to know is already written down and that there are some excellent books on that topic freely available. It’s probably also to do with me coming to understand that I am not especially good at change anyway. I am sure someone else will write it though.

·       Hester’s wedding: Yumi’s best friend Hester got married last month in the Netherlands and through the miracle of the Internet we could be there live via videophone. I know how the technology works, but it was still pretty magical to be there in the moment. She looked gorgeous (as did he) and we’ll see them in Canada soon to do it all again.

That’s about it for now, I hope to see you in September.

Be well and stay warm

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis Mar-Apr 2019

Altona, Friday 10 May 2019

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are doing well and that the post-Anzac Day cold snap has not really come into effect just yet, but those night temperatures must be getting close to freezing…It’s been a fast two months since I last wrote and as always lots of things have happened, so let’s get started!

Sydney trip

Yumi and I were in Sydney for 4 days at the end of April and stayed with her work-buddy Caroline in their gigantic house in Glebe, one of the many suburbs just outside the CBD. A bit like Brunswick, but without the hipsters J. They have 2 dogs, Zebra and Rhino the Dalmatians. 10 and 13 years old and still so energetic I had difficulty keeping up! It was nice to see a different side of Sydney for a change. So far I wasn’t a big fan of the city (the beaches are nice though), so busy and loud and dirty, but this was a different and more green, quiet and friendly side of town where she lives. Yumi and I flew in on Sunday morning and the weather was gorgeous, so we spent most of the day outside, storing our stuff at Central station and exploring new things around town.

We walked to the Powerhouse Museum and I was mostly impressed with their space exposition and whole room full of dresses by an Australian-Japanese designer, some were true pieces of art. There was also a Star Wars exhibition going on, but it was stupidly expensive and after seeing 8 of the 9 movies multiple times, I think I got it. We then moved on to the Chinese Friendship garden which is so much bigger than I had thought and very well laid out with nice pathways, lots of art, big koi goldfish and of course 1 million tourists trying to take the perfect picture (of themselves in front of tree?). When it was time to get back, we took our first tram and bus ride in Sydney and then made our way to Caroline’s house with our very broken suitcase (broken wheel, so annoying, but somehow we managed to survive!!).

On Monday, Yumi did work things and I had a client visit with some banking people which was partly a favour to an old work friend, but also paid work. I am not sure how much they got out of it, but I did my best to explain why it was a good idea to pay more attention to change and communication. I don’t think anything will come from it work-wise, they asked me what I could do at what cost and then they asked me what I could do for less, so I politely declined and truly wish them the best.

Then on Tuesday we had the big event with Yumi’s business ‘Purpose at Work’ at the University of technology with a few speakers and a day full of learning about different ways of getting good results at work being driving things from the core purpose instead of just money. There were about 30 people and as far as events go, I very much enjoyed myself. The run-up was a bit frustrating as Yumi was steadily ignoring most of my tips and trick (I actually know what I am doing in this space, I’ve done it quite a few times) and then at the last minute we had to get all sorts of things sorted. Oh well, their way worked too in the end and afterwards many people sent her messages telling her how much they had enjoyed themselves. That’s all you can hope for and a great outcome. On Wednesday I did some writing, got a good walk in around the CBD (yep, still ugly and crowded) and managed not to get lost, while Yumi did some more work and meetings. We flew back on a totally uneventful flight and were happy to be home by 8pm.

Yumi’s new business

I am so very proud of how well she’s doing, words really can’t express it. It’s a very interesting experience to see how she figures things out, develops her network and comes up with new ideas. I help out where I can, but keep reminding myself that it’s really only just 2 months since they got started and their official launch was just 2 weeks ago. She’s got about 10 clients now and her business partners are also going full tilt with people coming from everywhere wanting to work with them. She keeps getting new insights and ideas, it’s only a matter of time before she lands on something and then she’ll really kick it into next gear. We’ve settled on the ‘office’ distribution, with her sitting upstairs (warmer, more space) and me downstairs (already my spot anyway) and every now and then she wanders down, mostly to eat, but it’s like she has new adventures to share every day and I love it. She’s clearly doing what she likes and is already thinking about the next big event, somewhere in September. But there’s heap to do before and after that too.

Travel plans

Just back from Sydney, we’re now preparing for the big Canada trip in August, then it’s the ACT in October (I think) and Berlin and the Netherlands in November, then our big trip along the West coast, the NT and back down through the middle in December/January and then Japan Olympics in 2020. Is that ravel enough for you?! J These are of course plans and mostly holidays and not work, but there’s always the option that more travel is involved if either of us happens to find a client Interstate or internationally. I look forward to them all, but for different reasons:

1.    Canada: there’s a wedding, a party and cake. Oh and beautiful nature, grizzly bears and lots of big nothing, that too, but mostly…cake!

2.    The ACT because I plan to visit you, do some change community volunteer work and hopefully visit friends and the places in Canberra that make me happy

3.    Berlin/NL: the Berlin Change Days are fun enough as it is, but the added bonus is of course seeing the friends and their kids, my parents (my dad turns 66 today), Yumi’s parents and Rotterdam of course!

4.    Roadtrip WA/NT: this has been on the list for so long that we’re now just going to do it. With the new car Yumi is more confident that we’ll actually not die…yeah, I know, she’s not the adventurous part of our duo, haha. I get excited just thinking about all the new things I will see.

5.    Japan: ever since we went there for a few days in Tokyo in 2016 I’ve been keen to get back and Yumi always wanted to visit the Olympics, so we’ve decided to combine the two and make it into a really cool trip.

It’s a good thing we don’t have pets anymore, they’d forget who we are after all that time away J.

SES

Things are ticking along at SES. Not too many call-outs which is sort of okay, but less fun. But when we get to go, it’s always fun. I still manage the finances, which is super easy now and as no one really wants to spend any money or get more strategic about things, I feel like I’ve done my best work after a year and told them that they need to look for a new person to do it next year. Sometimes it’s a bit annoying that the management team just doesn’t respond to news they don’t like (well, only 2 really, the other 2 are cool), but I’ll do everything Finance until July and then get about a day a month back in my life. We did a BBQ at Bunnings about two weeks ago and that’s always good fun, lots of friendly people and it’s good money but the team is getting a bit over it as it’s always the same people showing up (yup, including me). So now I’ve suggested we should just stop, if there’s so little interest. No response so far, haha. I mean, I get it, the old guard has been there for 30 years, they don’t want all this fancy new stuff, wearing orange is enough for them. The ‘younger’ people (also me, I am sort of young at 40, right?!) want to do all sort of things, but there’s either no response or the answer is no, so they stopped suggesting things too. Not great, but we’ll see where it goes.

This weekend we had a rare emergency call-out (it’s mostly non-urgent things) for a potential self-harm involving water, which normal people call suicide by drowning and everything was just wrong. We didn’t respond in time, 8 people showed up (as fast as they could, we only need 4, but 8 is better), we get everything sorted and then it gets called off because other agencies were already there. All that time we could see exactly what was happening because it was just 300 meters from the unit. Aaaargh! Never found out if the person had come to harm or not, I hope they are fine.

Seems like a terrible way to die, not just the drowning, but in Cherry Lake, which is only waist-deep, that would take some serious effort, meaning you’d have to be pretty confused and desperate to go there. We had some terrible weather here in Melbourne today and my pager has been buzzing non-stop, but it’s been quiet since the afternoon, so it should be fine again, I am happy for the duty team to go out and fix people’s roofs for a change. A tree had taken down some powerlines near our street, but the fire people and council were there, politely thanked them and walked home to finish this letter instead 😊.

Work at Deakin University

About 8 weeks ago I started again with Deakin, same team as before and I have to admit it was a mistake. The team still love me, the work is simple enough, but everything else just feels wrong. It’s like something happened to the culture over the past 8 months and now it’s just ‘get it done at all cost’. It’s also very possible that it was already like this, but I can be so incredibly naïve sometimes and not notice it until the facts really stack up. Fortunately, I always manage to deliver good work from day one, that’s the advantage they get when they hire me, I know enough to start immediately.

The project I am now on is up to its 9^th project manager (which is truly and utterly ridiculous) and nothing has really been done, other than fixing issues. I agreed to write a review report, got it all sorted and it’s been sitting on a desk for 2 weeks now, waiting for the politically correct moment to speak some unpleasant truths. And that’s after they asked me to remove basically all criticism of avoidable mistakes and clear cases of people and groups not taking responsibility. Not sure what happened to the Deakin I loved when I went away, but I found myself recommending a someone NOT to apply to a position a while back, which was a real low point and eye-opener at the same time. I told them I want out, gave five reasons, the main one being that I have no faith in a good outcome and find it unethical to take their money any longer. They want to talk about it, which is fine, but right now I don’t see me all of a sudden put my values and morals aside just so they can continue the charade of overloading teams and not being accountable. I think I should have stuck with my guns and learned from last time. Either way I should probably not go back again until they improve or I find a way to deal with this. Both seem very unlikely at the time, haha.

On a more positive note, my last meeting of today was with the people from the very fancy Master of Business Administration (MBA), also at Deakin, which is the international flagship for rich students and they want me to develop a  Change Management Masterclass for full online delivery (via the Internet). Now that’s my kind of challenge and I am even getting paid for my intellectual property (not sure if I have any, haha). It should be for delivery in September, but I am already so excited about it, it’s going to be fun and I will learn so much!

Chameleon Cards

I might have mentioned earlier that I’d written a few articles about the change roles of the future and how unexpectedly successful they were and now my friend Peter and I are working on a whole range of things to share the knowledge. The coolest part is probably the deck of playing cards we’re developing for people to use in their team or for themselves to figure out what new roles and skills would work for them. I am meeting him today and hope he’s bringing some designs. I’ve done most of the writing work, which is soooo much more than I had anticipated, but it was also a great experience to create something out of nothing.

Beach Patrol

I am still going strong with the litter picking, but it’s a bit less messy around town now that the weather is cooling down and there’s less people out and about at all hours. Yumi and I are now the official co-organisers and it happens more often than not that we end up leading the clean up because the actual lead can’t make it. We weren’t sure how to feel about that at first, but it’s really not all that hard and we are quite organised anyway. One of my plans got accepted by the local council and I gave them 13 ore ideas, so these people must be pretty ‘over’ me by now. I’ve made quite a few friends among the council workers who keep seeing me and my trusty litter gripper everywhere at every possible time of the day. I’ll also be leading a group of six corporate volunteers in a clean up somewhere around town. They actually get time off from work to do this, so I’ll make them work extra hard (all for the environment of course 😊).

New career choices

It’s that time of year again where I contemplate if this whole change management business is still working for me. I let myself be distracted by all sorts of things, but at some point I have to just make a decision and move on. There always seems to be a reason to stay involved or pick up some work, but at the end of the day, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I am just too far ahead or advanced for most and the ones that do get me and what I am trying to do are often isolated in their organisations. I’ve always wanted to learn a real trade, like becoming a shoe-maker or woodworker, maybe I’ll explore that a bit more in the next few months, but I might also get more involved in Yumi’s business if an opportunity opens up. To be continued…

Friends and family

Everyone appears to be doing well, one couple are selling their house and moving to a different part of the country, which will be weird because they lived in the same neighbourhood as we did and then there’s really now reason to go back there. Another couple are preparing to become foster parents, which is totally something I can see them do. They both come from families with 4 kids, so I can see the appeal for them and it’s just so them. My parents and Yumi are doing well, the Amsterdam family is also chugging along, with both boys doing great in school and their youngest recently performing in an actual grown up theatre production. His parents sent us all the movies they had, we loved each and every one of them.

Small stuff:

1.    I am still walking a good 10km a day, but had to buy new shoes, they still hurt a bit, but by the time we get to Canada, they should be well worn in. People around town are now starting to recognise me, haha, maybe I should get out a bit less.

2.    I’ve been going to different professional development events for a while now and am learning new stuff and meeting new people. Sometimes Yumi even goes with me, which is a lot of fun because then my network also meets the best part of my life in person instead of just hearing my stories. Tomorrow is another one that I originally came up with, but the team I left has really taken it to the next level, introducing new and young people to change. They had 58 registrations, that’s insanely good for a Saturday.

3.    Last month I made my 25^th blood donation and I was hoping for a stuffed pelican, my second favourite bird after the magpie, but alas, I got a pin. Not sure what I am supposed to do with it, it’s not like I will wear it every time I go. Number 26 is tomorrow at 8am, plasma this time. 😊

I guess that’s most of it again, make sure to stay safe and warm, I’ll write again in July!

Gilbert

Letter to Marlis Jan-Feb 2019

Altona, 10 March 2019

Hi Marlis,

I hope you are well, it’s been fairly calm with the weather and bushfires in the ACT if I am not mistaken, let’s keep it that way, shall we? 😊. It’s been a busy 2 months with lots happening, but at the same time not much change in other areas. Here we go!

New car

It was about time to trade in our Holden Astra 2008. He served us very well for nearly 5 years, but it was getting near 200,000km and some of the noises I heard every now and then didn’t sound very healthy. So, three weeks ago, after we did our research (extensively, because Yumi did most of it) off we went to buy the car. First dealership, first buy. It was only the second car we bought in Australia, but we still can’t get over how comparably cheap cars are in Australia. Ours was $26,000 before trade in and that’s what you would have paid in the Netherlands in Euros, so 33% more! I wanted a small, economic environmentally friendly car, but Yumi wanted a bigger SUV-like kind of vehicle, so that’s what we got. We bought a 2018 Demo burgundy coloured Ford Escape, which is quite a bit higher but not much bigger than the Holden. Everything is so new and fancy, the aircon doesn’t smell weird, the radio doesn’t crackle, the seats are comfy and the steering is more precise. Such an upgrade! It’s one of those: if you don’t have it, you don’t miss it, but once you do…”sort of things. We like to give our cars a personality and a name, so the previous one was Tootie and he liked being around other cars so was always happy to stay in parking lots at the airport, but the new one is Eski and she’s more of a classy lady who likes to cruise the highway with the wind in her grill, haha. Ah well, a bit of silliness will keep us young I guess 😊

Trip to the ACT

Mid-January we did a lightning visit to the ACT so Yumi could work with her partners on the new business. We were all the way in the top end near Franklin and basically just worked through the Friday and part of the Saturday. We drove Tootie back and forth and it was great fun to do the road trip (1,500km) in a few days. We always stop in Albury to referesh a bit and this was when it was 40+ degrees basically everywhere and it was sooo warm. But we got a tub of my new favourite ice cream Halo Top, which comes in 12 flavours, but has almost no sugar and is very low in calories so it’s all the joy and none of the guilt 😊. Anyway, we got through most of their actions, got a few walks in the neighbourhood in and visited some of our favourite restaurants. Kokoro (Japanese) in Gungahlin wasn’t as good as we remembered, but Yumi has now decided to also be a vegetarian, so that might have taken away from the experience a bit. I love that there’s not too many (enough) options, she just likes to look at the menu for 15 minutes and then agonise another 15 over what to pick. By that time I am usually already over it. We also had diner at Bicycletta (Italian) in the city, which has so many good memories that the food is just half the experience, but it was good all the same. Next time we go to Canberra, I’ll definitely try to schedule a visit with you as well, would be real nice to see you in person again.

Yumi’s 40^th birthday trip

Yumi turned 40 two weeks ago, but because of her Asian genes of course looks no day of 33 and it wasn’t a big deal to her anyway. All the same, we did a trip for my birthday to the NT, so for hers I suggested New Zealand, or maybe Bali, but she wanted to go to Tawonga, in the Victorian Alps. As always we had a great time. Yumi had found a cosy little house to stay in, nicknamed The Pod and that’s exactly what it was, a little self-sustained unit with all the amenities and great views. And the night sky was so dark we could see all the stars (well, maybe not all…) and we think we saw the Milky Way, but I always think that, haha. We did some hiking over 3 days, seeing waterfalls, hillsides, lakes, mountaintops and lots and lots of locust. No seriously, there must have been 1,000’s of them, it was a bit freakish. It’s funny how these ski-towns take on a different sort of vibe when it’s summer. Everything is so quiet and subdued, like they are all just snoozing in the sun, waiting for the masses to return. We enjoyed the views, some fairly nauseating mountain roads and at some point Yumi made us climb a mountain that took 45 minutes to drive up at 20km/hr, all the while being chased by about 100 mopeds that were doing a historic drive. There was also this weird town being built (I forget its name) that was full of investment properties. Huge houses that would cost upwards of $1,5 million in Melbourne, but here they go for $500-800k and you can live there with 3 families, 6 dogs, 4 grand parents and 20 chickens and still have room to spare for a swimming pool. What made it weird was that it’s out there, in the middle of nothing and virtually deserted. I love that kind of thing, but it was a bit spooky too. On her actual birthday (25^th) we made a day of it in the city, having lunch, Yumi getting a 3,5-hour spa treatment while I entertained myself elsewhere and then we had a nice Indian dinner. Good times all around.

Work

Work has been okay. I am working with NDS (Yumi’s now former employer) to design a document for boards and directors and it’s nearly done. It was tough at the beginning to figure out where all the parts had to go, but now it’s just a matter of finishing it up. I am also coaching a former colleague from Deakin who wants to do some things differently and if all goes well I will return to Deakin for what will be my 8^th engagement by the end of the month. This time around I will keep it to 2 days a week so I don’t become part of the problem like some of the previous times. We’ll hammer out the details in the coming week, probably 2 days a week until the end of the year, which would mean I don’t have to do anything else to have enough income, which is pretty awesome.

Yumi’s new work

Since this week’s Tuesday Yumi is now also self-employed and I could not be happier. It’s a bit strange to have her at home all the time now, but I am also enjoying it immensely. She’s been really busy cleaning up her old files, setting up processes, drafting proposals and sorting out all sorts of small things. She’s appropriated the study, which is fine by me as I am not up there anyway, and has made it into her own little office. This week the website should go live and then Purpose at Work is open for business. She’s already got a few contracts and they are doing a conference at the end of April in Sydney, which will surely raise their profile. They are also working with partners in the UK and Netherlands to do other cool stuff in the business of making people enjoy work more. I think it will be a great success and even if it doesn’t work out (highly unlikely, it’s Yumi after all) she’ll learn so much from it. Initially I tried to help with everything, but after a while I realised that she actually wanted to do all of it by herself. That was a bit disappointing at first but I get it, she just has to feel like it’s all her own doing, so now I just keep my distance a bit and leave things be whenever I feel I need to give her ‘advice’. They’ll have their share of failures, which is fine of course 😊.

5 years in Australia

On February 6 we celebrated our 5 years in Australia! We’ve gained so much from being here in so many ways. Lots of new friends, like you and so many new options that I am not sure we would have explored if we’d stayed in the Netherlands. Yumi has really made a name for herself in the Disability sector and due to all my volunteering and change work, I’ve built a very solid network of interesting people that keep me inspired. People still ask if we’d go back some day, but so far nothing has even come close to making us think about it, I think we’re here to stay, but perhaps not in Melbourne. Yumi recently mentioned that Queensland might be more suited climate-wise and I can easily see us living there. Once her business has taken off, we’ll look at that option more seriously, but that will be 2020 for sure. The list of things to be grateful for in this country is so long I won’t bore you with it, but the natural diversity, big skies, friendly people and good earnings are all big pluses. Now if someone could fix the politics, it would really be paradise!

Litter picking activities

A while back, Yumi and I took up some more responsibilities in the litter picking group we’re part of every month. We’re helping out with administration and data collection, which happens to be something we’re quite good at. Over Summer I did a few ‘lone wolf’ clean-ups too and I keep being amazed at how much rubbish and litter ends up in the street/fields/road/beaches/nature reserves. But by now I don’t worry too much about it, I set a timeframe, break out the bags and get going. We’ve got an app on our phones to help track litter, by counting bottles and cans and other stuff. It’s still being tested, but over the past few days I counted 480 bottles and about 70kg of rubbish, just by myself. Imagine that there’s at least 100 of me out there doing the same or more. It’s pretty devastating to see how much waste there is. First I just put it in the bags and didn’t think about it, but now there’s numbers against it, it’s actually a bit demotivating, so much junk!!. This morning I was out and collected another 88 bottles and other rubbish which was easily 11kgs. Ah well, one day this will all be a bad memory. Yumi and I are planning to do a ‘best effort’ clean-up on a road nearby which looks like a litter bomb went off. We’ll see what we can do in a few hours…

SES

I’ve been keeping busy with the people in orange. It’s been fairly quiet with the emergencies, but as I live close by and have good availability, I generally go out on jobs to help the community. It got a bit exciting with the winds picking up, but aside from a gazebo that climbed a roof to get a better view a few gardens up the street, nothing too exciting. We did get to perform some support tasks for the fires near Nar Nar Goon and Koo Wee Rup (who comes up with these names?!) like bringing lighting trailers and providing logistics support, but the most danger I’ve been in was either getting a paper cut when doing the finances or dying of boredom on the drive back last Friday which saw me and a SES buddy stuck in log-weekend traffic. Sigh, note to self, no more picking up materials on Friday afternoon! I am still trying to get my leadership team to spend some money, but either I am not speaking the right words or they just have different plans they are not telling me about, but the money stays where it is. Of course, we don’t HAVE to spend it, but that’s what it’s there for, to keep us operationally ready. I am just happy to do the numbers and provide that bit of transparency, I’ll leave it to the other 25 members to ask the questions for a change. Recently I missed a few events because of work or travel, so not much to share from that. Let’s see what the next few months do.

NDS Victoria State Conference

Monday 4 March was a very special day. Not just because I got to speak to a group of 500 people about my views on change, but also because it was Yumi’s last day on the job for NDS and I got to be her co-presenter in her last workshop during the annual NDS State Conference. Then she also got to lead a panel on Innovative Work practices and after the cocktail party afterwards we had a really nice diner in town just the two of us. I don’t think I can think of a better way to finish up. It has been a bit of a process for her, basically preparing 2 months and then still having to sort things last minute because her colleagues could just not get organised. The conference was a real confidence boost for me too, so many people telling me that they liked my talk, asking if we could do business and I might even have saved someone’s job, even though she will never know that I talked her director into rethinking her dismissal, which makes it even better. I realised that I knew many more people than I thought and made some useful new contacts for who knows what happens later. I still have this idea where I set up a social venture for people with a disability picking up litter in so-called hotspots. It’s work no one else wants to do and it still serves a purpose. I think I can get councils to pay for it, just have to work with some disability service providers and the government on how it could work. To be continued.  

Writing and Berlin Change Days

Over the past 6 weeks I’ve caught the writing bug something fierce. I’ve been pumping out all sorts of articles on change management and changing the profession and am building quite following by now. I was more than a little impressed when an article I wrote 3 weeks ago got nearly 3,000 views and 400+ likes. Normally I get about 5-600 and maybe 60 likes and I’d consider that amazingly cool. It was about 15 future roles I could see people do in Change Management and people loved it so much I wrote another one with 15 more roles. Then people started contacting me that I should do more with it and even though I never even considered that (I write mostly to empty my head), I had good fun coming up with ideas and ways of making the content available. Right now I am thinking of developing a deck of cards with the 30 roles and maybe a small booklet to work out the profiles a bit more. A change friend of mine wants to meet next week to discuss an idea she has to make it into a workshop. I am not too sure about that, I don’t see this as a way to make money, but let’s see what her idea is first before I get all ethical and stuff, maybe it will be good fun 😊. Through that writing I met a gentleman called Holger and he runs an event in Berlin in the last weekend of October, called the Berlin Change Days and another change friend of mine (from WA, Australia) said I should put in a proposal. I’ll hear by the end of March if I get to come and have a bit of fun with them. I might also add a quick visit to the Netherlands if it works out!

Small things and dramas

1.     Our landlord was being a bit unpleasant about wanting to sign us up to a new lease even though we served out the first one and were now legally okay to just extend month over month. We ended up agreeing to 8 months, but it really ruined the relationship, so now we’re considering moving, which might just be what they want so they can get an even longer lease…

2.     Our Canada trip is getting closer. We’ll be flying out on 29 July and spend 3 weeks there, including Yumi’s best friend Hester’s wedding. Canada in Summer is beautiful and hideously expensive, so I am hoping the pictures will be worth it!

3.     Not much happening with the goat people, all good things for them, but not much involvement for me. I talk to them every now and then, but as long as they feel they need to do it all themselves, there’s really no point in me trying to help out. Wait mode it is 😊

4.     I’ve had a lot of time to read and keep being amazed at how good the books are that I get to read. Learned a lot about online bullying (terrible), human behaviour (fascinating), extremism in Australia (not much happening, haha) how our brain chemistry works (complicated) and how we all get fooled by economic growth (lies, lies and statistics).

5.     Family and friends are all doing well, not much happening, kids are all fine, some becoming teenagers now and some going to secondary school, how did that happen all of a sudden?!

6.     I’ve been walking, a lot. Like most things I enjoy, I get a bit obsessive and where I normally would be happy to reach 10,000 steps a day, I’ve now regularly clocked 15,000 or even 20,000 steps per day, or 100km a week, due to litter picking, clearing my head and just loving being outside. Fortunate side effect is that I found some motivation to stick to my diet, so I dropped about 8 kilos that I really didn’t need.

That’s it for now, I’ll write again in a month or two and there will be enough new adventures to share I am sure.

Be well,

Gilbert