Eating our own dog food

We started Jiggity Jig with the aim of helping folk adapt to change; ‘Better change & change for the better’.  Well, now it’s time for us to eat our own dog food.

A few months back Chonie and I were gainfully employed.  We founded Jiggity Jig intending to gradually work our way into our new venture.  However, unfortunately, a few months ago Chonie was made redundant, and last week I received the same fate.

So here we are, a little unprepared for the situation in which we find ourselves.  At least now we have more time to focus on what needs to be done to get Jiggity Jig up and running.  :)

And where, might you ask, are we on the old change curve?  Well, personally I’m still riding the roller-coaster, dipping back and forth between frustration, depression, exploring and acceptance.  Some of the feelings for me are still a bit raw, and just because we know the expected range of emotions associated with change, it doesn’t stop us from feeling them ourselves.

We can, however, rationalise the way we feel.  We have the awareness that these emotions are quite natural, and all part of the change process…….even though they might make you grind your teeth from time to time!  Being angry, frustrated or sad at what’s happening doesn’t mean the change is wrong; it’s just a part of what going through change can be all about.

We’re also aware of the tendency to bounce around between the different stages.  Chonie’s further through the change curve than me, having had more time to process her own situation.  We’ve both been able to support each other at different times; helping each other when hitting our ‘trough of despair’.  Your support networks are so important when working your way through a change.  Even though we’re both experiencing the same degree of change we can certainly provide each other with support.  This illustrates another important learning of the change process.  People don’t go through the same emotions at the same time and are likely to move between stages at different rates.  One day you might be able to provide the listening ear for your friend and the next week they might be able to do the same for you.

So with emotions, if not in check, at least rationalised; what next?  Well, my Mum was a very philosophical person.  She would always counsel me that what would be, would be.  With that in mind, I’m viewing this change as a proverbial kick-in-the-pants to get more involved in setting up Jiggity Jig.

What will Jiggity Jig be?  It’ll certainly be an experiment.  As with any experiment, we expect to learn a lot!  As a result, there may well be a whole number of little course corrections along the way.

What’s the ‘vision’?  In true Maslow hierarchy of needs fashion, my short-term focus will be to secure some income!  After, or ideally in parallel to, that I want to create a culture within which we, and anyone we work with, enjoys working - simple as that.  From there, I’d like to help others achieve a similar result for their own cultures.  Chonie and I believe we can add value to change projects and change is where our focus will be, but who knows what other experiments might eventuate along the way.  

Exciting times! :)

Why we haven't finished defining our values yet.

Who are we?  What do we stand for?  What makes us tick?  How will we fit with your organisation? Values and culture are key for organisations and you're no doubt seeing post after post on your social media platforms about 'culture this', 'culture that'.  

At Jiggity Jig, values and culture are one of the reasons why we exist in the first place, heck, we set up this business to help others in this area, as well as other things. So when it came time to defining our own, well...  we hit pause. Then play, then pause, then play.   

You see, it might be a good business proposition to have strong, clear, good looking, well-written values posted on our site, from the get go. Values that you can relate to (or not). A definition of our culture that reads well and from a marketing perspective can impress you with our focus and identity. That just makes good business sense, right?

Nope.  

Well, at least not for us... at least, not right now...

We hold the importance of values so high, that we want to ensure that when we finally distill them into something 'marketable' that they are still, really primarily there for us, and only of importance to you, as a second priority. 

Now coming in second, isn't too bad is it? It doesn't mean that putting our values out there for 'your' perspective, will be an afterthought. In fact, having our values defined 'for you' is very important to us because we already feel very strongly that we want to work with like-minded businesses and avoid partnering with organisations, that don't share our values. 

Laying these thoughts bare and having prospective clients thumb their nose at us, or embrace us, based on who 'you' are as you read who 'we' are; well that's what we want.  

However; how many of you have worked for companies where the values are on a poster on the wall, but they are at best, aspirational, and at worst simply there for the clients to see, but not for the staff to uphold? Or perhaps they're there for the staff to uphold but not the executives? A task that got a tick against it, but then was promptly forgotten because well, 'business'.

http://bukk.it/business.jpg

Too many of you have had that experience, I suspect.  Kim Goodwin gives a great talk referencing aspirational values vs hidden ones here at Webstock:  The Values are the Experience which we enjoyed.

At Jiggity Jig, our values and our culture are real and we've put a lot of work into our values already. We've talked for hours and hours about the things that matter to us, the things we care about, the reasons for existing as a business in the first place and critically, we agree on everything.  

There are some obvious tenets for us, such as transparency, honesty, experimentation, safe to fail, iterative approach and there are also some bigger issues that are not so easy to 'define' succinctly.  

So for us, we've decided to try an experiment, to be transparent and honest about our value definition journey, to iterate it openly on our site, in notes and drafts that well, might look quite messy and disjointed at times.  

Do you see what we did there?

We believe there is no cookie cutter approach to things like culture, change, values, leadership and the services we offer. This is how we are going to do our values, for us.   

Let's face it, your values should be for you, first and foremost, and you should also define them in a way that works for you. By the way, we can help with that.  

This is how we are going to do ours. In the coming days/weeks, we will upload some of these thoughts we've been working on, on to our values page.

Oh and now would be a good time to reference how inspired we are by Brad Frost's Webstock talk "Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away Now"

Let us know what you think of this experiment and if you like it, please share it.

Epic Fail? I Hope So!

Perhaps I’d prefer it not to be a failure of ‘epic proportions’, but as this is my first foray into the world of blogging, I’m quite open to it being a complete learning opportunity.

Several weeks ago (April 2015) it was my turn to do the monthly lunchtime “inspiration” session at work; a voluntary opportunity to share what I find inspiring, with those that are interested. I chose the topic of ‘failure’. Where’s the inspiration in that, I hear you cry; well, more specifically the self-reflection, learning and growth that can come from failure.

“Failures are a part of life”. Period. The rest of the quote (from an unknown source) goes: “If you don't fail, you don't learn. If you don't learn, you'll never change.” It is those who have the courage to be open to their own shortcomings and have the ability to learn from their failures that I find inspiring.

One of the questions I like to ask when interviewing is: “What’s been your biggest failure?” Candidates aren't always expecting this question, but give them a few seconds to think about it and the answers can often be quite interesting, especially if they then volunteer what they learnt from the experience. On one occasion, however, the candidate responded with “I don’t fail”; 10 out of 10 for confidence - less so, on the humility front!

Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, once said “failure is not the opposite of success, it's an integral part of success”. Forward-thinking organisations encourage experimentation and aim to create a ‘safe to fail’ environment in order to maximise the learning that can ultimately lead to success. Jurgen Appelo’s celebration grid diagram provides a concise visual way to view such a model. (If you like the diagram, I’d encourage you to read the accompanying chapter, if not the whole book.)

An ex-boss of mine once advised me, shortly after I’d started working for him: “If the job doesn't scare you s**tless in the first 3 months, then it was probably too easy for you!” It is still something that rings true for me today and advice I've passed on occasionally to others as they've started out in new roles. (Thank you, Graham).

Finding the courage to overcome that ‘fear of failure’ is a first step. If/when a failure occurs, being open to reflect and learn is the second step. Having the courage and vulnerability to make a change, the final step. In the words of Brené Brown; “...change is all about vulnerability”.

In the same speech that included the quote above, Arianna Huffington went on to say: “In life, the things that go wrong are often the very things that lead to other things going right.” In my lunchtime presentation I shared a timeline of some of my own failures. They were, however, failures from which I could highlight positive events as a direct result of the learning I gained from the preceding failure.

So if you've made it this far through my blog, firstly, ‘thank you’, and secondly I’d encourage you, as I did my lunchtime audience, to think about your own failures. Consider what positives came from those failures, what you learnt and, most importantly, how it might change your approach and support of others looking to take that first step.

Please note this is a reblog of a post from April 2015.