The Visit to the Quack Doctor, by Hogarth

“All you need is a plan”, says Jim Lawless.

Is there fall-out from trying to live as if your calling or purpose can be put on the back of an envelope, or distilled down to specific achievements?

More time-honoured mantras leave room for a bit more complexity, mystery, human experience, the human condition, the facts on the ground.

• Therefore choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
• Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)
• I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me. (Philippians 3:14)

They sound catchy, but I’d be surprised and intrigued if you could translate them into three ‘Most Important Tasks‘ to pop on a post-it note.

Getting Real by 37signals

A free, short and friendly book, available online: Getting Real. Practical ways of dealing with complexity and being realistic.

Of general interest, even though it sets out to talk about lean software development.

Same mentality as Joshua Cooper Ramo on international affairs, and even Rowan Williams on faith. All, in their way, are into openness/ability to change.

Some crossover statements for day-to-day use:

• Produce things a bit at a time and respond to feedback
• Just-in-time decisions are based the most realistic, relevant information
• Constraints drive innovation
• Work from large to small

Keeping a skull on the desk

ManagementToday.com reports Alain de Botton, speaking on work-attitudes in one of his School of Life sermons.

Right-thinking people at work will think about their mortality, to focus the mind on what’s really important, more than they will on self-help/self-actualisation and other pipe-dreams – hence the skull on the desk punchline.

The pessimism that AB recommends is qualified. He’s advising a reality check, rather than outright cynicism. There’s a difference between optimism (as an unconditional attitude) and hope (as a specific conviction that shapes behaviour). Co-operation, whether in companies or communities, is a slog, but is it really hopeless?

The idea of a cool head and zen detachment is nice enough, but does it work in practice? If only it was that easy to shake off self-delusion and escapism.

These little rituals have an enduring appeal, and offer a kind of third way between rictus-grinning positive thinking on the one hand, and black-polo-necked skepticism on the other.

All of which reminds me of the counterintuitive marking out of time in Genesis. “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” Sleep first, then the day ahead. Rest then action. Reculer pour mieux sauter.

Another argument for treating Sunday as the first day of the week (Lord’s Day not Sabbath-ceasing).

Another argument against spending each week as a protracted dive for the line.

• Facts on the ground when it comes to where people now draw lines to preserve/protect their family-life (‘work/life balance’ doesn’t do it justice)
• Flattening hierarchies (alongside ideals of sound leadership)
• Informality (alongside ideals of interpersonal consideration)

Or, at least, it comes with a natural flip-side: mobilising reservations about megachurch monoculturalism and gravitational pull on the one hand, and rallying against alleged Google monopolies on the other.

Plenty of other parallels you can pick up and run with. Any suggestions?

The question is, is that because we like the undercurrents of etiquette, club-life and technique (he sites the former players that are in their element playing golf)? Or is it that we fancy a bit of venting at Fight Club?

A quick survey of judo in the media gives lifestyle paperbacks at one end and a proliferation of MMA stuff at the other.

Any thoughts?

• Peggy puts up no preemptive fight and ends up with Joan’s photocopier in her office.
• Kinsey gets told off by Joan for trying to pretend he’s interesting.
• Don shuts out grieving Pete and won’t do father-figure because of account crisis.
• Don rounds on his (slightly indiscreet) assistant when (nearly) caught slacking.

All very wrong and a little bit right. It’s a jungle.

• Thinking about purpose and motivation in terms of (much) wider systems, rather than individualism.
• Looking at work-concepts (‘corporations’, ‘partnerships’) and their root in a dynamic view of creation.
• Resisting the sense of being morally cornered or hamstrung at work by making small gestures.
• Taking the role of the Spirit of God as making people more human, not more religious.
• Seeing the need for more humanity in what can be dehumanising workplace situations.

The book sounds interesting, or more interesting than work ethic, self-help and workplace as mission-field.

And trying not to is ‘diabolical’.

‘It is possible to read Karamazov as narrating the processes by which each of the brothers emerges into “visibility”; each puts at risk his own control over how he is seen and responded to.’

And so, to the blog.