The Final 1%

Today I agreed with management my leaving date. My last day with the company will be 29th April this year.

It has been a strange week as the reality of change really hits us all. Everyone is in the flow of having to make up their minds, and at the end of next week, the first people have to decide. Day by day over the following 3 weeks, the decisions will be made by almost 200 people - stay, or move to London. It will again be a dramatic period.

But for me, it is done already and I am glad for that. It is a huge relief to know the timeline.

Now I feel an amazing calm settle over me. It feels like 20 kilos just lifted off my shoulders. 16 years with this company will come to an end, while the next phase is open and anything is possible. The severance package leaves me with a window of time to do whatever I want. It's like a gift and a challenge all at the same time, as if somebody hands it over and says "here, have this - enough money to pay your bills for a couple of years - let's see what you can do!"

I met a friend, Mieke, recently. She started up her own training company after 8 years with Canon, and I was so impressed with the way she has gone about it. Developing people is what she is really passionate about and that part shines through. But she also realises that to be able to do what she cares about, she needs customers. Her approach to get customers is highly creative. I felt I could learn so much from her.

Also very clear was how her pure nature beamed out at me from inside, in a way I never fully saw in the office. She has always been a creative and connecting person with great ideas. But the confines of the corporate held her in check and now she is pushing all boundaries with confidence and huge enthusiasm. Seeing Mieke developing gave me hope and inspiration that maybe I am operating within my own capabilities. If I move beyond the boundaries, anything is truly possible. I want to shine too.

As I came to the realisation today that it is coming to an end, I sat quietly at home and calculated how long exactly I have worked for Canon, and how much is left. By 29th April, it will be approximately 836 weeks that I have worked. I have 8 weeks and 3 days left. That means 99% of my Canon life is done already, and the last 1% remains.

I plan to make the most of it, to connect with and support as many people as possible, and to make a memorable farewell party. It feels good to be moving on, and taking all of the memories and friendships along with me.

First steps towards the farewell speech

The last 8 days have been a further drama at my company, as we all received our comparative options - the salary offer to move to London, or leave the company and take the severance package. In my case, this has finally confirmed that I will not move to London, and will leave.

From the moment the word "London" was mentioned as a location for my job, I knew it would not be easy to answer the question "why not just move to London?" positively. However, given my 16 years of service, I felt that I should at least keep an open mind.

That came crashing down when I was given the offer. It made very clear what the management think of me and my contribution, and gave me no option but to leave the company.

In some ways I knew this would be coming, I knew that probably I would be leaving. But when it came to writing the official letter to confirm it, it hurt me more than I could ever have imagined. Thinking theoretically about an end is a very different thing to putting it down in black and white, and hitting the "send" button.

Explaining it today to my Japanese colleagues was maybe the hardest thing so far. I have worked with Japanese people for over 15 years and I know that they understand the value of a long-term relationship. Their culture is to build up knowledge over a long period of time with people in your company who you know for decades. Your development and theirs are inter-dependent, and they value continuity, long-term knowledge and experience more than many other cultures.

It is always a push-and-pull to balance the needs of a Japanese manufacturer and its European sales company. A factory and a market have completely different requirements. The skill to balance those two is elusive. Together with Product Management over the years, a couple of European colleagues and I have managed to build the trust and help to work on balancing those two. It has resulted in a mutual trust between myself and Product Management which I value at the highest level. Short-term, things can go wrong. But long-term, we make it work.

Now I had to tell them that I will no longer be working with them. I had to tell them some details of why - the contrast between the offer to go to London, and the very interesting severance package. If I didn't tell them why, they would feel that I had let them down and was not committed. When they heard the basic details of my offer, I saw on their faces real empathy and sadness on my behalf, and genuine disappointment for their own business because of the unwanted breaking of this long relationship. It was a profound moment which I will never forget.

As I sat in the lobby of our office, clearly distressed, a colleague saw me and spent time to talk it through with me, very calmly, and to give me the support I needed at that moment (thanks, Edwin - those few minutes helped a lot). My life in the company is made up of many such moments and great colleagues, every one remembered and every one important.

Now my mind turns to how I can handle a farewell speech. This week, when I have explained to others what I will do, it has been a battle to keep emotions in check. I want to be professional, and supportive to others. But explaining that an association consisting of 16 years of my life is coming to an end is just hard.

How on earth will I manage that final farewell? The answer is - it will be what it will be. If I am emotional, so be it. By leaving something old behind, it makes space for the new. Life opens up and I have the chance, thanks to the severance package, to do what I really want to do.

The details of those next steps are for a later posting. For now, I reflect on the support and care I have been given by my Japanese friends today, together with all the support given by many friends in the company during the last weeks. For once, I don't have enough words to say what it means to me - just that it is so incredibly appreciated.

Challenge and Controversy

At our company's Annual General Meeting, I was shocked to hear one presenter explain that he had been looking for speeches which would be appropriate to end the opening of the meeting and had actually considered the "I have a dream" speech from Martin Luther King. To think that anything so basic as a company could be compared to the Human Rights movement is incredible.

A more appropriate quotation from MLK came up from a great film I just saw, "Talk to Me".

"The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and of controversy."

In the last months, the people in our company faced the biggest moments of challenge and controversy that I can remember. When put under pressure, people's true character comes out. We now know who is able to handle convenience and comfort only, and who is able to handle challenge and controversy - we know certain people's character much better.

That knowledge is unfortunately not so helpful, because it has caused us to lose trust in certain people. On the other hand, better to know now who you can trust and who you have to be careful with.

It's good that the conclusion has come, and people can get to the next stage. They can stop putting the energy into the discussion about whether the decision itself is right, and turn their energy to the future and how to handle the consequences of the decision.

The strangest thing about the whole episode of re-location has been this. The issue is not with the decision itself, but the way it had been handled. The fact that people's lives have been disrupted is not the issue - people are able to take business decisions like adults, they know the world is changing around them. But when they are treated like children and given illogical reasons & unclear information, and they receive a blank face and a "we'll come back to you" when they ask questions - then they get angry.

It's all about how you react when the challenge and controversy comes. Those times tell you everything about the person you are dealing with.

Why Not Me?

When faced with changes ahead of us, many of my colleagues and I are having nervous moments about the future. Even though we have some time to go, if we don't move to London then our income from our company will probably stop within 6-8 months. When you look around the market, it is daunting prospect to be out there looking for a job. But it is not impossible.

A phrase I heard from a guy called Donny Deutsch, in a book titled "Often Wrong, Never in Doubt" recently came back to me. He always looked around at successful people and asked himself the question "Why Not Me?" What is so special about those people in good jobs, or having books published, or having great family and kids, or whatever it is you aspire to?

I believe a high level of Focus and Concentration can overcome many gaps in terms of talent. But there is one additional quality that strengthens those two in tough times - and that's confidence. We have to keep confidence in ourselves that we have qualities and skills, and the change in our work environment does not change our person.

People are worried about the job market, and it is fair to be concerned. But the world will continue to buy and sell things, and people will continue to move position, which means companies will still need people. There will be fewer jobs available, for sure, but there will still be jobs and customers. We just need to have the confidence to say every time we apply, "Somebody will get this job, Why Not Me?"

I am now considering setting up a Business Coaching company. When I talk to others about this, they say, quite rightly, it is a cut-throat market, and will only get tougher as the economy worsens. But I think to myself "there will be people who need coaching in these times, and somebody will match their service to those needs. There will be business to be done. Why Not Me?"

My aim will be to give the highest Focus and Concentration on the business I want to set up and the customers I want to serve, and do it with confidence, so that it IS me that gets the work.

One step closer to the beginning

In the last weeks, people from my company have been getting closer and closer. We got together for parties, drinks and talks over coffee more than ever. Maybe it is because we are getting closer to the end, and that means we get closer to the beginning.

I wrote before about how I see our place of work as a community. The people at the company and the relationships built there are, and always have been, far more important to me than sales results. This becomes even clearer as we get nearer to the start of the re-location.

There is no spoken reason for why we became closer in these last months, but we all know why. The time that we take for granted in our office together with people we like and respect is getting shorter, so we take it less for granted.

It could also be that we want to celebrate the friendships that have been made.

The odd thing is that this period has also caused some break-ups of friendships, as well as establishment of new ones. This is something I don't really understand but try to accept it as part of the stress being put on everyone.

I am also conscious that a reason we don't want to come to the end is because of a fear of the beginning. Starting up a career and network from zero is a scary thing, especially if it is forced upon you and not by choice. On the other hand, a beginning is a great opportunity for some. And thanks to so many online tools, we have a stronger chance than ever to stay connected to the people we care about.

It's a strange time.

Congratulations to Morten

On Friday evening, our company had the kick off for 2009. It's a time for celebrating the long-service employees (5 years, 10, 15, 20, etc) as well as a party with food, music and a few drinks. This year, they added a new award.

We have a concept in the company which is all about how you as an employee act as a person in your daily work. This year, the company asked employees to vote for the person who demonstrated the qualities behind the concept more than any other. It was a great idea, and there were over 60 nominations, two winners in each of three categories, and one overall winner.

I was proud to get two of the nominations. Seeing my name up there, and hearing a loud cheer from part of the audience when my name was read out, meant a great deal to me. When those around you see that you are doing something in a good way, it's a tremendous feeling of worth. It's value is much higher than a boss saying "well done".

And the star of the show was Morten! He also got two nominations and won the outright award as THE employee who demonstrated great personal qualities in his daily work. There is no more deserving a winner.

Morten has, to my good fortune, been a business partner as well as a friend for over 11 years, so I feel it is fair for me to comment. Every day, he comes to work and treats people with respect, helps those around him, gives honest feedback and is constantly constructive. He works with principles and integrity. His only weakness (in terms of career improvement - it is a strength in terms of character) is that he is not a big-mouthed guy who says "look at me, look what I did". Therefore, he does not always get the recognition his work deserves.

But finally, the real recognition has come. The most valuable recognition of all, that of his colleagues. To his credit, and absolutely in line with his character, he was totally surprised and quite overwhelmed at this success. But nobody who knows Morten was at all surprised, and they hurried to congratulate him in their dozens.

As he stood on the stage receiving his award, it was one of those moments that restores one's faith in the belief that quality will always show. People who are good and do the right thing, with real principles, can win. Congratulations, Morten!

What is integrity all about?

The word Integrity keeps coming up. I have been wondering if I really understand what I mean by it and the experiences of the last few months at my company have given me some strong opinions on the subject.

Recently I said to a friend "I think integrity is about behaving in a way that is consistent with what you really believe in, and being prepared to stand up for what is right, even if it is not what is best or you personally."

As soon as the announcement of the re-location of 234 roles came, it was clear to me that I should stand up for my colleagues and friends in the company. I was already in the Works Council, and had intended to leave at end October due to some over-committing of my time. There were still a few small things to finalise in November, and so I was continuing when the announcement came on November 5th.

If I think back to that time 10 weeks ago, I wonder what it was that triggered me to remain a full member through this difficult process. The move itself is somehow understandable - but the reasons that were given for deciding on London just didn't seem to make any sense. I was reminded of being at school, and of a time when the teachers told the kids something that they knew was not true, and they knew that WE knew it was not true - but they told us anyway. Instinctively, I felt something similar on 6th November when all staff were informed of the four big reasons for the location. The reasons were delivered with such a lack of conviction that people were left completely doubting whether they had been told the truth.

My colleagues in the Works Council are full of integrity - they have stood up for a set of beliefs on behalf of the 100's of the people in the building. They believed the employees had a right to know more about the real reasons for the move to London, and that they should investigate whether the decision was being made for Business reasons. As a team, we focused on business first - is it really the right thing for our company to move to UK? Is there no alternative? What about moving the UK office to Amsterdam? All of this has been analysed in detail and resulted in an impressive business case and documentation around the subject which has made the Council and the employees proud.

As a dictionary definition, Integrity comes from the Greek words 'integritas' and 'integra' meaning whole. It enters into any aspect of one's life. It's a belief system without faltering no matter how dangerous, how unpopular the person makes themselves to others. It includes: sincerity, keeping one's word and agreements, honesty, truthfulness, ethics, fairness and justice and never faltering for what one believes in. A quote regarding integrity is 'It is better to have an enemy who keeps his word, than a friend who does not.'

I conclude it is like a permanent road-sign, telling you what kind of decisions to make. One of my key values is people, and this recent task has been all about supporting the people in the company. Another is honesty, and I wanted the truth to be clear. And another is fairness, and I wanted to contribute to a fair outcome for all my friends & colleagues in the building. These have been the guiding principles for me over these last months, and I am so proud to have worked in such a team of people in the Works Council, who virtually define the meaning of Integrity.