From Material Girl to Eco Warrior

I am a child of the ‘60’s who still looks back on the ‘80’s as her glory days. I worked in London and for the advertising agency that worked on the BMW account (amongst other things). I used to joke, although it doesn’t sound so funny now, that I changed my car when it needed washing. We got a new one every six months. It seems impossible now, when I happily drive a car for 10 years, but back then it was part of a heady lifestyle that I took to like a duck to sparkling water.

I guess I’m a pretty unlikely eco-warrior.

But I have to admit I have become increasingly focused on environmental issues. To some degree it’s inescapable: the newspapers are full of it. Yet to many it’s still “someone else’s problem”. And perhaps to me too, after all it’s a big shift in thinking – moving away from the “I-can-use-up-and-wear-out-what-I-like-so-long-as-I-can-just-about-afford-it” mentality.

To be honest, my thinking is changing kind of slowly. My car is still too useful not to drive whenever I want. I am more aware of the price of petrol, and how many miles I can drive on a tankful, but as long as I can afford the petrol it is still pretty much an academic exercise. It’s only when I stop making semi-necessary journeys that I can really say that I am on the first rung of being a trainee eco-warrior.

I’m also slowly becoming more aware of the real cost of the stuff I buy. Changing my thinking away from just its price tag, to considering the raw materials that go into it, producing the thing, me using it and then disposing of it. Cars, computers, even my beloved books, all have energy costs to them that I wasn’t really aware of before.

The government publishes their strategy for moving us towards a low carbon economy today. Their introductory paragraph is heartening – they suggest that low carbon living might actually create a better kind of society, and a stronger, more sustainable economy. When compared to the throw-away lifestyles we have become used to, that has to make sense.

So Material Girl turns Eco Warrior ….

The Power of Round Numbers

What is it about the big ‘0’ that has such a hold over us? Round numbers have a magic that a ‘7’ can only envy. Anniversaries, birthdays, turnover, profit, runs, wickets (I think, I don’t play cricket) and speeches all have an allure in their round-numbers that we don’t quite understand.

Setting targets, meeting targets, or just living all has extra significance in round numbers.

In fairness, there are other numbers that also have a magic to them: 25, for example, and perhaps 7.

All of which is a roundabout and performance management way of saying I passed a milestone last night. I delivered my 10th Toastmasters' speech and completed my Competent Leader manual.

I don’t feel any more competent than I did yesterday, but that’s missing the point. Although I wasn’t 100% happy with my speech, I am certainly a better speaker today than I was before I delivered my first speech. Which is the whole point – pushing me to deliver 10 speeches gave me the practice and exposure I needed to improve my skills. And 10 is a nice round number to aim for. It is arguable whether doing 12 speeches might not have made me an even more Competent Leader, but the Power of Round Numbers won out and 10 speeches are in the manual.

What hit me this morning as I was still going over all the things I could have done better, was that hitting that milestone was important. Not important because it has finished something, but important because it allows me to step back and evaluate my progress. So often that’s what targets are all about. Phases of a project, or interim steps to a larger goal are designed to allow a pause for evaluation of what’s going right and what’s going wrong.

So whilst I expected to impress myself and everyone else with how I put Barack Obama’s speaking skills to shame, what I found was a milestone that forced me to look at where I thought I would be, and where I actually am. And then figure out what I’m going to do about it. Barack Obama isn’t safe yet, but it may take a few more than 10 speeches to reach his standard.

Round numbers have an undeniable power that is worth being aware of. Setting targets or performance management and measurement can all make use of the added magic they bring. It goes without saying that any number, round or otherwise, forces you to quantify your target. Quantifying targets is an absolute basic in improving performance; not always easy, but always effective.

So one target met, and the next one to aim for. Isn’t it always the way?

And a big thank you to everyone who voted that ribbon my way last night.

Floods and power cuts – just another day on the London Underground

I have been in London twice this week and I have been delayed on the underground twice. First it was flooding that closed a bunch of stations (including one I needed to use), and today it was power cuts that closed the Circle line for I don’t know how long. Readers outside the UK won’t recognise the details, but will certainly recognise the frustration this adds to the already arduous task of moving around a capital city.

Thankfully, in the London of 2009, this is a relatively rare occurrence. However, London of 2019 or 2059 might tell a different story. Scientists tell us that we need to prepare for climate change and that climate change is going to mean more extreme weather conditions occurring more frequently. Temperatures will get uncomfortably hot more often - perhaps 70 days in the year instead of the handful we experience at the moment. We will have less rainfall in the summer, and more in the winter.

This is the pioneering work being presented by UKCIP, leading the world in trying to predict what the effect of pumping CO2 into the atmosphere will have on our climate. UK Climate Projections 2009 is a brand, spanking new report that uses the best scientific and statistical techniques available to predict what the UK climate will feel like in 10, 20 or 100 years’ time. What I find particularly impressive, however, is that all of the data is being made available, including the assumptions of, for example, how much CO2 we continue to pump skywards.

They have included, for the first time, the full range of confidence levels that can be extracted from the data. This is good news for all those journalists who write for The Sun – plenty of headline grabbing scare mongering to be had for those who go in for such things. But also a wealth of valuable data for professionals who want to make the best of available data to look 50 – 100 years into the future. Which is, coincidentally the life of a building or a railway track for example.

Unless our tube and railway infrastructures are upgraded The Sun’s headline writers will have had it about right – we will be in for summers of misery and winters of cancelled train services.

All this was hosted at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers – perhaps the very people we should be blaming for getting us into this CO2 pickle in the first place. It was engineers who taught us how to use carbon-based fuels with such efficiency. But let’s not quibble – they are making up for it now with some intelligent and thought provoking debates about how to move forward. And we have to face facts – there are not too many of us prepared to give up our washing machines or cars for the sake of the planet.

With a bit of luck, however, and some critical analysis of the data, policy makers will have a better view of what’s in store going forward. Which means I will be much less forgiving when they close underground stations for either “unexpected” floods or power cuts due to a certain type of leaf on the line.

In the meantime I’m resting my tired feet after having trekked half way across London to get home. All that, and it was a hotter day than the weather forecasters had predicted. Ironic, non?

UKCP09 is published by UKCIP and is available to download from

www.ukcip.org.uk.

Use Your Talents

I wrote yesterday about the genius next door: someone you know socially but have no idea about the contribution they have made to their field. It was inspired by a lovely comment from a reader who pointed out that geniuses have to live next door to someone, and sometimes we need to look up and see who is around us.

The unknown genius next door is one thing, but what if you get introduced to an acknowledged major talent? The word genius is perhaps a bit strong as we tend to think of geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci or Einstein, and so no on else measures up. But there are many more who have been blessed with a talent and have diligently used it to make a real contribution in their work and to humanity.

The other evening I found myself sitting opposite such an individual. Well practiced in the art of small talk I invited him to tell me about his work – expecting a short explanation of his field. Not normally a high-risk question - except if you are sitting opposite a theoretical mathematician. Obviously.

I was introduced to the complexities of ring theory and matrices, although the explanation was dumbed down for my benefit. As the explanation progressed (at reasonable speed) he occasionally looked up and asked “do you recognise this equation?” or “you have heard of this?” or some other such question. As I failed to live up to the most basic expectation comments such as “I’m surprised you’ve not seen this before” were thrown in. If this is making it sound like a maths lesson, I’m doing him a grave injustice. It was a fascinating and friendly insight into a different world, a rarefied place where those who make genuine breakthroughs in algebra live.

He has a mathematical matrix named after him. Awesome.

On the way home I thought about Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day” when The Rev. Rosemary Lain-Priestley spoke of the Parable of Talents. Use Your Talents wisely, Jesus preached. Those who do not were judged harshly by Jesus, but those who do use their talents to generate wealth were praised. It was a fitting thought for the drive in to work.

It seems to me that we are all blessed with talents, but not everyone uses them wisely. I know I go about my day without a thought of any talents I might have, or how they manifest themselves in my work.

As individuals, managers and parents, however, we need to be aware of our own, and others’ talents. We need to encourage the best out of ourselves and those around us. Most of us won’t have some major breakthrough carrying our name, but that doesn’t matter. What the Parable of the Talents teaches is that we should not squander the talents we have. All contributions matter.

I now have a napkin covered in algebra. I’m hoping its similarities with the napkin Picasso signed are recognised. In the meantime, though, I will be using my talents just in case theoretical mathematics never gets to hang in The Tate.

The clattering chasses

I don’t go to parties often; I guess it’s a function of my age. I used to, when I was young, free and single. Now I’m not, parties happen without me.

Last Saturday, however, I was invited to one, and had a great time. Not in the way I did when I was young, but still in a beautiful-July-evening-in-the-garden sort of way. There were lots of interesting people, a beautiful garden and conversation that flowed freely.

As the wine flowed, so did my outgoing nature and I found myself bending the ear of one of the geniuses next door. I don’t know that he was a genius, he had had some success in Making Things Happen, and had been recognised for it. We were talking energy policy (a bit of a difference to younger day parties!) and decided that there was a swell of public opinion that cared about how we would be leaving this planet once we have burnt all the fossil fuels we can lay our hands on.

The clattering chasses are not being given fair information about where we are heading with our energy policy. In our happy July evening way chattering classes was far too dull a description for those who discuss such things. I fully realise how this gives away my idea of a good time, but somewhere along the way things changed. I became one the clattering chasses – sorry chattering classes – and started to care about such mundane things.

I don’t believe we do understand what the target is with energy and reducing carbon emissions. Not everyone agrees that the Waitrose brigade are ready to discuss energy policy at their dinner parties (it will take a lot to displace the state of pension schemes) but there is definitely a change from a few years ago.

Performance management understands the importance of making targets clear and understandable, as does project management and many other disciplines. If you don’t know where you are going, you have little chance of getting there on time.

It is the same with whatever we are trying to do. If we don’t understand what the target is, we cannot understand how our actions contribute, positively or negatively, towards it.

Having clear targets will enable you to achieve whatever is important to you. Ensuring everyone understands the target, and can see visible progress, will improve performance. It's worth considering what’s important to you right now, and how clear and communicated your targets are.

I know I should give it a rest whilst partying, but I also probably should have had one less glass of wine. Perhaps the two are linked? Can’t wait until I get invited to a party with Ed Milliband …

Nuclear Fusion's promise

I am one of those illogical people who is amazed when something of world importance happens to be on my doorstep. I mean – it has to be on someone’s doorstep, doesn’t it?

Culham is home to UKAEA’s research facility into Nuclear Fusion and is the world’s most advanced magnetic confinement research programme anywhere in the world. It is home to MAST (the UK’s fusion machine) and JET (the EU’s Joint European Torus). Nuclear Fusion is probably the most difficult thing that mankind has ever attempted, so the work they are doing on my doorstep is right up there on world-scale impressive things. I visited Culham last week and was shown around their impressive facilities. It is fascinating stuff and provides more than a little food for thought.

Let’s start with Nuclear Fusion. It has been described by a certain dishy physicist as mankind’s “Get Out of Gaol Free Card”. We don’t appear to have too many other answers about how we are going to supply an ever-increasingly energy hungry world with electricity that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels. Renewables such as wind, tidal, hydro and solar will play their part but there is no realistic likelihood that they will be able to replace the amounts of electricity that we are generating using coal, oil and gas – we simply couldn’t install enough of them. Nuclear Fission (traditional nuclear power stations) is a likely stop-gap but has significant problems, not least of which is managing waste which is radioactive for thousands of years. So Nuclear Fusion carries heavy expectation on its shoulders – it promises big advantages in the conundrum of how to produce electricity without frying the planet or using up resources that future generations also have a claim to.

But therein lies the rub – it’s still a promise, a hope, a research facility. And will remain so for some years. The reasons are twofold – one is that it is extremely difficult to do, and the second is that it is underfunded: the second reason only being slightly more controversial than the first.

Nuclear fusion produces energy by fusing atoms together at massively high temperatures. It is the same process at the heart of the sun and the stars. But on earth we have to use much higher temperatures because we cannot reproduce the mass of the sun. So where the sun is a mere 15 million degrees Celsius at its core, scientists have to heat plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius to get deuterium and tritium atoms to fuse together. It’s a tall order which is posing all sorts of problems and keeping some very bright brains more than occupied.

As for the funding issue, we spend about £75m per year on fusion research in the UK – that’s our own UK research on the MAST programme plus our contribution to the EU JET programme. Even I don’t think that’s a lot of money when you consider the scale of the problem and the potential benefits involved. We (that’s you and me the taxpayer) spent £1.6bn on refurbishing the MOD headquarters at Whitehall in 2007. It was agreed to be extremely good value considering the quality of marble and oak that was used. I only mention it to give you some sort of benchmark and so that we can be clear on where our priorities lie.

The UK’s energy spend each year is £75bn. So we are spending 0.1% of our energy expenditure on trying to find a credible replacement for our carbon-based fuels. In the meantime our government is collecting £780m in tax from the UK’s largest energy company. I hate to think what that figure might be if you added the tax from all the UK’s energy companies together.

By now I hope you are beginning to think that our efforts to replace carbon-based fuels are beginning to look a little half-hearted, despite what all those fluttering windmills would have you believe. Not all problems have an easy solution, and a deeply embedded problem like our addiction to carbon-based fuels took hundreds of years to take hold. Undoing the damage we realise we are now doing is going to take at least as much effort.

And for those interested in such things – the picture is of the sun taken by NASA at 7am this morning, Saturday 4th July 2009. Neat, huh?

A higher purpose

St Paul’s Cathedral stands tall and proud across the skyline of London as one of the most instantly recognisable and most admired buildings in the world. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. Its sumptuous golden interior is an awe-inspiring reminder of man’s faith in a greater good.

My blog is inspired by excellence and high performance and I have often thought of writing a piece about Cathedrals. They are a testament to vision, planning and leadership that go far beyond what most of us try to achieve in our working lives. St Paul’s Cathedral must surely be one of the most outstanding and lasting examples of what man can achieve.

Tuesday evening saw St Paul’s host worship of a different kind, however. One of our favourite and most accomplished ballet companies danced under St Paul’s magnificent dome to an appreciative audience. English National Ballet was performing at St Paul’s as part of the Festival of London and their ballet was in perfect harmony with their imposing surroundings.

I have made more than passing reference to the inherent excellence of ballet – it is an unforgiving art form that makes high demands on management and dancers alike. Those demands were more than met on Tuesday evening.

A new ballet choreographed by Thomas Edur started the evening – simple and disturbing it was a bold first act that was instantly judged a success by the audience. It was followed by Elena Glurdjidze dancing the Dying Swan to Sans-Saens’ beautiful music. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was in attendance to hear his rousing Orkney Wedding with Sunrise performed complete with a Scottish piper. It gave everyone a chance to enjoy the enormity of our surroundings, as well as the scale of his music.

The evening culminated in Thomas Edur and Agnes Oakes dancing in Les Sylphides, a favourite that I had seen just recently. Already poignant with its prayer-like simplicity, it was made all the more haunting by this being their last performance with English National Ballet. Individually and together they have danced with English National Ballet in principal roles for almost twenty years and will be missed by their many fans and colleagues.

The evening was a feast for the eyes, the ears, and the soul. And a reminder that excellence comes from deep within.

Photograph by English National Ballet