Passion for passion

If you've started reading this hoping for a little titillation, read on. I'll even mention 50 Shades of Grey...

A few months ago I had to take the Tax Commissioner on a tour for work. Let your minds-eye dream up what a tax commissioner looks like. Yep. You are bang on: Shortish, neatish, 50-ish man in greyish suit...

I ushered him into a conference room, offered boiled coffee and biscuits and started my usual bang-on spiel. In addition to the technical points, I waxed on about how much I loved the facility we were touring, how it was great to work with employees across the entire value stream and how passionate I was about seeing mining evolve into the 21st century. He stopped me at 'passionate'...I was confused and beginning to get a little alarmed. Was my usual passionate pitch upsetting the man responsible for the nations taxes? A little too much emotion unnerving our 50-ish man in grey?

Quite the opposite. He burst into life. He actually said that he loved hearing the word 'passionate' and it was something he encouraged in the tax office... (I'm sure he meant 'enthusiasm' and not, well ahem, 'passionate' in the photo-copy room kind... ). Knock me for six, my first impressions were completely off the mark and I immediately loved this man, who takes almost half of my salary, to bits!

It was brilliant to meet someone else passionate about passion. Today's blog pays tribute to the tax commissioner and passionistas everywhere. Engage me in a conversion and you'll quickly uncover a passion.   They are many, confused and diverse. In no particular order, here are 20 things I passionately discuss:

1. Explosives - you can take the girl out of the mines...
2. The propeller head
3. Rugged yet sophisticated men 
4. Inspirational women
5. The team I work with
6. Sharing and collaborating
7. Good manners
8. Saturday mornings
9. Baking bread
10. Drinking wine
11. Diversity
12. Flexible work
13. Seeing people grow
14. Great leadership
15. Cheese
16. Laughing
17. Technology
18. Gin and tonic
19. Riding down hill
20. ... The list goes on indefinitely...

Reading is the common link. When I am am not actually engaged in one of my passions, I love to read about them and discover more. The following books have made me laugh, cry, cringe and learn. I hope that you have enjoyed them too.

1. Where the Wild Things Are - what's better than monsters, sea voyages and hot dinner?
2. Birdsong - Miners, mud and missed opportunities,.. oh dear I might cry again.
3. Jasper Jones - The crazy dialogue of clever kids and the adventures of youth.
4. The Importance of Being Earnest - A good slapping for those that take life too seriously.
5. Breath - Risks and rushes.
6. Raising Boys - Yes I need a manual.
7. The Old Man and the Sea - Man v fish. 
8. A Confederacy of Dunces - Ignatius J Reilly is flatulent, eloquent and pretty much employable.
9. A Fraction of the Whole - Crazy schemes and inconsistency ... a story after my heart.
10. NOT 50 Shades of Grey - if there were not already books written about how appalling this one is, I'd write them. 

So go ahead and enjoy your passions. Pick up a book, tickle your kids, tell a dirty joke, pour a good drink or get stuck into that project and be passionate about it!

The excitement of resigning...

What a lovely bunch of friends, colleagues, curious individuals and others you are!

I have had the most amazing responses to my last blog on resigning.There have been four distinct themes to your emails and calls:

1. Outright curiousity .... No one can understand why I would quit a decent job, with a decent company, on decent conditions in a decent industry. Sorry folks... I am still working on the answer to that one.
2. Blessing and confirmation on the expressions I want to avoid .... It's time for a confession now... (shhhhhhh .....) I have actually uttered the words 'learnings' and 'syndicate' in earnest. So ubiquitous is their use, I failed my very own challenge. I'm appalled at my behaviour when 'lessons' and 'discuss' would have been perfectly suitable alternatives. The universe has never spoken to me before, but I take this transgression as further proof that I really have to move on from the loving arms of my current organisation.
3. Shared excitement ....I am starting to notice a lot of articles and participating in a lot of discusisons about the benefits of change and resigning. The article below jumped out of my twitter feed. 6-big-reasons-why-you-should-quit-your-job-and-follow-your-passion. I latched onto the 'big reasons why you should should quit' bit. Having numerous, confused and obsure passions, I am not sure which to follow though. More on this in another blog ... Make sure you check out the video at the end. It's absolutely delightful. I've got a few more days in the office so watch this space...
4. Special thanks too for all of your great suggestions on what I could do next too. Here are a few gems:

• Throw in mining all together and buy the IGA at Dongarra
• Start an all women mining junior - any all-women tech company shells out there?
• Champion for geeks
• Champion for women engineers
• Champion for working mums
• Champion for geeky, women engineer mums who aren't actually that geeky, dont work and not very good mothers...
• Travel
• Spend more time with my kids (they clearly haven't met my kids or have suggested an evil curse on me)
• Lie on the beach and read books
• Write the great Australian novel
• Just go out and get another job and start raging for the machine again (any machine - the propellerhead's suggestion)

I'll keep you posted.

 

I did it... I resigned... Now what?

Ideas please. I am serious. Having never quit a perfectly reasonable, well paid job before with no other plans, I'm open to inspiration from all quarters.

There are no specific reasons for resigning but there are lots of things I am mightily excited about avoiding when I leave the office... 

Send through your ideas, offers and advice but only if you can assure me that I'll NEVER ever have to utter any of the words listed below:

1. Syndicate - I'm just a simple engineer. Syndicate will always be a noun for me. i.e. I will form a lotto syndicate. We will win millions and then we'll all buy big yachts and sail away. I know technically, you can use it as a transitive verb (??) but why? It sounds so ridiculous. Why don't we just say, "Go out and sell your ideas Lucy". Rather than, "you need to syndicate this plan..."
2. Learnings - It's not a word OK! Just don't use it. Ever! This abomination has become so prevalent that there is a whole generation of professionals who need to know that lessons come from what we learn.
3. Don't boil the ocean - Just say "your scope is too big". Or possibly, as Daryl Kerrigan would say "tell him he's dreaming".
4. Socialise - Not the fun sort. Where we socialise with colleagues over a few drinks.The 'socialise' I refuse to accept is when it's used like 'syndicate'. eg "Lucy - I think you should socialise this new process". We socialise our pets so they don't rip each others ears off in the park. Is it really necessary in the office?
5. Take it offline - It simply means that you want to postpone addressing an issue. Unless of course you are referring to actually taking something offline (Facebook, LinkedIn, DoS attack???)

I know this will be painful and offensive reading to some. I can hear the concern: "If I cant socialise my ideas and syndicate them with my peers, I might just end up boiling the ocean, miss out on critical learnings and taking my brilliant plans offline. How could I survive in the office then?"

So adiós my corporate buzzword little friends.

10 big (and little) dreams for 2013...

I have loooooooooved my Christmas break. Almost everything has been perfect. 

The food - plentiful 

The drinks - cold and frequent. The sun is well over my yard arm by 11am...

The company - fun and interesting. 

The weather - awesome. Feeling quite smug at Ledge Point while Perth swelters.

The boogie boarding - refreshing and life affirming.

The novels - weird yet engaging in the case of Cormac Macarthy's, The Crossing. And confusing - if anyone has any idea what happened at the end of 'A Sense of an Ending's, ending, please fill me in...

I've had time to read the papers too. If you you look carefully between the ads in the holiday papers, you'll see 'top 10's', 'hot trends', and 'year in pictures' passing themselves off as news while the journos do like the rest of us, and lie around drinking and eating for a few days. Today's blog builds on this fine cop out. 

So here are my 10 dreams for 2013...

1. I dream of giving up screaming at the kids and working on hiding places instead: Screaming at my kids makes no difference. None at all. My head can explode in rage and all I get back is a quizzical look, the briefest of pauses and then a continuation of the whinge, whine, demand, recalcitrance that set off the aforementioned rage. Instead I'm building a good list of hiding places in the house. Not for them - but for me. If they can't find me, they won't drive me crazy. The washing line and their own bedroom is working so far...
2. I dream of applying some of the few things I have learnt about lean and six sigma... The team still has it all over me but I occasionally pick up some useful titbits and hope to perform QCO's on getting the kids out the door in the morning, 5S'ing the leftovers in the fridge, PPS'ing the reasons why my kids don't listen.
3. I dream of supporting the wonderful women in mining. There are no sharp elbows among the women I work with and those I know in the industry. Seriously. None. There are a few that I treat with caution only to discover that they are supportive, generous, great leaders and shaping the mining industry. They all deserve support, encouragement and development.
4. I dream of encouraging the wonderful men of mining too...The leaders I most respect and admire consistently mention growth and opportunities when talking about their organisations and teams. 
5. I dream of organisations that promote diversity and flexibility as the main levers for engagement, sustainable decision making and business success. 
6. I dream of workplaces, families and communities that look after each other. Mental Health issues are real and serious. We need to listen more and support each other. 
7. I dream about geeks being recognised and thanked for their contributions to society and business. So that one day our kids will aspire to be great engineers or scientists rather than pop stars or sportsmen.
8. I dream of happiness and health for my family and friends. 
9. I dream of making the perfect paper aeroplane and drawing great dinosaurs to bring a years worth of smiles to my two little men. 
10. And finally, I will learn to say 'cheers' in 10 different languages, including Hindi, Mandarin and Indonesian. Being able to toast or say thanks to anyone, anywhere will always be valuable.

Happy New Year my friends. I look forward to sharing 2013 with you.

Cheers

Lucy