Nothing like a good metaphor...

I just love writing a blog! 


Nothing exists before you start; there is an empty hole in cyber space which is just about to be filled with thoughts in the form of words or images.  Before you start there is a void which appears somewhere between your ears.  Here is complete and utter stillness with no thoughts or self talk, a blankness which can only usually be achieved through years of meditative practice.  This is a starting point where creativity will shape that which is going to happen.

My friend and brilliant script writer Mark Greenop calls it the ‘search for a unique point of departure’ which will illuminate the way people see their world because we enable them to look at their situation from a new perspective.  With a play we might let them see themselves or aspects of their character or behaviour which might allow them to realise that there might be a different way to do something.  With a blog it is a cheerful rant which may spark an idea, deep learning or a new approach.

Some 20 years ago I stayed in Lidingö an island suburb of Stockholm in Sweden.  As I was shown around we passed the Town Hall.  It was a small hut from where 15 people ran the whole municipality.  Even then it struck me as amazing that so few people managed such a complex operation.  Yet now, as I visit some massive organisations in the course of my work I’m struck by the sheer number of people who are involved with running the business.  How many meetings do they attend which are about running the organisation.  How many departments exist to simply enable the organisation to function or to make sure people do what they are supposed to do?

What if an NHS Leader decided to write a blog about say delivering health care (as opposed to ill health care) in a newly formed community where there was no existing provision?  Or the Chief Executive of a power company could start afresh with working out how to fuel our homes?  What would they write?  What if you could start again with a blank piece paper - would you end up with what you have now? 

OK, so maybe we can’t all have the luxury of starting from scratch - there are ‘existing structures’ and ‘people need their jobs’ and ‘this is the way we do things round here’ and all those other reasons that maintain the status quo. 

But what if we could? – just imagine it for a minute; what if we could, like the Blogger, start from nothing? What would be in your blog?  What would your service, business or organisation look like? Is there something in there you like? Something you could adopt within your existing service, something you could integrate into your world or expel from your practices?

Blogging as a metaphor, now where did that come from?