Remembering
Simon Lawrence
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Our wonderful friend and colleague, Simon Lawrence, unexpectedly died last Christmas.
Simon worked with Central for 14 years and was a core part of the team. His kindness, patience, warmth and humour will be remembered by all of us. He had a real passion for learning and sharing his knowledge, but in such a humble and generous way. Simon adeptly worked across sectors, it was people he was really interested in, wanting people to do well and finding ways to help them achieve their goals, whilst making sure they had fun in the process. Just before Christmas, Simon had been working on a ‘Need to know’ article for us, where he detailed three key insights into current trends from his field of expertise, along with a book recommendation. We want to honour him by publishing his article and sharing his expertise with you. |
Simon’s ‘Need to Know’
One thing you need to know from 2021
There is now hard financial data on the benefits of diversity in the board room. The Financial Reporting Council reported this in July 2021: Board Diversity and Effectiveness in FTSE 350 Companies.
It reported that higher levels of gender diversity in FTSE 350 boards positively correlate with better future financial performance (overall profitability measured by the EBITDA margin - earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). The effect is strongest after three to five years.
FTSE 350 boards with well managed gender diversity contribute to higher stock returns and are less likely to experience shareholder dissent.
Ethnic minority diversity is both too low and not changed enough to measure the impact of change with any confidence. The research did find a relationship between greater ethnic diversity of FTSE 350 boards and a reduction in shareholder dissent.
Conversational coaching; a new trend
Stop thinking of coaching as something you do when you have time to sit down with someone, or only involves six sessions with an external coach, and instead think of coaching as some questions that can be asked as part of any conversation. The GROW model – Goal, Reality (the current situation), Options and Way forward / Wrap up – provides a structure for any conversation or meeting. You can ask open questions to clarify each. A key point is to ensure the goal is in the future. When you are asking goal questions, make sure you focus on the future by using future tense questions, for example – ‘what will success look like?’ - in order to set a direction.
One thing you need to do for 2022
Remember the jet airliner taking off! This is from a planning tool in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”. The jet airliner moving down the runway is your current actions, immediate and scheduled tasks you need to do. Then you take off and from 10,000ft you can see your current projects and the plans to achieve them. At 20,000ft you can review your key areas of responsibility, ensuring you are fulfilling responsibilities in all areas of your life. At 30,000ft your goals for the next 1 – 2 years. At 40,000ft your vision for 3 – 5 years in different parts of your life. And finally, 50,000ft, what do you want from your life:
One thing you need to know from 2021
There is now hard financial data on the benefits of diversity in the board room. The Financial Reporting Council reported this in July 2021: Board Diversity and Effectiveness in FTSE 350 Companies.
It reported that higher levels of gender diversity in FTSE 350 boards positively correlate with better future financial performance (overall profitability measured by the EBITDA margin - earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). The effect is strongest after three to five years.
FTSE 350 boards with well managed gender diversity contribute to higher stock returns and are less likely to experience shareholder dissent.
Ethnic minority diversity is both too low and not changed enough to measure the impact of change with any confidence. The research did find a relationship between greater ethnic diversity of FTSE 350 boards and a reduction in shareholder dissent.
Conversational coaching; a new trend
Stop thinking of coaching as something you do when you have time to sit down with someone, or only involves six sessions with an external coach, and instead think of coaching as some questions that can be asked as part of any conversation. The GROW model – Goal, Reality (the current situation), Options and Way forward / Wrap up – provides a structure for any conversation or meeting. You can ask open questions to clarify each. A key point is to ensure the goal is in the future. When you are asking goal questions, make sure you focus on the future by using future tense questions, for example – ‘what will success look like?’ - in order to set a direction.
One thing you need to do for 2022
Remember the jet airliner taking off! This is from a planning tool in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”. The jet airliner moving down the runway is your current actions, immediate and scheduled tasks you need to do. Then you take off and from 10,000ft you can see your current projects and the plans to achieve them. At 20,000ft you can review your key areas of responsibility, ensuring you are fulfilling responsibilities in all areas of your life. At 30,000ft your goals for the next 1 – 2 years. At 40,000ft your vision for 3 – 5 years in different parts of your life. And finally, 50,000ft, what do you want from your life:
RUNWAY Current actions
10,000 ft Current projects
20,000ft Areas of responsibility
30,000ft 1 – 2-year goals
40,000ft 3 – 5-year visions
50,000ft Life
10,000 ft Current projects
20,000ft Areas of responsibility
30,000ft 1 – 2-year goals
40,000ft 3 – 5-year visions
50,000ft Life
I’ve been giving David Allen’s recent book with Brandon Hall, The Getting Things Done Workbook, as a gift to coachees throughout the year. Plus, this model which is not the workbook, which I find very useful for clarifying and planning.
What am I reading?
How Emotions Are Made by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett.
I’m not sure I recommend reading it! I would recommend reading a blog about it. It explains her theory of constructed emotion. It takes a bit to get your head around and when you do, it’s a bit disturbing.
What she says is that we have constructed ‘emotions’ to create predictions in our brain of how we will need to act to deal with a particular situation. We run this in our head/body as a simulation of how we need to respond in order to prepare us to act. We label this simulation as an ‘emotion’ as a shortcut – it saves the brain energy - for example ‘sadness’, and run this sadness simulation to create a response in the body.
For example, when listening to the news about a mass shooting, I remember that I’m sad in situations like this, that triggers the concept of sadness and this then has a number of effects on the body, including making me cry which I do in order to settle my nervous system. These simulations we create in our heads are more real to us than the physical world. What we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell are simulations of the world we create, not reactions to it. And they can be triggered by very little sensory information. So, make sure we get the facts! Otherwise our behaviour will not result in a useful ‘response’.
Having a range of distinctions to label emotions makes us more flexible. It gives more flexibility from having a wider range of simulations to run. The blog suggests six actions you can take to develop your ‘emotional granularity’ to have a wider range of distinctions to apply to situations. If you can learn to distinguish more precise meanings for ‘feeling great’ (such as happy, content, thrilled, relaxed, joyful, hopeful, inspired, prideful, adoring, grateful, blissful . . .) or ‘Feeling crappy’ (angry, aggravated, alarmed, spiteful, grumpy, remorseful, gloomy, mortified, uneasy, dread-ridden, resentful, afraid, envious, woeful, melancholy . . .), your brain will have many more options for predicting, categorizing, and perceiving emotions and choosing an effective way to deal with a situation.
You can read the blog here: https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-emotions-are-made/
What am I reading?
How Emotions Are Made by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett.
I’m not sure I recommend reading it! I would recommend reading a blog about it. It explains her theory of constructed emotion. It takes a bit to get your head around and when you do, it’s a bit disturbing.
What she says is that we have constructed ‘emotions’ to create predictions in our brain of how we will need to act to deal with a particular situation. We run this in our head/body as a simulation of how we need to respond in order to prepare us to act. We label this simulation as an ‘emotion’ as a shortcut – it saves the brain energy - for example ‘sadness’, and run this sadness simulation to create a response in the body.
For example, when listening to the news about a mass shooting, I remember that I’m sad in situations like this, that triggers the concept of sadness and this then has a number of effects on the body, including making me cry which I do in order to settle my nervous system. These simulations we create in our heads are more real to us than the physical world. What we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell are simulations of the world we create, not reactions to it. And they can be triggered by very little sensory information. So, make sure we get the facts! Otherwise our behaviour will not result in a useful ‘response’.
Having a range of distinctions to label emotions makes us more flexible. It gives more flexibility from having a wider range of simulations to run. The blog suggests six actions you can take to develop your ‘emotional granularity’ to have a wider range of distinctions to apply to situations. If you can learn to distinguish more precise meanings for ‘feeling great’ (such as happy, content, thrilled, relaxed, joyful, hopeful, inspired, prideful, adoring, grateful, blissful . . .) or ‘Feeling crappy’ (angry, aggravated, alarmed, spiteful, grumpy, remorseful, gloomy, mortified, uneasy, dread-ridden, resentful, afraid, envious, woeful, melancholy . . .), your brain will have many more options for predicting, categorizing, and perceiving emotions and choosing an effective way to deal with a situation.
You can read the blog here: https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-emotions-are-made/
Simon was an experienced trainer, facilitator and coach who worked across the public, private and third sectors to support organisations to change their culture, improve their leadership and develop their staff. His background was originally in local government in a career that progressed through HR, finance and management roles to management development adviser at Coventry City Council, leading a consultancy and training team.
Simon worked as a training consultant across sectors and with housing associations in England and Wales to improve their governance. He was passionate about ensuring tenants have a voice in the strategy and operations of their landlords, are prepared for board membership, and work effectively together as tenant panels.
Simon worked as a training consultant across sectors and with housing associations in England and Wales to improve their governance. He was passionate about ensuring tenants have a voice in the strategy and operations of their landlords, are prepared for board membership, and work effectively together as tenant panels.
Simon was Chair at Better Pathways, a local mental health charity which was close to his heart. Supporting mental health and wellbeing was intrinsic to all of Simon’s work and donations are being made in his name here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/veronica-lawrence1
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/veronica-lawrence1