Shaun K Anderson

The powerless (those that feel they are ever victim to break downs in their environment) - need policy, bureaucracy, an authority (not an influencer), to basically; be told that the authority will fix the break down with a ‘rule’ that will ensure that it will never happen again. The powerless are always on the verge of threatening to leave. They are unhappy always in their work. They feel powerless.

Which is their leaders fault.

The powerful become their own teachers/saviors because their leaders have given them tools and the conditions to teach themselves to (at least attempt to) fix break downs themselves.

Influence vs Authority

_SKA 

Branding - how we traditionally view it - is dead

Your brand should be the total sum of what your company is. Your company’s content -  is the people you have in it. Your brand is doing what your people are doing.

Who your people are becoming (personal growth) and what they are delivering depends on 

1. The Plan you presented to them

2. Whether they bought into it or not and

3. Your ability to exercise your social intelligence (the deep understanding and management of the people in your care). 

Your brand is doing what your people are doing.

So spend less on brand design and more on your company’s content - Your people. Give them more time. More resources for growth. More money. More attention. More sunlight. More of your first energies. More correction. More guidance. The alternative is: an unhappy team, stunted careers and high staff turnover.

Your people deliver your brands promises. 

As well as making promises to your customers, we should first make some promises to our people - and keep them. Start making them, and start keeping them

_SKA

When we think of  ’the competition’, we often think about them in an insecure kind of way. We think about all the ways ‘they will fail’. Of course, knowing their weaknesses helps. But If you’re going to compete it makes much more sense to think about how they could succeed rather than dwelling on their weaknesses. Focus on their strengths because thats what your competing against at the end of the day.

Its makes much more sense to plan for and anticipate their success rather than reacting to it once its on your doorstep.

A few things need to happen in order to truly compete:

1. You have to qualify the competition. Are they competition or not? If so, treat them as such.

2. Identify what their strengths are. Get information. Get specifics. 

3. Ask yourself what can be done to counter act, or counter offer against, those strengths and offerings, stalling their fruition.

4. Test all ‘treaty’s’ and ‘gentlemens agreements’. You will probably find no one is honoring them.

This sounds a bit ruthless, I know. But competition is great. Its make everyone sharpen their tools.

_SKA

If you lack self awareness, it might be difficult to recognize your own stress indicators. Self awareness is not a gift from god - it can be fostered.

My Strategy for Stress Management

1. Ask yourself questions. Am I OK? Is this current workload sustainable? Are others (family) indicating concern? Has my routine been broken? Am I going to bed before midnight? What is stressing me out and why?

2. Fixation; Dave Riddell once told me, “whatever has your attention, will get you”. Thinking too long and hard about something (especially something stressful like work will break you eventually). Seek out ‘distraction’ to get your mind onto something else, at least for a time. Fixation is not sustainable. It will get you.

3. Obligation free time. Play. I use to write a lot of music, until I realized I had attached ‘obligation’ to my art. That obligation being; write a beautiful song. That outlet became an area of stress. Find outlets that ask little of you. Play. 

4. Tell yourself the truth about the situation. This may require reprogramming your thought processes.

_SKA

Fear not | Look after yourself

If the markers of your personal life, work life, social life – are in the hands of others – you will forever be a slave to someone else’s agenda.

Put simply – if you are a chronic ‘people pleaser’ you’re in for some stress, as the people you try to please move the markers on you. What is your bottom line? What will you do and what will you not do?

You have the right to prioritize what ever you want to prioritize in your life. Why do you need permission to prioritize yourself? Your health. Your family. Set your own agenda for your life and stop apologizing for it.

Work: Beware of the pretend agreement; I work in an industry, rife with pretend agreements. That agreement being, “We both benefit from this relationship”. The real agreement is: “we will both benefit from this relationship, as long as you do what I want”. Add to this dangerous cocktail, our inability to say ‘no’, and our absolute fear of disappointing people (and losing their custom). The amount of stress that this pretend agreement puts on a person, a staff member, a team, should not be accepted. Change the game. Change the agreement, add your own terms, grow some courage to enforce them, and learn that disappointing people is not fatalistic. (Losing a pretend agreement is a good thing). Your relationships will last longer, you’ll save yourself from bitterness and stress, and your pretend ‘relationships’ will turn into mutually beneficial partnerships, where both sides win.

We stress because we fear the potential outcomes of certain situations. The stress is not in the situation itself but in the fear of the situation. Fear is awful stuff. Fear is easily detectable and your fear should never be presented to anyone (lest they take advantage). Fear not. Most things we stress about are not fatalistic. They will not kill you – but the fear of them and the stress that fear causes - will.

Fear not | find some courage and look after yourself

_SKA

You’ll spend a third of your life at work. So make it count.

Get a plan | that doesn’t look like ‘40 years of slugging your guts out, for another man’s gain’.

If you are not in a job that draws from your main strengths and inspirations | you will decay. Literally.

If you do not know what your main drivers are. Find out. Quick.

Rebuke fear| fear in a person is easy to take advantage of. Fear of not having work, leads to people working in jobs they HATE because they feel stuck. Set your eye above fear. You are worth more and your time is limited. 

Your time is finite | make it count.

_SKA

We want to create pioneering or lead pioneering companies, but we give ourselves or the people who work for us no time to think.

Thinking requires; permission (do your staff job descriptions allow for the task of ‘thinking’?), time, and the protection of that time.

Thinking | Inspiration (in the space where you work) is aided by; a well designed space, a library, significant amount of greenery, sunlight, music, silence, and protection from EVERYTHING else.

I know, ask any business operator or owner to build a library and a glass house in these times of ever increasing costs, and they may tell you to go jump. Even though it might be the very thing that; leads to inspiration and thinking that catapults their company ahead into clear space.

It’s sad that the thing that sets us apart as human beings - the ability to think and create - are actively discouraged in most workplaces (even the term ‘workplace’ needs a rethink).

Let your people create and they’ll create something amazing for you. Give your people time | permission to think.

_SKA

It makes sense to me, that if certain parts of your business are not performing as you intended, that the reason may be that there is a disconnect between it and the original intention you had for your business in the first place. Start at the beginning | start at the top and work your values down.

I wonder also, if the percentage of ‘things going awol’ are likely to be higher the further down the chain it is, ie. the further it is from your business’ core values. Bring in here the argument of the real benefits of ‘top down’ staff structures if your people at the ‘top’ are completely out of touch with the ‘bottom’. All the real action happens at the bottom.

Solution 1?: Attach those things that do not work, to the things that do.

Solution 2?: If there are rogue elements in your business that do not stand on, or sing the praises of - your core values - Give it the chop.

Solution 3?: Who am I? Who are we? This will determine who we are not. And what we will not do. This requires the skill of saying ‘no’. Learn it.  

_SKA

A friend once gave me some sound advice, which after a lot of thought and testing, has ended up being one of the most important pieces of advice I’ve ever been given.

- make the decision | commitment from your head - not your heart.

I agree. I agree because of the unstable nature of the heart | our feelings. The heart felt decision to commit is, all of the time, at the mercy of whether you ‘feel like it’ or not. And I would argue that the person capable of mastering and silencing that feeling and sticking with the commitment | decision has actually moved the act from their heart to their head.

- if you’ve made a heart felt commitment to another person, I would suggest that they buckle up and enjoy the roller coaster ride that is your decision making. No?

No, there’s nothing romantic about this suggestion (head based commitment), but I am suggesting that it is a safer for everyone involved. Commitments not based on how you feel, but based on…..commitment. Dry, emotionless, firm decisions to commit. Decisions to firmly and securely love and commit - for the long haul.

No Hollywood here folks. Just adults.

_SKA

And damn the world for trying to rush us through the time we have.

Your time is valuable. And besides your loved ones - time is the most valuable thing you have (though you could argue that those relationships exist in the confines of time). Take YOUR time. Slow down.

It’s your time, it’s my time, but we give it away so easily. Like its worth nothing. We let busyness steal it. We let bosses steal it. We let worry steal it. We let our inability to say ‘no’, steal it. Time you only get one pass at is slipping through your fingers.

That’s a bit dramatic, but only if you feel you’re finding value in what you’re giving your time to.

Take your time. I recently took my time through Radiohead’s new album - King of Limbs. I got up early, locked myself away and listened to the whole album in one sitting. It was the highlight of my week (get out more, I know). So there’s a major difference between ‘active time’ and ‘passive time’. I ‘happened’ to my time. It didn’t happen to me.

Some where along the way, the world convinced us that we were on the worlds clock. Let me assure you - the world is on yours.

Take your time | slow down

_SKA

Christchurch 22 february. what a horrible day. Christchurch, we are sorry for your loss. your loss is ours also. for those that passed on, we say, god speed, and may the journey across the great river be a calm and peaceful one. for those that are still with us, we hope He will keep you and let His face shine upon you. all the will, Christchurch

_Shaun

Summer Mixtapes (2010)

 All f.r.e.s.h

1. Here We Go Magic - “TunnelVision”

2. Jonsi & Alex -“Happiness”*

3. Luke Temple - “Where is Away”

4. Sufjan Stevens - “Too Much”

5. Vincent Gallo - “I Wrote This Song For The Girl Paris Hilton”

6. Tren Brothers - “Gold Star Berlin”

7. Here We Go Magic - “Casual”

8. Sam Prekop - Who’s Your New Professor. The whole album

9. The Sea and Cake - “Four Corners”

 - what I have so far….

The art of the mixtape will never die ya’ll.

_SKA

Time is literally - a wastin. 

Time that will add value to our days:

1. Time spent with loved ones (time in front of the TV/a movie, does not count)

2. Time creating

3. Time outdoors (like, near a tree or something)

4. Time exercising

5. Time thinking (thinking about new business ideas counts)

6. Time dreaming

7. Time relaxing

8 Time resting

9. Time taking risks

10. Time Learning

Time that deducts value from our lives:

1. Any time spent, that deducts time from the above 

My typical 168hr week and the time I spend/waste:  

Time spent sleeping -  52.5 hrs

Time working on/for someone else’s business  - 50hrs

TV/Internet – 24.5 (yikes!)

Time thinking /stressing about someone else’s business that I work for - 16

Learning - 13

With loved ones - 4

Exercising - 2

Thinking/Dreaming - 3.15

Creating 1

Outdoors - 0 hours

It’s not rocket science - finding fulfillment in the days we have on earth. I dont think the answers are magical or even spiritual ones -  I think the answers are practical ones. Practical Solution: Make an effort to spend more time on things that matter and less time on the things that don’t. 

As you can see, I’m failing miserably. I spend nearly 130 hours, pratically unconscious! We need to protect the value list. That way, we’ll have less regret when we get to the end of our time.

_SKA

The Numbness of the Comfortable We all know when something is wrong. We all feel it in the gut. Yet few of us act on it. There is a numbness over the world that seems so strongly silent that it feels almost spiritual. Like something spiritual has our tongue. All the while, the kings of this world profit - from the trust of the poor, the fear of the insecure, and the numbness of the comfortable.

_SKA

You dont get paid enough to stress

I had a number of revelations the other night, as I lay in bed stressing about work -

1. I dont get paid enough to stress

2. I dont get paid AT ALL while im in bed

3. Stress is DANGEROUS stuff

3. Post 5pm - is my time.

Somewhere along the way, we get convinced that work is important enough to stress about. Stress is evil stuff. Stress is harmful. Stress is un-healthy. Now this is hard to apply to those who own their own businesses, as your heart / mind will be where your money is. But I’d argue, that in that context - that if you’re awake most nights - stressing, that your business is adding no real value to your life.

Beware of and get out of -  the false agreements, that give you little return for the hours you work/ the energy you spend / your health / your investment.

Sleep well.

_SKA

The Quiet Hand.

Everyday we try to save ourselves. Those who try will lose. We try to plan our steps and create a life for ourselves. We try to create and save. While everyday it slips. 

‘Letting go’ built a house once, and it was beautiful. The sign on the door said ‘trust’ so I walked in. The builders name was ‘the quiet hand’ and he moved to save. But, ‘a wishing wind’ blew around the house, causing confusion and want. We all want and we all wanted to save ourselves.

A song played. 

‘Peace’ came to stay, and we all sung her songs forgetting the lives we were trying to save. Her words were covered in blood and we remembered. ‘Suffering’ came to us all that night. It came as we started to trust. ‘The quiet hand’ never stopped smiling. He had a kind word for us. 

“No more toil in the sun. It is enough to love”.

And when the wishing winds blew again, we ignored them and realised………that we were ok without them.

_SKA

Godless Brother in Love by Iron an Wine 

_SKA

Stanley Donwood

fall creek boys choir | James Blake & Bon Iver

_SKA

Where would we be without Pitchfork. 

slave ambient | The War On Drugs

_SKA

holocene | Bon Iver

I love this song, which is why I’m not sure how I feel about this video. I think it would have stuck more of a chord with me if Sigor Ros | Arni and Kinski had never released a video before. Of the same ilk, in my mind, but with a more subtle narrative. Beautiful song. Beautifully simple. But for me, the song, and the video - do not quite hold hands.

_SKA

like a diamond | Glass Ghosts

_SKA

fold | José González

_SKA

you know your youth | James Blake

(bonus track)

_SKA

out getting ribs | Zoo Kid

This ‘kid’ is 16 years old. f.r.e.s.h

_SKA

the wilhelm scream | James Blake 

_SKA

This guy will blow up next year.

limit to your love| James Blake 

(via Pitchfork Media)

Song 3 - Most Listened to Songs of 2010 (by me)

hengilas | Jonsi 

_SKA

Song 2 - Most Listened to Songs of 2010 (by me) 

casual | Here We Go Magic

_SKA

Song 1 - Most Listened to Songs of 2010 (by me) 

tunnelvision | Here We Go Magic

_SKA

excuses | The Morning Benders

_SKA