andrewnicol.net - blog

Day dreaming at night

I know it is going to be a long day when I am half-way through driving to Auckland and the alarm on my phone goes off at the predetermined to tell me it is time to get up. I arrived at the Auckland office in record time 1:06, this is in part because the road was empty and my foot was slightly heavier than normal today. A sub 60 trip is looking on the cards one day.

The persistent noise in the background changes to the next track and Bono sings “Something is about to give, I can feel it coming, I think I know what it means.” I let the words sink in a little bit, and then start thinking about a decision I made on Sunday not to speak about Authentic Community. It was a huge decision for me, because I left a number of people in the lurch, but it was the right decision.

I seem to be making heaps of decisions at the moment, all the while aware that something is about to give. Some of them are well rounded decisions with great motives, others are strange decisions with little effect and a few are decisions that are simply out of character for the man I want to be.

It is interesting that each decision I make, makes the bigger decisions easier. It is like a self-perpetuating snowball running and pitching and bowling down a hillside. Each decision increases the size of the ball, each decision increases its momentum, but with each decision the ball also becomes less controllable and has the potential for a more damage if it hits the wrong thing rather than just coming to rest at the bottom of the hill.

It is the uncontrollability and potential for harm that kept me awake after Jayden woke me in the early hours of the morning.

Anyway, I am not sure if this is a post about decision making, or a post about reasons why you shouldn’t blog with a lack of sleep. I think I will go have a doze on the couch in reception until Marc arrives.

Sweat Dreams…

Authentic Community

Last Thursday after we got into the Fast 50, I took a few people from work out to dinner with me to celebrate. At the table was Hav who just has an immense passion for agóge; Rob jnr who has such a detail mind and who keeps so many things I hate doing on track; and Cherie who is simply one of the most bona fide people I have ever met. Anyway I am sitting in this restaurant with a funny look on my face, watching my friends and just soaking it in and totally overwhelmed. There was something about the moment. A sense that in spite of everything hard we have been through, we're going to make it. I know this sounds a little corny, but you know what I am saying. It was an ordinary moment in an ordinary setting that for me became infused with something bigger. With community. Inspiration. Hope.

In two weeks time I have to talk on authentic community and I was chatting to a friend of mine yesterday about what that means. Community literally means 'in common'. People who gather together with something in common. Authentic according to dictionary.com theoretically means "not false; genuine". To me it means more than that.

It means being Real.

Honest.

Vulnerable.

Loyal.

An authentic person doesn't wear 'masks' to make them appear to be different than they are. They are honest and real about their struggles and failures. They seek help and are vulnerable.

I asked my two team meetings recently "How are you going? Really? " and generally I received genuine. Real. Honest. Vulnerable answers.

I think this small business called agóge. This business with people from all over the world, with varying educations, from different religions and diverse upbringings is starting to become an authentic community. A community that could actually make a huge difference in peoples lives.

It humbles me.

Lost for words

We have all seen the Oscar's or MTV awards. Someone gets an award that they just didn't expect and end up babbling into the microphone about nothing. I have, in my own opinionated way, thought it was bizarre that these stars would speak publicly so badly.

Anyway last Thursday a group of us went to the fast 50 awards. We were sitting there and they said the first award is for the Fastest Employee Growth in the Central North Island. As they said it I was struck by the fact that we might actually win this, which was something I hadn't prepared for, "and the winner is Logistics Personnel".

What the? I then tried to get my team to come up with me (their legs became rocks), I lost my way getting up the front (there were only about 100 people there) and then was lost for words. Yes you heard it correctly, I, Andrew Nicol was lost for words. I blahed something about thanking my team about ten times and promptly left the stage. To this day I can't believe it!

Later we got another award for 28th Fastest Growing Company. I had a bit more to say about living people matter and my team, but I will never get over the shock of being lost for words.

You can read my viewpoint post to see some of my thoughts about our growth.

Buying Time

I apply the brakes and decelerate for the booth ahead. An oldish graying lady slowly opens the booth window and greets me very pleasantly for 6am. Handing over a dollar coin is eventually followed by the barrier arm rising and my accelerating off down Route K towards Tauranga City. I am quite sure I it is the only toll road in the country, and probably one of the quietest roads as well. There are two many easy alternatives that only add a few km's and minutes to the trip to make it a success.

So why do I pay a dollar? Too save on fuel and time of course.

Later that day I was chatting to Greig about how stupid it is you can't get from 15th Ave back onto the toll road. It is stupid, for the record, because of lost revenue opportunities for them (there would be at least an extra car each day & I would get to save more time). Anyway I admitted to Greig that saving fuel can't be the real reason I take that road. I often drive around aimlessly in my car wasting more fuel than that. Furthermore saving time cant be the real reason because I would waste more time watching a couple of sets of TV ads than I would going the long way.

I was chatting to a friend the other day and she said that she doesn't read some stuff because she doesn't have time. I thought I can understand that. Later however, I thought it is not that we do or don't have the time, it is that we choose not to make the time.

• I choose to save a small amount of time and lose a dollar. Knowing well I will waste the same amount of time writing this blog.
• She chooses to spend the time on something else. Which is cool.
• I encourage my team to take Lead Time to think and plan and read. Most of them choose not to because they are too busy and have no time.

We all have the same amount of time in a day, it is actually that we all choose to use it differently. We can choose to use it on friends or family or love or work or hobbies or watching TV ads or taking toll roads or reading stuff or not.

The only problem is that you never, ever get to live that time again.

New National Party Billboard

I saw this on another blog and couldn't help but post it here.

[Hat tip: D Farrar]

Ok, I admit it, I was wrong!

I have always understood that we are all made unique, entirely individual and wonderfully complex. But the implication of these thoughts often escapes me in action.

I think the problem is that I have never really, honestly believed that we are hard wired differently. A lot of the people that work for me that are smarter than me, had more significant and influential experiences than me, and have far more knowledge than me. Because they are genuinely more intellectual than I am, I struggle heaps when they don't see the big picture, or when they hear what I say and then do things completely differently.

I posted the other day about the styles of influence course I attended. As I have reflected on it, and spent time with the CBC guys and Vinney and Don, I have come to understand that I can be critical and biased when talking to people.

I think that we all have unspoken expectations of people, and then get frustrated when people fail to meet those expectations. We start thinking that they are intentionally doing this to bug us, and then our attitude towards them changes. When our attitude changes, our ability to influence the person positively dramatically reduces.

When all this happens who has the problem us, or the other person?

Me or you?

I have been humbled completely as I have considered some of these lessons.

9 years later!

In the last 9 years we have lived in 6 houses and just 2 cities. We have lived in Hamilton and the same house for almost 7 years now. I have had 3 cars (a Mondeo, a Falcon S/W and my Commodore VX) and Karina has had 3 cars (Civic, Laser and the Tractor). I have held down 6 jobs, with my longest the one I am in now. They were CourierPost Hamilton Ops Mgr, then CourierPost Wellington Branch Mgr, then CourierPost Central Regional Mgr, then CourierPost Nat Ops/Commerical Mgr, then ELG Group Regional Mgr, then Director/General Dogs Body at Agoge Limited.

Karina and I have stayed in Kaitaia, Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whitianga, Whangamata, Waihi Beach, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, Taupo, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston Nth, Masterton, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Fox Glacier, Queenstown, Ashburton, Kaikoura, Port Douglas (Aust) and Rarotonga (Cook Islands).

In the last nine years, we have had 3 children, Kyla, Talia and Jayden.

Nine years ago today, Alf started the day without broken ribs, and I started the day single. Nine years ago today I ended the day married to my wife Karina. On reflection we have done heaps and seen heaps and settled heaps. It is a blessing to have the memories and to have had the experiences I have had, with an awesome and caring and compassionate and forgiving and loving women and wife.

Thanks Karina for putting up with me for 9 years!!

Styles of Influence

It is incredible to consider that in the last 2 days I have learnt more about myself and how I interact with other people, than I have probably done in the last 2 -3 years. On Sunday evening I had Vinney from idynamx staying with us from the US. He is a very astute and intelligent guy and it was fascinating to talk with him about Style of Influence and the implications into our lives.

On Monday I attended a one day course run by idynamx where we compared our personal styles of influence with other people I work with outside of agóge. To say that I found the day just intelligently stimulating and personally challenging, would be to dramatically underestimate its impact on my think.

Below is a summary of my unique design. I am, according to the Styles Of Influence, test a Creative Designer.

Creative designers want to get a job done and get it done fast. They influence others in a positive way through this use of clear thinking and a strong personality. Creative designers can influence in a negative way through intimidation or forcefulness. Generally creative designers are individualists who enjoy a great deal of variety. These people enjoy thinking up new ideas and helping to get other people to implement them. At times, they can be hard to get along with and seem like a bully or overly dominant. When a task is in full swing, these people may want to "bolt" before the project has been completed. They work best in an environment that gives room to be creative and yet one that has a certain measure of accountability.

A Riddle

Megan gave me this riddle, and as normal I couldn't get it without help.

__  __  __  __  __  __  __

1. It has 7 letters
2. It comes before God
3. It is more evil than the devil
4. Poor people have it
5. Rich people want for it
6. It you eat it you die

Post your answer in comments if you are gain.

Serendipity ...

[Sara]  Serendipity. It's one of my favorite words.
[Jonathan]  It is? Why?
[Sara]  It's such a nice sounding word for what it means: a fortunate accident. I don't really believe in accidents. I think fate is behind everything.
[Jonathan]  Oh you do?... So everything is predestined, we don't have any choice at all?
[Sara]  No, I think we make our own decisions, but fate sends us little signs and it's how we read those signs that determines whether we are happy or not.

These words from the video Serendipity, which I watched last night, got me thinking about destiny and fate and things that happen that may well be fortunate accidents.

I remember speaking with a friend a few months ago about fate and destiny. When I meet this friend it was a result of Serendipity. I rambled that I dislike the idea of destiny or fate or luck because it means I have no control over a situation (my nature of a control freak coming out again). What I was saying was that I want to have free will.

Then this morning I read Scott Adam's Dilbert Blog and he basically said we are all moist robots with no free will.

In a prior post I asked who is at fault if a guy pokes a bear with a stick and the bear kills him. Then I sweetened the pot by supposing the bear was actually an irrational guy whose religion says you need to kill people that poke you with a stick ... The correct answer, and the one that no one offered as far as I could tell, is that it was no ones fault. Not the guy with the stick, not the bear, and not the irrational religious guy. Each creature acted according to its nature and its programming, as all moist robots must.

The bear is a furry moist robot. You poke him, he mauls you. It's that simple. The bear's brain isn't equipped for free will. Neither is yours or mine.

To add to all that Paul says that "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family", then adds just a sentence later that God "is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom". This just brings heaps of questions to mind like; If God decided, how can we be free? And what if he decided not to, do we still have freedom? Are there boundaries between destiny and free-will?

It seems I may have become a fence sitter on this matter, in a serendipitous way.