Bacon Butties and Birdsong

Every now and then I take a little time out on the way to work. I buy myself a bacon butty and a cup of black coffee and go and sit in the park local to the office. it's a good way to start the day, a bacon butty and some birdsong in the middle of hectic London: some rocket fuel for the body and a break for the mind and soul.

This morning my mind (and eyes) wandered over some gravestones nearby where someone had left a bunch of flowers and a potted fern. (To explain the local park is Bunhill Fields, an old cemetery and park, located near Old Street Tube.) On closer inspection I realised that this was no ordinary grave, but that of William Blake, Poet and Painter, 1757 - 1827. Next to him (and his wife Catherine Sofia) was a rather grand obelisk monument dedicated to Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, 1661 - 1731.

According to the inscriptions on the side of the monument to Daniel, it was paid for from a collection from 1700 boys and girls through a campaign organised by the Christian World Newspaper in 1870. Another note informs the visitor that Lilian Eveleigh Nash restored the monument in 1948.

The discovery of greatness resting in peace so close to where I work everyday was quite a revelation and got me thinking.......

Who had left the flowers for William, 181 years after his death? What was it about William, or his works, that had so moved someone to leave him a tribute? What was it about Daniel, or his creation of Robinson Crusoe, that had provoked 1700 children to donate money to a memorial fund? Was it the same thing that motivated Lilian in 1948 to restore the obelisk?

It made me think about legacy: what we leave behind when we are gone.

I'm not talking about that which we leave our loved ones in monies and material goods, more what we leave as our leadership legacy to the wider world.

As a 30 year old, it's not often I am jolted to reflect on my own mortality and what I will leave behind. It is (hopefully) a far distant event in the future. However, the decisions and actions I take now will carry me forward on a journey towards that certain destination.

What will I do on the journey? What state will I leave the path in for those that follow after me? What's going to be my leadership legacy? The honest answer is that I don't know.

And that's ok: I have a better idea than I did 2 years ago, and in another 2 years I know I will be 2 years farther down the path. It's a journey, not a destination.

Something I'm slowly getting my head around - I don't have to have the final answer to the legacy question right now. Having a compass heading is enough. That, and the odd bacon butty and birdsong time-out to reflect on the journey so far, and the next ports of call.

Someone close to me has 2 pieces of ribbon stuck on his office wall, a short and a long one. The long one represents the amount of life he has lived so far, the short one he has left. It's not morbid. It's a visual reminder to make every decision, every action, and everyday count. He oft quotes to me Stephen Covey's 2nd Habit of Highly Effective People - begin with end in mind. Good advice.

In addition, I would to offer up - take regular time out to reflect. A bacon butty and birdsong break works for me. What do you use?



Further reading to ponder: from "Presence: exploring profound change in people, organsations and society", Peter Senge, C.Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworksi, and Betty Sue Flowers. 2004. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. pages 25 -6

Several years ago in one of our leadership workshops, a Jamaican man from the World Bank named Fred told a story that moved people very deeply. A few years earlier he had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. After consulting a number of doctors, who all confirmed the diagnosis, he went through what everyone does in that situation. For weeks he denied it. But gradually, with the help of friends, he came to grips with the fact that he was only going to live a few more months. 'Then something amazing happened,' he said. 'I simply stopped doing everything that wasn't essential, that didn't matter. I started working on projects with kids that I'd always wanted to do. I stopped arguing with my mother. When someone cut me off in traffic or something happened that would have upset me in the past, I didn't get upset. I just didn't have the time to waste on any of that.'

Near the end of this period, Fred began a wonderful new relationship with a woman who thought he should get more opinions about his condition. He consulted some doctors in the States and soon after got a phone call saying, 'We have a different diagnosis.' The doctor told hime that he had a rare form of a very curbale disease. And then came the part of the story I'll never forget. Fred said, 'When I heard this over the telephone, I cried like a baby - because I was afraid my life would go back to the way it used to be.'

It took a scenario that he was going to die for Fred to wake up. It took that kind of shock for his life to be transformed. Maybe that's what needs to hapen for all of us, for everyone who lives on Earth. That could be what a reuim scenario offers us.

There was silence for a moment.

'You know,' said Joseph quietly, 'When all is said and done, the only change that will make a difference is the transformation of the human heart.'