Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner....

Picture the scene........you’ve sat down in a small area of an inner city garden, happily eating your lunch in the midday sunshine whilst a member of the public pulls up a stool, stretches their fingers and tenderly starts to play the most relaxing and beautiful music on a piano, which is placed in between two park benches. This happened today. In London. In the middle of Leicester Square. In the glorious June sunshine!

No, I wasn’t drunk, but enjoying what is known as Play Me, I’m Yours.

Presented for Sing London and the City of London Festival, 30 piano’s have been installed in London for members of the public to play at their own free will. And I say, how lovely!

Each piano is decorated in an individual style and is there simply to bestow cheer and joy to the people in London. It is there to bring people together, to get them singing, to get them playing and to have fun amidst all the doom and gloom which is the current climate.

So far I have only found one, but I plan on finding a few more and enjoying the music played by people who just want to be part of this happy event. Life is far too serious and it’s a wonderful reminder that music and song can make complete strangers come together and just simply enjoy themselves.

So I say, check out their website, pick a venue, find out a time when someone plans to play Boogie Woogie, Gospel or good old Knees Up Mother Brown, go along and sing your heart out with them, or simply clap along in time.

Who knows, you may bring smiles and laughter to other people, make some friends, or failing that, just enjoy being part of a very unique experience. Either way, you’re bound to go home smiling....and how great would that be....

Play Me, I'm Yours website: http://www.streetpianos.com/london2009/

Helen Mills

Financial Controller

Inspiration

It is midnight in Austria; the cool breeze brush our faces, the vastness of the sky above our head is a constant reminder of infinitude and expansion, the water is shimmering in the light as the boat noisily sits in place. We take a breath.....we exhale....and smile....appreciating the moment which is so precious.
Quite to our surprise, behind a railway track appears a building, not just any building, a fairytale building, like something out of a Hans Christian Anderson tale! We smile with glee and curiosity and for a moment, we are struck by its beauty, its grandeur, and its quiet strength. The trees sit proudly and protectively in its path as they blow gently across. The richness of the red roof, the spires, the turrets we can see Rapunzels golden hair flowing from the upper window, looking out to the horizon lovingly and like the moon standing gracefully, calm, detached, mysterious and yet infinitely inspiring.
Is Inspiration a fairytale, something we yearn, something we stumble across now and again? Or is it a feeling, an emotion we all have inside the essence of our being that we, you and I turn on and off? And when we choose to turn it on we feel passion, energy, ardour, vigour, joy and love that encourage us and those around us to achieve the most remarkable feats...or simply making someone smile. Being inspirational is our birthright, let's be that moment to moment and watch what unfolds.....

Lizzie Thomas and David Pickeirng

Consultants

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Change

Bleep Bleep Bleep! My alarm clock went off and it was in that moment that I realised I had turned 30. It hit me like a pistol shot and I rolled over and felt sorry for myself. The really uplifting thoughts that went through my head were:

“I’ve reached 30 and I have nothing material to show for my endeavours”.

“I’ve turned 30 in a credit crunch, left a perfectly stable job to pursue ‘life goals...I must be mad’”

If I met this part of myself in a bar, we would definitely not be friends. So why do we do it to ourselves?

Suddenly, a beam of sunlight came through the window and I realised it was a sunny day outside. I forced myself to get out of bed and I took myself to a spinning class.

Spinning is a static bike aerobic class. The session is instructor led and has amazingly loud music blaring out of the speakers. The music is normally quite uplifting and allows you to get into the zone. Personally I think the music is turned up to drown out the groans of suffering as you hit the wall of pain (about 10 minutes in). If I am honest, I am in agony for 45 minutes as the instructor shouts, “turn up the load and pedal faster”. Strangely, there is something that keeps me going back for more.

As I left on a high, embracing 30 and ready for the day ahead, I realised in that 45 minutes I had:

- Committed to do something and achieved it

- Immersed myself in the moment of the class

- Overcome the voice that was begging me to stop and give up during the hill climb

In these times of change, “any action is better than no action”. It’s amazing how quickly we can change our attitude and our luck.

Hayley Kennedy

Dale Carnegie Trainer

http://www.london.dalecarnegie.com/

The language of love

Love is at the centre of a successful organisation. Why did I not see this before? Why do we avoid combining the language of love and business in the same sentence? We use euphemisms like, “client service”, or “personnel policies and procedures,” when what we really mean is putting love at the centre of what we do. It is our key driver, our dominant motive, our greatest need and yet we do not name it.

What is management? Well one definition is – getting tasks done through people. Early in our management careers we learn that we can manage other resources, like buildings, cash and raw materials. Try to do that with people and our endeavours are bound to fail - eventually. Managing people is like trying to herd cats.

Why did we ever think we could tell people to obey us? We were rather seduced by the model of command and control inherited from the theatre of war. The trouble was that we brought other war-like attitudes and language with it: destroy the competition, discipline the work force; make a killing on the stock market and so on.

Now – there is another way - if we have love at the centre of an organisation we create products and services with intrinsic value and integrity; we build enduring and affirming relationships with people in our sphere of influence; and we use the planet’s resources responsibly and with sustainability at the forefront of our business strategy: Profit, People, Planet!

In the current climate there is a temptation, in the most enlightened companies, to revert to bullying behaviour. But we all know, deep down, that the bully is the most scared child in the playground. The language of the bully is, do this or else - or else what? I lose my job, I do not get a pay rise, you stop being nice to me? Money is not a motivator, and most people are not turned on by threats. They may go through the motions but they will never give you what you really want,

Enthusiastic cooperation from our people is a gift not a right: a true leader creates an environment of love where that gift can be freely given and gracefully received.

The language of love is sometimes denigrated as a weak thing – slightly embarrassing and a bit over the top. This is foolish. Someone who loves is prepared to give up his life for a cause or a friend; is able to create an environment where people feel valued and free; and whose behaviour consistently reflects values of integrity, honesty and fidelity. There is nothing weak or indeed easy about that.

Exchange the word leader for lover. Leadership is love; love is leadership. Phew – I feel better now!!

Jane Kustner
Dale Carnegie Instructor

http://www.london.dalecarnegie.com/