Well, we’re a couple of weeks in, but I’m still finding myself wishing people a Happy New Year as I bump into them for the first time in January. It’s about now that all the new year’s resolutions start to bite and slip and weigh heavy on your back as all the good intentions begin to rub up against reality.
I’d say I’m also still in a bit of a contemplative mood. The year just gone has been a real watershed. I became an empty nester, which has thankfully been quite a joy, watching my son spread his wings and really find his place and his peoples at University. Before that, it was fab seeing him get his just rewards for all his hard work at A-Levels. I don’t think (as someone who studied the Sciences and Maths at that stage) that I had any idea how much time and effort the A-level Art coursework took. Pages and pages of portfolios, several final sculpting/pottery pieces and, just because he also has a bit of a stubborn streak, large canvas oil paintings that are truly stunning. (Now just to prise them back from the Art department…)
Work was busy, and I got my 25 year’s long service certificate from the IPO. It’s been an elliptical career, even if the job titles have been linear. Starting out as a Patent examiner working on conveyor belts, I spent the bulk of my time working on outdoor sports (many, many, many polymer golf balls) and indoor games (which had segued from being boardgames into the patentwise legally sticky area of online gambling) which at least meant that I was able to put my degrees to good use. I’ve now been 10 years in charge of the Industrial Chemistry group, which tackles batteries, catalysts and concretatious materials (I’m coining a new word).
Working for a large organisation has allowed me to develop other skills alongside the dayjob, and I recently stepped back from 20 years as a Harassment Contact Officer (mercifully not overworked on that front), and a stint as the longest serving editor of the Staff Magazine. Over ten years ago I formalised the Coaching that I’d been doing in the office and qualified, and began heading up the coaching network and profession. More recently I gained accreditation as a mediator and have been getting to grips with how that blends the skills I learned as an HCO, with the facilitating/problem solving side of group coaching.
The coming year is looking busy, busy, busy. We’ve got a major IT transformation project due to launch early in the year, there’s the prospect of doing more IP mediation and outside of work, I’ve got a new venture with James Frowen that we’re planning to launch in the Spring.
I first met James over a decade ago when he and Nicola Williams were setting up and developing the coaching network in Companies House. With Peter Evans’ help on the IPO side we established and grew our networks, encouraged each other and shared our experiences to keep the momentum going when things threatened to become becalmed. I’ll do another blog this year about the importance of surrounding yourself with good people, and all of these guys have been the best.
So, to try and stay on point, for those reading who came for something coachingly tangible… What to do about those NY resolutions that are starting to go awry or off-piste?
A tool and approach that I have found very successful (both personally and with my coachees) is the WOOP model (coaching loves an acronym).
WOOP was developed by Gabriele Oettingen, a German Professor of Psychology (at Hamburg and New York) and provides a practical approach to applying mental contrasting with implementing intentions (MCII in the academic literature).
In simple terms, it gives a structured approach to visualising what you want, identifying the issues that have blocked you from doing it previously (if it was easy you would have done it) and then putting a plan in place to overcome those blocks. It’s a really nifty, punchy, way of helping someone self coach on action focussed things.
The acronym breaks down into:
Wish
Outcome
Obstacles
Plan
I’d say, seeing as it’s January, give it a go! Pick, as your wish, that thing at the bottom of your to do list… the one that you never get around to and which is niggling you because you’ve not.
The outcome stage is just checking that you really know what it would look like to have it done. How will you know it’s done enough for you to confidently strike it off of your list?
Obstacles? What were the roadblocks that prevented you each time before? Was it finding the time? DId you have the stuff in place? To touch back on the memory lane ponderings I got distracted by earlier, did you have the right people and support in place?
For each of those obstacles, make a plan. How will you get past it this time?
Give it a go. It works.
You can check out the (amusingly titled) website https://woopmylife.org/ and there’s even an app.
There may have been a bit of a delay in getting this blog out (on my own timetable), but I got there in the end. Good luck with your endeavours and wishing you all a happy and healthy 2025.
(James, Sam, Freya and I at Cardiff Bay for a photoshoot… stay tuned for more news in the coming months)