03/19/2010: "I am a Free Range Chicken"

Context: I have been hired by a large organization to design and implement a leadership development program. There are 12,000 employees and several hundred leaders. Their business is high stress and complex. I have agreed to devote 100% of my working days to the organization. The task is daunting, the context is challenging, and it has been a long time since I spent so much time "inside".

The past few weeks have gone by in a blur, learning the new organization and its players, assessing needs and opportunities, presenting proposals, moving forward with kickoffs and roll outs, gathering feedback, adjusting the programs on the fly, documenting the process as we go.

But this week, the sun broke through the clouds. Spring burst forth in southern Ontario, temperatures rose into the upper teens, and my schedule synchronized by presenting me with large patches of open space in which to revel.

I've been spending a lot of time in meeting rooms and a corner facing cubicle in a crowded office.

But much of this week I've been working at home, at a sunny kitchen window, on the back deck, in the jacuzzi bathtub or on the range.

A Day in the Life of this Chicken

1. Begin the day by re-reading Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader in the jacuzzi bath
2. Hop out and make some quick notes on significant insights from this reading and their application
3. Identify 3 questions that I need to answer to move forward with the leadership development plan
4. Take my questions for a walk along the rail trail (detour to do my banking on the walk)
5. Return home and make some quick notes about the insights received on the walk
6. Go out to lunch at a favorite restaurant (bring moleskine and do some free writing to develop the ideas that came during the walk while waiting to be served and enjoying after lunch beverage)
7. Come home, create a "tree diagram" mind map of the important concepts explored today
8. Create one power point show for each of the branches of the tree, subdividing as seems appropriate
9. Do a quick sketch of the overall framework; summarize each of the relevant branches of the tree
10. Email it to my boss with request for a meeting to discuss and make sure I am on the right track
11. Realize that I am starving and it is past time for dinner; make something to eat
12. Wind down for a relaxing evening

(disclosure: item number 12 is my goal; the reality is that my evenings are spend on my private business: teaching and mentoring coaches, developing programs, leading volunteer projects)

This morning I was back in the office, chatting with a colleague about the week and how good it had been and why.

"You're an artist," she said. "And you need to respect your creative process."

"But how do I do that from inside an organization?" I asked. "I feel like I owe this place my time, and there will be expectations that I am here. I don't want people thinking I am not doing my share."

"But you produce results," she said. "And what you create in ten minutes is the work of a week."

"I can lay the golden eggs," I said. "But not if I'm cooped up in a corner."

And that's when the realization hit me. I am a free range chicken, a high yield layer of organic and sometimes golden eggs. The free range is a necessary condition of my production. I come into the coop to lay eggs.

I shared this insight with my office mate and she laughed.

"Do you know that chickens only lay one egg per day?" she said.

"A useful fact to remember," I said. Then I laid my egg and headed home.

Three morals in this story,

1. Some of us are free range chickens.
2. Under the right conditions we produce our golden eggs.
3. It is important to respect our creative process, and the conditions necessary to ensure our yield.

Yours with creativity and imagination,
Darlene

Replies: 1 Comment

on Wednesday, March 24th, Victoria said

Hi Darlene, thank you for this entry - it really resonates with me.