It's a trip, man!

 

Image info: "1910 world map" by surrealpenguin is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

I’ve been extremely fortunate to have experienced as much travel in my life as I have. By the time I turned eleven, I’d been to more countries than most people get to visit in a lifetime. I’m grateful for those experiences, and I realize how privileged I am.

I’ve also had the good fortune to do a fair bit of travelling as an adult, for work and for personal reasons. Of the countries I’ve been to as an adult, I had visited all but four (England, Germany, Norway, China) as a child. I’ve spent at least one night in every Canadian province, but have yet to visit the Territories, something that I hope to rectify because, hey, who doesn’t want to be chased through a northern hamlet by a polar bear!

Travel is educational (duh) and formative. Much of who and how I am today is because of travel. Meeting people from other cultures, on their home turf, has had a positive impact on how I interact with people who are “different”, regardless of context. Be curious and empathetic rather than judgemental and suspicious; you’ll be better off. As long as people aren’t stupid or assholes, I’m pretty accepting of them. The stupid ones make my brain hurt and assholes simply aren’t acceptable under any circumstances.

Travel issues, being lost in Beijing, and almost getting arrested in Brussels (it was because of Markko from Iceland – I’m pretty sure he didn’t do it) will test you. If you travel enough, shit’s gonna happen. Just be a grown up and deal with it. At worst you’ll arrive a little late and be exhausted (not the end of the world); if you’re lucky and have a positive mindset, you’ll end up with a great story to tell. A “just go with it” attitude is pretty handy even when not travelling, by the way. Just ask yourself if it’s an inconvenience or a disaster.

I understand how unbelievably fortunate I’ve been, and that not everyone has the opportunity or resources to travel. But for those of you that can swing it but haven’t, what’s stopping you? Seriously, getting out of your comfort zone and doing something different is a thrill. I cannot recommend it enough.

One of my favourite things to do when I’m in a new city is to just walk. If I’ve got a free Saturday or Sunday, I’ll just walk the city for a few hours, stopping for something to eat & drink when I need to, chatting with people when the opportunity is there. It’s such a great way to spend time.

Chris’s list of travel don’ts:

1. Don’t refer to a Belgian as French or Dutch.
2. Don’t refer to a Swiss as German.
3. Don’t refer to an Irish person as English (in my defence, Morris started it by calling me American).
4. Don’t refer to a Canadian as American.
5. Don’t, under any circumstances, say “this isn’t how it is at home.” You’re not at home, that’s the whole fucking point!
6. Don’t try to swim across the Elbe River while naked and drunk.
7. Don’t think you can take that Thai kickboxer in Bangkok (wasn’t me but was funny as hell to watch).

Bad things about travel:

1. Jet lag
2. Being away from your family
3. People in airports that don’t know what they’re doing

Have you had the opportunity to travel? How has it affected you?

Be great today, be better tomorrow!

Cheers!

My how times have changed; the importance of soft skills

 

Photo by claudmey onFreeImages.com

During the summer of 1973 I was 8yrs old. My favourite sport was baseball. I wasn’t very good. My coach, a retired US Navy guy, decided to teach me how to catch fly balls & line drives with two hands. I was trying to catch one-handed and dropped almost everything. Off I run to centre field, with no glove.

Coach starts whacking fly balls at me, and I try to catch them one-handed. It hurt! And yeah, I dropped them all. Then he tells me to come in a little closer to 2^nd base, and he starts drilling line drives at me. That hurt even more. There was also the added bonus of potentially getting a line drive in the face. That would have been fun!

The last season that I coached was in 2008 or so. If I used that approach with my players (~12yrs old) I’m certain a visit from the authorities would have ensued. I had to change how I coached, even from what I was doing in the 1980’s.

And this relates to the workplace how?

Well, back in the day things were all about, effectively, being ordered to get stuff done. “Smithers!!! Have this on my desk by 4pm or I’ll murder your cat and eat your ice cream!” That kind of nonsense. And we liked it. More truthfully, we didn’t know any better. Can someone please try that now and let the rest of know how it turns out?

You can’t do that anymore. Today’s workplace requires us to be collaborative, nurturing, and caring. Deadlines and budget constraints haven’t disappeared, but the way we communicate them to our teams has certainly changed. Now there’s a lot of “what do you need from me to get your stuff done?” kinds of conversations happening. We even ask our teams [insert incredulous gasp here] how they’re feeling emotionally & psychologically.

Look, I’m fairly old-school; so old it was a one-room frickin’ schoolhouse. You went to work, knew what was expected, did your job, then buggered off. If you needed work related help you asked for it. If you had personal issues, you asked someone outside of work. I had no problem with that, but I’m glad things have changed.

I truly believe that having a kinder, more nurturing approach in the workplace makes for a healthier, happier, more effective workplace. People that feel cared for are likely to stay around longer. If they feel supported, they’ll simply do better, however you define that. Being proactive as a People Leader by regularly asking the “soft” questions makes you a better leader. If someone on your team is struggling (for whatever reason), you’ll know sooner and be able to help them through it.

There are days that it seems kindness is sorely lacking in the world. Let’s do our part and at least bring as much of it as we can to work.

How has the evolution to a kinder workplace impacted you? What do you think about it?

How did those fielding lessons turn out? I became a pretty good ballplayer, with a great glove. Our team went on to win the league championship. I was named to the Hong Kong all-star team in 1974.

Be great today, be better tomorrow!

Cheers!

Connect with me on Bluesky: @chriswalker1964.bsky.social