Hope for the Flowers

This week Sarah was reminded about the importance of hope and courage when she picked up an old favourite book called Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus. The front cover reads: ‘a tale – partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope for adults and others (including caterpillars who can read)’.

It’s been a grey week in London, the skies have been grey and I confess to feeling slightly grey myself this week! I was conscious that I needed to take small actions to shift my mood and one thing I did was to read Hope for the Flowers again. It’s a short and very beautifully illustrated book that follows the journey of two caterpillars and their transformation into butterflies. It begins ‘Once upon a time…..’ and immediately I am transported into the world of Stripe and Yellow (the two caterpillars). It’s a very simple book with some very big messages that I find I need to remember.

Here are some of my favourite bits…..
“It can’t be true!” gasped Yellow. “How can I believe there’s a butterfly inside you or me when all I see is a fuzzy worm?”

“How could she risk the only life she knew when it seemed so unlikely she could ever be a glorious winged creature? What did she have to go on?
- seeing another caterpillar who believed enough to make his own cocoon
- and that peculiar hope which had kept her off the pillar and leapt within her when she heard about butterflies”

Thinking Breakfast......

The subject was Generation Y, the venue Sadlers Wells for the latest Talent Foundation Breakfast.

Simon Walker of talentsmoothie, a talent consultancy that create research based and custom training and development programmes gave a brief input piece to set off the discussion re Generation Y employees. Talentsmoothie have completed a research project– ‘Tell It How It is’ that explores what Gen Ys want from work. Simon talked about the importance of not assuming that our own generational view is right. We all see the world through our own generational lens which is formed by the landscape against which we grow up. For the Generation Ys this has been a technological landscape. They are ‘natives’ of the technological world and feel very comfortable in it.
“I see frustration among Gen Y and their employers caused by a mismatch in how they see the world” offered Simon. When we fail to understand each others generational lens it leads to frustration and limits what is possible. The trick is for all parties to understand the others generational perspective and with understanding comes the creation of possibilities and also choice. To see more on Gen Y visit www.talentsmoothie.com .

Calming, flowing water in EC1

Gary and Sarah recently visited the Inmarsat Conference Centre www.inmarsat.com/conferencecentre in London EC1 in preparation for an event that circleindigo will be facilitating later in September. The centre has a light and spacious feeling. A colour palette of white accented with blues and greens creates a relaxed, calm environment as does the sound of running water that can be heard coming from the glass sculpture in the lounge area. The added bonus is that all the rooms have large windows allowing a flow of good natural light. And the menu looks good too!