This week’s Yellow Learning session involved an exercise around us being the Director of the movie of our own life. The facilitators took us through the methods by which movies are made, including the headline pitch (eg for Alien it was “Jaws in Space”), genre, production design (the world in which the movie was set. I think of Blade Runner in that context), music, even actors to play roles.
One core element which struck me was to consider key decision points, points of inflection where decisions were made and things changed. As I took time during the exercise to consider key points in my life, it was quite an experience to sit with that, of where I had made key decisions over my life so far.
As I completed the exercise I glanced at Facebook and saw a memory from just before I stopped posting on that site, from six years ago when I was in Edinburgh and took a few hours to walk around on a glorious Autumn day. That was around the time of one of those key inflection points in life, so though that day itself was still and calm for me as I took time to revel in the beauty of nature, I knew that decisions had already been taken that would see great chance in my life and work into the future.
That serendipitous photo reminder anchored the exercise for me as a powerful one, and also, as someone who loves business, takes me to a thought for you personally and as a business leader. What have been the key inflection points for you, and for your business over the years?
For me, one obvious one was September 11, 2004, when Hurricane Ivan struck the Cayman Islands. That event catalysed so, so much change for the businesses I was involved in leading, but it all began with looking after all of our people in the days, weeks and months directly after the storm. As I look back on everything we did, every decision we took, the one I am most proud of was our decision to keep every member of staff on at full pay for the months until we could re-open for business.
One final thought. Part of the Yellow exercise was to have the group ask questions and give their thoughts and ideas from the “pitch”. One that landed strongly for me and made me think about what will my life and work look like as I look forward to the decades to come. What will the key decisions, and the key inflection points look like? Something to ponder for me.