Today at the Fish Factory I was thrown as referee between two parties. It was like a tug of war into one direction and then into the other one. I don't like this aspect of the job especially as one individual was trying to defer their responsibility on me, they were hopping all over the place. From one stone to another and then throwing projectiles at me. Whereas the other individual put up a shield of doubt as to what the first was saying. They were on the defensive but their voice had to be heard as my job role meant this person's interesting was my primary concern. I eventually got to some kind of decision on the matter and will be rang up again in the next few days when yet I'll have to make another decision and do my refereeing role all over again. Right now I know what my decision is going to be, one of these parties is going to have to relent and that's it.
In the meantime, the big fish sits behind me and has overheard the conversations I've been thrown into all afternoon. The big fish already has a set of priorities they want me to get on with yet because of everything else, those priorities are not being met. It is definitely like a rock and a hard place. Whatever happens I'll be knocked from one place to another. Those priorities are unrealistic. It's very much the climate of the UK at the moment. Wring the little fishes out so tightly you do get blood from a stone. Everything is temporary. No matter how much these pressures and stresses are put on me it's really about keeping my own cool head and retaining some kind of control. Something which will retract me back to a calm and relaxed place. It's about getting a grip.
This is where Dave Allen's principle of "recording" everything which has to be done in some way is important. The way it is recorded has to be more reliable than your own brain because your own brain is fallible and liable to forget. I've been trying to do this a lot lately and am finding it is helping. As the IT system in the Fish Factory is unreliable, I've gone backward and use a notepad and mechanical pencil. In fact of all my tools at the fish factory, the most important of all are this mechanical pencil and pad. Without them things would be more difficult. However, this is not all. Others are the use of my own head and listening to what the little fishes say. From LEAN management and engaging management styles solutions are generated from the ground upwards. It is always when big fish make decisions which effect smaller fish things go wrong and problems pop up. Time and time again I always see it. Confering with those involved always raises items of interest. Just as doing a trial run of something. The biggest errors happen when the experts are not listened to, and those are the ones doing the job.
Consequently the exert of me, can only be me. It's always about listening to yourself and how you feel, reasoning and expressing this. A caveat to this is knowing you have to stop and listen. There are things which happen inside my own head I don't know about because it's all a jumble. Then from nowhere a feeling or thought pops up and I don't understand why. It's all in the unconscious. Similar to dreams. Waking up, remembering that strange dream and then trying to interpret it. This same thing happens in conscious waking life as well. To find a happy settled place its a matter of finding the point of balance. I heard on the radio about a man who recently tight rope walked across part of the Grand Canyon. He described the most difficult part was coping with the wind. He had no safety harness when he did this stunt. During the entire walk he concentrated on the wind and the variable effects it had on both his own body and the rope which was a steal cable. Had he not listened with every ounce of will and counteracted appropriately he wouldn't of been around to tell the story.
Maybe what I'm saying is, your own mental well being in a stressful environment is open to checks and balances. To coping strategies which you have to put in place. For at the end of the day a comfortable padded room is very nice, but not if you're locked inside it.
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