Rachel Jackson's Blog

Back to Work!

racheljackson — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:27:58 +0000

Having just come back from our first break with the little man in Italy, it is time to start getting my brain warming up for work again. What better than two intellectually challenging, motivated and clearly well-connected individuals to start my day with – a call with the HR Director of one of my much loved clients regarding our upcoming Resilience work with the chance to also “chew-the-fat” a little about how to develop coaching as a practice and a behaviour across the organisation…and then a great conversation with a new contact about the current state of coaching, coach accreditation processes, marketing and the like…really got me thinking about how to kick start myself back into work.

Resilience Conference

racheljackson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:47:14 +0000

I have lately been speaking to an old colleague about childcare and how the whole feeding process works when you pass your child to another person for a full day. Given that I am still breastfeeding and the small amounts of pureed this-and-that I am adding into Leo’s diet are hardly enough to sustain him, its something that is causing me some concern. As someone who despite sometimes looking a little “seat of pants” does actually like to plan ahead, the reason for my concerns is the fast approaching date of the Resilience Conference at Brighton University on the 5th April. I know its still a month away but when your preparation involves pumping ounce after ounce of milk from your body rather than printing business cards and brushing up over-dinner networking lines, it pays to start early!

To be fair though, I do also need to brush up a little on my networking. This is in many ways my first day back at work and having recently put together both a resilience diagnostic and a two day workshop plan based on many days of prenatal reading and researching, I am keen to see where the world of Resilience finds itself and even keener to ensure that I become a part of the growing focus on this highly relevant and growing development area.

If you are interested in talking Resilience, or catching up at the conference, do get in touch – through my website – www.changingdialogues.com or my mail rachel@changingdialogues.com. I promise to try to avoid boring you with nappy-tales!

I’m still here!!!

racheljackson — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:22:51 +0000

Although there are days when I’m not quite sure who “I” am. Motherhood has been a transition beyond anything I could have imagined. From an independent, feisty, intellectual and free-spirited soul, I am now – for at least the time being – only capable of discussing breast-feeding, weaning options and the latest noises Leo is making. I do try but my world seems to have shrunk dramatically and my conversational skills with it. I now fully understand all those little smirky laughs people gave Brad when he said “well it doesn’t mean the whole world will change”. My mornings used to consist of high speed multi-tasking before sitting down to write client workshops or coach other professional in leadership or personal change. Now even getting the dishwashing and washing done can be a task broken into many phases to fit between feeding, comforting and generally tending to the needs of his lordship!

It makes me realise what an amazing growth path we all tread from these early days of helplessness and dependence and how many connections and influences it takes to get from here to adulthood. I look forward to taking this new perspective back into my work as I ease back into the land of the grown-ups with my first workshop coming up in June. I also look forward very much to catching up with old colleagues, may of whom I would also consider as friends, and making new connections. Til then, I hope to begin trickling a few passing philosophical thoughts back into my blog just to get the old cogs back in working order…assuming I have a spare hand free of babyrice

Life on the other side

racheljackson — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:08:21 +0000

As some of you will already know…the last couple of weeks have been a little chaotic and the fact that I’d spent the previous few weeks finalising my new Resilience programme has stood me in pretty good stead!

Firstly my motorbike was stolen – the sole transport for my partner to get to and from work without leaving me carless or requiring me to get up and take him to and from the train station. Secondly my partner was requested to carry out additional works on his property to deal with an urgent damp problem. So these two in my final weeks of pregnancy were a bit of a challenge to say the least.

Against this background, I went in to hospital late evening on the 29th October (3 days early) already 2cm dilated and with strong contractions and gave birth to Leo at 5.53am after a bit of a battle of wills – he wanted to stay in, Brad and I wanted him out

He is – as are all babies to the eyes of their parents – the most beautiful ever. Weighing in at 7lbs 4oz and with a thick head of chocolate brown hair he is feeding and sleeping well and we are both very proud of him.

Brad, for his part, added to the excitement by luring me down to the beach I have grown up around and proposing to me – so life continues to keep me on my toes and remind me that sometimes letting go of the plan and “not knowing” is the best move. I accepted of course so from a random, singleton encounter in the woods north of Chiang Mai, Thailand 18mths ago on a 3mth escapist jaunt, i am now a mother and bride to be…who’d have thought it…

My next challenge is learning to type one handed and at speed so that little Leo can enjoy his cuddles whilst I update my long overdue travel blog – that and learning to sleep in 2hr blocks round the clock

A change in priorities

racheljackson — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:05:03 +0000

Well…I have finally met my match! Having been advised, cajoled and directly requested by various caring friends, colleagues and relatives to “slow down, take it easy and enjoy your pregnancy”…it appears that I have finally been forced to do so by the very person most likely to benefit…my baby!

Having been filling time during my second trimester with designing a new Resilience programme for a client, landscape gardening and establishing a pond and having charged into my third trimester by driving to Wiltshire and back to run coaching sessions and developing a minor cottage industry making blackberry and apple crumble, I confess to having fallen at the final hurdle and have postponed the first pilot of my Resilience workshop until the Spring. I simply realised that the capacity of my body to deliver sufficient oxygen and energy to sustain a two day pilot training programme, away from home with the inevitable teething problems..at 36wks…it just wasn’t going to happen. I feel awful…but I eventually accepted that my health must come first.

So now my to-do-list seems to involve such tasks as packing my hospital bag, revising my relaxation techniques, reading up on the endless world of pain-relief at each stage of labour…and sitting admiring the view. The latter I have come to realise is not simply material but also psychological. The last few years have been a rollercoaster of change for me – moving out of London…and then again out of Derbyshire, setting up my new business, various relationship and geographical journeys and now a new life about to begin with my partner and baby…. I don’t think anyone could have sat me down and prepared me for it – and I’m not sure I’d have even have taken such a path had I known what it would entail before I started. And yet I regret not a minute of it. It has been the most amazing period of growth and the place I now find find myself I couldn’t ever have envisaged. I feel as if I have arrived…a little late and by a circuitous route maybe…but here at last. It feels good

I will post a note in one of those quiet moments once the baby arrives to let you know how it all feels on the other side of this transition. Until then…I wish you all the best and thank you all for the support, encouragement, guidance and forgiveness you have given me along the various steps of my journey. I look forward to working with you all again (not all at once you understand!) in the Spring.

Coaching Supervision

racheljackson — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:34:31 +0000

Due to a request from a colleague who attended the Coaching Accreditation training I completed in May 2010 with ITS, I have started providing coaching supervision to new and developing coaches. Feedback to date has been great – and I am finding the sessions really challenging and enjoyable. I already have one referral and have decided that I would love to explore this avenue further. If you are interested in coaching supervision or know someone who you think might like to discuss it – do get in touch.

Life in the Slow Lane

racheljackson — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:29:40 +0000

A couple of months back I asked a friend of mine – also pregnant – which week she was at. She looked at me…and stood for a bit…and said she wasn’t sure. As a vivid counter of weeks as they pass I was heartily shocked. How could anyone not know! Isn’t that akin to a 10 year old who doesn’t know how many weeks are left in the summer holidays?!

I don’t know if it’s time passing or my neurons sinking deeper into my belly area but I confess to having lost track of how many weeks have passed in my baby-production run. I think it’s about 28 but I wouldn’t want to be quoted! I also have to confess that I have no idea on earth how the pot of yoghurt I found on the doorstep last week got to be there. It could be something to do with two tasks clashing and some of the instructions getting lost…but I couldn’t tell you. I have entered the slow lane.

Whilst I have immensely guilty feelings when I think of all those mothers on full-time hours up to the moment their waters break…my slow-down situation is enforced by a choice of self employment two years ago which dictates that selling workshops and coaching when I probably can’t deliver a thing beyond September is both irresponsible and foolish. As a result I now occupy an interesting world of new emotions which I suspect will become more and more familiar as I shift from being a couple to being a family: the world of Not Knowing (and to not really being able to do much towards knowing either!).

When I leapt into self employment back in 2007, I felt trepidation it is true, but I felt both able and excited to be taking the reigns of my life; to making decisions about where to live, how to work, what to deliver to my clients. The world moved in familiar 3mth cycles between selling and delivering work and despite never really knowing precisely what was around the corner, there was some sense that I was driving the bus and could make sure that it went in roughly the right way.

Today, I sit, thinking about what I will be doing in just over 3mths and it’s like a blank wall. I know I should have a baby in my arms and I have a vague idea what that might be like (probably very naive) but no sense that i could be driving the bus. Take it forward to 6mths…9mths…my desire to take action and control starts to kick in…surely by then I will have found some form of routine, some confidence that I am back on the bus and will be planning my re-entry into work…but what does that require?? Will old clients still have me on their radar for running workshops and coaching? Will the wheels of word of mouth have lead to new enquiries…or to people assuming that I was “out of action” and unavailable for work? Should I be contacting people regularly throughout my child’s early months – to keep on their minds…or should I wait until I am actually able to commit to work with them? Should I be working on new approaches or products in the interim so that sales arrive on my Blackberry ready for the day I can no longer stand daytime TV and need intellectual challenge ? – or am I being naive to think I will be able to study/produce anything whilst tending to a newborn? Should I take on coaching work in those first few months or will that too be unrealistic?

For the first time in my life I feel totally “on hold”…and there isn’t even any annoying “waiting music” to keep me company! In fact, at the moment I’m not even sure who I’m calling, whether they’ll answer…or what I want to say to them if they do…

Is this one of those times in life to sit back and watch the river go by…or should I be paddling in some direction or other…?

If anyone has any thoughts or experiences to share…I’d love to hear from you…

All change please!

racheljackson — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:05:44 +0000

Well…after a week and a half offline I am now back online again…and it’s been an interesting period!!

Weekend One – I moved 90% of my possessions from Derbyshire to Suffolk including 2 cats and a bowl of tropical fish, and a van that, when opened revealed only the double mattress that my friends had jammed in at the last minute just to upset my pessimistic predictions that there was no way it would fit in!

Weekend Two – My partner moved about 60% of his possessions from his house in London to the shared house and we dealt with the wonderous battle of what goes where and who has the biggest TV!

Weekend Three – I run a workshop for GSK in Harlow and collect a few bits and bobs from London (and return the iron due to multiple irons onsite) and we move the final 10% of my possessions down from Derbyshire- namely the garden furniture and countless backbreaking pots of plants…ooh…and we have the 20wk scan on my growing belly!

Can anyone ask for more excitement in one go!!?

If you need to get hold of me – my mobile is still the same so drop me a line and I will be happy to pass on the new address.

The future ain’t what it used to be!!

racheljackson — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:48:15 +0000

Well….its been some time since I wrote a blog despite all my best intentions. But what what a time its been. I don’t think I could have fitted in more if I’d tried!!

A quick run down:

1. I have designed a new diagnostic to measure resilience. It is in its final design stages now and ready to pilot with an old client of mine that I am both very proud and very happy to be working with again. I very much look forward to building a workshop that will go from strength to strength within their leadership programme. If you want more details – just get in touch.

2. Due to point 4 below and the desire to simplify my existence, I have decided to disband the team that was to be The Resilience People. We are still planning to work together informally but have stepped back from the wealth of complexity surrounding company formations. I wish Marion and Jo all the best and look forward to working with them again in the future. This does not mean that we don’t believe in the concept or that the products around Resilience are also offline – just that we value the freedom and flow that comes with 3 creative individuals rather than a weighty company.

3 – I had a wonderful extended stay in Italy thanks to my friend Francesca and her fabulous Agritourismo in Barga (www.albenefizio.it) and to that gloriously unpronounceable volcano in Iceland. I am now amused to see the wealth of Volcano related tours being advertised in the windows of STA Travel in Victoria!

4 – I am moving to the next phase of my own personal development…the production of mini-me number one. As Francesca said to me as she joyfully wielded her hedge-trimmer to carve a chicken-shape into her box-tree…”People who don’t have children lead amazing lives…but they do not grow like you grow when you have children” . I am ready for the most amazing growth I have experienced yet – both physically and emotionally. All those years using the “management” of teenagers and toddlers as examples in my leadership training – and I finally get to understand the disbelieving laughter and bemusement of my clients as they consider my wise and utterly innocent words

5 – Just to top it off…my partners roll as temporary sole bread-winner necessitates a sacrificial move on my part – we will be moving south to my birhplace in Suffolk – to be nearer my family and his work. This should also mean more availability for lunching and obviously working in London – so do keep in touch. I will be back…as Arnie so eloquently put it!

Wolf…(forgive me – its a surreal day)

racheljackson — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:45:31 +0000

In the beginning, man hunting…meets wolf…wolf attacks and eats man….after all…it is a wolf!

Just after the beginning and a bit later, man hunting with stick…meets wolf…wolf attacks man…man hits wolf with stick and runs away. Better outcome for man…sore wolf

A bit later still, man hunting with fire-stick…meets wolf…wolf attacks man…man shoots wolf and makes hat from wolfskin. Not great outcome for wolf.

Some time passes…

Man worries about children and wolves – starts to build protection for wolves and children (separately of course).

More time passes…

Man hunting…sees no wolves…wolves learn fast! Man does see lots of rabbits…shoots rabbits instead.

Man begins to worry about wolves (or no wolves). Man worries about hunting…starts eating bread and green stuff. Man forms society for protection and study of wolves. Notices less green stuff and more rabbits…

Man studies wolf behaviour and food patterns. Man ties transmitters to wolves neck and becomes concerned about wolf environment. Man fights with other men who still like to shoot wolves because they worry about children and cows and green stuff. Man writes about wolves and rabbits and tells other men. Men become saddened and go to therapists with no hope for wolves, children, green stuff or cows. Men start drinking and watching sport to avoid thinking about the fate of wolves…

Wolf notices a little less food, a camera-man and a few fences…but gets on with living. After all…its a wolf…what is more important than living?