Learnings from the shed

I started making wooden art for our house a bit over two years ago (some of my creations are in the photo montage above). We have just refurbished the house and our walls were empty, it felt like living in a hospital. I have never had a creative hobby and I never imagined I would be able to make anything with my hands - no obvious skills nor experience. Whilst I still wouldn’t trust myself with a cabinet or a table (that requires much more precision than the ‘art’ I make), I have come a long way in my woodworking since those first days. I have learned different techniques - cutting, sawing, carving, sanding, burning, painting, waxing - and I enjoy the creative process tremendously. Recently I have been thinking about what I can apply from the hobby to the world of work. Here are the lessons I learned on the way.

Like a switch, adopt a learning mindset - the process of the work will be more enjoyable. For me, consciously adopting a learning mindset is literally like flicking a switch in my head and when I manage to do that, I get much more satisfaction from the process of discovery and development in my shed, figuring out to how to make a piece of art, what is the right sequence of steps, anticipating where I could go wrong. The same is true at work: when I am in the right mindset, I am more open to the views of others, to learn more about a topic before I act, to explore options rather than be narrowly focussed on my own ideas.

Test, fail, learn, do better - consider failures as learnings in disguise. Although this old adage, I found it remarkable how many lessons I can retain from the simplest piece of woodworking. Our house is now pretty full with with my work and walking past them I know where I haven’t gotten something right, the mistakes I should not repeat the next time, where something is out of line. Similarly, at work I am trying to adopt an approach of a 'post-mortem' to review learnings from an initiative and pre-mortems to test and break what we ‘built’ before we launch it to the organisation.

Enjoy the process as much as the outcome - it gives more meaning to the end result. Business is rightly focussed on the results though at times it can feel like a never-ending chase of the next task. In woodworking, at first I was too focussed on getting pieces done so that we can fill the empty walls, but over time I learned to allow myself to enjoy the process of the work more - the ‘flow’ I get during those few hours on the weekend when I am working the wood.

Feature your failed projects prominently (at least for you) - being reminded of them helps keep you humble. Despite my best efforts a few pieces have failed (and no doubt more in the future will). I put these up in my shed. As my shed is tiny I can’t avert my eyes, they keep me grounded and humble - I don’t know everything and some things will not work out.

Expand your limits - don’t listen to your mind if it tells you you can’t do something, try it first and you may be surprised. I started with what I considered was a simple project as I didn’t really trust myself at first. When that worked, I had the inclination to do more of the same, to slightly improve on it. But that first piece was a fork in the road (and as Yogi Berra once famously put it, “when there is a fork in the road, take it!”), and I decided to try something different. I was really worried about wood carving especially with an angle grinder that is loud and for me a dangerous tool. But the appeal of doing something new was too big so I too the plunge and went for it. The result was not particularly good but it taught me a lot of the limitations of the technique and of my own - learnings I have put to good use since then.

Weirdly, woodworking has given me confidence in my day job and as a person - there is less boundary between ‘work’ and ‘life’ than I assumed. I have had self-confidence issues in the past and through some wonderfully weird neural connections I still can’t quite explain, I have grown more confident in my abilities since I have been working with wood. For others it may be a different hobbu, but being able to make something, anything, from an inanimate object has boosted my self-esteem, a little bit like when Tom Hanks’s character in ‘Cast Away’ exclaims after he manages to make fire.

Use it as a balancing factor for mental well-being - it is a steam valve that can help you relax and recharge from the stresses of work. Like many hobbies and outside of work interests, woodworking has helped me cope with the pressures of work. Something to look forward to on the weekends, something to create when the work week was frustrating, something to endure when many a work effort seems to be wasted. Just me, the tools and the wood, intertwined and interdependent but in control.

The act of creating something that will endure is thrilling - my work is not high art of course but it will surely endure for a few years. At work, how can we carve/design jobs for more meaningful work that is rich in purpose and mission. I’m not naive, there will always be the mundane in most jobs (I have to clean up my shed after my projects after all which is far less exciting than the actual project) but giving people more meaningful work through job design will help them feel more full, more human and more engaged.

It may be that I am reading too much into this. The term ‘work-life balance’ implies a separation between work and life which is not true and the connections between what happens outside of work and at work seem stronger than I assumed. Life experiences can be just as enriching at the workplace as prior work experience. May I never forget that when I’m assessing people.