Birthdays Are Busy

Okay, so I said 2 weeks and it’s 3.?? In my defence, it was my birthday as well, and during the weekend time I would normally have written this blog, I was otherwise engaged.??? February is always a time of mixed emotions for me.?? I’m not a huge "birthday person", when it’s my own birthday anyway, but growing up in Australia, my birthday always coincided with fun things, like end of summer barbecues, the launch of the Ministry of Sound annual, the Sydney Mardi Gras, and family and friends generally being around to celebrate with.?? No one moves to London in anticipation of the fabulous weather, but to say that a birthday in February in this part of the world compares less favourably to one in Brisbane or Sydney summertime under-eggs the birthday cake batter.?? February is a time of winter sun get-aways and ski holidays, so friends are often away.?? Pair that with a best friend whose birthday is 3 days before mine, and the opportunity to be a “birthday person” is somewhat diminished.?? Not to be defeated, said best friend and I share a birthday celebration each year to gather whichever friends are braving the end of February in London and have a good time despite the inclement…. Everything.?? This year we found an Australian restaurant with a dessert speciality that will warm the heart of the most miserable Australian – a deconstructed, and amazingly elevated golden gaytime.?? Chocolate and caramel and ice-cream and biscuit crumb….. Heaven on a side plate, and a happy birthday to us!

To the month of February and it’s lessons in review.

At Insight222 February saw more advisory work with senior HR folk thinking about the way that their People Analytics function could influence employee and business outcomes, either through enhancing HR delivery to employees and business leaders, and/or through direct consultation with business leaders, answering questions about the workforce that keep them up at night.?? Delivering learning programs for a couple of HR teams, aimed at improving their capabilities in asking good questions, formulating hypotheses, analysing and summarising data to insights and storytelling ready for decision making, as always, made an appearance, and a continuation of the research into effective operating models of people analytics teams featured heavily.??? Early February also saw the first of Insight222’s Peer Meetings of the year.?? Having been a member of the Insight222 People Analytics Program as the function leader in my previous two roles, I was familiar with the format of a peer meeting.?? Excellent content, delivered by excellent speakers, providing inspiration for our community from senior HR leadership, as well as a showcase of leading practice in people analytics from the meeting host, and other speakers from the community.?? This was my first peer meeting “from the other side” so to speak, and I can tell you that the experience is no less enriching for the team at Insight222 than for our clients.?? I was inspired by the distance to be travelled in the distribution and democratisation of people insights because of the strongest of foundations in data governance.?? The re-enforcing of thinking about organisation strategy as an ecosystem of processes and actors across the c-suite, HR and Finance, and the tremendous power in seeking to measure the impact of people analytics projects, and the HR interventions they serve, beyond the financial impact to bottom line numbers.?? I was also unsurprised by, but made much more aware of the mammoth effort that creating and managing an excellent event like this takes.?? The forward planning, curating of content, thoughtful arrangement of seating, down to logistical support in navigating the mysterious paths of Canary Wharf are a wonder to behold in action.?? I have an even greater appreciation for the value I found in attendance than ever.?? If you’ve ever wondered what and Insight222 Peer Event is all about – you can read a bit more about it in my colleague Naomi Verghese ’s article here.

At school, attention turned from academic learning to more practical skills development as we have been taught to be reflective practitioners.?? We have listened to, and responded to ourselves as coaches, self-correcting for instances of leading or closed questioning, and understanding how to continually connect our clients with their own resources.??? I’ve found this learning process to be excellent.?? I’m pretty practical by nature, and the opportunity to improve by doing, learn the difference between in person and digital coaching, as well as seeking new tools and methods to encourage my clients to solve their career challenges and make decisions about their next steps confidently has been both challenging and rewarding.?? I’ve learned much about myself in the process, where I am most likely to seek to help by doing, rather than maintaining and containing the coaching space, and the tools that I am able to use myself to ensure the best outcomes for both my client, and me.

Lastly, I’ve learned that life is all about prioritisation.?? I am a member an F45 studio.?? As much as I love my F45 friends, and the workouts themselves, I found across the end of 2023, and January, that I was making almost any excuse to not prioritise the 45 minutes to get that workout in.?? So in February, I signed up for “The Challenge”.?? 45 days of deliberately prioritising the workout, the nutrition, the alcohol-free days…. You name it.?? And in the third week of the challenge, the last week of February, the week I turned 41, I won challenger of the week, having prioritised finding those 45 minutes 5 (or 6) days a week.??? Priorities may change, but for now, I’m feeling like this mid life opportunity is going well! Plus… I won an F45 towel! Happy birthday to me!