Hello, Clive here,

Happy mothers day!

Three weeks ago I left my wife and two young children. For clarification, it was planned and was only for a long weekend. I had first raised the idea around four years prior and it took all this time for me to get it off the ground. I promised myself a ‘get away’. The prompt was that I thought it would be an idea to go away for a period of isolation to reflect and recharge.Like all if not most of the people who read my missives, I am fully engaged in the cut and thrust of working life. For me, taking time out to go away and stop for a moment was a luxury I never thought I would get the opportunity to indulge in. Anyway, I did it. I left Central London on Friday afternoon and travelled 2.5 hours by train to a small village near Swanage in Dorset and stayed in a very comfortable cottage until late Sunday afternoon. It was excellent!

There is no facility to get on the internet, and the mobile phone signal was also very poor. This helped me to switch off - no pun intended. I did some walking and lots of thinking. By the way, if you have never been to this beautiful part of the country, I thoroughly recommend it. The views are breath taking.Now, I know that to some, the idea of going away alone in this way would be unthinkable. It was slightly strange, even though I travel on business alone for much of my working life.

What I found though, was that over the weekend, during the long moments of silence, I was able to refocus on important work and non work matters. I wrote down the key points.Nowadays, in the world of work, we can be bombarded with electronic information and surrounded by noise. Often, when I arrive at work early, I won’t switch on my computer for an hour or so while I do other things such as planning or reading. Try it; you’ll be amazed at how difficult it is to do.

In conclusion, I decided to write about my weekend away because I’m very aware of the huge amount of change happening across organisations at the moment. No one seems to be unaffected. For me, taking a moment to stop and think, worked wonders. You might not feel the urge to do what I did but you might find trying to carve out a moment of time for yourself useful. If you decide to do something similar to me, good luck!.

This is where I went

P.S I have written two books that are scheduled to come out later this month. I have already mentioned the one called ‘Win-Win: Resolving Workplace Conflict: 12 Stories’. The other book, which is much shorter, is called ‘Difficult Conversations - 10 Steps to Becoming a Tackler not a Dodger’. It is a practical ‘easy read’ handbook and audio book. I’ll say a little more about it soon.

Er, one more thing. The BBC has just finished showing a series called Britain at Work, presented by Kirsty Young. Perhaps you saw it. I thought it was excellent. If you missed it, but, like me, have an interest in the changing world of work, it is definitely worth attempting to find out how you can get to see it. It was on over the last four Friday evenings at 9pm - 10pm on BBC2.

Next 5 day accredited mediation training course - June 29th, London

Have a good week,