Pre Flight Checks

Holistic approaches to health protection result in more sustainable lifestyles such that robust health, and resilience to attack, require attention to all the dimensions of our being in Body, Mind and Spirit. Recently I’ve been considering that, for most of us, these dimensions wax and wane in importance as we go through life. In our youth our bodies and physical prowess dominate our psyche and before engaging in our day our typical pre-flight checks might ensure that teeth are clean, breath fresh, hair combed and makeup is properly applied. Attention is also given to whether our clothing projects the image we want the world to see - grunge, alluring, sharp etc. We are self-possessed with the emphasis on the physical as we explore our world through the senses. In mid-life we are often pre-occupied with our work and our sense of identity comes from what we do. Our journey home from work, and our return next day if not also the hours in between, is often devoted to mental rehearsals for meetings or revisiting those of the day just past. Our pre flight checks are concerned with gathering salient facts, analysing situations and planning on how to control events. Hands-free car phones encourage us to squeeze every productive moment from our day and be in office mode while still on the motorway. From a worldly perspective this is the really productive time of life when we establish ourselves professionally and socially and seek to provide for our own families. It’s too easy, during this busy time of life, to neglect those around us and so scuttle the very foundation of our relationships. At some point we ask ourselves ‘Why are we here?’ and the spiritual dimension of our existence comes to the fore. Stephen Covey used to refer to this as ‘spending all your life climbing the ladder only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall’. Only in recent years have I made a deliberate practice of spiritual pre-flight checks before starting my day. Based on the idea that we’re all one in spirit and have a unique role in the natural order of life, my ritual seeks to clear away ‘detritus’ from yesterday so that I approach each day with gratitude and openness to new experience. I also have a deep trust that my day is ordered perfectly for my growth and that I am a conduit of love and healing in the world. My role is to be of service. Interestingly, attention to the spiritual dimension of life demands of us that we protect our mental and physical faculties as best we can. Our capabilities fade naturally as we age but we now appreciate that being of service, for as long as possible, requires that we maintain physical and mental health. Finally, as we approach end-of-life, we must surrender our physical and often mental faculties. It’s through our dotage that we are of service by allowing others to care for us and to witness the inevitable decline that awaits them too. May my final pre flight checks ensure adequate supplies of courage, kindness, gentleness, acceptance and preparedness for the journey that needs no fuel.

Hallmarks of Cancer

Hanahan and Weinberg described the six ways in which cancer cells differ from ordinary cells – - Self-sufficiency in growth signalling - Insensitivity to anti-growth signals - Evasion of apoptosis (cell death) - Limitless replication potential - Sustained vascularity (angiogenesis) - Tissue invasion and metastasis As I think about these characteristics I’m struck by the similarities with our large corporate enterprises. When our banks have become ‘Too big to fail’ we definitely have a problem. Normal growth might reasonably be expected to reflect the needs of an organisation to respond to its markets and host communities. However, if an organisation becomes inward looking and inter-departmentally competitive, it is quite happy to grow internal fiefdoms simply because it can and at the expense of its customers and the communities which depend on it. Internal politicking can prevent balanced growth and result in the abandonment of moderating (anti-growth) influences. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. Internal demagogues persuade and bully their way to continued financial support – even at the expense of the health of the organisation. They have no sense of timely withdrawal, handover or graceful decline. Any ‘winning formula’ is quickly replicated to strengthen the functionality of departments. ‘Departmental angiogenesis’ is a process by which required resources are channelled to the departments and new pipelines established. Finally, in the competitive fray between departments, similar ‘winning formulas’ become established throughout the organisation resulting in a self-serving scramble for resources which the organisation cannot sustain. In short, customer service allows organisations to thrive; internal politicking causes them to die. Conventional approaches to managing such illnesses might involve the appointment of management consultants to ‘streamline’ operations, a euphemism for job losses – the corporate equivalent of surgery. Severe internal competition that requires workers to interview for a reduced number of jobs, closure of pension schemes, pension fund ‘holidays’, changes of ‘Ts and Cs’ etc can create a toxic environment that causes good people to leave. Such ‘corporate chemotherapy’ aims to bring the organisation to the point of death in the hope of saving it. Corporate radiotherapy might look like the victimisation / destruction of a particular department and holding it as an example to others of what happens to those who step out of line. Enlightened approaches to corporate health will in future ‘cure’ them by retaining the focus on why they exist at all – in the service of the whole and of their host communities. The emphasis will shift to creating ‘leaderful environments’ where local decisions are made using clear guidelines that refocus attention ‘back to basics’. Sadly, such common sense is seldom common and the ‘Slash, Poison and Burn’ model is likely to be with us for some time.