The Importance Of Having A Personal Vision

Around five years ago, my previous company was in the midst of tackling the challenge of growing from a small to a medium sized company.  During that period, I spent a lot of time trying to convince people that it was crucial for us to have a company vision.  How else would we know which of the many opportunities that came our way we should take and which ones we should let pass us by?  How else could we be proactive instead of reactive?

After a couple of years of me banging the ‘vision drum,’ a friend asked me “well what’s your personal vision.”  My personal vision?  The question caught me off guard.  My friend persisted – “isn’t having a personal vision more important than having a vision for the consulting firm you work for?”

As I pondered this question, it occurred to me that I had always been very comfortable with change in my professional life and very scared of change in my personal life.  Could it be that this was because I didn’t have a guide to help me decide which of the many personal opportunities that came my way fit and which did not?

So I researched personal visions and I found a few methods to help with articulation – like writing your own eulogy or the speech you want to hear on your 64th birthday.  After playing with a main articulation for a while, I started thinking about how my main statement would manifest itself in different parts of my life – with my family, friends, work, hobbies, etc…  And then I worked on developing 5 year and 1 year goals based on my vision.  Finally, I developed a daily planning spreadsheet so that I could start keeping track and ensuring that I was investing my time and energy in alignment with my vision and goals.

As a result of this investment in my vision and goals, I have become much more comfortable with change in my personal life and I have lately taken several big steps – like leaving my cushy and well paid career of 14 years to join EWB, moving to Toronto, and most recently buying my first place!!! 

That’s right – the deal just closed today and I am now the proud owner of a condo in downtown Toronto.   My next step is to get it painted and get my furniture shipped out.  Hopefully I will be moved in within a couple of weeks.

My place is right in the heart of downtown Toronto and is only about 1km from the office.  It also includes access to a massive 30,000 square foot super club facility that has a full basketball court, squash court, pool, bowling alley, gym, etc… 

(Note that the furniture is the previous owner’s and will not be staying)

To all of my friends who bet this day would never happen, time to pay up! 😉

If An EWBer Were To Get Elected…

I hate to say admit it, but I am not that knowledgeable about Canadian politics.   Growing up on the west coast and being bombarded with US television, Canadian politics has always seemed a bit boring and distant to me.  Since joining the EWB National Office and learning more about our advocacy work, however,  I have become increasingly excited about Canadian politics and the potential for our involvement to help drive significant change.  

So I asked some of my coworkers for political book suggestions.  I assumed that they would direct me to some big boring history books, but their first suggestions turned out to be two humorous novels entitled ‘The Best Laid Plans’ and ‘The High Road’ by a local writer names Terry Fallis.

The novels are about an old Scottish Mechanical Engineering Professor from the University of Ottawa who accidentally gets elected to parliament when he makes a deal with a young ex-Liberal party speech writer-turned-English Professor in order to avoid teaching first year English for Engineers.  Once elected, the Professor and his young political tutor tumble into a series of mishaps and adventures  that demonstrate how an engineer’s logical mindset can be powerful in the world of politics.

In addition to learning a bit about Canadian politics, I highly recommend these novels for the following reasons:

• They are really funny.  I even laughed out loud a few times!
• Many of the situations in the book highlight the Global Engineering mindset (GE is an EWB program designed to encourage engineers to become more globally responsible).  Note that the author actually graduated with an engineering degree before going into politics and then marketing/public relations.
• The Engineering Professor builds a hovercraft and what engineer doesn’t love hovercrafts?
• At one point, the Engineer/MP is asked to lead an investigation into a bridge failure that leads to conclusions about investment in infrastructure.  The conclusions he reaches have significant parallels to EWB’s Ghanaian Government & Rural Infrastructure (G&RI) and Malawi Water/Sanitation work.
• Like me, the author is a fan of Mark Twain (who is quoted in the book) and John Irving (who has clearly influenced his writing style).

This week’s focus on political advocacy is appropriate given that three of the four EWB Social Change Fellows who are wrapping up their summer internships at the office this week all spent a significant amount of time furthering our advocacy work.

Duncan and Erin (on the left) were both part of our advocacy team for their entire placement.  Daniel (second from the right) was focused on Fair Trade and other parts of our Canadian Programs, but he also contributed significantly to our advocacy work.  Menel (on the right) helped to support our Africa Programs over the past four months.

We had a celebration for all four of the SCFs on Thursday because Duncan had to finish up early so that he can get down to Harvard where he is starting law school next month.  Erin and Menel will be leaving after this coming week; however, Daniel has just signed on for another year at the office.

I was incredibly impressed with this group of SCFs.  They all contributed enormously and underwent significant personal growth.  We can expect great things from all of them in the future.   Who knows – maybe one of them will eventually even get elected to parliament…