Time For Fun

This morning, me and five other adults sat around a table learning to bake. I used to go to our next door neighbours to do the same thing when I was just a little Trev. Up at the top of our steep road, I would also go to another house to do art lessons. At one stage I even had a crack at knitting. Although I gave up half way and my scarf became a pencil case. Still, it was a very nice pencil case. Little people always get to learn such fun stuff. I don't like the idea that we narrow down the subjects we focus on as we get older. I don't like the idea that we run out of time to play. Lifelong learning doesn't have to be continual professional development. It can also be making time for fun.

No Homework Project Mo

Almost 20 years ago I was involved in a charity that brought together students from the schools of Durban. There were three representatives from about 40 schools and we formed the Durban Youth Council. A shadow council along with town clerks, secretaries, mayors and sub-committees - allowed kids who were now becoming young adults to get actively involved in community service. While there was some adult support, the adults when I was there were just university students and so were learning the ropes themselves. It was a case of figuring it out.

While we also did non-financial community service like spending time in retirement homes and orphanages, a large part of what we did was fund-raising. We spent a lot of time doing raffles, looking for sponsorship, finding where help was needed and telling people about it. This was pre-internet so it required a lot of hustle, creativity and energy. One strong lesson I learnt was when we got towards the end of our time and thought we had done a pretty good job raising money. I can't remember the exact amount, but it was in the region of R10,000. A few of us met up in Johannesburg with some equivalent youth councillors from around the country to share ideas. It was there that I heard of the Joburg team's 'No Homework Day'. They had co-ordinated with the schools who had agreed to let every child who gave R5 do what the name of the day implies - have fun. This simple project had raised 10X what we in Durban had in a year full of events. Ouch.

Yes, Durban is sleepy relative to Joburg. Yes, Joburg has more money than Durban. The lesson I learnt though was the power of simple, catchy ideas and the power of networks. Joburg seemed more connected. People knew each other and it was easier to get the ideas out. This was a time when we either spoke once a week or had to make use of 'telephone pyramids'. Remember those? Each person calls three people who call three people spreading the broken telephone message. No smsses. No promise the person will be there to hear the phone ring. Joburg seemed better at that.

Fast forward 15 odd years (a very suitable summary), and I decided to get involved in Movember. I had heard of it but hadn't got involved because I was involved in marketing and was client facing. Looking the part is as John Cleese would say, very very very important. Despite his extraordinary level of importantness as a person, Cleese also has a moustache. I figured that since it was going to be a quiet month and the one meeting I had lined up was with a client with a moustache, I would give it a go. Towards the end of the month, a colleague challenged me to agree to dress as Charlie Chaplin to our end-of-year party if I could raise £1,000. I agreed. At the time this £1,000 was roughly equivalent to the R10,000ish I had been involved in raising with the Durban Youth Council. I did it. This freaked me out a little. How did growing some facial hair and being prepared to be a little silly (I am always prepared to be a little silly) allow me to raise more than a big group of us with huge amounts of energy? This was a 'no Homework project'. The guys who came up with Movember, had come up with something that could spread - It was fun, it was easy and it was a great cause. With the internet, you can get full transparency into how well they are spending the money, and what impact they are having. They publish a report card on the 832 projects in 21 countries in which they are involved with a primary focus on cancer and mental health. The focus of the energy can be on doing good work rather than on raising money.

The primary aim of the Durban Youth Council was not simply fundraising. I learnt a lot about working in volunteer organisations. We made some great friends and did a lot of non-financial community work. It is almost 50 years old now and from the snippets of news (and fancy website) they seem to be doing great work. The internet has helped everyone get better at connecting, and if we can stir up some community spirit with fun 'no homework project' ideas, it becomes easier to target our collective guns at the challenges we face.

Exciting times.

If you would like to contribute to my Mo Homework: http://mobro.co/trevblack. I thought I would add a little fro to my mo this year.

Seriously Fun

Fun is a great firestarter. When kids don't want to eat, you make the meal fun by adding colour or shaping it into a clown face. When kids don't want to learn, you turn it into a game. Inside every adult is a kid.

John McInroy (@JohnMcInroy) is doing a lot of good from an idea that was fun. He and his friend started wearing red socks on Friday to remember each other. The idea spread and became Red Sock Friday (@redsockfriday). We all witnessed the Ice Bucket Challenge and how quickly that spread. Because an issue is serious doesn't mean we have to be serious in our approach to raising awareness or in rallying the troops.

My inner kid loves Movember. It initially started as a bit of fun from a bunch of aussie mates. Seeing that there was very little awareness about testicular and prostate cancer, they decided to try create Movember as something similar to what is being done for breast cancer. The mo becomes the pink ribbon - but on your face. Since then MoBros and MoSistas have raised about £270 million across 21 countries supporting 581 projects.

I have worked for three companies and all three have been incredibly generous in their support for Movember. It has been a wonderful team building exercise and a great way to create a bit of office banter. It has also been particularly useful where offices are spread around the world. A little bit of healthy competition and a reason to send amusing updates helps people get to know each other.

I have tended to spice things up a bit by adding a forfeit. In 2010 I dressed as Charlie Chaplin to our Year End Party after reaching my target, the following year I ended up in drag with waxed legs, and the next a bald, grey-mo'ed Gandhi. I moved companies in 2013 and Movember was a particularly useful way of getting to know everyone. I wasn't quite brave enough to have an extroverted forfeit having only arrived two months before the start of Movember, but the firm was full of incredibly generous people and we managed to rally over 20 participants from around the world despite being predominantly client facing. The idea of Movember is now mainstream enough that executives participate.

With 10 days to go till the start of Movember, it would be great if you could start the office banter and get some teams together. Below is a clip from the founder of Movember telling the origin story.

If you are keen to join in, please do sign up, if you want to join my team - sign up here http://moteam.co/comoaltion.

2010-2011-2012

2013

Tough Stuff

Fun things often have rules. Rules often aren't fun. Blast. Chapter 3 of Steven Pinker's book The Sense of Style talks about The Curse of Knowledge and how 'the better you know something, the less you remember how hard it was to learn'. Part of this is the difficulty but another part is the lack of fun. Before something is exciting there has to be a spark of understanding or of inspiration. Once you have that flame burning, to teach or show someone something you need to be able to understand or remember what it is like without that. The early stages of learning something are often plain hard. The great teachers are the ones who can provide the energy or the drive to make it worth the hard slog up front. Perhaps they are even able to break a task down into small chunks when the hurdles are small enough to get a taste of the fun. To turn learning into a game.

Chapter 4 of Pinker's book is the bit that isn't fun. Grammar. Learning the rules is important since, as an example, it arms you 'when an editor or grammatical stickler claims to find an error in a sentence you wrote, but you don't see anything wrong with it, you can at least understand the rule in question well enough to decide for yourself whether to follow it'. Beyond just feeding your ability to defend yourself, having a solid foundation does allow you to have more fun later.

Source: www.harrybliss.com

Drills. Fitness. Theory. Discomfort.

Part of gaining an ability to be able to pick up new skills is figuring out how to enjoy the 'horrible bits'. Like learning to enjoy washing the dishes by doing it with a glass of wine and some music playing. There are those who love ironing because they set it up in space of the house they love, create an atmosphere they enjoy and it becomes meditative. For those tasks though, you don't have to be mentally present for the task. For things where you have to be present, there must also be tricks.

I think that is the main role of mentors, coaches, teachers, study-buddies, being part of a team, or even just wanting to be able to use the new ability to engage with people at a later stage - to get a spark going, or keep a flame burning to make the tough stuff worth while.

Raising the bar

Movember has just finished. I think the idea is great. The 'About' section of the website tells a little about the tale of Movember. The cause is serious. To quote a friend who participated...

'My Mo Aint serious...but ball cancer is.....FRIKIN BALL CANCER!!!!' DL


What I find fascinating is the way the idea spreads. From a standing start in 2003, each year they have raised more money and had more participants. It is an idea virus. Each year more people spread the meme. Last year Movember raised £48.5m and had about 447k participants (Mobros and Mosistas). This year about 850k people have raised about £70m.

Last year, I did it by myself in my office and raised £1423. This year 11 guys participated and we raised just over £8000 as a team.

It is a mix of fun and fundraising. Some people may find that to be a problem. Cancer is serious. So, they may feel a light hearted approach degrades things. That it becomes about being silly.

As the world becomes more and more empathetic, which is a good thing, it also means there are so many more things that get you down. The world is progressively becoming a much better, far safer, significantly wealthier and happier place. Movies like Avatar (which I enjoyed) may glamorise a hunter gather world, but don't be fooled. The world is getting progressively less violent.

What added empathy means is that we care about starving children in other countries. We even care when protesters get pepper sprayed in other countries. We care about people with clef lips who can't smile. We care about children whose parents smoke in the car with them. We care about children growing up as mercenaries in war torn countries. We care about people who lose their jobs. We care about people who have to retire a few years later than planned. We care about people who aren't exactly the same as us. We care about people from completely different cultures. Our caring recognises we are all human. In fact, our caring even extends beyond our species to animals of all shapes and sizes.

Some of these problems are 'first world problems' that pale in significance against others. That doesn't make them not worth caring about. It just means we have raised the bar.

But it can also feel overwhelming sometimes. All this caring. So, when some good comes out of a little silliness. I don't think that is bad. You can care, and do good through, while dressing the problem up with a little fun.

That is why I think the Movember Meme spreads. It is silly, and we like being silly. It is a visual way of people joining in the fun and doing some good.

Sounds like a win win.