Here’s the trail…….a colleague emailed me about MacNamara’s Fallacy, which was mentioned in an article, by David Haslam, in the Journal of the Royal College of Practictioners. I really liked the quote and set about hunting it down. Turns out it was first quoted in a book by Charles Handy, ‘The Empty Raincoat’ (ISBN 0-09-178022-5). I found a hardback copy on sale for a penny on Amazon Marketplace. It was written in 1994 and a lot’s happened in the world since then but this book is still a refreshing and insightful read. I guess I’m going to be hunting down some more Charles Handy books in the future because I really enjoyed this one. It is full of creative ways of thinking about life, and, in particular, work and business.
I’ll do individual posts on some of his main ideas because I liked them so much but one of thing that really struck me was the advice he gave to his children as they came of age and began to look for work. He told them not to look for a boss, but to look for customers. Wise advice and, it turns out, very relevant to how work was already changing, but especially how work has changed since the book was written. And it struck me that this advice fits beautifully with the heroes not zombies theme.
To find satisfaction in life, it’s best not to try and sign up for, as Charles Handy puts it “100,000 hours of your life” sold to someone else, but, instead to think what do I have to offer people? Or how can I gain the experience, knowledge or skills that will allow me to offer something to people? Once you know what you have to offer, you can begin to set out to find the ways to provide it.
Being a hero, is writing your own story of your own life. It’s about having the personal confidence in what you have to offer the world and setting out to share it.
Heroes Not Zombies 
[…] 1, 2008 by bobleckridge Charles Handy wrote ‘The Empty Raincoat‘ in 1994. Strange title, huh? It refers to a sculpture he saw – ‘Without Words‘ […]
[…] 2, 2008 by bobleckridge One of the concepts which Charles Handy writes about in The Empty Raincoat is the ’s’ curve. Here’s an example of one […]
Dr. Bob,
About five years ago, a patient came to see me, and I must have been tired or distracted, but I didn’t pick up on everything he wanted to tell me.
He went home and thought about it, and called me back. He was nice about it, but he said he didn’t get all his concerns addressed.
“Doc,” he said. “When I’m in that exam room, I’m your boss, and you shouldn’t ever forget that.”
I thought about that for a moment and said, “You’re right Jim. Come on back to the office and we’ll talk it over.”
He came back, and I pulled up a chair in my study, and gave him the time he needed.
To this day, I close every interview with him by saying, “O.K., Boss, did we cover it all?”
He laughs and says yes, so I guess I’m doing O.K. by him.
I am near retirement age, but still going strong. A long time ago I decided as a Family Doc I couldn’t get rich or starve to death either one, and I never worried about it. I didn’t make as much money as some folks, but it has been a very rich life.
Dr. B
Hey, as you already know, Dr B, you’re my kind of doctor!
I totally agree with your approach. And your values.
How refreshing that your patient managed to communicate with you so clearly and that you not only heard that but acted on it.
I think we need to do more of this kind of thing in medical training – without effective listening there’s no understanding and without understanding there are no effective treatments.
Money has never been my motivation in medicine either. But you’re right we doctors are well off financially. When I decided to leave general practice because the system was, I felt, stopping me being the kind of doctor I wanted to be, I only found the courage to stop by realising a doctor has a lot skills and will never starve.
I’m over a decade till retirement yet, but have a look at the post I put up today about the Third Age and tell me what you’re thinking about retirement please…..
[…] to that. Wikipedia reckons the Third Age, is the history of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings! In The Empty Raincoat, Handy describes four ages […]
[…] 4, 2008 by bobleckridge Another of Charles Handy’s useful concepts from his Empty Raincoat is the ‘doughnut principle’. He says to imagine an American donut (see how I changed […]
[…] 6, 2008 by bobleckridge In Charles Handy’s Empty Raincoat he tells a story of speaking to a successful winemaker in California. He asked this man what he […]