Charles Handy - part II

When you get to my age, the urge to look back and take stock is fairly irresistible – what, you ask, has life been for?

David Brooks (in The Road to Character) identified two very different ways we answer that question – what he called “CV and eulogy values” respectively. The latter, the more thoughtful, evoked the values we would like to be remembered for - rather than the more partial CV stance we push at prospective employers….Few writers have given such a profound set of answers to this question than Charles Handy whose dozen or so books – many with “confessional” aspects - are constantly touching on the issue. The last post focused on a 2007 memoir of his which I had pulled out a few days ago from the great library I have in my Transylvanian mountain house.

Thanks to the Internet Archive website, I’m reading a Handy book I’ve never before had the chance to explore - Beyond Certainty – the changing world of organisations, a collection of essays he produced in the late 1980s containing the germs of “The Age of Unreason” (1989) and “The Empty Raincoat – making sense of the future” (1994) 

What exactly is it in Handy’s writing which has so captivated me since I first came across his “Understanding Organisations” almost 50 years ago??

·       Is it his blunt honesty?

·       The elegant and unassuming nature of the uncertainties he expresses?

·       The accidental nature of the life he describes?

·       The turning points he so vividly describes?

·       The clarity and almost spiritual quality of the writing? 

Of course, we are all different in the way we respond to writing – and so much therefore depends on what we grew up on. I’m of the generation raised on the likes of Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley, Reinhold Niebuhr, Arthur Koestler and EH Carr - with authors such as Ernst Schumacher, Robert Fisk, David Korten and even George Orwell appearing somewhat later

Looking now at Handy’s life, it suddenly becomes very clear to me that the reason his writing makes such an impact is that he was somehow motivated to change his career every decade or so - and therefore falls into the category of those who have crossed critical boundaries and who, as a result, have this capacity to see the world differently from the rest of us.

The boundaries I’m referring to may be geographical, intellectual or class – but somehow, when individuals cross them, they find themselves so profoundly challenged that they both make new connections in their thinking and express themselves with such clarity – perhaps because they have become more sensitive to the complexities of language. It’s the spark of originality 

That’s perhaps why he has the rare knack of anticipating the future – somehow he’s able to peer into the tea-leaves and help us make sense of the new worlds are emerging and to do so in the most crystal-clear and elegant of language. He did this first in The Future of Work (1984) when he coined the phrase “portfolio work” to describe how our careers in future would be a mixture of time-limited projects and also invented (in "The Age of Unreason” 1989) the phrase “shamrock organisations” to describe the form the organisations of the future would take – the (small number) of core workers; those on contract; and part-time workers. His books have had an increasingly chatty approach – helped probably by his experience of doing a lot of “Thought for the Day” pieces for the BBC which taught him, he says, to compress his thoughts into 450 words or so. For a very graceful assessment of Handy’s role and significance see this article 

He’s reached the advanced age of 88 – and I was delighted to discover that he produced what may well be his last book 21 Letters on Life and its Challenges which takes the format of short epistles for his grandchildren - summing up what he feels he’s learned about life. It’s such a delightful read that, for my own benefit, I made a note of the main points of each of the chapters – which you’ll find in the hyperlink in the title above. 

Chapter Title	Key Points
Things Will Be Different	List of some key words whose meanings have changed dramatically in a lifetime (“chip used to be piece of wood or fried potato”) and the scale of change in that period – not least work. We are now “Creatives, Carers or Custodians”
The Human Imperative	But the really big issues and questions don’t change. “Trust but verify”
Life’s Biggest Question	Emerson’s advice – “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded” Doing the best you can with what you’re best at
God or What?	In the new diversity, can we tell right from wrong? Aristotle has twelve virtues:  1) Courage – bravery and the willingness to stand up for what you think is right; 2) Temperance – self-control and restraint;  3) Liberality – kindness, charity and generosity;  4) Magnificence – radiance, joie de vivre;  5) Pride – satisfaction in achievement;  6) Honour – respect, reverence, admiration;  7) Good Temper – equanimity, level-headedness;  8) Friendliness – conviviality and sociability;   9) Truthfulness – straightforwardness, frankness and candour;  10) Wit – sense of humour;  11) Friendship – camaraderie and companionship;  12) Justice – impartiality and fairness
Everyone Can Be Wrong	Closed and open answers; Galileo and Copernicus; Handy’s portfolio/clover idea – and the initial reaction against it
Curiosity Does not Kill the Cat	Travel with curiousity in your backpack
How Clever Are You?	Different ideas on the subject (Howard Gardiner). Schools have a strange notion “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who” (Kipling).
Life Is a Marathon not a Horse Race	Defects of competition; Be your own master
Who You Are Matters more than What You Do	His wife photographs subjects with 5 objects to illustrate their different identities.  Idea of “street wisdom”
Keep It Small	Edmund Burke’s “small platoons” Robin Dunbar’s organisations of no more than 150 and key groups of 5, 15 and 45. Federal systems best
You Are not a Human Resource	Pity Drucker used the management word – “work should be organised; things managed and people led”
You and Society	Complicated letter – suggesting we have excessive regulations; that rep democracy should be upheld
Life’s Changing Curves	We should start afresh before we are forced to
Enough Is as Good as a Feast	The Bushmen had a 15 hour week – then money poisoned everything (Rousseau) Handy separate NEEDS from WANTS (concept of free work)
It’s the Economy, Stupid	His father’s “stipend”; His wife’ separation of “investment” from “consumption” “Money and fulfilment are uneasy bedfellows”
‘We’ Beats ‘I’ all the Time	If there is a common purpose; Never take friendship for granted
When Two Become One	He confesses to selfishness in how he treated his wife
What You Can’t Count Matters More Than What You Can	“McNamara fallacy” means that much of life gets pushed into 3rd or 4th place.. eg love, hope, kindness, courage, honesty and loyalty
The Last Quarter	future generations can look forward to last 25 years of their life being free of financial worried
You Are Unique	We have 3-5 identities
My Last Words	What he recommends for his grandchildren - Learn a foreign language, a musical instrument, a sport (individual better); write a diary and fall in love

 Some Videos

There are all too few videos of the man. But this is one which starts with an appreciation of Peter Drucker and then makes some great points including the importance of listening to what people say – not least oneself!

And then a more recent one whose sub-titles valiantly try but completely fail to catch what his faint Irish brogue is actually saying.