The 3Rs of Holidays - How will you get yours?
It’s holiday season people. Schools are out (in a good way, not a lockdown way), people are taking time off work and the heatwave…….has ended!! It must be British summer time!
Holidays are hugely important and never more so than after the last 18 months we’ve been through. Whether you’re knackered because you’re one of the people who have kept us going through this pandemic, or drained because of the toll the pandemic has taken on your life, or sad because you’ve experienced loss or even excited and positive about the new opportunities that we have before us, holidays matter.
They matter because they enable us to rest, recover and reflect - what I like to think of as the 3Rs of holidays. The 3Rs are essential components of our well-being, happiness and performance at work. The ideas that people don’t need holidays, or that they are a luxury or that people who don’t stay connected to the workplace while they’re taking a holiday are somehow less committed are outdated, misinformed and short-sighted. It matters less what you’re doing with your holiday time - this year more of us will holiday in the UK, or stay at home. What matters is the time to take a break. Time to do something different. Time that allows our heads to get into a different headspace.
This year, I’ve spoken to so many people who work in the public sector who even more so than at other times, feel like they are on a hamster wheel that they can’t get off. Hugely committed to keeping things going, frustrated that they can’t get to focus capacity on the changes they know are needed to improve lives and constantly reacting the the changing circumstances that we are all living with. As we begin to be in a position where we can lift our heads and start to think about what next, we risk missing huge opportunities unless we make time to rest, recover and reflect.
Rest & Recover
Time to get off the hamster wheel
We have all learned so much this year, our thinking has changed, the world has shifted. There are many theories of change that say the best time for change to happen is in a crisis. Well we’ve spent a year or more in crisis. Things have changed forever. Things we thought weren’t possible have happened. Things we took for granted as normal became unavailable to us. This is seismic. And we have a choice. We try to go back to how things used to be (although personally I think that ship has sailed and we can’t go back because all the reasons we used to hear for maintaining the status quo have been blown out of the water). Or we give our minds time to rest. With rest comes recovery as we replenish and re-energise. And as we recover, something amazing happens in our brilliant minds. We start to reflect. We start to make sense of what’s happened. What was good about it. How we deal with what was bad. And then, we start to reflect on the art of the possible. What did I learn? What matters? What’s possible that I didn’t think was? What am I going to let go of forever? Where do I want to put my energies going forward? What’s the life I want to lead? What sort of person do I want to be?
Our amazing brains
When we rest, we recover. With recovery comes reflection.
I’m not even talking about conscious reflection. I’m not suggesting you say right, today, I’m going to have a reflections day. This stuff happens naturally………if we let it. But for it to happen, we need to give our brains space to rest and recover.
I’m sure most of us have worked for bosses in our time who, for whatever reason, haven’t felt able to take a proper holiday. I worked for one person who while he was on holiday, I could predict what time I’d receive emails from him - it would be when he was walking his dog and he was far enough up a mountain, away from his wife that he wouldn’t “get in trouble for working”. Or another boss whose wife was so exacerbated with him constantly checking his emails that she threw his mobile in the pool!! Funny stories to tell in the pub but there’s a much more serious side to them. Not only do these behaviours risk a drop in the longer term performance for the people doing them, they send messages to teams that say if you want to get on, you need to work while you are on holiday. They say, I don’t value rest and reflection so if you want me to value you, don’t take time to rest and reflect. They say, I’m indispensable and I don’t trust you lot enough to look after things while I’m away. Hmmm, not where we want to be. And in fairness to my two ex-bosses, not at all where they intended to be. They were both really good people and on reflection, probably didn’t have the right circumstances around them to make them feel like they could take time out.
Personally I want to work with people who have time to think. Who feel able to step off the hamster wheel and take some control. Who feel able to prioritise. Who take time to build relationships built on trust so that they feel able to step away and take time out because they know they have brilliant people around them who will keep the ship moving while they are away. People who want to explore the art of the possible in the context of what’s become possible. And I know that lots of other people feel the same because it’s what I’m hearing when I’m talking to people in organisations.
So lets all do ourselves the biggest favour this year. When it’s our time to take a holiday, let’s take a proper break and let the 3Rs work their magic. Imagine the collective force of all that reflection as we come back rested, re-energised and buzzing with ideas for how we make what could be happen. And hey, if the ideas don’t flow but you still get the rest and recovery, that’s OK. You’ve still done yourself plenty good and you’ll perform better when you’re back in work.
And on that note, I’m off on my holidays. So, I’ll be taking a short break from my weekly blog but I’ll be back at the end of summer with more Secret Musings of a Change Agent as well as plenty thoughts, reflections and learning about how we make change happen. Happy holidays!!!
