MY INTRODUCTION

A Life of Opportunities

Some recognized, some created, many acted upon.

Please, come and sit with me for a moment.

I’d love to tell you a little about the wonderful working opportunities I’ve had as a way of you knowing a little about my history.

Who am I?

I’m;

• a facilitator, a promoter of empowerment, an analyzer
• always trying not to be a rescuer
• an outcome focussed achiever
• a visionary, I see and understand detail, but try not to let it derail me.

In the beginning

When I started my nursing training, it was the old apprenticeship system before university enrolment. As students, we worked full time as we learned.

Somehow, I always managed to be in the right place at the right time, meaning I had the most unusual and extraordinary experiences in critical care areas, emergencies, and theatre. Although unaware of it at the time until I compared notes with other students, I didn’t appreciate my situation as unique, as I thought my fellow colleagues experienced it, too.

With the advantage of hindsight, I realized these were incredible opportunities.

I was thirsty to learn, to understand processes, and adhere to policies for positive outcomes.

My focus was always on the result, but the journey was where I excelled. If I saw what others called a problem, I addressed it. A convoluted process? I simplified it.

For me, the journey was always about an opportunity to achieve an effective and efficient outcome in the smoothest, most viable way.

I believe those who build or create have a greater understanding of achieving through processes because they experience the vision of the completed model without much effort.

I found a gap in the service delivery as I completed my nursing training, addressed it, and, as a result, created a position for myself.

Voila, another opportunity.

New horizons

My partner was a policeman, so we transferred with his role. I didn’t recognize the impact of what I kept achieving until I took on a role in a large Sydney hospital.

I was given considerable freedom in a unit with a history of high staff turnover and encouraged to reorganize it. I was pleased to see my vision become a reality as processes and patient transfers ran more smoothly.

Voila, no problems, only opportunities for solutions.

We moved to the country, and I suffered from a distinct lack of retail therapy, especially for children. There was an empty shop, so I rented it, made, and painted my own signage, and set it up to sell children’s clothes and bedroom linen.

I managed to depict the window displays of children’s bedrooms so well, I sold the furniture almost every other week, as well as the bed linen and accessories. It was back to the city for more stock!

On the move again

We moved to Canberra and initially rented a home from one of the bigger retail giants at the time. He called in to introduce himself the day we moved in and offered me a job after a brief chat (because of my “retail management background”). As the hours suited, I accepted the opportunity and reorganized one of his enterprises.

My focus was always on the result, but the journey was where I excelled. If I saw what others called a problem, I addressed it. A convoluted process? I simplified it.

You may gather from this story I was a whirlwind with abundant energy.

I was.

From the following year, I worked full-time shift work, studied university part-time, created clothes, soft furnishings, and interior design. In my spare time I volunteered, and taxied kids to sports.

And another move

On a term transfer, we lived two years in Darwin; I walked straight into a job in a birthing suite before our furniture arrived. I knew nothing about the wet season. We were in the middle of it, and there were vacancies as agency staff flew home to the UK.

I was an advocate for empowering women by supporting them in achieving the kind of experience in birthing they envisaged. I found after the enlightened women of Canberra, the Darwin populous was a long way behind in thinking and philosophy.

I was troubled, chaffed, and chewed on my tongue; my wings were clipped; I slowed in my enterprises with my momentum held back. One friend, in a farewell speech, applauded my colleagues’ achievements in slowing my pace to suit the laid-back lifestyle of the locals.

Interestingly, I always had the notion of automatic doors opening more slowly in the tropical port of Darwin than anywhere else in Australia.

The two-year stint gave me pause.

Back in Canberra

Returning to Canberra, I changed my focus to the National Public Service employment.

Here, I found an absolute smorgasbord of opportunities, sideways moves, new positions, created positions, and promotion. Three of the varied positions I held in the Department of Health were newly created ones.

Smoothing feathers

The most diverse position was one I enjoyed more than others. I helped to draft legislation; I traveled to all states and territories as a training facilitator for week-long residential workshops educating national staff.

I’d travel to “acute assessment” areas and troubleshoot crisis problems; manage disgruntlement; analyze funding issues; offer support with management issues.

These negotiated crisis situations were still opportunities to develop better policies and processes. I was in good company here, as John F Kennedy said,

When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters — one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.

My position was an excellent leadership role as it included opportunities, positive outcomes from sometimes difficult and hostile situations, the ability to practice communication and negotiation skills, the oversight of education, consultants, and committees, and research.

Ann Landers says,

opportunities are disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.

Is it luck, hard work, opportunity, or skill?

I believe those who build or create have a greater understanding of achieving through processes because they experience the vision of the completed model without much effort.

Many friends and colleagues spoke about how lucky I was to have such exciting and varied roles. I don’t believe luck has anything to do with what one takes on in life. My advice to anyone looking for a challenge (or hard work) is to take an opportunity and run with it, or better yet, create your own.

My position was an excellent leadership role as it included opportunities, positive outcomes from sometimes difficult and hostile situations, the ability to practice communication and negotiation skills, the oversight of education, consultants, and committees, and research.

I invite you to turn invitations or challenges into whatever you want. You may call it a silver lining, but I call it serendipity.

The unexpected, beneficial outcome of my opportunities.

Some other stories you may find of interest to you.