Letting intuition take the wheel
Four years ago I was listening to the radio while driving at work. The news at the top of the hour chattered away while I was thinking about, I guess, work stuff. The announcer finished one story, took a…
How I finished my book project
“If you think you can, or can’t – you are right.” – Henry Ford, 1947 I thought my first draft of my book was terrible, and I probably would have stopped there if it wasn’t for Stuart. I…
Get ready to shape an organisation’s conversation about EVP
The limits of my language means the limits of my world. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein Much is talked about in organisations about values. Less is talked about regarding value. Confused? This is a common situation. Values are something…
Resettlement Training – radically rethinking how you occupy yourself
Many years ago when I was in the Navy, one of the supports they provided all military staff when they left the “Service” was what they called “Resettlement Training”. Every member was entitled to this as it consisted of…
Creating safe spaces to inhabit in your workscape
Most conversations about psychological safety at work focus on how a leader will create conditions within a team context. That’s a great conversation to have. However, it’s not the only conversation to have. Safety defined by self ‘Safety’…
The best laid plans
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” ~ Robert Burns A few years ago, I heard a speaker during one of those leadership conferences talking about their Plan A and Plan B. It was basically…
Taking off in mid-life with new challenges
I was forty when I learnt to fly. I was ten when I decided I wanted to fly – like Superman. I had a red cardigan I would do up the top button and wear like a cape. Then…
Finding a way to do it all
When you’re ambitious with stacks of things you want to achieve, it’s common to try and do everything all at once. To set big goals for multiple areas of your life at the same time, then get frustrated with…
Welcome to the green room
I was recently talking to someone and found myself using the green room as an analogy for a period of waiting. Green rooms came into being in the world of theatre; they are rooms backstage where performers hang out…
Creativity+
Dictionaries provide useful definitions of creativity. Wiser souls offer their own wonderful interpretations – e.g., Ken Robinson describes creativity as “…the process of having original ideas which have value.” Mulling over how I play with and apply creativity, in…
On deflated footballs and ugly ducklings
I wish I’d taken my phone with me on my walk beside Merri Creek early this morning. I would have liked to get a couple of photos. One was of a cyclist who had zipped his whippet snugly into…
I’m not doing email, I’m relating with people
I’m not new to digital technology for communication. I’ve been on social media now for about two decades. Starting with Facebook in Feb 2006, followed by LinkedIn in 2008, blogging, Twitter and then Instagram. I’ve had a personal email…
Check if feedback is what they really want
Making creative work can be a lonely business, certainly for people working by themselves on a book or composition or artwork or some other solo enterprise, but even for people who are a part of a small team of…
So you want to work for the United Nations?
I never wanted to work for the United Nations. I didn’t understand exactly what they did or their value. I came across them while living and working in Rome, after having decided to stop off there for a while…
Moving On
A reflection one year on from Surviving bullying in the workplace I was crouching in the corner of the living room last week and it dawned on me that my old workplace was perhaps the most insincere place…
