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Insights

People are my library, my writing inspired by what I learn: ideas, inspiration, wisdom, and sometimes some eclectic whimsy for good measure, all centred around #OpenLeadership. At the heart of all of this is that I write to share learnings and to discover my thoughts. Over the years i have written (mostly) daily, over 2000 posts and 1,000,000 words (that last part blows my mind, tbh!). Enjoy browsing.

Land the plane

Land the plane

I’m “slow reading” (actually “slow listening”, on Audible) “The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. In fact, this is the fourth time I’ve posted one of the ideas I’ve found when dipping into this short book, the first time being over four months ago. (You can find those prior...

Land the plane

Consider how different your experience of the world might be if you engaged in every activity with the attention you might give to landing a…

Easing back on from being “off off”

Easing back on from being “off off”

Friday, Sep 24th marked the 1444th day (ie nearly four years) in a row that I posted daily since beginning this blog. I then took ten days to "switch off", choosing a quiet and slowed down vacation at the location shown above. Yes, it was as peaceful as it looks. On...

Pausing the Blog

Pausing the Blog

Pause icon multimedia entertainment perforated paper This is the 1444th day in a row where I have posted on this blog, so almost four years of posting every single day. I often encourage clients to take breaks to recharge. Though I love writing every day, I am also...

Drop the pink elephant

Drop the pink elephant

If I say to you "Don't think about the Pink Elephant!", what are you thinking about? Yes, the Pink Elephant. It is November 2004. I had just finished speaking to five hundred tourism industry professionals at a national tourism conference in Scotland and I had overrun...

Balancing Tradition and Innovation

Balancing Tradition and Innovation

This week I had the privilege to be given a tour of the production facility of a third-generation family business by one of the current generation. One of many resonant moments was when they proudly showed me a piece of equipment their grandparent had installed so...

Recovery is part of training

Recovery is part of training

I recall when my two oldest sons were competing at swimming at a high level. They trained over well over 20 hours a week, then had university studies to do. Aside from that they mostly ate and slept. I learned from them that this was not aimless, it was planned out....

Thinking is really silent talking

Thinking is really silent talking

“To look at life without words is not to lose the ability to form words- to think, remember, and plan. To be silent is not to lose your tongue. On the contrary, it is only through silence that one can discover something new to talk about. One who talked incessantly,...

If Covid never goes away, what does that mean?

If Covid never goes away, what does that mean?

The #OpenLeadership Model On September 10th, in "Listening for Context", I talked about how I had observed in many meetings in my time in Cayman what was NOT being said. Specifically that nobody was ready to talk about what it would mean to re-open the borders. I...

What does this visual make you feel?

What does this visual make you feel?

Chart of the Week from Section 4 This week Roland Harwood asked this question on LinkedIn: What (or who) have you changed your mind about recently?I heard this question the other day which got me thinking and I found it very hard to come up with an answer, which I...