My Library
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.
Completing a Pause
A beer on the terrace on a perfect late summer day on the Isle of Bute. This week at the Craigberoch Decelerator Lab has been a wonderful pause, full of learning and sharing. I completed my pause by allowing a few hours before getting the ferry, train and flight back...
Completing a Pause
This week at the Craigberoch Decelerator Lab has been a wonderful pause, full of learning and sharing.
Create a small group of expert people
Create a small group of expert people with a diverse range of skills and experiences and high levels of peer trust to challenge the status quo and each others ideas. Thanks once again today to my brilliant friend Ian Armiger, who is, like me, obsessed with...
How we do things around here
I've often written about six of the most dangerous words in business: We've always done it this way Taking to a granular level, today am sharing one of Seth Godin's recent posts, called "How we do things around here". I love this list, and reminds me of a few thoughts...
Trust yourself
The most-read post on this site so far in 2020 is: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards". It begins with these thoughts: Learn from the past, analyse it, study it all you will so you can learn more about yourself, others, your...
To Share learnings, my WHY for writing
Yesterday I wrote: "You cannot not communicate" and tweeted out: https://twitter.com/TomCayman/status/1230401860282068992 Jason then retweeted it, bringing lots of additional visitors to read the post. This really energised me as my writing is from my passion to...
You cannot not communicate
Today sharing some gems from the Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication. Regular readers know I am a HUGE fan of Basecamp founders @DHH and @JasonFried, founders of Basecamp and passionate about sharing what they learn on the journey. This guide has 30 rules of...
To have fewer conflicts, disagree more
To have fewer conflicts, disagree more. Yes, really. So many organisations talk about "Conflict Resolution" around issues and relationships in the workplace. The thing is, conflict is such a strong word, with synonyms such as "war", "battle", "struggle", "clash",...
Have you ever run out of Inspiration?
My favourite "virtuous circle" from Hugh McLeod of Gaping Void I've run out of inspiration. As I write this, I've posted a daily article on this site for over 850 days straight. I'm also lacking inspiration on what to write today. I've got lots of things listed in my...
Can you stand to wait?
The Peninsula at Grand Harbour - for sale Today musing on patience and waiting, both personally and for business. “It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait.”Charlie Munger "Time is a friend to a good business and the...
Capture it on one page
Good to Great Visual Synopsis by Dani Saveker Over many years of facilitating leadership team meetings for clients, I've evolved a "less is more" process where the end result is captured on one page, even sometimes as succinct as one word. In: "Take the time to write...
What are babies afraid of?
What are you afraid of? Yesterday in "How are you Brave-ing?", I asked you to consider three times you have been "brave-ing" in the last week. I am musing on Bravery often at the moment, including "What is Bravery?" and "Inspire Bravery". Today two questions for you....
How are you Brave-ing?
This week I joined the amazing Steve Chapman and his dog Poppy for a brainstorming walk in the woods. The topic I was picking Steve's brain on was the idea of Bravery, a theme I come back to again and again in my writing (simply search this site for the word "brave"...
Stop arguing with Zombies
Ready with beer for Paul Krugman at Tortoise Yesterday I wrote: "We’ve always done it this way", what I call "the six most dangerous words in business", where I talked about how stuck we can be in the familiar, despite the evidence. Yesterday evening I went to a...