Wa is both the oldest name for Japan and brings a sense of “Japaneseness” in language and other ways to the country and people.
OpenLeadership
Being patient and kind when guiding those younger than you
I recognise how much we learn over time and, for those of us with more years, to be kind, gentle and patient with those earlier…
What is waking up in the morning like for you?
When I feel well rested, then I wake up at a regular time, fresh and ready to go. What is waking up in the morning…
The most stable stool has three legs
The most stable seating of any kind has exactly three legs, a three legged stool. The stool will always rest as a highly stable platform.
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
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
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...
What happens to a dream deferred?
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then...
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
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
“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?
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?
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...
Writing as a way to access one’s own mind
Joan Didion My profession is as a Sounding Board, to support them on their journey from Good to Great to Elite. A key part of my role is in a coaching space, to help them sound out their thoughts and gain clarity on what their message is and what they need to focus...
Connection is the feeling of landing in the present tense
Kae Tempest Around three years ago on this blog, I wrote: "the longest writing. can be one line", itself a line from poet Nayyirah Waheed, and containing multiple powerful single-line texts. This week Roland Harwood of WeAreLiminal shared this with me: Connection is...
Can you get your message down to one or two words?
Smart people seem to love complexity, often feeling that the more complex they make things, the more they can find an answer that others can't. The image above is from a scene in The Big Short, set in 2005, where one of the lead characters realise just how much a time...
Be Abundant
While I was away in Cayman, I had a painter come to my house in London and do a pretty significant job both patching up a poor job done by the last painter and also prepare and paint a few areas that hadn't yet been done. We had agreed on a price and also he said that...
Generalist vs Specialist
By my mid to late 30s I used to say "I'm a Specialist Generalist", as my role was to grow the assets of a family-owned business holding company and we invested in widely diverse business sectors, countries, sizes of businesses. The common theme was our focus on...
Write something, post, repeat
Today I fly out of Cayman after a wonderful 17 days. A lot of my regular readers live here and I've had a number of people marvel at how I write daily and ask me my secrets. Well, in over 600,000 words and well over 1,400 daily posts, I've actually written about this...
Listening for Context
What do you hear when you listen for context? Lift above the detail, the content, the day to day, there is always something to notice.
Change can start with changing the conversation
One way to change the conversation for Cayman starts with a commitment to build the economy and society around being the green capital of the…
Catalysing behaviour change
Behaviour change can sometimes happen fast, sometimes slowly, and sometimes needs something to catalyse it.
Try, or no Try?
On the other end of the spectrum (full delegation) was: “Try, or No Try?”, ie “I’m giving you no guidance as I am not at…
Towards a Quiet Mind
Being around my three boys in Cayman has had the effect of my subconscious allowing me to slow down my mind. I’m grateful for that…
Make your lives extraordinary
Whatever age and stage we are at in life, we can always carpe diem, we can always choose to make our lives extraordinary.
Trust is greater than fear. Fear is the Mind-Killer.
So, for today, I give you a key passage from Dune around transcending fear, then close with my favourite quote of all time, from Marianne…
Know when to follow the energy
Ultimately the learning is to "follow the energy", to create the opportunity and see who is energised, who makes the effort to connect and to meet. So, as regular readers know, I am in Cayman right now. Due to Covid, first time home here in 18 months, so am keen to...
Do not tolerate the intolerant
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and...
How to shorten Airport Immigration queues instantly
Last week I flew into Cayman for the first time in 18 months. Impressively efficient through the entry process was, it did take two hours for one flight, as in addition to regular immigration and customs needs, there was covid test checking and entry procedures for us...
Soon Come!
Soon Come! Today is (as long as covid testing and results processing go according to plan) my last day in quarantine in Cayman. I soon come out! So excited to meet up with so many old friends over the next ten days or so. I just looked at my diary and realised I have...
My first quarantine pause
I arrived in Cayman last Wednesday evening, all going smoothly I will get the all-clear to release from it by Tuesday evening. Today, Monday morning, I'm therefore entering day five of six of this quarantine "pause". In short, it has been a very quiet few days,...
How was your trip? Uneventful
Last week I flew to Cayman. When asked “how was your trip”, I answered: “Uneventful”. Sometimes that is a great story, to having no story…
How to never have to fire anybody again
Businesses with a strong culture may never have to fire anybody ever again, they will simply leave. The above highlight is from Allistair McCaw, speaker, author and specialist in leadership and culture, with deep experience around elite athletes and sports teams....
Being together is not like Zoom
Being together is not like Zoom. As so much attention is given to adapting to different working norms, broadly hybrids of working in an office or working online, less than two days into quarantine I feel like sharing some thoughts. Being together is not like Zoom I...
An update to my “Now” page
In November 2020, inspired by Derek Sivers, I set up a "Now" page on my site, then wrote about the idea in: "Tell people what you are focussed on now". The idea is simple: Most websites have a link that says “about”. It goes to a page that tells you something about...
Mentoring addresses privilege gaps
There are many forms of privilege in our world. One that is sometimes less obvious is knowledge gaps. Mentoring can address this. If your parents (and perhaps their peers, neighbours, family members) never went to University, or if they never owned their own home,...