This week I walked. For three days in a row, each day I took time to explore the woods and hills around my new home, a total of around 36km (about 22 miles to my metrically-challenged readers) over the three days. No headphones, much randomness, many smiles.When I sat...
Like my friend Dani Coleman, one of the most positive people I know (watch or listen to her as a guest last month on #WhatComesNextLive), I truly believe in the power of positivity, including positive language and positive intentions. I therefore reframe the idea of...
Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. - Henry James I write this for the last day of 2020. In the UK, I forecast that we will be mostly, if not fully locked down now for the next three...
“I want to teach because I love watching humans unfold their wings”. Wow, Carlos Santana, what a purpose you have.
Wisdom at Work At this time of year, giving, sharing and gratitude are top of mind for all of us, so today I want to give thanks to Chip Conley (watch/listen to his appearance on #WhatComesNextLive) and to all those I have met through him since... since when and what...
the nine precepts of Lichtenbergianism So I'm sitting here on 23rd December, having put the out of office on (as per my post on 24th December), and this post goes out on 26th December. Yes, am in a weird time loop, or, more simply, am "banking" a bunch of posts so...
This reminds me of my late grandfathers old watch. One of my greatest treasures was the gift of time we spent together. What will you choose to do with the gift of time this holiday season? For many of us our Christmas holiday celebrations will be much simple, much...
The great Bill Nighy massacring Wet Wet Wet's "Love is all around" in Love Actually Today is Christmas Day, and we may all be thinking: "this time it's different", but please allow me to muse for a while on (of all things on Christmas Day) overheated stock market...
A Cayman Islands aerogramme. I wrote and sent many of these after moving to Cayman in 1989! Email is for information, not communication I've found myself using this phrase more and more in 2020, and yes, I'm always learning, I used to be "that guy" who sent really...
My favourite all time quote by the author of Man's Search for Meaning Today in London it is cold, wet, dark. The sun has disappeared and, when the grey light appears, it does so for only a fleeting part of the day at this time of least daylight. We are also, as we...
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it's called the present. Wisdom from Kung Fu Panda 2 As I write this, living in the London area, times are tough indeed. We are seeing a new variant of Covid that is thought to be 70% more...
JFK was a visionary, so he set out a question that would focus and align the American people, the question being "how do we get to the Moon by 1969?" On May 25, 1961, JFK announced the goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade before a joint session...
In 1940 hundeds of private boats answered the call to evacuate soldiers from Dunkirk. Read more in Professor Galloway's blog below about this and our generation's call to action {In early 2020} the virus attacked. Like an invading army, it evaded nearly every defense...
Image by sketch2think from the thoughts of naval Are you creative or are you productive? The question is a trick one. Very little in life is a binary choice, an "either/or". Some may say: "the most creative people don't work to a schedule". Well, whilst I believe it...
Apolo Ohno, Olympic Gold Medallist, yawning before the start of a race. This week I was part of a terrific group looking at how fear can hold entrepreneurs back from innovation. One person asked, around getting us to take action, to innovate: "can fear be helpful?" My...
I love this chart. It shows the growth in visitors to this site over the last two and more years. It is wonderful to see that, simply through writing every day and sharing thoughts, more and more people are visiting the site and reading the posts. I also cross-post to...
(c) Sketchplanations One of the positives to come from Covid is that people are increasingly comfortable sharing their own mental health challenges, so creating space for others to share, to seek and offer support. We are all on the mental health spectrum. None of us...
Sometimes I wax (so I hope) lyrical, other times I love brevity (as with this search link showing up numerous posts on my site on the subject of simplicity). If in doubt, make it shorter, and communicating visually can be the ultimate in brevity. Thanks to David...
Sagrada Familia The funny thing is, over thirty-five years later, I feel that ever more. The most exquisite visual creations need no words to explain or validate them. The photo is of Sagrada Familia, my favourite manmade structure and one that has inspired me to...
Curating a brilliant joke from the latest weekly newsletter from Nick Parker. Bleak, eh? Sunday morning, sitting at my desk (you know, the cool Victorian writing desk from earlier blogs?) at 10am watching the rain pour down outside on a bleak day that can't decide if...
What will be obvious looking back in six months time? How many people in 2021 will be struggling with the first step of Maslow's hierarchy? Yesterday I was on a monthly session with a community where a question posed was: "What will be obvious looking back in six...
Look after me next time. Bacon roll from OnARoll Yesterday I took some time out during the day to drive to a Homebase store to "click and collect" something for my new house. As I was about to leave, about 3pm, I saw a food truck in the car park. Smart, I thought,...
Celebrating the positive leadership of Dani Coleman, Director, Hazard Management Cayman Islands. Dani Coleman, Director, Hazard Management Cayman Islands What is the secret to being one of the leaders of a 70+ person, cross-agency National Emergency Operations Centre...
Wisdom Pyramid by Chip Conley There’s No Algorithm For Wisdom. “Who needs wisdom when we have such exquisite algorithms?” A young data scientist asked me this question when I was at Airbnb. I could tell he was half-serious, so I pulled out a pen and paper and...
First comes the moment that will, later, be remembered as before. I look forward to what comes next, then, in time, the after. On Sunday I moved into my new house. My fitness tracker said I climbed 112 flights of stairs that day. I certainly slept soundly! Yesterday,...
This post goes out Monday morning of December 7th, though I'm writing it on Friday 4th, as this weekend I am leaving clear to move to my new house. As I write this, as well as looking ahead to how I will feel on Monday morning at 8am when the post goes out, the...
Rory Sutherland has 10 rules you can adopt that can help you profit from being less logical than everybody else "The problem with logic is it kills off magic" Recognise this phrase ? If you do, then you know of the author. If you don't, then you are in for a treat....
The new home page of Design Cayman Creating Meaning is the Mother of all Arts. One experience over the course of this year that has been a real pleasure for me has been to work with and get to know the team at a client business in Cayman, a wonderful architecture and...
Meeting interesting people doing interesting things When I moved to London with few friends or business contacts here, I simply decided to look to meet interesting people doing interesting things. Three and a half years later, I'm still doing that (and I love it!),...
So, yesterday morning I lost my toothbrush, or to be more accurate, the charger for my electric toothbrush. You see, this week I am packing to move house, so I cleared moved it from where it normally is placed, and yes, couldn't then find it. That moment had me smile...
Yesterday was the 1st day of December and, as the morning news in the UK insisted on telling us, was "the first meteorological day of winter". Heck, we haven't even had a frost in London yet, though I can almost see Canadians laughing at the idea of winter starting in...
On Sunday, November 15th, Tim Harford sent out an email note to his subscribers on what he had been reading lately. Now, Tim is one of my favourite storytellers, so I was stopped in my tracks when I read this passage: David Bodanis's book The Art of Fairness is...
What is the next one thing? My home page highlights what I focus on with my clients: "What's Next", typically supporting them on major change, meaningful impact. Today, though, as the week starts, I'm reminded of a client who recognises in themselves that, at the end...
Riverside Resource Facility, Belvedere, London Discovering an example of green leadership in London. Regular readers will have noticed that, of late, each Saturday morning my riding buddy Sam and I have gone on London explorations. Yesterday we road 70km, with a...
Peter Behrens, AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin, 1907-10 from phaidon.com Over the last three weeks, my statements that I'm "always active, never busy" has been challenged, as I've averaged around 25 meetings (zoom and outdoor walking meetings) each week. This has left...
Cayman Connection "Yard Meeting" 5pm every Wednesday evening Am very aware that my email newsletter (a digest of daily emails, sent every Tuesday and Friday) has hundreds of people from Cayman on it. Last night at the end of a full day, I jumped on the weekly Cayman...