“Now more than ever, we need the hope that art brings, a break from the chaos.’ Cirque du Soleil
The arts and entertainment sector have seen the full brunt of the various lock down measures and while many are hurting creative practitioners are skilled at improvising, often making do with limited resources and working within constraints. Necessity is the mother of...
Health and Wellbeing – Working from home
One of the most significant and probably challenging changes has been the shift for people to work from home. This may be easier said than done. It certainly has its pros and cons particularly when everyone is at home. How can you make this a creative and productive...
How are we?
Most of us will be experiencing a range of feelings and emotions and that’s OK. We’re experiencing a range of grief and it’s worth acknowledging… The Harvard Business Review have an interesting article on "that discomfort you're feeling is grief". It is interesting...
Christmas Offer – The Story Cookbook: Practical recipes for change
Christmas Offer: The Story Cookbook: practical recipes for change is a wonderful practical resource full of story-based processes. The book has over 80 activities collected from contributors around the world and is one of the...
The Story Conference
We are Homonarrans - story-telling beings. This year the Story Conference focused on work, health and wellbeing stories. I facilitated Ebb & Flow: Creativity and Wellbeing which homed in on personal creativity and wellbeing. Participants took a dive into their...
Creative Conferences
A highlight has been attending the Applied Improvisational Conference at the Alan Alda Center for Communication at Stony Brook University Long Island. I was delighted to see the legendary Alan Alda aka Hawkeye from M*A*S*H interviewed by writer and educator Aretha...
Meeting Overload – finding the Goldilocks effect
Meetings have become a major part of organisational life. Meetings well done can be highly productive and energising. We also know they can be inefficient, unproductive and time wasters. I’m surprised at the number of people who declare they don’t know why they are...
Benefits of reflection in your day
Why reflect, what are the benefits, and why should we value it? One major reason is to counter the affliction of busyness. The busyness badge of honour has become ubiquitous. When people ask others “how they are?” the response is so often ‘busy’ and ‘under the pump’....
Creativity is our greatest and most sustainable resource… are you using yours well?
Dear Mavericks In early 2003, while at a conference, I was introduced to an emerging area of work – a new field of practice to me – in which a number of delegates called themselves coaches. Let me explain the provenance of my coaching. It was the early 2000’s and I...
will a robot take your job?
Dear Mavericks It is interesting to note that when one’s attention turns to something it seems to appear everywhere. I’ve been contemplating work, the future of it, as well as the pleasure and anxiety it seems to bring. Lo and behold there seems to be quite a lot of...