In this post, I:

promote a local Canberra attraction; and

promote a connection to the natural environment; and

encourage you to find poignant meaning in the world around you.

It is an incredibly easy thing to visit a local area of natural beauty (in this case the Red Rock Gorge of the Murrumbidgee River). What is more difficult is to hold loosely your sense of identity, loosely enough to walk a path toward new insights.

“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganised. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralisation. During our reorganizations, several commanding officers were tried out on us, which added to the discontinuity.”

1957, C. Ogburn Jr., Merrill’s marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure,

Harper’s Magazine, Vol 214, No 1280, pg 32-33

“It is a significant risk, for the project, for the Department, and for the Minister” my coaching counterpart, a mid level executive and subject matter expert, informed me.

”Yet, [the Senior Executive responsible] just won’t listen. They keep saying, that this is what the Minister wants, and so this is what the Minister will get, and we have to make the Minister happy…but I’ve been here before. And seen it ‘blow up’. And all the signs are showing that this is happening again.”

The long weekend went by all too fast, and already I feel the pull of the chores, stresses, and obligations take me from the calm I felt in the mountain. If I’m not careful, I will let myself slip beneath the tasks of an ‘over-civilised’ life, and forget that I am not ‘domesticated’, but rather belong in connection with the grounding pace of life. That like the wild horses, the ‘brumbies’ of the Snowy River country, I have a wild freedom within me.

If I am skilful enough, I hope to help those in my life, and in my work, connect with their inner self too. I know that, like me, it will help them to thrive. It will, hopefully, help them to connect with the larger values for which makes life worth living.

If we believe that the ‘what’ or the form of what we create should follow the ‘why’, or function that we want that form to create, then returning to this idea can help guide how we build things.

It can help us to create better processes, workshops, interventions of all sorts. It can even help us to create better cultures and shift the system to more accurately reflect what we value.

This is true in leadership as well as in facilitation.

While the video started off as a short video of me looking for a new pair of glasses... it is a sort of silly metaphor for finding one’s 'identity' and hopefully one that empowers you to explore the idea of guiding how you develop your individual identity across contexts.

The work I do with Leaders (at all levels) helps them to explore how each context they find themselves in requires a different leadership style, a different element of ‘who’ they are to most appropriately address what they need to do.

A great experiment you can do to illustrate beginners mind is to think of your home town. When was the last time you saw it as Magical? Beautiful? Interesting?

If you are like most, it’s been a while.

However, the wonderful qualities of your home town are there, and if you can see it through the eyes of a tourist, if you can become tourist in your own home, you can make it feel like the first time you’ve been there. You can experience ‘beginners mind’ again. Take that feeling and now experiment with ‘beginners mind’ in other areas of your life.

The insightful path is all around you, if you know where and how to look. If you are looking to reconnect with your inner best self, to find the insights that build connection, resilience and thriving, then reach out and contact me today. While your path will be your own, there are countless micro-skills that you can learn to help you stay to your course.

My friend had a philosophy which he shared with me (and many others) which, I think, for most things, he used as a guide. He was always reminding me that when minor irritations arose, to put these into perspective and not to get any more upset than I would if I merely burnt my morning toast. He encouraged those around him to see these events as an opportunity to practice patience. With life, with others, with our selves.

If you find yourself in a fast paced, and pressurised environment, where, when you do, finally, get the chance to ‘come up for air’, and you get a sense of a vague memory that you were someone else, at some other time… Well, you too may benefit from taking some time out, connecting with someone who knows you well. And connecting within the power of the present moment in nature.

The designers of “New Parliament House” wanted to enable those that come here, whether it be to visit or to work, to be able to see, and remember, where we’ve come from. For a poet like myself, the symbolism of this intentional design speaks volumes. It is a strong reminder to those who make decisions that will affect others, to constantly know and connect with the impacts of those decision. To humble yourself to sacrifice that those that will have to carry out and feel the impact of your actions.

…

Living the entrepreneurial life can be challenging.

You have this vision of Good that you want to give to the world, a unique value-add that makes what you provide (regardless of your industry) a real benefit for your client - yet you need to demonstrate this value. It needs to shine out in the sea of other options, to enable your clients to make a cost-benefit analysis to justify employing you.

And this is as it should be, because everyone in the ‘supply chain’ needs to somehow benefit from the exchange….

The three evidence based ideas and one experiential piece of wisdom which forms the foundation of my answer to ‘how can spending time in one’s wood shed be a life lesson for us all?’

All of you, whether you be a coaching counterpart, or one who has experienced one of my learning designs, deliveries, or facilitations, or even one who has simply read one of my posts, I thank you. You have let me walk a while with you on your individual, insightful, and unique path.

We are not happy when we attach our happiness to those things we don’t have, but want. We are happy when we can be happy with the things we do have, and want to care for them. The most important of these things, of course, is our family, friends, and community.

Recognising that we are all the same, and we are all different enables us to connect. Enables us to be engaged and enjoy spending time together. Even enables us to learn from one another (something that can only happen when there is difference).

Our world needs more interesting conversations with interesting people who differ from ourselves. I’ve tried to give my kids experiences where they can be a part of social gatherings where people of all different backgrounds and ages, and orientations, and experiences can gather and share and laugh and discuss and plan a better future together.

On Tuesday, 29 November, 2023 I will be facilitating what promises to be an interesting conversation with three APS Leaders who look after three different Academies of learning for Australian Public Service (APS) employees.

Why does this matter? Because the APS, while not the elected government, serves the government of Australia, whom Australian citizens elect. It is the store house of corporate knowledge on how to do public policy, regulation, and programs in the variety of portfolios across the APS - essential knowledge to help our nation prosper.

While this post is about ‘security’ and an ‘entrepreneurial life’, this is but one of the many lenses through which to look at that journey. If you are creating your passion project, and are feeling ‘lost in the woods’… why don’t you connect with me? My raison d’être is to use what I’ve learned to help others be their best selves. I hope to help you find, and travel your own Insightful Path too!

Research has shown that most APS Senior Executives have not had the benefit of tailored leadership training to give them the tools, micro-skills, and knowledge of how to use these as a leader.

A conscious practice of drawing your attention to the micro-skills of engagement is invaluable for mastery as an APS Leader.

The systems that promote status quo will, understandably, work to reduce friction that arises. And if you are a real servant to the sustainable solutions, you need to learn how to advocate for disagreement. How to embrace conflicting ideas and discover the commonalities. Yet doing so, even with that intent, can come at a cost.

One of my heroes talks about this, and how you can makes the decision to ‘speak truth to power’ in his book Confronting authority: Reflections of an ardent protester. The hero? He was the first ever African American tenured Harvard Law Professor, Derek Bell.

“…you are simply not being ‘client focussed’, it is concerning that you think ‘not always saying yes’ to Senior clients is a ‘strength’!”

- feedback received by client

If even mid-level managers only hired ‘sycophants’ or ‘yes people’, then what is the calibre of culture and character that is being promoted in that agency? What does that say about the cultures where even reasonably saying ‘no’ is considered antithetical to ‘how we do things around here…’?!

If we can not speak with a frank and fearless intent, integrity will never thrive.