I am so over passion, aren’t you? Lately the term “passion” feels like just another buzzword tossed around to sell someone or something. In business, you could define passion as deep expertise combined with a fervent enthusiasm for the topic, the product and the people with whom you engage. But I think there might be more to it.
Do you have a TED talk in you?
Do you have a big idea to share and a compelling story to tell? Are you passionate about voicing the big ‘why’ behind what you do to inspire your tribe? Would your organisation or business benefit greatly from your own powerful TED-like talk to be filmed in front of a live audience?
Beginner’s Mind, Zen Mind
‘How do they get non stick material to stick on non stick pans?’ A user question posed to Richard Cornish, the columnist of Vexing Culinary Questions. Puzzled and unable to answer, he asked his 8-year-old daughter. ‘Simple,’ she replied, ‘It’s non stick on one side only!’
How to use private discourse to surprise and delight your audience
I was recently talking to the CEO of a large, global professional services company that had run a massive event for its clients. At the end of the PowerPoint central presentation, they asked members of the audience for feedback and received lots of polite positives. The CEO, however, confided in us, saying: ‘We could detect a lack of sincerity in …
Three Must Know Life – Changing Global Work Trends
I’ve just spent September criss-crossing the globe, working with leaders, entrepreneurs and educators in the UK, Canada and USA. Is there a point to this shameless bragging?! Yes: I discovered three emerging trends that fill me with optimism. The quest for purpose Businesses are in search of meaning. Hitting profit and performance goals alone seems strangely hollow. Companies now …
Small doors open into large rooms
The 1999 movie, The Hurricane, was based on the true story of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter. Carter, a talented American/Canadian boxer, was twice controversially convicted of – and imprisoned for – the same murder. In the movie, his character says: “He who bemoans the lack of opportunity, forgets that small doors many times open up into large rooms.” Sometimes the small things can make a big impact. So many of my clients …
Message mastery creates shift
Young men between 18 and 21 are at the highest risk in terms of road fatalities. But how do you get an 18-year-old man, who thinks he is invincible, to drive safely? The New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) recognised the problem it had. RTA knew the behaviour it wanted to shift. The challenge was to craft a …
Breaking bad, good, great…
What’s the difference between good and bad? Can we pinpoint the moment when a story we are telling moves from bad to good to great? When I’m pondering this difference, I sometimes think about poor Walter White from the TV series Breaking Bad – you know, he’s the high school teacher with cancer who turns into a drug kingpin so …
Rule number 6
Two prime ministers are having an important private meeting. Suddenly, the door is flung open and an official, in great distress, bursts into the room. The resident prime minister cuts him short: “John, remember rule number 6.” The man regains his composure, apologises and bows his way out of the room. A few minutes later, another civil servant bursts into …
Caution! Caring people ahead
A posse of foreign journalists was travelling with the Dalai Lama as he visited poverty-stricken village after village. In every village the locals would come out and present the Dalai Lama with gifts: a handful of rice, an old book – whatever they had. One of the journalists became angrier and angrier as he saw people who had practically nothing …