I’ve finally come to own that I love leading, and probably always have, (ask all my younger siblings and cousins who I led - coerced?! - into all sorts of imaginary games of my making). It’s taken me a while to own that thought but I’m starting to claim that love as...
A dear friend and I (Myriam Khoury for those of you who know us both), recently gave a keynote address at a conference for non-profit leaders. The topic centered on bringing strategy to life, and was motivated by a paper that the two of us had written last year called...
I recently facilitated a mid-size gathering for a former colleague who is themselves a very skilled facilitator and convener of events. Objectively, they have just as many skills and capacities as I do to hold space for a group wanting to dig into strategy and to...
“Not having a strategy is a strategy in itself…” This was something I used to say to leaders in my previous organization when they told me that things were too uncertain and unpredictable to put a strategy in place. Or that they needed to be responsive to what donors...
The world of work where I spent significant parts of my career is experiencing deep upheaval right now. Thousands of my friends and colleagues have been laid off or furloughed and are having to radically rethink their lives. And thousands more still have their jobs...
Think back to the last training you attended that you enjoyed. Ask yourself what you most enjoyed about it? Then ask yourself if you can name three key takeaways? Then ask yourself, how many things you can identify that you are doing differently because of what you...
This is a time of year when many folks, particularly in the Northern hemisphere are on the move - traveling to either find the snow or escape the cold, visiting family, revisting established traditions or creating new ones. Getting on planes, trains or buses for work,...
Many of you know that in the last month I wrote my first paper in a very long time, together with a dear colleague, collaborator, co-conspirator and friend, Myriam Khoury. And it felt like a huge accomplishment. It’s been six months in the writing and quite a lot...
I recently had dinner with a good friend who has an illness which means that her energy is extremely limited and she has to plan her days budgeting her energy, particularly if she wants to do something in the evening. Once she has ‘spent’ her energy for the day it is...
I like to read. I like to read a lot. I also like to both own books and to give them away. Over the years I’ve shifted from having a strong preference for fiction and the escapism that imaginary stories hold, to non fiction and then now am somewhere at a mid point...
