"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable." — Seneca
Steven Kotler from the Flow Research Collective describes this as uncertainty. He says, "Uncertainty creeps in everywhere, all the time. We’re uncertain about what task to do next or how to spend the rest of the day. We’re uncertain about what the next six months should look like in our business or professional life. Ultimately, all too many of us are pretty damn uncertain about the direction we want our lives to take. The issue is that this uncertainty paralyzes us and blocks us from 'Flow'. Being clear on where you want to go, and exactly how you’re going to get there, is incredibly important for flow. Without clear goals, we can’t direct our attention."
Allan Leighton has led some of the biggest retail organisations in the UK as chairman of the COOP, Asda, Selfridges and Royal Mail.
Have a squiz at this video where he talks about the execution of strategy.
It’s so true! Allan talks about those within your organisations who make ‘treacle’; rather than communicating and empowering, strategy gets fed down through either someone he refers to as ‘permafrost’ i.e., nothing ever goes past or through them, or, probably my favourite, ‘business prevention squads’. These are the middle managers who ensure that they control every piece of
Winter is upon me and I have two major projects to complete.
#1 is the engagement and completion of my Oxford Executive Leadership Programme; about 15 hours a week of learning models, theories and articulating thoughts on leadership. #2 is completing the writing of my next book. This one is a Big Book. THE Big Book.
So, I thought I’d share a sample of where I’m at, my DRAFT introduction and the start of Chapter 1. Enjoy!
Some of you will still ponder the descriptor that I use, Experiential Architect. And yes, I do get some phone calls now and then asking for me to design amazing, interesting houses.
This particular ‘title’ came from a coaching moment with a fine Australian leadership coach, Dan Collins. We were at a Thought Leaders Conference - in Sydney some years ago, and Dan was helping me narrow down ‘what I did to help people’.
During the Middle Ages, rats were responsible for the transfer of fleas that carried the deadly Black Plague. A bounty was placed upon each rat that was caught. It was not necessary to produce the entire rat as proof of capture; the rat's hind quarters were cut from the body - leaving only the tail and the "arse". The amount paid by the local governments was approximately equivalent to a penny a dozen. The rat’s arses would be presented as a bundle and exchanged for money. However there became so many rats the price dropped incredibly low and they were almost worthless.
Hence the phrase -"not worth a rat's ass" – “don’t give a rat’s arse”.
How do you commute from the bedroom to work?
Curious question.
Commuting is a ritual.
A habit is formed; there is a rhythm; we buy our coffee at a certain place, we sit in a preferred part of the train, often park in a familiar space, in other words, we embed and repeat a process that gets us safely, both physically and mentally from home to our work space. This forms a separation from one environment to another.
Why are we so easily distracted?
The fascinating thing about the human brain is that it has a natural bias to be curious about seeking constant and new information. Why? The more information we have, the better we can assess and mitigate danger. But our primal brain is at the crossroads with technology availability as we’ve never experienced it before. And we are exposed to both external distraction (events) and internal distraction (worry or anxiety). We seek constant distraction, but it leads to cognitive overload (overwhelm). Go figure.
