It would have been the summer of 1980. This is one of those moments I think we all have, when a piece of music becomes rooted in a specific time and place. The music was “Charm (Over Burundi Cloud) by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno. A whole side of an album made up of authentic … Read more
We can read, we can watch and listen to the world outside us. We can spend time in nature looking for inspiration. We may look for guidance from others, looking for truths as we go. We may find answers in the music that we listen to late into the night. None of this has the … Read more
And the blog post editing page opens now. I begin to write. I realise as the words flow, that I haven’t actually decided what to write about. It’s a blog post that will come from this almost automatic writing. And that feels somewhat scary. The inner critic is listening and watching as I write. Saying … Read more
A few years ago on this blog I wrote a post called “What’s he building in there?” It came after a long break when I had written nothing. The title was taken from a song by Tom Waits. In it, Waits describes someone who is in his barn building something. The neighbours can hear the … Read more
Earlier today, I gave a talk at the annual conference which my team holds each September. It’s a two-day conference called “Let’s Talk Research“, and this year the theme was “Edge Walking”. This talk is my contribution to the conference: In the film, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” from 1962 based on a … Read more
It’s an exercise I attempted a while back. Probably six months ago. I sat with a blank piece of paper and set out to write a list of 100 things that I am good at. It was hard, really difficult. Modesty kept kicking in. A voice inside me kept saying, well yes you’re quite good … Read more
It began with sharing TED Talks with the team. We all watched Brene Brown and Benjamin Zander. It was inspiring. Then there was Susan Cain – on introversion, and it made the team think differently about how we spend time together. Then we began to explore the ideas in the Academy of Creative Minds – … Read more
There’s a paper thread, a trail, a trace that leads all the way back to the government We wondered why we had not been called upon felt slightly queasy, a little on edge Then realised that it was all up for grabs – specious, she said, a waste of voice And there were protestors too, … Read more
The concept of creating a body of work was a concept I had heard of before, but when I came across the book by Pamela Slim, that was where I found the idea expanded upon. This wasn’t just about books or paintings or films or whatever creative venture we turn our attention to. She describes … Read more
So… a couple of weeks has passed since I returned from the Social Age Safari in Bristol. The last three posts have some details about the three day event and if you want to see more you can look at the website and the twitter feed at #socialagesafari. I thought I would wait a little … Read more