Earlier today I had lunch with a good friend. I have known Vince since I was at secondary school. We lost touch for many years, but reconnected again 4 years ago. Talking to Vince and hearing him describe a spiritual experience reminded me of something which happened to me back in 2000. The following … Read more
I wrote about Reflective Practise on this website a couple of years ago. My thinking has moved forward since then – you could say, the result of reflective practise itself! Here’s what I wrote back then: What do I mean by ‘Reflective Practise’? This is the regular habit of asking yourself questions about how you … Read more
I love reading. I’ve always got a few books on the go at once. I also like variety, so I do read books from a wide range of genres. Years ago I set up a simple set of lists to keep track of my reading: Books Read – I keep a list of the books … Read more
I wrote about plans for a new sequence of poems here. Over the next three posts I will be sharing a poem from each of the first three sequences about Blue. This one is from the first sequence ‘sharp blue / breath’. The title, ‘calling card’, is an oblique reference to a line from … Read more
Yesterday I was reading through some study notes I made back in 1998. I wrote with great excitement about the fact that I was going to be able to access the internet from home, not just in the office. It was a big deal. And now, 15 years later, the internet is on the TV, … Read more
Last week I worked with the team I lead on the values that underpin our work. A couple of years ago we commissioned an Impact Report. The team who led the work (Nick Fayers and Sue Roberts) interviewed our key stakeholders and produced some underlying metrics to assess the impact of our work. From the … Read more
I was at the NHS Confederation Conference in Liverpool last week. It was a highly stimulating forum, as always. There were keynotes which prompted some deep thinking. Above all, though, it did feel as though the debate was taking place in the wake of the Health & Social Care Act and the enormous reforms which … Read more
I can point to a specific time at which my poetry writing shifted from early nonsense to something that I was proud of. I was working as a Community Artist at the time and the workshops we were delivering were inspiring my work into new areas. I was also experimenting with making small hand-made booklets. … Read more
I have spent today thinking some more about where I take the book manuscript which I have been trailing in this blog on coaching. It’s called “The Coaching 30” and comprises a set of tips and ideas for coaching. It is aimed at coaches and coaching clients. The ideas are taken from my own studies … Read more
If you have been reading things I have been writing about here for the last few months, you will know that I have been leading a piece of work called the Creative Leadership Academy (CLA). We have been experimenting with the creative arts, looking at ways in which they can enhance the work we do … Read more