One of the more “revealing” experiences that I have had upon arriving in my mid-life years is that of realising that the 20/20 vision that I had as a younger man is not going to last forever – a visit to the optometrist is becoming a necessity. Imagine for a moment that you need to…
I love watching soccer and religiously follow my favourite club’s exploits – FC Barcelona is “my team”. Their style, skill, finesse on the ball and the brand that they represent seem to lift the game of football to new heights. I am generally proud of them. Imagine, however, this scene– Lionel Messi scores a magnificent…
I have had the privilege of doing people development work for a number of hospitals in Southern Africa. On one such occasion, I took a tour through a large hospital in order to find out more about the hospital environment, partly to understand it and also partly to assist me in customising the workshop materials…
A colleague of mine shared a personal story of her son, when still very young in junior school, playing rugby for the first time. He had gone to practice during the week and came home beaming about his experiences – running with the ball, tackling others who had the ball, kicking and so on. My…
I have a whistle that has four notes, obtained in Chattanooga in the United States of America. There is nothing particularly special about these four different notes and they are almost weak-sounding, even when you blow on them individually with some force. When you blow them together, however, they produce the sound of the steam…
In the movie, The Matrix, one of my personal favourites, I am captivated with the scene where Neo meets Morpheus for a secret meeting. This is the first time that they have ever met, even though they seem to have been searching for each other for most of their lives. The dialogue is fascinating: Morpheus:…
I had the privilege of facilitating a workshop at an hotel in Franschhoek in a beautiful setting in the winelands of South Africa. A lady, who had lost her father in an unfortunate motor vehicle accident just two weeks prior to the workshop, attended – I felt, rather bravely. She explained to me that she…
I grew up in a loving family, with good parents – I was a privileged child along with my brother and sister. There was one thing, however, that my family, and particularly my parents, did not do well – handle conflict. In fact, they avoided conflict at all costs. Whenever there was value difference, one…
I am sure that you have heard those words from people on countless occasions. Other forms of the same expression include “that is not my role”, “that’s not in my employment contract” or “I can’t do everything in this organisation, you know”. People that use expressions like the above tend to pass the buck, make…
Dr Stephen R Covey passed away on Monday 16th July 2012, after suffering injuries in a cycling accident about 3 months prior to his death. You may remember him as the author of the best-selling business book of all time (more than 20 million copies sold), “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and many…
In my visits to organisations globally, a lot is spoken of regarding commitment levels of staff to their jobs, teams and their respective organisations. Senior management in these organisations are expecting effort and energy applied appropriately within the business to ensure productivity and results. In many cases, this same management group are even expecting staff…
