Many years ago, a certain motor vehicle manufacturer in South Africa had an employee who was responsible for the door assembly area on the production line. He was good at his job, led his team well and contributed admirably to the finished product. At times, he made improvement and other creative suggestions to enhance process,…
Some time ago, I had fifteen regional sales people from a well-known international software company attend a workshop that I was facilitating, all of whom complained about overfull inboxes and the amount of mail they received on a daily basis. I happened to ask how big their problem was and they replied unanimously: “Between 180…
A couple of years ago, I did development work for the regional leadership team of a large milling and baking company, located in the northern part of South Africa. During the workshop, we looked at “stretch” for the business, attempting to find possible solutions to grow the business and bring it up to near full…
I love watching my two and a half year old granddaughter play with toys with her friends, children of a similar age. The interactions with each other are usually friendly and fun, but I have noticed, without exception, that all children need to have their own toys, probably to give them a sense of security…
One of the most impactful African words that I have ever come across is the North Sotho word “seriti”, meaning breath, spirit, presence or “shadow”. The word, in one of its renderings, refers to a person’s “presence” or the shadow that is cast by the character and personality of the person. This shadow is unique,…
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…
