At 8pm last Thursday night I was at the Studley Park Boathouse, celebrating the final Story Conference with colleagues and friends. It was announced that Steve Jobs had passed away … and thud! I felt an inner shift and let out an audible, outward breath. I am not surprised that the passing Steve Jobs stirred my emotions in such a way. His long battle with Pancreatic Cancer has mirrored that of my own father’s cancer of the liver. At the time Steve presented at the launch of the original iPad, looking thin and weak, my dad’s illness had also progressed. …

Last night I was a participant at a workshop. I turned up with 50+ members of our local community after a month of issues, poor leadership, lack of communication, rumor and misunderstanding – I’ll give no more away, but you get the picture. A meeting was called by the institution concerned and the relevant state government department took the facilitation role. At the moment I entered the room, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck … this was to be facilitation at it’s very worst. Being a participant, with a passion for the content, I couldn’t stop …

How much can you prepare first time parents for the journey that lies ahead of them? How useful is ‘having a plan’ for the first 12 months of your baby’s life? These are 2 questions that came to me as I thought about our journey (the trials and tribulations so far!) with 3 boys. We did make plans and we definitely stuck to some plans that we should have abandoned. But, for whatever reason, most of our plans were like a sand sculpture at the beach. We could change them ourselves in response to what was happening, or the incoming …

I spent some precious time with my dad yesterday, he is very unwell and we shared some memories and stories. We looked through photos of my 3 boys and reflected on family holidays when I was a boy. Afterwards, I reflected on some of dad’s words and counsel. In his own way, he reminded me that my own boys are always watching me. Learning from me. Imitating my own behaviour and reactions to events – the good, bad and the ugly. We all have a blind spot when it comes to the influence that our actions, no matter how small, …

Here’s a little post I wrote when away on a remote island in Fiji recently … Last night I witnessed a classic example of how ‘status’ can get in the way of daily interactions we have each other. The Set Up Whilst sitting at a table eating dinner and noticed a tall western man (let’s call him Andrew) and a Fijian resort worker (let’s call him Tevita) almost collide with each other at a doorway that they were both walking toward – they were both blindsided. The Initial Reaction As witness, I nearly dropped my fork as they almost collided …