The Fall of Boris Johnson

Audience for Sebastian Payne at the Blue Bear Bookshop in Farnham There’s recently been a Literary Festival (3rd-12th March) in nearby Farnham and one talk I went to featured Sebastian Payne, author of the recently published ‘The Fall of Boris Johnson’. The event was held in the delightful Blue Bear Bookshop (see picture above).  Sebastian

A Visit to Messums in Wiltshire

I occasionally meet up with a friend who lives in Dorset. Previously we used to meet in Salisbury which is a beautiful cathedral city and about half way for both of us by car. By way of a change we thought we’d try somewhere new and took a chance on the gallery and art centre

The Impact of Daily Reflection

I’ve been meditating for short periods for over a year now, usually first thing in the morning and found that it’s really helpful. Recently I’ve started a daily self-reflection period to get a more balanced view on things. I was interested to read that research reported by UCL has provided evidence on the positive impact

Power Over The Future

Quote from a recent article from political journalist Patrick Cockburn in the i newspaper: “In Chinese mythology the beetle walks from east to west each day, exhausted but proud that he is pulling the sun behind him. He knows that if he pauses in his daily journey the sun will pause and, if he stops,

Expectation Management

From the journalist Ian Dunt, on the role of expectation management in handling government election results (but is far more general): “The purpose of expectation management is to neutralise the impact of that data. It uses storytelling to blanket the brute reality of the numbers. It turns an Excel spreadsheet into a Word document.” Succinctly

Knowledge Cafés – What Are They?

Recently I attended an online gathering known as a Knowledge Café. It was organised by David Gurteen who is well known for his many contributions to knowledge management as well as running such Cafés all over the world. Here’s David’s description of a Knowledge Café and it’s purpose (my emphasis in bold): “A Knowledge Café

Exhibitions At The London Tates

I’ve recently been to exhibitions at Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London. The first was by (the very impressive) Paula Rego, followed by Anicka Yi and Rodin, and finally the recently opened Hogarth exhibition. I’m a member (supporter) of the Tate and decided a couple of months ago to visit regularly as Covid-19 issues

Making Decisions Under Doubt

A previous post discussed new approaches to handling doubt, motivating it’s use as a source of creativity and wisdom rather than as a mental block. There was a focus on exploring unknowns and not being paralysed by them. I was interested to see this quote from Deborah Meaden, a well-known UK entrepreneur and investor: “But

Doubt As A Superpower

The most popular post I’ve ever written concerns the well-known physicist Richard Feynman and how he overcame a brief period of dejection after winning the Nobel prize in 1965. Perhaps paradoxically, he doubted his ability to continue to make useful and original contributions to theoretical physics after the prize, maybe thinking he had reached his

Serendipitous Conversations

Last week I was waiting at the station for a train to make a trip to a nearby town. For a change I decided not to take the car. Whilst waiting, a gregarious Glaswegian starting chatting to a man and a woman standing nearby. They ended up talking enthusiastically about the music scene in Glasgow