I recently came across my High School Yearbook from a year I spent (a few years ago!) as an exchange student at Springfield High School in Vermont, USA. My senior photo appears along with a quote by French philosopher Albert Camus: ‘In the midst of winter I found there was, within me, an invincible summer’. [...]
Over the past month I have had a number of conversations with clients and colleagues and discovered a number of articles that point to a decrease in the level of ‘happiness’ chemicals in the community. These chemicals – particularly oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins – are needed to maintain strong emotional health as we experience the [...]
This month we welcome a guest post from one of our clients, Kristina Karlsson. Kristina was born and lives and works on the land of the Wurundjeri of the Kulin Nations in Australia, where she works as a systems psychodynamically trained organisational consultant and coach. She currently works for the Victorian State Government. ‘Hope’ has emerged as a [...]
When Gayle and Malcolm invited me to write a short reflection six months after returning from Antarctica as part of Homeward Bound, the first thing I did was count the months on my fingers from December 2019 to now. I could not believe it had actually been 6 months! Of course, most of the last [...]
This year is challenging all of us in many and varied ways. Something that just about everyone is facing in one way or another is dealing with ambiguity on an ongoing basis. So much of what we would take for granted at any other time feels up in the air at the moment. For leaders, [...]
Have you ever had to move house, town, state or country? Do you remember what it felt like? Many of us can find an experience like this – one that seemed reasonably clear in terms of the initial decision (whether by us or due to circumstances outside our control) – evolves into an emotional rollercoaster [...]
A few weeks ago, Malcolm and I were interviewed by our Chinese colleague Yupeng Qiu about how leaders can support themselves and their teams through the current Covid-19 pandemic. Yupeng published an article based on our answers which he kindly translated back into English for us. Quite a lot has changed since we gave that [...]
When Gayle was in Nepal in 2019 for the World Ranger Congress she met Kate Vanelli and Matt Lindendberg from Global Conservation Corp, a wonderful organisation that promotes wildlife conservation through youth education. Their 'Future Rangers' program, offered in conjunction with specific schools close to important national parks in South Africa, is designed to turn future [...]
This month we feature a guest post from our friend and colleague John Read. John is a passionate ecologist and author renowned for taking on and sticking with challenges. He is chair of the Warru Recovery Team, a director of several large conservation projects and the not-for-profit company Thylation that commercialises his conservation innovations. John [...]
One of the gifts of our work is that we are able to spend time in countries all over the world, both directly or through our network of Global Fellows. For instance, Malcolm and I recently returned from running workshops in Denmark, which included participants from Brazil and Iran, and we will soon return to [...]
