Category: Insights

  • Review of my personal kanban boards

    Review of my personal Kanban board. Over the course of just over one year: Completed 325 tasks Dismissed 55 tasks (i.e. ‘not aligned’) 33 tasks still in the backlog 6 Core Themes: Career, relationships, body & mind, hobbies, creativity, finance (usually prioritizing three for a longer period of time) Completed eight objectives related to those…

  • Willing to change (till you get punched in the head)

    During a press conference before their third fight for the heavyweight title between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, Wilder’s new trainer was talking about some of the new changes that Wilder had made. Would these new changes work? They needed to if Wilder wanted to win. He had been severely beaten up in the last…

  • Comparing value – (and what’s value?)

    I posted a poll on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago. It didn’t garner much response, but the results were nonetheless interesting. I was curious to know what people consider to be value. But to do this, I wanted to take money out of the equation and instead use an asset that most have or aspire…

  • What have I learned from Dopamine Detox 2.0?

    This was probably the most unscientific experiment I’ve ever done. Not only did I detox from dopamine, I also cut out alcohol, coffee and work! What’s more, I went from barely any training to lifting and training every day. I tracked zero data. The only metric was to see how it went, how I felt…

  • Outcome Orientated Space(s) and future of WFH

    Last year, when WFH became the norm, I was originally initested in how artisans work. They are of the few people in society who CREATE their own environment optimised to what they do / the outcome they wish to seek. But why should we look at artisans? Because they have to create the optmial environment,…

  • Key to life is choices

    We were chatting to my partner’s uncle who had driven down in his campervan to meet us. At one point he mentioned: ‘I’ve always thought that the key to life is choice.’ I think he might be right! It’s the same as optionality. He also reckoned that a lot of people work themselves out of…

  • The Advice Trap Review and Summary

    The Advice Trap Review and Summary

    I’ve just read through The Advice Trap – a new book which was very kindly given to me as a leaving present, and very much a thoughtful gift to help me continue my learning in the coaching domain. So, as part of that learning process, my key takeaways are: When we assume one of the…

  • Digital Detox 1.0 Reflections

    Earlier this year, I did a rudimentary digital detox. I’ve since done a full digital declutter and dopamine detox (which I wrote about here together with Matt Gwyther) Here are a few things that worked well orginally: No TV in the house. Only used a projector for worthwhile films. The projector has sufficient hassle to…

  • My Own Top Ten Agile Coaching Principles

    I’ve been working through the book, ‘Professional Coaching for Agilists’, for the second time round (that’s how good it is) and whilst reviewing Damon Poole’s and Gillian Lee’s principles, I figured I’d have a go at distilling them from 21 down to 10 and then refining them, in order to ‘make them my own’. After…

  • An Objective and a Challenge

    I have now shared my two career objectives with close friends and my mentor. Sharing goals is something I used to do regularly in swimming. Usually it would come about in a training session usually before a big event or at the start of a season. There was something primal about it. Sharing goals has…