Wise Wednesdays

One of the insights that my clients find most liberating is that work can be a traumatic environment. You may have heard of ‘ Moral Injury ’ which has been studied in military but also healthcare settings. Whether you talk about stress, trauma, burnout or moral injury, it’s a difference in degree rather than kind. In other words, the negative impact of events at work is the result of dissonance or mismatch between  perceived and expected reality  – or between what you think  should  be happening and what is  actually  happening, as Tony Robbins puts it. This includes: a mismatch between your potential and the opportunities available a mismatch between your needs and what you receive a mismatch between your values and organisational drivers a mismatch between the physical/psychological safety you expect and the physical/psychological violence you experience. In this sense, trauma at work can be prevented, reduced or transformed by being aware of th...

  Is it OK to be different?... If you’ve been reading WW for a while you’ll guess that my short answer is… Yes! (If you’re new – a warm welcome to Wise Wednesdays! You might enjoy this past Wise Wednesday on “ Why your weirdness is a gift ”.) When you’re on a path of liberation and therefore transformation (towards more fulfilment in your work, relationships and life) you’re going to go against the grain for a while. Call it being Original – like the Adam Grant book Originals, but also like the Sia song Original: I won't waste my life being typical I'm gonna be original, even when it's difficult I won't change myself when they tell me, "No" Artists are original Visionaries are original Liberational leaders are original Anyone who sees possibilities beyond the current status quo will be ‘different’ aka original, at least for a while. - Think of the absent-minded, eccentric physicist who worked on his unconventional ideas after office hours and transforme...

  My coach used to repeat this to me regularly. Eventually, I worked out my own version of it: you are more powerful than your THOUGHTS. Of course, positive thoughts can help to increase confidence e.g. through self-affirmations and rewriting narratives. But it turns out that your power lies beyond the mental thought stream. Your power to perceive, process and respond creatively lives beyond the endless torrent of proliferative mental activity (what Buddhists call Papancha) (Did you know that it’s been estimated that 95% of our daily thoughts are repetitions and that 80% of those are negative?…A figure from the National Science Foundation) How do you go beyond thinking? I see how my clients’ power grows exponentially when they learn to reconnect with the awareness beyond repetitive thinking and show up from this place. It’s the most powerful, non-violent human force in the world: Presence. Presence is the byproduct of mindfulness. Mindfulness is a learned skill of p...

  It’s 4 years since I wrote a Wise Wednesdays about how “people don’t leave jobs but leave toxic work cultures”. It was widely shared and got engagement from over a million people on LinkedIn, contributing to The Success Trap book. But what is a non-toxic work culture? Thousands of frameworks exist and it’s my belief that a toxic work culture is something that is experienced as a relational field that is non-violent and honours life. Exactly what that looks like, depends on the time, place and context. It has to be figured out – in a non-violent way. With millions still quitting their jobs each month and the ongoing ecosocial crisis, I believe it’s time to shift from a culture of 'performance' to a culture of connection or we will fail to make meaningful change. Here are 3 elements that appear to be crucial to an ideal, non-toxic work culture based on research and working with a wide range of clients: 1) Rooted in the biology of love Love is not a feeling but the realisatio...