Category: Beautiful World


Exhale The Old, Inhale The New

Maiella National Park, Abruzzo, Italy

2020 has been an extraordinary year. A collective shakeup, things are topsy turvey and I am not sure anymore what is good or bad – I am heartened by the words of Hamlet ‘there is nothing that is good or bad only thinking makes it so’

I am not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions – of that process of taking account of achievements, successes, failures & lapses to gird my loins against the fray and strap myself into the yoke of ‘must do better next time’.

My life is too short for that. I want to enfold all of who I am, what I am experiencing, what I have created and who I am becoming into the embrace of a life fully lived so…

As the year comes to a close
Darkness sighs submission
The sun gently stretches the days
And brightens the horizon

The playful zephyr of the future
Gently coaxes the past from my grasp
And it floats feather light and free
Into memory and remembrance

A winking luminosity of creations, lessons, learnings
A pocketful of preciousness
Without which there would be missing colours
On the tapestry of my life

I exhale
A long slow breath of reverence and honouring
A surrender
A release, a letting go and a letting be

I inhale
The fresh, earthy fragrance of new beginnings
A blank canvas
Ready for the paintbrush of my soul

Poem by: A K Scott

Our Home Is On Fire

‘Markets that deal in human futures are inherently pernicious’ Shoshana Zuboff – very interesting and considered observations on a new type of capitalism emerging as our experience becomes a commodity.

I, for one feel threatened by this scrutiny of my experience but Shoshana’s message is that it isn’t personal and we don’t have to be powerless when we understand that we are in ‘a moment of discontinuity’. Rather than thinking ‘our house is on fire’ understand that the very essence of who we are has now been commoditised and turned into data, data used to predict behaviour and shepherd our experience. We can be afraid because we do not know how to deal with this or be present to the bigger landscape turning our attention to deeper questions of awareness, responsibility and our collective vision for the future.

Let’s not be tinkering with the deck chairs on the Titanic rather consider a new paradigm of the future together.

I was prompted to write this post after listening to Shoshana’s webinar on Surveillance Capitalism as part of the Presencing Institute’s webinar series on Dialogues on Transforming Society & Self, (DoTS). Her book is available on Amazon.

My peer group On A Mission will be hosting a Pura Vida, a Creative Summit in Costa Rica in September 2020 to consider exactly that; new possibilities and paradigms to foster collaborative synergy based on consciousness, evolution & celebration. Watch this space for more information or email [email protected] if you want to know more.

True Collaboration Calls For Carbon Offsetting

Photo by Cristina Cerda on Unsplash

I experience an increasing tension about the impact of my convenient lifestyle. Over 25 years I became accustomed to the fast pace of growth driven business at the heart of the disposable consumerism of big city London.

In the past 3 years I have come to question the primary drivers of business that gobble up our time, our joy, our spirit and our planet. I let go of living in London and of sacrificing my wellbeing and talents to a vision that didn’t belong to me.

I have found living directly connected to the elements of nature e.g. by the sea or in the mountains grounds me in a different rhythm, I think about light switches, own a bag for life and a reusable coffee cup, I choose zero air miles vegetables over world traveller imposters, cringe at plastic packaging, have nightmares about water bottles and the decimation of our oceans, walk more, spend less and sleep better.

I choose to live in the creative orientation, beyond the normal constraints of survival e.g. 9-5 job, regular income, a fixed abode. It is a wild ride at the extremes of existence that few people purposefully choose to do. I actually and metaphorically choose to voyage in unknown domains.

I choose to tread lightly on this earth; the call to be a hermit is seductive. I am passionate to leverage the genius of our collective creativity but I cant be bothered with kudos, conferences or the whitewash of feel-good collectives. I embrace the achievements of science, technology and innovation but don’t know where to begin to use them to transmute and transfigure life on earth.

I believe that we are better together, contributing the best of who we are to receive the fullness of who we can be. I believe that every human being has the potential to be part of the global synergy.

From the bottom of my heart I believe true collaboration is simple and it is the biggest challenge we are being invited to face at this time.

There is maverick community of early adopters out there, those with their toes in the water. I am called to join them and thanks to technology I can find and connect to them on line but is no avoiding the truth that the substance of collaboration is love and love calls for intimacy and vulnerability, for physical as well as ideological closeness, for kinship, sharing, eye to eye connection and the ability to be with and hang out in the messy entanglement of humanness.

I would happily stay at home – as I said earlier the call to be a hermit is seductive – especially when flying and many forms travel have such a polluting impact on our environment. Fortunately I have a friend who has a mate who has founded a company that helps those of us who caught in the carbon/climate predicament https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/

Conversations On Change


I love taking photographs and using them on my posts and website but it isn’t my primary focus so unsplash is a treasure chest for me. There is always a photo to capture the essence of what I would love to share.

If you don’t know who unsplash (obscure name) are you found out here – Unsplash is a community where anyone can share high-resolution photos for anyone to use freely; open source for photographyI have been using this site for over 2 years and unlike most sites I subscribe too I receive very few emails and the ones I do receive are gentle reminders of this cornucopia of creativity that I might like to visit. Crediting isn’t required but is appreciated – and why not.

With a focus on connecting & sharing rather than competition & profit it is impacting the industry, Mikael Cho, founder, writes ‘We didn’t start Unsplash to reinvent an industry. We started Unsplash because we thought it might be useful.’

And it is useful – not just for me who wants to use photographs but also for photographers who want to get their work out there BUT there are cautionary notes. Unsplash has grown rapidly – there are mixed feelings from photographers, despite downloads work is often not credited (it can be easy to forget). Zero financial exchange may feel like a new way of doing business but it brings up mixed feelings on both sides; receiving something for free isn’t always reciprocal receiving. As an occasional user I dont mind being an anonymous ‘client’ receiving occasional email but as a contributor with 50K downloads anonymous or soliciting emails don’t cut the mustard (see online stories from disgruntled photographers).

The razors edge for unsplash has to be the line between the kindness, consideration & reciprocity of community and insatiable growth for growth’s sake which is part of the old paradigm of business. I don’t know how unsplash intends to evolve but evolve it will; the challenge is to direct that evolution always tweaking and adjusting.

I congratulate people & companies that are changing the way WE do business, not by changing the way THEY do business but by choosing to create from the source of a passion or a dream.

I work with entrepreneurs and change-makers to master and direct evolution. Feel free to contact me if you want to have a no obligation conversation about your business and how to stay on track and true to your original intention & vision.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

#TheImaginationTechnologist #CrossingFrontiers #BeTheChangeInBusiness #BusinessReimagined

Be The Orchestrator Of REAL Change In Your World

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
Orchestrated change fails not because of lack of passion, determination or intelligence but because of our individual and collective orientation to the past, to what we already know and believe to be true. It fails because of our inherent efficiency as humans to base our responses and actions on embedded sense making patterns.
 
Purposeful change succeeds when we respond from our connectedness to ALL THAT IS possible and from our ability to dynamically evolve our sense making from the future that is emerging in the moment.
 
To change from a reality that we do not want to one that we do requires us individually and collectively to disengage from our embedded patterns of understanding and sense making, to sit in the space of ALL THAT IS and cultivate a quality of inner spaciousness to listen to the whisper of the emergent future.
 
After 30+ years in the transformation business – systems, structures and people I have distilled my knowledge into a model that guarantees REAL change, change that nourishes the individual, fosters flourishing relationships, promotes thriving communities and is the foundation for business in service to sustainability, re-invention and regeneration.
 
It is a model that serves the agenda of connectedness and heart centred creation:
 
* Based on our human capacity for developmental learning and our capacity to imagine.
 
* requires no special training or upskilling
 
* makes for an effortless shift from reactionary to creative responses in all areas of life the more it is used and applied
 
* can be applied at the individual, group and collective level.
 
* provides immediate insights and results can be apparent in as little as a couple of hours.
 
The model is based on my study and experience of structural dynamics, hermetic philosophy, alchemy, intuition and business transformation methodologies e.g. Agile, Lean sigma, Theory U, Systems Thinking.
 
There are no intellectual property or trademark restrictions and although there is no training required as such to use the model it’s efficacy and the integrity of results are inextricably linked to the interior quality of the Teacher, Leader, Coach or Facilitator – their level of self-awareness, self-responsibility, self-mastery and their agenda of intention.
The quality of change – or not – is a direct reflection of the quality of s/he who orchestrates that change. Whether the reality that is created is the desired outcome or not it becomes the starting point for the next iteration of creation and the teacher for the student who wants to learn.
The key themes of the model are:
1. Inner Sense
2. Structural Integrity
3. Creative Tension
4. Devotional Action
5. Learning & Adjusting
6. Leveraging Momentum
 
Are you a change-maker with a business, product or project that you dearly want to succeed? If you have read this far and you are interested in how to orchestrate successful change I am available for a no obligation consultation on line.
 
Email me on [email protected]

The Ecology To Create A Beautiful World?

Photo Credit: Nipun Metha – ServiceSpace.org March 2019

 “We have all these innovations and technologies and we don’t think about alternate capitals? It’s almost like back in the days when NBC, CBS, and other centralized TV stations were there doing the work, but none of them could come up with a YouTube, because they were so entrenched in that worldview.”
 
Nipun Metha talks active spirituality, real gift ecology, the polyculture of relationships, laddership rather than leadership and the capital of kindness, love and compassion.
 
Nipun’s projects are walking examples of what is possible when we look at life and business in a whole different way. As he says – when he quotes a Silicon Valley billboard “He who dies with the most toys still dies.”
Click HERE to read the full interview.