The view from Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter) on a bad, very bad day

The word’s aflutter with the release of the new Harry Potter movie, which made my kids take the opportunity to watch a previous version, specifically the Order of the Phoenix.  We were all snuggled up in bed watching when it occurred to me that the character Dolores Umbridge is a great example of a worldview, […]

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Where’s your rudder? Inspiration for training & development specialists

Regardless of whether you’re a landlocked lubber or a water born baby chances are you know where a boat rudder is.  On the bottom of the boat.  Right? Not necessarily. For a land crisscrossed with water (in fact 1/4 of it is below sea level), Holland knows a thing or two when it comes to […]

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Seeing clearly through the eyes of Eszter Debreczeni, HR lead for Microsoft

Eszter Debreczeni is Human Resources lead for Central and Eastern Europe, Microsoft. I met her recently at the WIN conference in Paris, where inspired by Life Lenses™ a self-assessment designed to help us identify how we see the world,  she spoke to me about her ideas on seeing clearly. Clarity of vision is key. Key […]

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3 ways to deal with participant hackers (like a slacker but worse) or ‘What I learned from having our website hacked’

You know your day is not going to go well when it starts off with a phone call from a client saying:“Uh, er, is your website supposed to have a picture of people with guns on it?” Turns out our website was hacked, which, apologies to regular readers, is why there was no blog post […]

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The fine art of balance

The gorgeous video clip below came to me via Dyana Valentine.  Other than wondering how the artist can manage to spend so much time upside down while looking so effortless and graceful, it’s got me thinking about balance. As a learning and development specialist I think a vastly overlooked aspect of training is balance.  We […]

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Seeing clearly in the eyes of Maggy Barankitse, Founder Maison Shalom

There are those who walk among us, whose mere presence is enough to command respect, to cause one’s eyeballs to pivot forward and focus with intensity, to straighten one’s shoulders, lift one’s head and vow to do better, to be better. Marguerite ‘Maggy’ Barankitse is one such person. Maggy, pictured above with myself,  is founder […]

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Great trainers are great adapters

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Creativity lies everwhere, even in how you store your business cards

Meet Yann Cramer, editor at InnovToday and Global Technology Manager at Shell.  I met Yann at the W.I.N. conference in Paris where we were both speakers.  I thoroughly enjoyed his workshop on creativity and saw him walk his talk when we exchanged business cards. More about that in a minute. Creativity, ‘the use of the […]

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“We are born with the capacity to hear, we must learn to listen” Miha Pogacnik

His arm flew, directing the bow in a wild and frenetic dance with the strings, while his chin hung onto the base of the violin for dear life.  His hair looked like a bowl of fine spaghetti flying off in one direction, only to be pulled back in another with the rhythmic sway of his […]

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What it takes to see clearly in Senator & Minister of State Ms. Malahoo’s view

I recently had the honour of hearing Ms. Malahoo, Senator and Minister of State for Jamaica, speak at the W.I.N. conference in Paris.  She was dynamic, engaging and articulate.  She graciously agreed to be videotaped, speaking about what it takes in her view to see clearly. We’re all inundated with things to do, places to […]

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