#MonthNotes — Hi, welcome to my MonthNotes — my reflective notes looking back over the past month, loosely based on a set of questions which help me reflect. 1. What went well? The kick of a new community of practice at work, which I’m a part of. After kicking off a couple of communities myself last…

#MonthNotes — Hi, welcome to my MonthNotes — my reflective notes looking back over the past month, loosely based on a set of questions to help me reflect. 1. What went well? An interview I did discussing the importance of psychological safety in the workplace with Bill Raymond came out on the Agile in Action podcast…

#MonthNotes — Hi, welcome to my MonthNotes — my reflective notes looking back over the past month. 1. What went well? My team’s quarterly face-to-face meeting, in London Two ‘reflection sessions’ I did with people I’m coaching, where we check in on how the coaching is going from their perspective and check whether there are things…

Coaching Questions (Theme #1) — I’m training to become an accredited coach. As I do more coaching, I find people wanting to explore big questions (eg relating to their career). To help people in their explorations, I have found it helpful to break down these big questions and to come at them from different angles. …

#MonthNotes — Hi, welcome to my MonthNotes — my practice of writing reflective notes looking back over the past month. 1. What went well? Health’sevier week: As last October, the company where I work (Elsevier) marked World Mental Health Day with a wide range of sessions, run over a week by our awesome MindLife Champions, covering…

Creating co-ownership through a middle ground in co-creation — The ‘circle of appropriation’ is a model that you can use in finding your way to a solution/agreement with someone else/other people. I find the model helpful, and a couple of colleagues have asked me about it and told me that they also find it helpful, so I thought I’d…

#MonthNotes — Hi, welcome to my MonthNotes. I have a practice of writing reflective notes looking back over the past month. I use a set of questions to help me reflect. 1. What went well? The kick-off meeting for a new cross-functional team: Cross-functional working on digital products is crucial. Saying this is not new. But…

Subject-matter expertise, coaching skills, or leadership skills? — “Not knowing is most intimate.” Master Dizang, The Book of Equanimity, Case 20 1. Teaching Twenty years ago, when I was studying French literature for a PhD, I started to teach. I taught French at university to undergraduates. At the time, in order to teach at a university in the UK, you…

A quick re-framing exercise — This is a simple re-framing exercise that demonstrates the impact of giving ourselves choices and taking responsibility. How you frame something matters. It’s a quick and simple exercise, which you can do in less than 5 minutes. I’ve adapted this exercise from one that John Leary-Joyce shares on his website…