Wednesday 29 April 2020

What brings you joy online and in person?

"I don't think I can stand another Zoom meeting" says my client.

I get it. Many people have gone overboard. Change fatigue of a different kind has arrived.

Here's two great articles to help you to understand and deal with the affects of being online.

I'll be right back. How to protect your energy during Zoom meetings.

Video chat is helping us stay employed and connected. But what makes it so tiring - and how can we reduce ‘Zoom fatigue’?

Now don't get me wrong here. I love Zoom. I use Zoom to do 80% of my work with my clients. I don't however use the technology for more than 3 hours per day.

What we need I suggest is greater perspective, more discipline, and soon better online and in person harmony


Below are some questions I suggest are very worthy of your answers and actual responses.

Most people are still having way too many meetings. There is simply is no need for most meetings.

1) What could you change about the meetings you're involved in? What will you actually change?


Working online using technology like Zoom was once a bit of a novelty for a lot of people. It's not anymore!

Once we are allowed real human contact again we have a great opportunity to ensure online and in person harmony.

2) How will you decide to live in the new online and in person world that will be here before you know it?


In the new world a lot will be the same because some things are as they should be.

A lot can be better though right?

A key way to decide how who you will be and what you will do differently in this new world is to fully get what's bring you and other people joy.

3A) What brings you joy? How will you live a more joyful life?


3B) What brings other people joy? How will you help your family, friends, colleagues, employees, customers/clients to live a more joyful life?


Be remarkable.
Ian

Monday 27 April 2020

Lessons for being true to yourself from Jerry Seinfield

When I feel like a laugh I sometimes watch a Jerry Seinfeld show, corona or no corona. You?

There's is a lot of value in this HBR interview with Jerry.

Here's some of my favourites:

“What am I really sick of?” is where innovation begins.

If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way. The right way is the hard way. 

My theory is that proportion is key to everything. 

... every comedian, like every athlete, has a little routine. Mine is to look at my notes until five minutes before the show.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.
Ian

Friday 24 April 2020

Re-imagine, re-purpose and re-start

Listen to the podcast version of this post

Last week’s podcast was a conversation with Susan Furness, my colleague and co-creator of Strategic Heartistry, an alternative to strategic planning.


During our research for our program Susan and myself came up with a lot of R words to describe the during and post corona worlds before settling on our overarching 3 for this time of re-imagine, re-purpose and re-start.

Renaissance got a good airing in our conversation. The first renaissance of course was a movement away from the feudal and religious dogmas of the time. It was led by polymaths like Leonardo da Vinci.

Will you be one of the leaders of a new renaissance post corona? 


We need people leading us away from the broken world economic system and the other dark sides of globalisation.

Susan and I explored reinvention a lot. In our view there’s much that needs a make-over at the very least. What could you reinvent in your life and work? It’s very likely that post corona the world of work will never return to where it was. This is a great opportunity for everyone deciding to lead in this new era.

Resilience is a word for now and the foreseeable future. I’ve been excited to see how resilient we are as humans. You?

Reasons, Relationships and Routines have been high on my list as I’m sure on yours. Here's the link to my short online course called Reasons, Relationships and Routines Guarantee Results because I am absolutely certain that they do.

Risk of course rates an honourable mention at least. Personal space and not invading it has taken on new meaning during corona right? And of course risk management is now firmly on every leaders agenda.

One of my favourite R’s is restaurant. I’m missing them! And I really feel for owners and operators. Restaurant’s and coffee shops are a third place I have done a lot of living and a lot of business in over the years. Now Zoom is my third place. And while I’m enjoying virtual coffee and cake (optional) every Thursday with clients and colleagues there is nothing like the real thing right?

Re-Think, Re-Position, Re-Charge, Reset, Reboot, Reclaim, Re-feel ad Reposition all came up for Susan and I in our deliberations.

In the end we chose re-imagine, re-purpose and re-start as our key three and reality, reason, recipe, rituals and rhythm as the key pieces of our Strategic Heartistry model.

What R’s would you choose to represent your life and work now and how they will you be apart of your playbook post corona?


Do Your Work.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Crossing your bridge to the PC (post corona) world

I imagine for lots of people that DC (during corona) is a bit like sitting by a campfire contemplating whether to leave the forrest that has been your safety zone for the past few weeks and step out and onto the bridge nearby that you suspect will lead to a new way of being and doing.

Who will you become? What will you do PC (post corona)?


I recommend the following as a change process to follow in your own best way.

Recommended Actions

1) Visit my The Appreciative Leader handbook companion resources web page. 

Scroll down to the Appreciating what is (Sparkenation 15) and 'Shifting from reality (what is) to Possibility (What Can Be)’ (Sparkenation 16) exercises. Download the forms and complete the exercises.

2) Create a series of quantum leaps that you will take over the next 90 days to move from what is to what can be.


3) Take these leaps.

4) Undertake an after-action-review by

a) Reviewing one leap at a time answering the following questions what happened and why? what did you learn, relearn, and unlearn? How can you be better, wiser and more valuable in applying your learnings? Who will we become? What will we do next?

2) Determine how your answers will be integrated with what is already working well for you. Do integration work.

5) Repeat from 1).

Should you love some help with the above please contact me.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Monday 20 April 2020

Magnificence - new, complimentary, self-directed online course

Heart-leadership is a choice. Thankfully we're seeing more and more of it of late.

And thankfully too we're seeing less of the head style of leadership that says look at me. My great desire PC (Post Corona) is that this kind of fake leadership will disappear with the virus!

Heart-leadership - the art of seeing, sometimes unearthing, mostly magnifying and enhancing people’s essence (unique personal significance) including your own.


My new, complimentary, self-directed online course contains 3 actions that will help you to increase your heart-leadership.

Get started here.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Friday 17 April 2020

Strategic Heartistry Unfolding

Strategy Heartistry – the art of talking in, before you talk out; into yourself and in with your team, is an all new co-creation of my colleague Susan Furness and myself. It's an alternative to strategic planning.

The first programmes are specifically designed to help you to Re-imagine, Re-purpose and Re-start post the current crisis.

In this short podcast Susan and myself unfold a little of what Strategic Heartistry is all about

Learn more at the website where you will see links to the first two by three online sessions programmes that launch next week.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Local is our future in person and local, national, global online

I'm currently studying this book.

I highly recommend purchasing it yourself.

It's confirmed for me a lot of what I already knew. Here's just 3 areas:

1) our global economic system is failing us. A few bankers and shareholders get richer while inequality gets deeper and wider.

2) a few corporations rule the world aided and abetted by some politicians. Of the biggest economies more than two thirds are corporations.

Even a cursory glance at global supply-chains reveals massive inefficiencies, waste and exploitation of workers.

3) Food that isn't made and distributed locally doesn't taste as good as the food that is sourced locally and in season. Further a lot of the food we eat not locally grown and packaged off shore is actually bad for our health.

Local is our future in person I believe. Local economics, dealing with local businesses, eating food produced locally, just for starters.


The great paradox is that globalisation works online. 


An example is my colleague Susan Furness and myself creating a live online learning course called Strategic Heartistry as an alternative to strategic planning. Susan lives in Dubai, me Australia.

Tomorrow we're hosting a pilot of our course with people from 5 countries and no-one leaving home.

When we launch next week, people from all over the world will be participating.

More people will work from home post the current crisis than ever before.

As my wife and I walk the local beach and bush paths every day we're seeing and smelling a cleaner, more vibrant earth. It wasn't bad before yet the difference is still noticeable. This difference of course is most noticeable in the big cities. I predict less big city life and more local and regional living in the near future.

Our future is local, national and global yet not as it was a month ago. We're not going back to how things were and I'm very glad. You?


Who will you become?  What will you do next?

Be remarkable.
Ian

Monday 13 April 2020

3 easy actions to ensure your lock down doesn't become locked up

Here's 3 actions to ensure your lock down doesn't become locked up physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually!

1) Craft your diet. 


Perfect time now to experiment and find out the most healthy diet for you. Mine is 5 days primarily fruit and vegetables and 2 days of having something else as well.

My wife and I have been on this kind of diet for 9 months and we feel very well. The last couple of months have been the hardest so we are using this time of being at home more to experiment with healthy options.

2) Exercise daily


We still go for our daily walk. Because we cannot go to the gym we're doing our home routines 3 times per day instead of the usual one.

3) Engage in meaningful conversation with people of like heart. 


I'm hosting a no agenda conversation (we do have a theme each week) every Thursday on Zoom at 10 am AEST for the foreseeable future.

There's room for a few more like-hearted people. If this is you please email ian@ianberry.biz for the link.

Would you add any to these three actions or do you have your own three?

Be remarkable.
Ian

Friday 10 April 2020

Who Before Do

Listen directly to the podcast version of this post here.

This week my friend and colleague Susan Furness and myself launched our co-creation Strategic Heartistry. It’s an alternative to strategic planning.

We co-created the programme with Susan in Dubai and myself in Australia. It’s been a joy to put technology to the test and co-create something remarkable from scratch without meeting at all in person.

Learn more about our launch here. 

Strategy Heartistry – the art of talking in, before you talk out; into yourself and in with your team, is very much in alignment with my mantra of Who Before Do, the topic for this post and podcast.


Who Before Do is also in sync with one of the key phrases about the present and the future that Susan and I invented for Strategic Heartistry. The phrase has mystery and magic and already a momentum to it, it’s ‘being decisively human in a digitally connected world."

There are of course numerous examples of the best of humanity since the crisis all over the internet. There’s also examples of the worst in us!

I’ve been speaking too with some of my clients and colleagues about the stresses of being locked in and locked down. My mantra Who Before Do is often used. I created this mantra originally to illustrate that culture is not just the way we do things around here, it’s also who we are long before what we do.

Aristotle was onto this a very long time ago, about 350 BC. He said “it’s not a question of what should I do but who should I be.”

I think this is a profound statement.

The key to overcoming the stresses of this crisis together lies in who we are long before what we do.


I’ve 3 suggestions for you to become more of whom you’re capable of becoming which Robert Louis Stevenson once remarked as the only purpose in life. He said “to be who we are and to become all that we are capable of becoming, is the only purpose in life.”

Simon Sinek famously suggested start with why. I love Simon’s work, yet I believe we should start with who.

First suggestion: Remind yourself every morning when you awake and every night before you go to sleep that you are a one-of-a-kind human being. You are the only version of you. Be the best version you can be.

Suggestion Two: Invest time every day zeroing in on your essence (what is uniquely significant about you). Ask the people in your home what they feel and think. Create a plan-on-a-page about how you will become more of your essence and how you will magnify and enhance your essence as well as doing the same for others. This is Heart Leadership.

Dr Judi Neal PhD and Edgewalkers where my collaborator in Strategic Heartistry Susan is a Board member and master practitioner have a great Qualities of Being and Edgewalker Skills that are very much in alignment with living Who Before Do.





One of the outcomes Susan and I have in mind for participants in Strategic Heartistry is reversing the doing and the being of our world. After all we are human beings not human doings!

Third suggestion: Decide on ways that you will keep your progress towards your best you visible.

Should you love some help with any of these actions please give me a shout and we’ll get on Zoom together.

This is a time like never before to be "decisively human in a digitally connected world."

Do Your Work.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Recommended reading lists

At next weeks (Thursday 9th April) complimentary virtual coffee and cake session (10 am AEST email ian@ianberry.biz to get the link) we will be exploring our favourite books and/or the best idea we have come across in the past decade.

Below are my top 21 books and here is my full list.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Monday 6 April 2020

What do I focus on next?

I love this from Kevin Roberts. It's very useful for determining what to focus on.

Currently I'm glad of my routine of working for 90 minutes and then doing something completely different for 20 minutes minimum.

How are you investing in your time?


This about Deep Work (Cal Newport) may also be useful for you. NB I'm allowing myself to get distracted more than usual at present. Even for someone who works at home most of the time current situation is still testing. I'm remaining grateful for our freedom and will celebrate when it returns!

Be remarkable.
Ian

PS Every Thursday at 10 am from 2nd April for at least the next 6 weeks I'm hosting a virtual coffee and cake session online. No agenda. Just conversation with like-hearted people. Email me ian@ianberry.iz to get the link


Friday 3 April 2020

Clear Out Your Cupboards and Get Clear In Your Heart

Listen directly to the podcast version of this post here.

There’s a lot of highly valuable actions that we can take while we’re shut in, locked down, or whatever your situation is during the current crisis.

Here’s my top 10 suggestions:

1. Clean out your cupboards. I’m amazed what my wife and I have discovered doing this and the amount of stuff we will be giving away to others who can make great use of what we are not.

2. Call someone you haven’t for awhile and be kind.

3. Write a letter to someone you love.

4. Have some fun every day. I’m remembering when I was a kid and how we had lots of fun without any electronic devices.

5. Watch your diet.

6. Exercise a little more. I’m walking daily as always yet rather than once a day of general exercise I’m going through my routine 3 times daily.

7. Meditate daily. I’ve been practicing meditation every day for a very long time. It always helps to have a calm mind.

8. Make a list of what you’re grateful for every day in a journal. Write about other feelings and thoughts in your journal. Use these personal space times to stay positive.

9. Stay away as much as possible from the news. Get what you need to know and then move on. As a generalisation both mainstream and social media haven’t yet learned to look on the bright side of life.

10. Learn to listen to your heart more than your mind. The mind is often replaying stories we have taught ourselves whereas the heart is more intuitive and in touch with the present moment.


What would be on your list? What would be on the list of the people you live with.

To remain well and positive and productive in this time who will you become and what will you do.

Do Your Work.

Be remarkable.
Ian

PS Looking for something to read. You can download all my books and digital resources with my compliments here. At this link you can also learn about my 30 minutes online complimentary Heart Leadership Check-up.

Wednesday 1 April 2020

Relationships, Reasons and Routines Guarantee Results

In times of uncertainty, fear often emerges and some people revert to the old command and control.

I encourage you to lean in to yourself. Compete with yourself. Seek to collaborate with everyone else.

My online course Relationships, Reasons and Routines Guarantee Results may help you.

Alternatively just watch this video from the course.



Be remarkable.
Ian