A glorious May in a Northern city. Being out in the empty streets at 9 o’clock in the evening was strangely soothing;...
Identity
Recalibrating: How am I?
People keep asking me how I am coping with lockdown. Given that it is also January, the coldest and often most...
Relishing unusual connections
So here I sit, morning coffee in hand, sun streaming through my east facing bedroom window, and I am transported....
Relishing the impact of inspirational colleagues
About 12 years ago I did my Belbin Team Roles1 analysis. It came free with the purchase of a book and I duly registered, contacted several colleagues to fill out the questionnaires and awaited the 360 type results. Belbin, for those who are not familiar with it,...
Recognising those who inspired us to be who we are
I can’t believe that we are only a few days away from the first year anniversary of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the UK. 31st January 2020. It almost seems surreal looking back over the last twelve months to think that this time last year none of us really had...
Revolutionary: Spaces for Listening
What do you gift yourself when you have everything you can buy and are unable to have what you really want, for your birthday? I was supposed to be working abroad, in my favourite country with my favourite colleagues and when that was cancelled due to Covid, my team...
Redefine professionalism at your peril
“If I want to get plastered on a Saturday night, and fight on my High Street,” a surgeon told me about 12 years ago, “ I can.” At that time I took issue with his view, my lofty beliefs then suggesting that professionalism was something we were, part of our...
Really, really want
In the words of the 1990s pop song, what do we want? What do we really, really want? From life? From work? From each other? Many people have asked this question over the centuries and most of the time the answers are a variation on the same theme. As human...
Re entering the wonderful world of work.
For the first time in six months, I felt I had a place in the world again. Six long months of uncertainty, of worry, or wondering if I would ever be needed in the ways that I was previously pre Covid. Not that we are post Covid at the moment, but we are...
Reaching inside to find a friend
Trust. Who do you trust? With your secrets? With your wellbeing? With your life? Who can trust us? Who would we go out of our way for? A number of people. We do regularly. Our family, our friends, work colleagues. Who would we lay down our lives for?...
Reinforcing the need for creative compassion
It was Christmas Eve when they came in, cold, a few snow flurries. He had been on the floor for several days after his fall, and she, as old as her husband, but suffering from dementia, was confused and upset. She had managed to put a blanket over him and a pillow...
Re-defining paranoia
“I’m probably being paranoid.” How often have you said this, as a preface to saying something you suspect will be dismissed? How often has a friend or colleague said it? And what does it mean, in our common usage of the term? Paranoia as many of us will...