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2022Raising Boys
A few years ago, I attended the Fatherhood Festival held in northern New South Wales and one of the highlights was an address by psychologist Steve Biddulph author of “Manhood”. Steve gave us four key pointers to raising boys. Time According to Steve, the concept of qualitative time is nonsense. There is no substitute when raising children for quantity time. As boys bond most strongly…
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2022Knowledge: When Training Undermines Corporate Success
Australia’s multibillion-dollar education and training industry stands in the way of real corporate development. We have defined “skills and competencies” based on how superior performers have acted in the past, and we use this knowledge to define jobs, performance, training needs and levels of remuneration. A vast international industry exists to ensure that schools and universities train the young, while businesses and bureaucracies train, control…
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202230
2021Step back and wonder
Medical science (and our own experience) increasingly tells us that when we are frightened we rarely think clearly. Logical thinking happens in the neo-cortex (executive functioning part of the brain) and fear throws us into the reptilian (flight, fight or freeze) brain stem. The arbiter between them is the limbic system (or mammalian) brain where emotion is processed. Like a switch on a rail line,…
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2021Appreciation is always wonderful
Yesterday I received a really lovely email of appreciation that I thought I would share with you. Thank you “R” I really appreciate your appreciation of my work! “Hello MargotI just wanted to give you some feedback on the excellent articles you write for Engineers Austraila.They are consistently the best (this has been so over many years), the ones I first read and sometimes the only…
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2021Celebrating differences is better than hate
“Why do you hate consultants?” the moderator asked three of the panelists. In response one of them burst into uncontrollable laughter; apparently while professionally she “hated consultants” she was married to one. I was the only consultant on that panel which was about engaging consultants but seemed to be all about why consultants were hated. Not moderately disliked or distrusted-no the word used was “hated”….
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2021Combining Personal Well-Being with Worldly Success
Meet William Webster. You have probably read about him. He is a public figure of some note. He leads in his field. He is affluent and influential. You may have seen him driving around in his late-model BMW. Williams attractive wife, Susan, is often in the social pages. A little less now because as the children are older she has started her own successful retailing…
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2021Why love isn’t the revolution
In the preview for the new documentary “Occupy Wall St – The Revolution is love”, Eisenstein author of “Sacred Economics” suggests that if the 99{4db85cf3f2d17db004754f7348203bacbe7804d0c9f206eb67a49c242c149d5e} violently topple the dominant 1{4db85cf3f2d17db004754f7348203bacbe7804d0c9f206eb67a49c242c149d5e} the 99{4db85cf3f2d17db004754f7348203bacbe7804d0c9f206eb67a49c242c149d5e} will simply create a new 1{4db85cf3f2d17db004754f7348203bacbe7804d0c9f206eb67a49c242c149d5e}. (We can see this in Russia where the fall of one authoritarian regime was simply replaced by another). Eisenstein’s hope is that love will find a way…
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2021Assessment: IQ, EQ and SQ
We all grew up knowing IQ (Intelligence Quotient) was important. At my school, girls with high IQ’s were forced to study Latin and History. The less smart ones got to study German and Geography (which at the time, seemed far more practical and useful to me). Then we were told about EQ (Emotional Quotient) which it seems is a far more accurate indicator of adult…
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2021Use the tough times to lift your game
I am always surprised when I meet leaders who want to get results without rocking the boat. They don’t want to upset anybody. Such leaders often provide excuses like a desire for harmony, fairness and team spirit to avoid asking people to do what they need to do which includes stretching emotionally, intellectually and in their performance. However, slightly deeper investigation usually shows that the real reason…