From clutter to clarity

An article in our local rag interested me this morning. It was about a UN study which argues that we are giving our children too many toys to compensate for not spending time with them, because 'we are too busy.' The most disturbing part about it, was that the children when asked what they wanted most, replied 'more family time.' Our children it would appear 'get' it while we adults appear to have 'lost the plot' at least that is what the article suggested. And as always when I read something interesting, I start applying it to my world and that of my coachees, so out of interest what do we think about the following questions. 1) How many 'toys' (and not just children's toys here) do you have in your home now compared to the home you grew up in, and did you as a child feel deprived? 2) How many 'activities' or 'adventures' have you been on in the last month? (don't include organised regular activities) 3) When y...

I am reading a particularly interesting book at the moment... Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin and although I am still to be convinced by some of the argument, the book did get me thinking about how we practice and what we practice. In particular I started thinking about a topic which has come up and awful lot this week, communication. Why is it that we usually wait until communication breaks down before we do something about it? But instead what if we decided to proactively practice our communication. So, I am going to pick a frequently discussed coaching topic "real conversations' v' 'talking' and challenge anyone out there who reads this to do the following exercise with their family, whatever it's shape, size and dynamic. Your challenge is to sit together in a room for more than 30 mins and have a 'real' conversation, that is a conversation where you learn something about someone else in the room, about what they think or believe. A...