By Peter Johnson, on September 26th, 2013 | Comments are closed  The management of change, or as it is often called, “change management” has become hugely popular over recent years. Many management consultants have set up offering advice in this area. Significant areas of business, and especially the public sector, have spent considerable sums of money undertaking change programmes. Business schools, and other organisations, have conducted research into this area. It is also rare for business magazines not to have a mention of this topic.
So what is new?
I was recently speaking to a group of top professionals and my speech was entitled ‘Lessons from a dinosaur’. Even though I am a touch past the first flush of youth, this was less about my experience and age!
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By Peter Johnson, on September 23rd, 2013 | Comments are closed This bench caught my eye and it inspired a few thoughts.
What does it make you think about?
One of the wonderful pleasures of life is sitting on a bench with someone and having a good conversation. Sometimes the conversation will be deep. Sometimes it may, as our American friends say, simply be ‘shooting the breeze’. Sometimes it is enough to sit in quiet enjoying the company of the person we are with. Whatever it may be though, these moments can be for sharing.
One of the interesting aspects of sitting on a bench is that rather than facing directly opposite someone, as when at a table, we have a common view. It is also easier to
Continue reading A bench to remember
By Peter Johnson, on September 18th, 2013 | Comments are closed It is interesting to notice what is going on around us, albeit so often we are absorbed in our own thoughts. Or thoughts that someone else has triggered.
As you can see in the picture, there is an empty path, wonderfully dappled with the early evening sunlight. A light that has is ‘heavier’ and has more depth than the strong sunlight at noon.
For once my mind was a little less busy and I noticed just how the light was playing between the trees. How the freshly cut grass was standing upright, and looking lush after a few days of rain. It was one of those moments when all else seemed to have less importance, one of
Continue reading Allowing deeper discovery moments!
By Peter Johnson, on September 14th, 2013 | Comments are closed
How often do we get the opportunity to make a new start?
This was a question I was pondering over recently. In life there are so many changes that confront us, some small some rather bigger. Mostly we just look to get around them and move on.
This picture is the start line of the Shelsley Walsh Hill climb in Worcestershire, England. It is the oldest continually used racetrack in the world, having started in 1905; the motor club whose home it is was founded in 1901.
The objective is for a car to race as quickly as it can from the bottom of the hill to the finishing line at the top. This is timed
Continue reading Making a new start.
By Peter Johnson, on August 28th, 2013 | Comments are closed These are the words that Martin Luther King Jr spoke to the 250,000 supporters at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, on 28 August 1963.
Fifty years ago today.
The following year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and tragically assassinated in 1968 when still only 41.
As I was mulling over the importance of his speech, the powerful words he spoke, the determination he had for his ‘four little children’, I was wondering what his reaction would be if he were to see what progress had been made. How much has changed over those 50 year years? How much still has to change?
It also got me thinking about what our own dream is. Do take
Continue reading ‘I have a dream.’
By Peter Johnson, on August 21st, 2013 | Comments are closed We live in a world that seems to spin ever faster and it is clear that there is no intention of it slowing. So much going on, so many demands on our time, so many choices, so much information, so much noise, so many decisions that need to be made….often right now (or so we, or others, think)!
We live in a world that has become a ‘connected society’. The ever-easier access to information and other people. We have phone, text, email, a whole raft of social media, radio, video, games, music, film, instant sports, news as it breaks and more right at our fingertips. Wherever we are. Things that even only 50 years ago would have
Continue reading Creating a deeper discovery of self
By Peter Johnson, on June 16th, 2013 | Comments are closed What a fantastic sight seeing an amazingly large number of ladies, young and not so young, all taking part in the Race For Life event today. Raising awareness and funds for the ongoing battle against cancer.
This vile disease that causes so much loss, pain, impact and devastation on the lives of so many.
All of the people taking part were championing the cause – so many poignantly running for people they know, or knew, who have been struck down by the dreadful illness. Some running fast and sprinting to the finishing line, some less fit and walking their way around. All keen to make a difference. All honoring the cause so visibly.
As I wandered home
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By Peter Johnson, on May 31st, 2013 | Comments are closed In Trafalgar Square, London there is a ‘spare’ plinth that various works of art rest upon. These pieces change on a regular basis and I always keep an eye out to see what is current. In a previous blog there was a picture of a large bottle with a ship inside. On this occasion I saw the rocking horse with young boy in the saddle. (There is also a bird on his head taking a rest or a higher view – usually this would be a pigeon as the Square is well known for these birds. On this occasion I can confirm it is a seagull.
Anyway, bird aside, I was caught by the image of the
Continue reading Rocking horse generals
By Peter Johnson, on May 15th, 2013 | Comments are closed I am sure that there will be other comments about which is the world’s oldest newspaper but the claim is held by Berrow’s Worcester Journal. You may just make out from the picture that the date established was 1690. I think one of the riders that I have read elsewhere is ‘continuously published’. I just think this is incredible and a real piece of living history.
We now live in a world of speedy electronic communication where messages can reach other parts of the world in seconds and still the good old newspaper continues. A copy is delivered every week and I always enjoy a look through. It records local news, lots of articles to interest local
Continue reading The world’s oldest newspaper….
By Peter Johnson, on May 9th, 2013 | Comments are closed As you enter Worcester City in England, by train, there is a factory sign that peers from the medley of buildings with the title ‘Lea & Perrins’. Just like many signs on factories it highlights the business’s name. Some will instantly recognize the name, for many more it is just another name that sits on top of the industrial architecture that has been built in seemingly random fashion over a century or more.
So what is in this name? Worcestershire Sauce is made here. It is a spicy brown liquid that is often seen in bars, kitchens and dinning rooms the world over. I remember many years ago seeing a bottle of this sauce in a bar
Continue reading Sauce of the Worcestershire kind!
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