Blog

The Power of Community in Nature with Freshwalks & Michael Di Paola

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Rebels chatting….

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King

What is Freshwalks?

In its simplest form Freshwalks is a community of people, primarily business owners and freelancers, who meet on regular basis to tackle peaks and traverse dales around the UK and Europe.

They’re an enthusiastic, inclusive and supportive group and a great example of what the human spirit is capable given the opportunity. The power of community should not be underestimated when it comes to helping you find business connections, expertise and boosting your wellbeing.

Michael Di Paola has always been a keen advocate of communities. Moreover, he realises that for a community to be successful, it must enrich the lives of its members and that Freshwalkers feel a shared sense of trust, connection and compassion for one another.

Just some of the benefits of taking your networking with clients and also your team and leadership learning outdoors includes:

Confidence to push against your limits as you climb hills and so building greater self-belief

Collective Wisdom – New ideas are generated on walks due to the conversations and neurotransmitters flooding your system

Being with the crowd allows you to be infected with their motivation, even if you’ve had a tough week

Mutual accountability- if you say you’re going on the group’s WhatsApp, you’ll feel a sense of responsibility for your comrades.

With the craziness of the world at the moment, it pays to not walk alone.

Listen to Michael’s journey here: https://youtu.be/5MBOK9U7tVs

The Power of Gratitude and an Indomitable Spirit in Leadership

Posted on by Martin Murphy

In order to have the mental fortitude to take on big challenges, one has to be able to shift your mental and emotional state towards a more positive attitude, otherwise the task you face is perceived as overwhelming.

You’ll feel that the challenge is too big for what you can contribute. But although you’re one person, you’re part of a building tsunami of other stoic pilgrims awakening, realising that paradigms have to transform.

So, the next step is to be grateful for the moment you have, right now to make a positive difference. Be grateful that we still have a liveable planet, relationships and radical hope to maintain us.

When you feel truly grateful for what you have now, then you can go forward knowing that what you’re doing to create a brave new world…. Is worth the effort 😊

Rebels Chatting – Lesley McKenna Wandering Workshops CIC

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Rebels Chatting…
Lesley McKenna is a three-time Olympic snowboarder and a backcountry ski and snowboarding guide.

We chatted about Lesley’s polymathic journey and her aims of increasing connection to self, others and nature with the wandering workshops she set up with co-founder, Hannah Bailey, an outdoor sports photographer.

Lesley grew up in Aviemore to ski instructing parents. Unsurprisingly, this led to Lesley spending five years as a pro-skier working her way to the Olympics. Lesley then decided to be less Olympic focussed and swopped over to the flamboyant sport of Snowboarding.

Thinking she’d side-stepped the Olympics, Snowboarding became an Olympic sport and once again Lesley found herself being an Olympic contender.

Lesley advises people who’re intending to take the path least travelled to stay curious, be opportunity focussed and open to learning about yourself and the hard lessons one invariable encounters along the way.

Lesley talks about the collaboration, planning and resilience required to achieve happiness when you’re are tackling challenges and the ways her journey has unfolded, which includes studying for a PhD in Ethics in High Performance Sports.

Wandering Workshops is a grassroots community interest company and is on a mission to make the outdoor and action sports space accessible to more people. They provide a safe space for under-represented groups to join in. They also believe the outdoors is for everyone, and that we all have the right to enjoy the wellbeing it offers.

Interesting insights here:

#rebelschatting #mavericks #changeagents #resilience #leadership #coaching #outdoorlearning #outdoorliving #connectionmatters

Better Business Summit

Posted on by Martin Murphy

When change agents don’t speak out because they’re scared the system will reject them, then there are no pioneers, rebels or mavericks… Just managers and enablers of the status-quo.

Fortunately 👩🏻‍💻Hannah Cox FRSA FRGS kicked off the The Better Business Network Summit which brought together courageous collaborators on a mission to transform the paradigm we’re living in.

It was a privilege being asked to be on a panel on Day 2 and then be co-leading the Freshwalks around the hills of Edale.

The Great Outdoors is an excellent arena for meeting, talking, being inspired, getting into ‘flow’ states and building resilience. it’s important to challenge ourselves often.

The stoics call it voluntary challenge, an essential activity for change agents, because they face mighty challenges. Challenging the status-quo is not for the feint hearted. it was an honour to spend a day out in the hills with this plucky community:)

#network #community #business
#change
#leadership
#mavericks
#rebels
#changeagents
#bethechange

Adventure Based Learning Experiences (ABLE)

Posted on by Martin Murphy

ABLE is effective in helping organisations solve their most pressing people development challenges. ABLE enables a myriad of opportunities to effectively learn leadership, and team performance skills, which are impactful and memorable.

As they’re uniquely designed to fit an organisations needs, they not only provide a shared learning experience, they will highlight and change behaviours and attitudes quickly as well as build cohesion amongst a team.

Real change happens when leaders and teams work differently in some way.

Whilst the world, after several systemic shocks, is unquestionably more challenging the potential to harness commitment, collaboration and coherent decision-making under pressure, is profound.

The ability to adapt is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It has been elevated to an ‘essential to survive and thrive’ in the near and medium future.

Agile, Confident and Enterprising teams are at the heart of organisational life and their effectiveness strongly influences the success of the enterprise overall. Times are both challenging and for those with the correct mindset… exhilarating!

Secret Agent Missions & Training days will test and build each participants’ skills at strategising, prioritising, collaborating, communicating, thinking on their feet and; not over-thinking as they race against the clock to solve a mystery or rescue their kidnapped boss.

Give me a nudge if you’re intrigued.

#leadership #team #superteam #smallteamsmakethedreamwork #leaders #training #development #peopleandculture #adventure

DEAD vs LIFE Leadership

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Dr Kathy Allen made many excellent points when I spoke to her about her work at the intersection of leadership, system change and innovation.

One point was that old paradigms get really ‘loud’ before they fall. I noticed that in 2008 with the last bank crash. Paradigm winners get really greedy as they try to exploit as much as possible before the collapse, because they know they’re not going to be able to keep extracting so ruthlessly for much longer.

I’ve noticed it this time as well. Disaster capitalism loves war and now pandemics because again, the crony politicians and greedy corporates have ruthlessly exploited the situation. There would be no wars if there was no profit. More and more research is being uncovered to show that our earlier ancestors didn’t engage in war until hierarchy and exploitation became the main drivers of colonialism.

This leads to another well-made point by Kathy.

People are often coming up with ‘types’ of leadership such as adaptive, transactional and transformational.

Business owners and managers are often taught them on institutional leadership programmes.

These ‘types’ reflect people’s personalities and/or they described what was happening at a certain time and place in history.

You usually find that ‘great’ leaders emerged from society to overcome the challenge that society was facing i.e., they were the right person, with the right skills and attitude, at the right time and place.

When that time passes, we then find there is another type of leadership required and invented.

Kathy suggested a new way of describing leadership.

How about describing the outcomes of traditional leadership such as polluting, exploitative, cronyism or, as Kathy described, leadership that ‘makes places unliveable’.

At the end of the day, leadership is leading to our demise or it is liberating and life affirming.

#leadership #leaders #regeneration #society #climatechange #socialjustice #sustainabilityleadership #sustainability #businessowners #change

Fascinating talk here: https://youtu.be/8-9fX2uX9hY

PRIORITY: 2023 Will need some resilient and practical leadership and cohesive teamwork.

Posted on by Martin Murphy

To manage these dynamic times of ambiguous and novel challenges, one has to develop the kind of resilient self-belief and agile mindset required of operators in the Special Forces.

People who been tempered by what the stoics call ‘voluntary challenge’. That is they go out there and challenge themselves in novel and ambiguous situations so they know that when the challenge comes a calling, they’re prepared.

Here are 7 more traits of operators:

Trait 1: They are self-aware. They are confident of their abilities and they know what can trigger them. They’ve stared into the abyss of their shadow, so understand how they will react under pressure and have developed tactics to overcome those situations.

Trait 2: They’re protagonists of their own life story. They don’t give their power away and remain co-dependent on an authoritarian figure to give them permission to act. Better to seek forgiveness than wait for permission. But they’re not reckless.

Trait 3: They’re mutually accountable to their buddy next to them. It’s easier to be your best self when somebody you value is relying on you to fulfil your part in the task at hand. They ecology-check their decisions.

Trait 4: They’re idealistic realists. They have a vision of the ideal future, but they’re smart enough to realise it’s going to take a lot of effort to make that vision come to reality. They love the challenge.

Trait 5: They’re courageously compassionate. They have the courage to step forward and take on problems to help others in their team so they can be share success collectively.

Trait 6 Moderation. They know not to over play their strengths. They maintain a sense of humour, humility and the unrelenting pursuit of excellence.

Trait 7:  They are levers of potential. They can lead when required and understand how to focus on the high-leverage activities to achieve the optimal outcome.

If you’d like to kick-start the new year with some training to get people united and excited, able to take on the challenges that the world seems intent on dishing out, then get your team to develop Stoic Pilgrim mindset:)

#leadership #team #training #future #mindset #agile #teamwork

3 Types of Mindset

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Mindset differs for mavericks, rebels and change agents.

Mostly people are limited by the economic, political, social, academic and philosophical boxes they grew up in.

Some people can think outside the box, but they ask permission of the box.

Through fate or enlightened insight, there are those who can see the matrix of the box and want to find a socially just, sustainable and spiritually fulfilling alternative well outside the influence of the box…But not on Mars!

#elon #eliteidiots

#stoicpilgrim

#stoicpilgrimphilosophy

#robust

#resilience

#mindset

#mentalhealth

#survivalskillsforlife

#doingwhatsrightnotwhatseasy

#adventure

#alwaysalittlefurther

#redefinesuccess

How Capitalism and Hierarchy Continue to Destroy the Health of the World.

Posted on by Martin Murphy

In the UK, air pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health. The annual mortality of human-made air pollution in the UK is roughly equivalent to between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths every year.

Asthma is the most common long-term medical condition in children in the UK, with around one in 11 children and young people living with asthma. The UK has one of the highest prevalence, emergency admission and death rates for childhood asthma in Europe. Outcomes are worse for children and young people living in the most deprived areas

I went for a walk in the countryside yesterday and found myself coughing as I realised I was breathing in the acrid exhaust fumes emanating from #PolyntGroup factory in the valley below me.
This is an Italian organisation, polluting the air in Staffordshire and probably sending the profits back to Europe.

They boast on their website about their sustainability credentials, but somehow me thinks, they’re not really a robust effort to sustain the environment or the stakeholders who live near their factories.

But hey!! Capitalism is the best way to run society…. Really??

When you dig into how this is possible, you find out that the local counsellors are often friends of these organisations. Politicians are in the service of the wealthy.

The environmental department at the local council is overrun with cases, one can’t help think purposely under resourced, so they are ineffectual.

These firms employ clever lawyers who delay and obfuscate any kind of challenges brought about by councils or people.

The people who work there are dependent on the organisation for wages to feed and home their families, so understandably and invariably’ anti-anything which threatens their lifestyles.

Moreover, if wealthy, powerful people will abuse the ecology and environment of their own country, you can understand how they will definitely exploit countries such as Africa as Oladele Dosunmu 🇳🇬 is highlighting on his LinkedIn page.

It’s going to take some brave leadership to transform this world.

It’s necessary to highlight this behaviour, but don’t expect that the oil-tech capitalists will voluntarily transform their practice. They will have to be motivated and probably against their will.

As Buckminster Fuller advised: ‘Don’t fight the existing reality, create a better world which makes the old one obsolete’

#sustainability #health #environmental #oil #chemicalindustries #society #capitalism #pollution #asthma #wellbeing

Adam Smith, the grandfather of capitalism said:

Posted on by Martin Murphy

“Concern for our own happiness (self interest) recommends to us the virtue of prudence (self-command), concern for that of other people, the virtues of justice and beneficence –- of which the one restrains us from hurting, the other prompts … (us) to promote that happiness.”

He didn’t intend for some people to become extremely wealthy at the expense of everyone else and everything else including nature.

Much like the stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius, Smith believed in the virtue of moderation because it threatens our social structure and the capacity for effective decision-making when you confuse wealth and power with wisdom.

Unfortunately, economists seem to have taken what benefits elites and ignored the warnings for excess.

How will business leaders operate in a future world which can no longer accept simplistic and short term thinking, decision-making and hierarchy?

#power #happiness #leadership #ecologycheck #decisionmaking #decisionmakingskills #complexity #future #business #superteamconcept