Hey Subscriber First Name, the most daring thing is to choose your own path. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

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Daring Works

Edition #70

Hi Subscriber First Name,

I’ve taken time recently to take some of my own medicine - slow down, create some space and see what becomes visible when I'm not rushing to the next thing.

It's got me thinking about clarity.

We're often told to sharpen what we do, find your niche and maybe pick one thing and get really good at it.

There's good advice in that. But I'm increasingly interested in what gets lost when we become too focused on the visible thing.

Take my own path. I spent nearly 20 years as a senior marketing leader, then moved into sustainability strategy and eventually transformative coaching.

I could position myself as a marketing strategist or a sustainability consultant or even an executive coach.

All true and I do sometimes use those terms depending on the context and environment I’m in. But the truth of it is much deeper and much more integrated.

I can see now that all of my work has been pointing to the same thing - I've always been interested in what's underneath the visible problem. What's happening in the system that’s creating the result we're seeing?

And it’s something we’ll need to embrace as we move in to this era of increasing complexity. It’s why I'm less interested in giving people another answer and more interested in helping them see the system they're operating in. As systems scientist and MIT lecturer Peter Senge so powerfully points out:

I see this a lot in businesses.

A leadership team says it has a performance problem, so it introduces new targets and accountability. But perhaps the real issue is that people don't feel safe enough to challenge decisions?

A business has a sales problem, so it changes its marketing. But perhaps the proposition no longer reflects what customers actually need?

A person has a focus problem, so they try to push harder. But perhaps they haven't realised their nervous system is keeping them stuck and they need to start there?

The visible thing is real, it's just not necessarily the cause.

That's the thinking behind the strategic and coaching models I’ve created. People sometimes want to start on what they can see - strategy, performance, culture, growth or behaviour.

But the work often becomes focussed on what's underneath - beliefs, relationships, assumptions, patterns, leadership or maybe the way decisions get made. You can keep working on the visible but if something is wrong with the roots, it won't change much.

Different worlds have different names for this. The helicopter view. Systems thinking. Shifting perspective. Wholeness. For me, it's about being daring (and feeling safe) enough to step back and be honest about what's really going on.

I've been lucky enough to appear on a YouTube interview recently about many of these themes which has prompted me to create a playlist of some of my thoughts.

I’ll be adding more content moving forwards so you might like to be my first subscriber! All of the current content can be found here…

Upcoming Events

The Natural Network at Patch

27th August: 10am - 12pm at Patch. Tickets here

This is our monthly gathering as a collaboration between The Natural Network and Patch. We're passionate about bringing people together to explore how we work, lead and do business in more sustainable, human and natural ways. And this month we have Jamie Oakey as our guest speaker in relation to his work in Community Renewable Energy.

Wrapping up

The work is inward. The impact is outward.

And perhaps that's why this feels particularly relevant right now. We're living through a period of enormous change, with more information, more tools and more possible answers available to us than ever before.

Things like AI can give us more answers but it can only work within the frame we give it.

Sometimes the most useful thing another person can do is help us notice that we're looking at the wrong thing altogether and maybe we’re stuck in a system producing the same symptoms.

If that's something you're wrestling with (in yourself or your business) please feel free to reply and tell me what you’re sensing. I'm always happy to have a conversation.

With curiosity and clarity,

Nick

 
Daring Works
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Daring Works, Suite 8, Bourne Gate, BH12 1DY, UK

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