Posts

The Efficient Team - notes from a cliff-top and a rainforest

Image
Whilst conceptually bizarre, a cliff face is a great place to study efficient teamwork. Your team are literally tied together and cannot escape until the job is done! Every step, every action, affects the entire team whether they like it or not. Mountaineering efficiency has more to it than not treading on toes, or bumping someone annoying off your ledge. Other than an element of patience, great mountain teams unite the core requirements of knowledge; skill; and experience, at speed, to reach their goal. The longer they are tied together, the greater that need becomes! The longer they are out there, the greater the exposure to the elements (and to each other), and the more they need to work in harmony. If you take too long, the initial goal or summit is replaced by the need to survive. Take it from someone who has spent a lifetime meeting deadlines in inhospitable and dangerous environments – from being strapped together on sweltering desert rockfaces; to abseiling through electr
Post a Comment
Read more

Lessons for Life and Business from Climbing Sea Cliffs: Adversity vs Uncertainty

According to Hemmingway, "There are only three sports, motor racing, bullfighting and mountaineering. All the rest are merely games”.  Perhaps Wing Suiting could be added? - Fun? Maybe for some. I have to think quite hard why you would dedicate your life to the pursuit of something that could also simultaneously end it. I have to think even harder why I, a mountaineering guide, made that choice... And so it is in business. One person's passion is another's poison. Risk, adversity and uncertainty can either be your undoing, or something that brings out pure genius, hidden talent, innovation and extraordinary teamwork. Mountaineers and Rock climbers live with uncertainty, and develop techniques  to function at a high level in demanding situations - skills  gained from years of testing limits and erasing boundaries, and this is what I want to focus on today.   Climbers, like cave divers, train themselves to suppress fear and the resulting feelings of uncertainty. They train
Post a Comment
Read more

Plastic Free July

Image
 I was recently wrote this article for NOICE to promote Plastic Free July. Whilst it was fun putting it together in an entertaining way, the content matter made me question how I can further reduce the amount of plastic I use through informed purchasing choices.   Enjoy reading Mr Plasticus Tubus' Journey and check out the NOICE clip that goes with it! The Life of a Tooth Paste Tube
Post a Comment
Read more

How to get great sound on BBC radio interviews "Working from Home"

Image
Covid-19 now means distance radio interviews from home are not just a 'thing' but here to stay. I have wondered how the BBC manage to obtain great recording quality, when people are actually sat in their own homes recording off some pretty basic technology? I was lucky enough to find out some of the dark art behind good quality home recording from a recent BBC World Service interview for their Outlook series.  Previously, all the radio interviews I did were in professional recording studios, bar one outdoor recording ascending Snowdon in Wales, where the sound of the wind and trudging footsteps seemed to be of more interest to the interviewer than what anyone was saying! In your own home, there's no-one overseeing your recording directly, and it can all feel a bit intimidating, despite the lovely producers and presenters easing you into it. So I hope they don't mind if I pass on a few of their tip-top-tips on recording from home so that you too could sound great for a p
Post a Comment
Read more

BBC World Service Outlook Series

Image
Am so excited -  BBC World Service are  interviewing me for their  Outlook series, on Extraordinary Personal Stories from Around the World. Needless to say also a bit nervous as the programme apparently attracts 127 million listeners worldwide! My wish is that our story may reassure and inspire hope to many people who  have endured a similarly harsh time during the very difficult and unnerving events we face, in the heart of the Global Covid-19 Pandemic 2020. If you want to listen to some of their amazing broadcasts click here! BBC World Service
Post a Comment
Read more

Thailand Cave Rescue

Image
The worlds most expert cave divers are racing against the onset of heavy monsoon rains to rescue the boys football team trapped nearly a kilometer underground in a Cave in Thailand.When the boys were first discovered alive trapped for 10 days on a muddy island nearly 4 kilometers into the cave system I was asked to write a piece for the Daily Telegraph in which I explained just a little bit about caving and the expertise that has been involved in this mission. Since the article was published on how the  British Cavers found the trapped  Thai Boys it has been a nailbiting week. As a climber I know from both sides of technical rescue scenarios how difficult and dangerous even seemingly simple rescues can be. They are fraught with complications, changes in the weather, unmovable obstructions and the physical difficulty of removing people with little technical, let alone no technical experience in that field. What is utterly remarkable in this instance is that what appeared to
Post a Comment
Read more

Cultural Diversity: Speaking in Switzerland, South Africa and the UK

As a motivational speaker I am often asked to build bridges between the diversity that exists in just one organisation. The experience of travelling to various countries and mingling with different cultures is invaluable in connecting with audiences, and ensuring successful outcomes. It is always refreshing to immerse yourself into environments that are very different from your own. Not that long ago I spoke in Geneva, a global financial city, and a worldwide centre for diplomacy. This is due to its presence of international organizations such as the Red Cross and many of the United Nations agency headquarters. It beautiful and orderly, forms the confluence of the Rhone and Arve Rivers, and is surrounded by majestic snow capped Alpine mountains. As someone heralding from a far more chaotic and noisy environment, such perfect and quiet efficiency is more than a little unnerving. In my mind it is comparable only to time spent speaking in Frankfurt, Germany. (I began my speaking career
Post a Comment
Read more