Developing an Unhurried Mind

Welcome.

I've been blessed and privileged in my career to work with some of the best organisations and senior leaders in Australia, New Zealand and the US.

I've also struggled to make headway in organisations that could have been world-class but suffered from poor management, dysfunctional leaders, a total lack of clarity, and chaotic execution.

I've seen people do unspeakable things to each other in the name of quarterly earnings, and I've seen lives transformed in ways beyond imagination, where fairness, kindness, and disciplined execution have created a space where creativity can flourish.

After thirty years inside complex operations — building management systems, training frontline teams, resetting culture, integrating mergers, running strategy and resetting multibillion-dollar mining operations — I believe it all comes down to one thing: the gap between leading and managing, and the decisions that live in it.

Get that gap wrong and you get corporate life at its most chaotic and inefficient. It is a simple fact that leadership without management is performative, and management without leadership undermines culture.

It doesn't have to be that way. The solution, as usual, is not some big new initiative or revolutionary process. It is the calm, methodical implementation of the basics: good systems, clear decision-making and clarity of “What is work” that delivers sustained change.

Work should be meaningful, engaging and challenging. You don't need to work for SpaceX, or on some world-changing mission like getting us to Mars, to feel a deep sense of purpose and connection. My purpose is to teach and guide as many hard-working, well-meaning people as I can to rediscover their passion for work, restoring their humanity and, if possible, their sense of humour along the way.

To show organisations and dedicated teams how to slow down and be more intentional in the way they plan and execute work — and, ultimately, to help dedicated professionals, such as yourself, develop an Unhurried Mind.

That's what the books are about; it's what my company does — and it's the focus of my applied doctoral research.