Changing the World - click by click!

I’m not sure exactly why I like this article by Peter Bregman so much…I’ve been trying to give it some context in my mind but I’m struggling a bit…and I’m not sure exactly how it applies to leadership either. Well I have some vague, not fully-formed thoughts about how it might but I’m finding it a little bit hard to articulate. So I’m just going to blurt some stuff out and leave you to connect whatever dots you choose do.

I think the idea of deliberately pursuing boredom to stimulate creativity is so simple and yet so inherently sensible. I like the way Bregman finds the positives in something we are all taught to avoid. As he says… (more…)

I think this is a really good example of the kind of thinking and leadership we need more of….and I’m not talking about my personal blog, I’m talking about the Robin Hood tax! Like it or loathe it, it is at least an attempt to look outside normal ways of thinking to find a solution to a problem. Inventing doesn’t need to be ground-breaking…it can be a new way of applying old ideas.

Check it out…..and have a read of my personal blog while you are there!

I do love it when things seem to be coming together. I know that I have banged on about the book Natural Capitalism to the point that you are probably being sick if it…but boy is it great when you see some of the concepts  being put into action. Check this out….a group called the Earth Economics have re-valued the lower Mississippi Delta in-line with the same kind of principles espoused in Natural Capitalism. It makes for interesting reading…and makes me feel really good that there are positive things going on.

Bob’s blog looks pretty interesting in general actually.

First up an apology if this entry is a bit rambling and all over the place. I have about a million ideas rushing around my head and don’t really want to censor them too much by worrying about little things like grammar and structure….I wonder how long before some of my students use that one on me!

I  was all set to publish an entry about Australia’s current Resources Super Profit Tax and then my mum stepped in and changed it all. To clarify, she didn’t edit the blog entry, she just gave me something else to write about instead. My mum is an amazing person, with one of the most unique minds I have ever encountered. I hold her accountable for the way my mind works…and works…and works…and never seems to bloody stop, even when I want it to! No, seriously, she is very much responsible for my outlook on life and the way I think about things. But she also bugs the hell out of me sometimes (sorry Rose! :-(……:-) ). (more…)

Spider goat, spider goat, does whatever a spider….hmmm my kingdom for an appropriate rhyme for goat!

Moving right along…first we had Spiderman, then we had Spider-pig (thank you, Homer Simpson!) and now we have Spidergoat. Seriously….scientists have succeeded in breeding goats with the web-spinning gene from spider. These goats produce milk that has the protein from spiders web in it. They can then take the milk, add salt and synthesise the protein out to make a ‘web-like’ substance called bio-steel. Check it out here….

What is spooky about this is that here is an excerpt from Natural Capitalism (Pge 15), where the authors talk about our need to look to other systems to find ways to boost resource productivity, one of which is nature…

“Science writer Janine Beynus points out that spiders make silk, strong as Kevlar but much tougher, from digested crickets and flies, without needing boiling sulfuric acid and high temperature extruders.”

To quote Hannibal from The A Team….I love it when a plan comes together! I have to say, I get a real boost when I see that there are signs we are moving in the right direction.

A little side-note here…me and my ex-business partner, Steve Clarkson, once wrote a ‘company’ song for our consulting company using the theme tune from Spiderman…I’ll sing it for you one day.

I just love this story……

“Consider what happened in Borneo in the 1950’s. Many Dayak villagers had malaria, and the World Health Organisation had a solution that was simple and direct. Spraying DDT seemed to work: Mosquitoes died, and malaria declined. But then an expanding web of side effects started to appear. The roofs of peoples houses began to collapse, because the DDT had also killed tiny parasitic wasps that had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. The colonial government issued sheet-metal replacement roofs, but people couldn’t sleep when tropical rains turned the tin roofs into drums. Meanwhile, the DDT-poisoned bugs were being eaten by geckoes, which were eaten by cats. The DDT invisibly built up  in the food chain and began to kill the cats. Without the cats, (more…)