Why write

Because I want to get ideas out of my head. 

Because I enjoy the process of thinking and creating. 

Because words are an accessible way to support people. 

Because I want to ensure there is a greater record of women’s thinking in history. 


Aha! This one snags at me. Too many quotes in history are from men: Albert Einstein, Henry Ford and his faster horses, Steve Jobs.. 

We cycle through the same books by the same authors and end up thinking the same. 


How many female authors are on your bookshelf or in your kindle? 

How many books by women authors are you reading? 

How many women authors are cited in that article ‘10 best books to read on...’? 

When did you last recommend or review a book by a woman? 


The history that is looked back on in the future won’t change unless we change it... now, in our time. 

I reckon I’m here to help create a record of thinking. First my own, then others, and to guide others through working out what they think, and expressing those ideas. 

Expression of ideas via speech, presentation, interview, blog, podcast, conversation, artwork, article, post, book - whatever appeals. 

There’s more to come on the project of Future Thinking Women. 

Toning it down or sparking it up

Are you holding on to your ideas, not launching or sharing them?

Fear can keep us contained and restricted. We have ideas but are worried about the impact of sharing them. 

So we withhold them and keep ourselves protected. 

But sometimes an idea we have keeps on coming back. It’s as if it won’t be pushed down or quietened. We believe it so strongly, it just won’t go away!

If you’ve got an idea that won’t go away, slide it out there into the world. 

The Spotlight Effect is at play : it’s the bias where we think people are paying more attention to us than they really are. 

That means even if we think ‘everyone’ will see our idea, they won’t. Many people are busy in their own world and often our stuff doesn’t initially reach as many people as we might fear ... or hope. 

The thing with sharing ideas is, it gets easier the more you do it. 

I used to be scared of sharing and expressing my ideas. Wouldn’t share them at all! And now, it’s daily - and more frequently if you include workshops, keynotes, mentoring and meetings. 

So are you toning things down? Or sparking it up and letting your ideas loose? 

Get sparking - I’d love to see your ideas out there!

What you used to do vs what’s needed now

What did you used to do?
Are you still doing it?
Or has it changed?

Do you do something different now?

What might you be doing next?
What does the world need you to do?

How are you adapting and changing what you can do?

3 Things to Future-Proof Your Career

Are you thinking for a living?

When demographer Bernard Salt presents, he's always sensemaking for us; making sense of complex data, trends and information, no matter the topic.
 
At a presentation on Jobs in the Knowledge Economy, he said with the rise of machine learning and constant technological developments, we might wonder if knowledge jobs (where you 'think for a living') are under threat or it's an even bigger opportunity waiting to happen.
 
Constant change and daily disruption are familiar themes in the world of work and business today; the big upsides I see are there for the makers, artisans and creators.
 
This is not about hippy art, pastels and macrame. It's about the way we think, design, engage and create things for customers, clients and each other.

It's becoming easier to be a maker today. As Salt says:
 

‘the tools of production
have become democratised’

 
We've got greater access to a host of tools to make, create, shape and inspire change – whether that's in an analogue and/or a digital way.
 
Entrepreneurism too is becoming even more accessible where you can adopt the thinking style of an entrepreneur, even if you're in a job role. I see this as the path for the future.

Being entrepreneurial is no longer the thing you would 'fall back on' if your career path wasn't quite working out. Rather as Cameron Herold explains in his TED talk 'Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs' (read the transcript) we have an instinctive drive to create, make and share. 
 
In business we need to work smarter to adopt a culture of enterprise – and with it, a culture of failure. Failure is still hot right now in talk, yet I don’t see nearly enough leaders encouraging experimentation, inspiring curiosity or allowing and fostering ingenuity in their teams.
  
Though digital might have brought the 'death of distance', Salt says we humans still crave connection. Our ability to start and maintain interpersonal relationships is still crucial to our future careers. 

So how do you future-proof your career as these changes and disruptions continue?

These three things will do it:

• Fluidity

• Agility

• Mobility

That means we need to be malleable and to 'go with it'.
We need to adapt and respond. Swift-like!
And we need to move... and be willing to be moved. 
 
We need to upskill, reskill and soft skill and to adopt an easy-goingness that makes us approachable. This is a type of affability that keeps you friendly and outgoing... so that people want to work with you.

 

Being social will get you far.  Whether it’s social face-to-face, online, remotely or however else you can connect, engage and be human with other humans... do that. 
 
Fluidity. Agility. Mobility. And while you're at it, upskill, reskill, softskill.

Affability will take you well into the future of work.
 

Who's the entrepreneur inside?

We're all starters, initiators, instigators and creators. 

We do this stuff everyday! We start a new day, we come up with an idea or a solution, we work on things, projects and pieces of work, and we find ingenious ways to hack things and get stuff done. 

It's just that we don't often acknowledge to ourselves that we can have a great idea or a potential solution. 

Those seeds of doubts have deep roots indeed!

It's doubt that I've seen and heard more than any other response from the business owners, leaders and individuals I've mentored throughout this year. They've doubted they could do or achieve or deliver or launch or write or produce.

And yes, doubt lives in me too. 

Doubt is a great disabler. It can slow things down, distract us and take us off course - whatever that course is meant to be. 

Doubt will eat at that cool idea you've had bubbling away and doubt will stop you from thinking you can do something about it. 

But we are all entrepreneurial in one way or another. 

We all have the potential to start something new today, or tomorrow, and just have a go at it. It need not be the billion dollar business that sets us up for the rest of our lives... but who knows, it could be. 

As the pressure rises and falls over the coming weeks, find some moments to wonder to yourself, just wonder.... 'who's the entrepreneur inside?'

What could you start?

What could you launch?

What could you instigate, create or bring forth?

What have you wondered about... whether it might be worth having a 'go' at it?

Do it now. Start something, you entrepreneur you!