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  • Our love story with complaining

    By hayley / 2024-12-20 14:46:29
    "Today is awful, isn't it?"  At the school gate mums greet each other like this while waiting for their children in a grey and damp Thursday afternoon. And whilst talking about the weather is one of the British's preferred ways to…
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  • What does circular economy look like in real life?

    By hayley / 2024-12-20 14:42:36
    Imagine if your local recycling centre upcycled all your unwanted furniture, toys and clothes by redesigning them and giving them a second lease on life… This is the reality of ReTuna, the world's first recycling mall, located near Stockholm, Sweden.…
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  • The simple way to practise joy

    By hayley / 2024-12-20 14:39:36
    Since announcing the rebranding and new vision for this newsletter last week, some people said how needed this is in their lives and, at the same time, how difficult it is to be joyful when everything seems to point in the…
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  • A simple way to write better case studies

    By hayley / 2024-12-20 14:37:38
    When writing case studies, there are certain vital steps to apply to ensure the information is easy to understand, factual and entertaining.  Let's unpick an example of a previous blog post I have written and what makes it an effective…
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  • A community effort: rewilding England’s countryside at Strawberry Hill

    By hayley / 2024-12-20 14:28:22
    This week’s story was inspired by a workshop I attended a couple of weeks ago, led by Natural England and the Wildlife Trust. It’s a story of local biodiversity recovery and community effort.  I hope it inspires you to get…
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  • I choose joy

    By hayley / 2024-11-29 09:16:32
    I don't know about you, but I've had enough of COPs (as in, Climate Change Conferences). Regularly hijacked by oil barons, they are NOT the instrument they were meant to be to get us out of this mess. But what is??…
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  • What has Natalie Imbruglia to do with sustainability?!

    By hayley / 2024-11-29 09:15:09
    Last Thursday I attended the Investors in the Environment (iie) Awards, as I was the judge for some of the categories. At this event, I had the good fortune to witness one of the most intelligent and insightful keynote speeches I…
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  • Keep calm and carry on

    By hayley / 2024-11-29 09:10:24
    The news is not so promising these days...  The Climate Change Conference (COP 29) is well underway in Azerbaijan and BBC reports that the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, has been caught on camera discussing "investment opportunities" in the…
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  • The challenge of talking about sustainability with other sustainability people

    By hayley / 2024-11-29 09:07:39
    This week I had the experience of communicating sustainability with some interesting challenges that I want to share with you. A couple of days ago I joined an in-person workshop organised by a recently formed local organisation, which aims to amplify the impact…
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  • How to show up when you don't see a way forward

    By hayley / 2024-11-29 09:02:10
    The results of the US election this past week have left millions feeling hopeless and helpless. We all know that President Trump thinks climate change is a scam and that the first thing he will do once in office will be…
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  • Become a tree

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:55:41
    I just returned from a wonderful event with a small group of great women in sustainability as part of the second WINS Cafe St Albans. We had a fab walk among falling leaves in the local park and then coffee and cake…
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  • Building up a business case for sustainability

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:51:58
    You know I like to work with people instead of against them and co-create results... But sometimes, you have to combine soft skills, empathy and listening, with some solid logical arguments to sway people to adopt sustainability: you have to build the…
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  • Smartphone-Free Childhood... and not only

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:46:05
     Smartphone-Free Childhood... and not only I'm quite proud that my son's school has started an incredible campaign to delay children getting smartphones until they are 14 and socials until 16. Incredible because it has gained such momentum that lots of…
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  • How to find the courage to show up online to catalyse change

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:40:12
    A few weeks back I had a wonderful conversation with Beatrice Ronchetti, a fellow Italian architect, who specialises in personal branding - listen or watch The Good Communicator Podcast episode with Beatrice on Spotify or YouTube. Before you roll your eyes at yet another trendy and…
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  • Body doubling for productivity

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:38:12
    A fact I don't share that much (although I did in here as it feels strangely intimate!) is that back in February this year I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  The reason why it got undetected…
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  • Slides: friends or foes?

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:31:30
    We all know how painful it is to go to a conference or even just a meeting and suffer through bad slide decks... However, when the time comes to put together a presentation, we fall into the same trap.  We…
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  • Your language matter

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:29:59
    I've been reflecting on the role of language in creating our circumstances. You might think this is a load of BS, but stay with me here: when we say we are fighting climate change, tackling biodiversity loss, being eco-warriors... we are implying we…
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  • Could Nature become your CEO?

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:27:49
    When Apple hired Octavia Spencer to be Mother Nature and sit at their boardroom table as a stakeholder in their 2030 status report video, many people thought it was cringe, others loved it (I loved it). Now, the idea that…
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  • The Five Mindfulness Trainings

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:21:21
    I've been dipping in and out of the study of Buddhism as a philosophy of life for a few months now. It just fascinates me for its simplicity and timeless relevance. At the moment I'm reading "The Art of Power"…
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  • You don't have to convince everyone...

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:19:51
    Have you noticed how persuading people to adopt a sustainability approach is like the funfair "whack-a-mole" game? You try to get them and they disappear, and then you have just too many moles to hit!  It can be utterly exhausting.  But…
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  • How to design your sustainability career for impact

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:15:18
    Mike has been a sustainability professional for a couple of decades, mostly working for large corporations. He now has a very clear vision of what he wants to achieve in his career: he wants to change 1,000 companies and help 1,000…
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  • Slow and steady...

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:13:04
    A coaching conversation reminded me this week that, when we plant a seed of an apple tree, we wait between six to eight years to eat the fruits. We don't generally rush the tree to grow faster. We know it's going to…
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  • Three communication tips from a master communicator

    By hayley / 2024-10-31 11:09:53
    I always ask this question to my podcast guests: what are your top three tips for someone who wants to communicate sustainability better? Mike's first tip was about fixing yourself. That means thinking about (at the very minimum): WHO: who is…
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  • Creating a thinking environment

    By hayley / 2024-09-17 13:56:46
    Last week I attended a workshop led by the fab Linda Aspey (quite the legend in the sustainability coaching world) about creating a thinking environment. I want to share this experience with you because creating a thinking environment is super simple, you can…
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  • A simple question

    By hayley / 2024-09-12 14:57:20
     Here's a simple question my partner asked me many years ago when I was confused about our situation and didn't know what to do: "What do you want?" Initially, it didn't quite register how important this question was, but then it changed (for…
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  • The inner game

    By hayley / 2024-09-12 14:53:52
    Tennis-player-turned-coach Tim Gallwey many decades ago came up with a simple formula to define performance in sports, which became also a classic model of performance in business coaching:  Performance = Potential - Interference He called it "the Inner Game". I'm sure this is…
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  • Are you emotionally literate?

    By hayley / 2024-09-12 14:48:18
    In my line of work as a coach of sustainability folks, I often witness how my clients struggle to go from thinking about their issues to feeling them. And real change happens only when we interpret and understand where our emotions come from. For example, if we…
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  • Understanding the 20/80 rule

    By hayley / 2024-09-12 14:41:06
    A famous productivity system, the 20/80 rule, is often misunderstood as a system that allows you to have 80% of the results by putting in 20% effort. In fact, this system looks at causes and consequences: this means that if…
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  • Why is sustainability not mainstream yet?

    By hayley / 2024-09-12 14:33:32
    I asked this question in a poll on LinkedIn this past week and, given four choices, the answers were (predictably for my sustainability-aware connections): Now, you'll know this is an oversimplification because the reasons are all interconnected but thinking about it, they…
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  • Questions that can change your career

    By hayley / 2024-08-29 10:38:01
    This week I had fun shooting 10 short videos to talk about 10 important coaching questions that I either ask my clients or my clients ask me most frequently during their coaching programmes. Questions are the most important part of…
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  • Why 'why' matters: the key to communicating sustainability without triggering resistance

    By hayley / 2024-08-29 10:33:13
    Ever happened to you that someone asked you to do something at work, and you had an immediate negative reaction? "Why should I do it? It's not my job... I don't see why this is necessary... What nonsense!" Likely, they…
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  • Holiday memories

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 12:12:42
    At the end of July, I returned to Palermo, Sicily, the place where I'm from. My memories of this trip were meant to be about the beach. The sea. The ice creams and pizzas. My kids playing happily together. Seeing my…
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  • Communication beyond words

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 12:07:52
    This week I've been quite in awe of Banksy's work.  If this comes as news to you, the elusive, anonymous street art genius has created one animal-themed graffiti a day for the past nine days in different parts of London (I…
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  • Summer of reflection

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 12:04:36
    I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels the best ideas come to me when I'm not working. In fact, I realised a lot of deep insights into my life happen when I'm on holiday. Summer is a period of…
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  • Active rest

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 12:02:15
    Do you also feel guilty when you take time off? Do you feel you should be doing something all the time, and that lounging in the sun or in front of the TV means you are a lazy b****? Because…
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  • How does your audience learn?

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 12:00:33
    I had a wonderful conversation with my friend Adam Graveley a few weeks ago for the Good Communicator podcast (HERE and HERE are the links to the full episode).  I always found Adam super charming, which is an important quality if you are communicating…
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  • The value of walking in silence

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:55:59
    I had the privilege to be invited to lead a mini forest coaching workshop as part of a yoga retreat held in an amazing location nearby, Hatfield House. After lunch, I had to make people focus on transitions (the theme…
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  • Summertime... and the living is difficult

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:54:01
    If you are a parent... you know what I mean. But even if you are not, read on if you want to structure your summer to be more balanced than you have so far. I'm a parent and summer can be…
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  • The importance of your work values

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:49:06
    I often get my coaching clients to do an exercise to discover their life values. Whether you are a lover of adventure, believe in friendship above everything else, or think integrity is the most important thing in life, you have…
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  • Blue Zone living

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:46:44
     I binge-watched the Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. I heard of the Blue Zone phenomenon years ago, when I became interested in the concept of "ikigai" developed in Japan and specifically, on the island of Okinawa.  As you probably…
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  • Does ethos matter when influencing others?

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:42:52
    One of my favourite people on the Planet fell off the pedestal I erected for him: I discovered that Dr Huberman, Stanford Associate Professor and the author of one of the top podcasts in the world, Huberman Lab, is allegedly a…
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  • Dear Grinch...

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:34:30
    I invite you to write a letter to your worst enemy.  Or the colleague who is a pain where the sun doesn't shine. Or that client you dread meeting.  Don't worry, you won't have to send it. ✒️ Just grab pen…
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  • Learning from bees: diversify your life to become stronger

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:32:58
    Did you know that the honeybee's immune system depends more on protein diversity than quantity? "Experiments and observations have revealed how carefully the honeybee’s immune system is maintained through diet: a lack of diverse protein sources reduces the ability of its immune system…
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  • How to build your "relationship capital" to advance sustainability

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:30:34
    This week I had the great pleasure of interviewing Ben Goodare, a senior sustainability professional who has been an amazing supporter of my work, including peer-reviewing my new book, The Good Communicator (you'll hear his interview in The Good Communicator…
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  • What would my best self do?

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:27:06
    I invite you to focus on this simple question.  When you face an important decision or are about to react to a trigger, pause then ask yourself:  What would my best self do? That's your ideal identity, the person you aspire…
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  • The power of a breath

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:25:00
    You know when you feel tense, stressed or anxious and, without even thinking, reach for the biscuit tin/G&T/vape (pick your favourite vice here)? On the spot. that little something makes it all good, then guilt creeps in. You know you should…
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  • Why building rapport is essential to our capacity to influence others

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:20:42
    This week I recorded the second episode of The Good Communicator Podcast, and I talked about the basic building blocks of communication - not just speaking, which is what we usually focus on, but also (and more importantly) listening. You can make a parallel between…
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  • Life lessons from Nature

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:18:39
    In the Women in Sustainability Network Cafe event I hosted last week, I led a slightly wacky exercise which I want to share with you: I asked people to write down the name of an animal or plant they liked…
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  • Sustainability is a common affair

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:15:40
    I had a blast at Sustainability Week and all the activities I was involved in. I spoke at the St Albans SustFest Expo, I hosted a Women in Sustainability Network Cafe event, I went to talk about sustainability in several…
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  • Energy through our values

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:09:07
    We are generally energised by what we value. Remind yourself of your values - what's important for you? Why do you do what you do? These are not your goals, but the principles you live by.  Why not create your "value reminder poster" using…
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  • Look into my eyes

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:05:34
    If you have been reading my newsletter for a while you know how much of a fan I am of Dr Andrew Huberman (bordering groupie, really...): a Stanford professor who has an excellent podcast (the Huberman Lab podcast) in which he…
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  • Start with Why

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 11:01:40
    A friend of mine is applying for jobs as a UX designer and asked me to help her demonstrate her capabilities and experience against the job descriptions. She has a portfolio with all the great work she has done over the years…
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  • How change is created

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 10:55:17
    As I was writing the last chapter of my book, the Good Communicator, something became evident. In the "What's Next?" chapter I had to highlight the fundamental problem of real change: we stop at the awareness level, and almost never dip below that…
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  • How to overcome confirmation bias

    By hayley / 2024-08-22 10:50:00
    Have you noticed how we tend to listen only to information that confirms our preconceptions and unconsciously look for proof that our worldview is “the right one”? You can see this for yourself in your Google search, social media feed,…
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  • A couple of tree-inspired prompts to get you thinking

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:35:13
    Deciduous trees are now full of beautiful emerald leaves. Let nature inspire your personal and professional growth in line with the season: What would it take to be less rigid and more flexible so you can bend like a tree? If…
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  • On celebrating being a woman

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:33:01
    Last week I was invited to facilitate a workshop for a group of Women in Green Shipping. It was a wonderful and energising experience, followed by an event at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for International Women in Maritime Day 2024.…
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  • The power of Yes...And

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:26:43
    A few weeks ago I started a coaching programme (yes, coaches also need support now and then!) with a coach who happens to be also a comedian. In fact, I chose her especially for this. I want to get out of…
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  • Be like water

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:22:53
    It's a Buddhist way of saying - although this expression has been made popular by actor and martial arts guru Bruce Lee. I'm practising to overcome my frustration and sadness every day by being more like the water in a river, instead of the rocks. If…
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  • The three gifts

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:19:04
    The Positive Intelligence programme invites you to think about life's events neutrally. We are so used to filtering everything through the lens of good and bad, that it's easy to judge everything that happens as one or the other and get sucked into a…
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  • Self-fulfilling prophecies

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:17:04
    The way we use language in sustainability and life in general is important as language reinforces the way we think and act, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecies have little to do with magic and a lot to…
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  • Celebrate your roots and your leaves

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:14:34
    I was reflecting the other day about how we are very similar to trees.  We have roots (our past, our heritage, our experience but also our values and beliefs), and branches and leaves (our dreams, aspirations, our actions, the things…
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  • Celebrate your past week's achievement

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:12:49
    Yesterday I had a session with my coach, who marvellously opened the session with: "Tell me one thing you want to celebrate from the past week". My mind went blank at first, but then I remembered how hard I worked…
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  • Celebrate your great conversations

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 14:01:36
    Go back with your mind to an eye-opening late-night pillow talk with a friend, family member or partner. Or perhaps, an incredibly deep conversation with a complete stranger at the airport, or on a beach somewhere exotic. We all have had at least…
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  • Wild about Wilderness

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:59:22
    Now that the weather is improving, it's easier to take walks in nature, which can be deeply restorative.  If you can, take the time this weekend to take a walk in the woods, then use them to evoke the wild…
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  • The transformative power of meditation

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:55:25
    You might have picked from previous newsletters that I have experienced a lot of personal change and growth in the last few months. Mostly positive, thank goodness. I want to share the tool that has been helping me the most to…
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  • What kind of conversation are we having?

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:53:48
    A few weeks ago, I attended the UK launch of Supercommunicators, a book by American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Duhigg, as part of my research for The Good Communicator. The key concept of the book is that, if you want to become…
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  • Pushing the edge of your comfort bubble

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:48:47
    This week I did two things I'd never done before. The first one was to deliver a workshop about BREEAM (the environmental assessment method for buildings) to a steel manufacturer. I initially felt unsure about it, since I am focusing…
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  • How to overcome feelings of rejection

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:44:56
    Unless you are a hardcore salesperson, you might take criticism quite badly. It's rare to feel completely on board when we are being criticised, even if it's constructive criticism because our self-preservation instinct kicks in. For some of us (me…
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  • The stakeholders of your conversation

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:41:59
    Very often in conversations we jump to conclusions. It's an innate bias we have as human beings. We tend to make quick connections between concepts and come to a conclusion that might not be the right one. It's only one…
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  • Do you want to be more productive and happier?

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:37:25
    I just started a Positive Intelligence programme with a famous and respected coach, Shirzad Chamine. I'll share with you the first learning point of his programme, which will help you be happier and more productive (there is neuroscience proving this,…
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  • If you are looking for a job in sustainability, read this

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:34:18
    I work with a lot of people who want to pivot their careers to sustainability. The job market is a strange, ever-changing beast.  Right now, every time you apply for a job on LinkedIn you have another 150 candidates competing…
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  • You are not your beliefs

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:32:10
    As I was writing the draft of The Good Communicator, I realised a fundamental flaw in any conversation in which we are passionate about the topic. Because we live and breathe sustainability, it is likely part of our value set. We…
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  • How to simplify productivity: the two-status system

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:27:19
    I have talked about Cal Newport many times in this newsletter, as I swear by his Deep Work philosophy.  He has now published a new book "Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout". The book is based on three…
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  • Communication for Dummies

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 13:23:49
    When I was teaching Stakeholder Management and Communication at Coventry Uni, I used to give an exercise to my students to get them to understand the importance of talking in layman's terms about sustainability so that anyone could understand them.…
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  • How to overcome our natural negativity bias

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 12:20:38
    We all suffer from it.  Our human, innate negativity bias has kept us safe over the millennia. It protects us from harm as we imagine the worst-case scenario in everything and act to avoid it. However... we don't really want…
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    • Coaching

  • How to be a vulnerable and formidable sustainability communicator

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 12:17:59
    A change-maker is an empathetic and authentic leader. Does that mean that you have to wear your emotions on your sleeves and cry? Absolutely not.  But it is a reality that even though things are changing rapidly, the business world is…
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  • Putting together a Deep Work plan

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 12:11:44
    Deep Work is the main tool that allows me to be highly productive even among the ebbs and flows of life. I spoke about this concept popularised by author Cal Newport before, but today I want to share a practical tool to…
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  • What makes an effective leader?

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 12:09:15
    While researching for the book, I came across the five characteristics psychologist Daniel Goleman had observed in highly effective leaders. They are, as you can see, not about their capacity to make decisions, or their technical knowledge (although, of course, these…
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  • The Good Communicator framework

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 12:07:02
    As mentioned several times in this newsletter, in the last six months I've been busy writing my new book, The Good Communicator. It's not going to be published until next year, but this doesn't mean I can't share some ideas I hope…
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  • Three journaling/thinking prompts to blossom during spring

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 12:02:12
    Grab your notebook or head out to your local park (or both!) with the intention of answering the question that inspires you the most: How might you blossom despite your current challenge? What kinds of environments, people or places inspire you…
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  • Blossoming in the forest

    By hayley / 2024-08-20 11:56:15
    What are the benefits of outdoor coaching? A lot of research demonstrates a long list of benefits of coaching sessions outdoors as opposed to via Zoom. The top three benefits include:  1. Walking outside and detaching ourselves from our usual workplace…
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  • How to nurture your inner child

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 11:22:19
    I'm going through the Artist's Way, a fantastic book (or course, as the author Julia Cameron puts it) to unblock my inner artist. You'd ask, what has that to do with sustainability or change-making? I firmly believe in the fact…
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  • How not to network

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 11:18:33
    I recently joined for the first time a Pint, People, Planet networking event in my town, which never happened before, it's usually London or nothing. So I was overjoyed!  Well. let me tell you... we susty people can be very inept…
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  • How to Excel

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 11:14:23
    "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit. " - Aristotle True, simple but not easy, right? What habit do you want to start that can make you excellent at what you do? The classics:…
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  • Finding Your Purpose in Sustainability

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 11:10:51
    This is a biggie. Finding your purpose is something that implies a lot of self-reflection, and I reckon most people wouldn't know where to start with that one. Also, why would you want to define your purpose? Of course, you…
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  • Your limiting beliefs

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 11:04:58
    A lot of the issues we have with being impactful change-makers are linked to what we deeply believe about ourselves. We need to understand which mindsets and unhelpful self-talk we are entertaining that stop us from performing at our best.…
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  • The value of being different

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:54:42
    In the last few years, society has changed a lot. It is now commonplace to talk about LGBTQIA+, equality, neurodiversity, disabilities, and ethnic differences. These groups are increasingly represented in TV shows and other media, which is amazing. But what…
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  • How to bring your whole self into sustainable change

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:52:16
    Here is a great tool that helps you put into practice your goal to move towards sustainable high performance. Think about bringing your whole self into your change-making, as you are a whole person! So what thoughts and feelings do you…
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  • Bringing our whole self into our work

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:47:59
    When I read the excellent Climate Change Coaching book by Charly Cox and Sarah Flynn (a book for anyone wanting to have better climate change conversations, not just for coaches!) a couple of tools really stuck with me, and I'm going to…
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  • Creativity to the service of change

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:43:40
    If you are a creative person, you might think your talents are of no use to the big issues we are facing. They might feel frivolous even. But real change needs everyone, in any capacity they can provide. You might ask…
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  • How to live in a chaotic climate

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:40:08
    The Good Grief network founders put together a decalogue of steps to live in a chaotic climate - they also wrote a book about it. I love them because they encourage us to strive for meaningful efforts as the ultimate goal. These are great…
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  • George Monbiot is the bearer of bad news

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:36:13
    So, if you haven't noticed, we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, which in turn means the Earth's systems are collapsing.  George Monbiot writes that scientists have started to see signs of the kind of instability – systems theorists…
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  • How do you talk about money?

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:27:38
    During the conscious business retreat we talked about money, a topic that especially the British don't like touching upon. But the way the world goes, we cannot do without it.Food has to be put on the table, and other needs…
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  • From idea to reality in seven steps

    By hayley / 2024-07-30 10:02:22
    So you have an idea and you want it to become a reality: a new app to track waste, a consultancy business, a community space for teenagers that care about the environment. Whatever lightbulb you had recently, here is a way to…
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  • Lost in translation?

    By hayley / 2024-07-25 14:38:09
    Brilliant comedian Jo Brand starts her part in this video by saying:  "If people like me need to get involved, you know we are in deep trouble."  (I watched another version where she said, more frankly, "...we are in deep sh*t.")…
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  • How to develop resilience

    By Super User / 2024-02-26 14:04:46
    WTF is going on in the world right now? Honestly, between the horrible news coming from Gaza and Ukraine, the latest on the climate crisis (recent floods happened in Italy shows how close to home this is now) and the…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Manage your energy, not your time

    By Super User / 2024-02-26 14:00:17
    You might think you have time management issues.  But can you actually "manage" time? Time is an objective (if we don't take into account the perception of time) dimension of our life and we cannot really change it. It is what it is.  We…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Connections

    By Super User / 2024-02-26 13:58:58
     Since I talked about co-creation, I invite you to do a creative self-reflective exercise this week. Create a mind-map (or even a list) of meaningful connections that energise, motivate and inspire you. What can you notice at the end of this exercise? Anything/anyone…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • Communicate to co-create

    By Super User / 2024-02-26 13:57:40
    As you might already know, I'm in the process of writing a book about communicating sustainability. I was initially scared that I was going to teach grandma to suck eggs, talking about listening and not interrupting and the lot. But…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Automation is your friend: taking notes

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:29:04
    Somehow connected to the previous bit, I know how people in the sustainability/regeneration industry feel incredibly overwhelmed and overworked - especially if you are neuro-divergent, this can be a real issue. Who has time for activism? Now, this is not going…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • What catalyses change more, fear or hope?

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:27:06
    We rarely reflect on the effects of our own natural attitudes on the way we communicate and, consequently, the results we get. Some of us are pessimistic (or realistic, as some might say) and some are optimistic. I fall largely…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • Communicating (and understanding) regeneration

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:22:22
      In the sustainability space, we have a tendency to hide behind jargon, and this has never been a good thing for divulgating important concepts. Regeneration is suffering the same fate.  Circularity....Systems thinking....Systems design...Degrowth... It doesn't help that, in spite of…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • The iceberg model of thinking

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:19:26
    There is a lot of talking about systems thinking, and how it can help to unlock sustainable solutions.  But because of its very nature, systems thinking is difficult to grasp.  We are so used to seeking just one solution or one…
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    • Coaching
    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Why am I always so tired?

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:18:04
    After an intentionally very chilled August (unusual for me, as I tend to always fill my time with something), I had a frantic September.  I went from 10 to 100 miles/hour overnight.  I was excited to get started on lots of…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Involve Mother Nature in your comms

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:16:44
    The new Apple sustainability report in the form of a perfectly crafted video is doing the rounds. In the unlikely case you haven't seen it, here it is:   But why mention it here? Because, whether you think it's brilliant or cringe,…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Adapting marketing rules to sustainability

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 11:00:30
    Well-known marketing facts of the last ten years are that: 70-90% of the buyer's journey is complete prior to engaging a vendor (Forrester) Consumer engages with 11.4 pieces of content prior to making a purchase (Forrester) Consumers are 5x more…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Time compression challenge

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:58:07
    If you only had three hours a day to work due to whatever circumstance, what would you choose to do? I bet you'll be going through your endless to-do list and decide on the most urgent and important priority, maybe…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Flow with the wind

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:56:57
     Do you know that nagging sensation when you feel you are not up to the job?  Maybe you have changed jobs recently and you feel like you shouldn't be there because you don't know anything... Or that feeling of becoming…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Do you suffer from solastalgia?

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:46:51
    Solastalgia is a relatively new concept, coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 to indicate the grief felt when the physical world as you know it, changes. As sustainability professionals, it's hard not to feel anxious, angry, and overwhelmed by…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • Hugh's marathon

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:45:55
    If you are a bit like me, you try and fill your time to the brim and use all your energies on the projects you care about. There is always something you can do to move your projects forward, even…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Are you green, blue, red or yellow?

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:44:50
    One of the most interesting concepts I came across when I was doing the research for my book SustainABLE has been the idea that people, generally speaking, fall within four character categories. While it is ridiculous to think that the 8+ billion people…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • The 12-Week Year

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:40:00
    You know I'm always looking for the next productivity hack... and I am surprised I recently found one I didn't come across before. The book The 12-Week Year teaches you how to be more productive in 12 weeks than others are in…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • The Circle of Control

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:38:27
    Life in general has been fairly uncontrollable in the last three years, you will agree with me. Sometimes our own life feels like a trap, and it doesn't help that we are witnessing the world being flooded, burned and deforested in…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • Once upon a time...

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:37:11
    Princesses and dragons, wizards and villains... Each one of us has experienced the power of a story, since our nursery days. What is that fascinates us so much about following the tribulations of our favourite characters, through thick and thin, until the…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Feel strong like Popeye!

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:34:06
    If you have worked with me in the past, or followed me on LinkedIn, you'll know I'm a stubborn optimist. I work in the sustainability industry and hang on to the last bit of hope that we can change things…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • How to prioritise your work (a simple method)

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:32:18
    I have talked before about the Eisenhower matrix, which is a good way to distinguish between useless tasks and important/urgent ones. However, sometimes we need something more snappy and practical.  I was at a webinar a couple of months ago where Hailey…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Five easy steps towards highly productive meetings

    By Super User / 2024-02-20 10:10:15
    You have managed to land a meeting with one of your prospective clients. You prep your team. One of them updates the slide deck with your company's achievements and services. Another one will come with you to take notes and learn.…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • What's success for you?

    By Super User / 2024-02-16 15:56:43
    As a purpose-driven individual, I'm sure you don't think about success in the same way Mark Zuckerberg does. You might think less of money and more of work-life balance, or environmental goals you want to contribute to.  Or you might…
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    • Sustainability

  • Live with purpose. Live by priority. Live for productivity.

    By Super User / 2024-02-16 15:55:24
    With the risk of sounding like my grandma when she was still alive, I am going to tell you: the world didn't use to be like this.  I'm a 70s baby, and I can still remember the long summer holidays,…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • How do you get around Parkinson's Law?

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    In 1955 Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote in a humorous essay for “The Economist” that  "work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion". I'm sure you have experienced this in your own life. You have a deadline to complete a piece…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Communicating without words

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    Not everyone can be a great communicator.  Not everyone has been blessed with being articulate with words. But, if that's you, does that mean that you cannot communicate sustainability? A few months ago I came across the Red Rebel Brigade via a Guardian article.…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • The why, how, who and what of priority setting

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    Most people set priorities in relation to their ongoing projects and emails, without questioning most of them. But this leads to neverending to-do lists, in which everything ends up being a priority. In one of the past newsletters, I shared…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • The Good Life Buckets

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    I recently came across the concept of life buckets. Life can be seen as three main categories which we can call the Good Life Buckets (source: The Good Life Project):  Your vitality bucket, it's about your mind and body. It's about creating the…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • A staged performance

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    Have you ever considered at what stage of their sustainability journey your clients or audience are? When you approach a new client, you might quickly establish whether they have any sustainability/environmental knowledge at all. You might be lucky and they might…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • In a Kanban Style!

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    If you ever used Trello or Asana, you have used a Kanban board-style system. Kanban boards are a visual representation of the workflow of a project, invented by the manufacturing industry to track teams' projects, which have gained popularity in recent…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • The best questions to ask

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    If you have been following me for a while, you'll know I always insist on the two pillars of communication: active listening and asking open questions.  But what ACTUAL questions can you ask for fast results (= better knowledge of your…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • My favourite tools to automate work

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    Time is a precious and limited resource. And so is energy. In my quest for better productivity (i.e. productivity that doesn't deplete me to the ground and yet produces quality outcomes) I realised that lots of my repeated daily actions can…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • The healing power of writing [free writing prompts]

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    Ever since I was a little girl, I have been keeping a diary - you know, one of those with a padlock and Minnie Mouse on the front cover. Now, I'd be lying if I said it has been a constant…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • How to avoid death by Powerpoint

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:25:59
    I had to endure some awfully boring presentations in my life. Also, some terrible lectures at university.  I had this one architectural design professor who would sit and read aloud from a document for two hours continuously...  Never occurred to…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Left Brain Right Brain

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:23:36
    So we have been talking about your brain, and the left/right functions... The question now is: How much space do you give to your left brain, and how much to your right brain? Do you ever give a voice to…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • How does your brain work?

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:20:23
    You might know that your brain’s left half is primarily responsible for speech and abstract thinking (i.e. logic and language), while the right side of the brain is responsible for image processing and spatial thinking (i.e. emotions and creativity).  It looks like, when…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Friction or Flow?

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:20:23
    As you might also know, I have started writing a book on communicating sustainability. This is technically my third book, and there is always an initial phase in my writing process that feels clunky.   I have lots of great ideas,…
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    • Sustainability

  • Core winning abilities in a distracted world

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:18:38
    I'm currently bingeing on Cal Newport's podcasts on YouTube - my form of distraction, if you like... but my excuse is that I listen to them while I cook or do housework, without disturbing my workflow... In Deep Work, Newport argues that…
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    • Sustainability

  • How interconnected are you with nature?

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 14:02:25
    August is a month I never really liked that much. When I was a child, we would go on holidays in July, so August meant boredom lined with unpredictable summer thunderstorm weather. Now, it means summer is nearly over and I…
    Read More
    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • The secret ingredient of habit creation

    By Super User / 2024-02-15 13:12:40
    What is the secret ingredient of establishing new healthy habits, and sticking with them? You might have invested your time watching countless YouTube videos on habit forming and read books, including the excellent Atomic Habits by James Clear, yet here you are,…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Why multitasking is making you unproductive

    By Super User / 2024-02-13 14:36:45
     Up until a few years ago, multitasking was everything.  If you couldn't keep 20 tabs open, including your emails and messenger while writing a report and holding a casual conversation about the summer holidays with your colleagues, you weren't doing your…
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    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • Human beings are irrational

    By Super User / 2024-02-13 14:34:44
    Ever noticed how sometimes we REALLY want something that we don't need (fancy shoes, tech, new Tesla, anyone?!) we buy it, then justify the purchase to others with all these logical arguments that are effectively... made up?! Ever noticed how we…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Why some people are really successful and others aren't

    By Super User / 2024-02-13 14:11:52
    In the last couple of weeks, I had two very interesting conversations with two young-ish entrepreneurs who seem to have made it. One, a friend of mine from uni, has transformed his father's artisan restaurant furniture-making business into an industry.…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity
    • Sustainability

  • "Discourses of Climate Delay" or all the BS we get served by the media, Governments and Big Oil

    By Super User / 2024-02-13 14:01:31
    Just Google (or Ecosia) "discourses of climate delay" and you'll see how many creatives have put their art at work to illustrate the massive BS excuses we get fed every single day: The "passing the baton" of responsibility to individuals.…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • How to shift your client's behaviour towards sustainability

    By Super User / 2024-02-13 13:57:52
    This week I came across a comprehensive literature review paper on what works and what doesn't work when trying to shift people's behaviour towards sustainability. The geek with taped glasses in me jumped for joy... but because I'm also a visual learner I thought:…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • Working with your strengths  

    By Super User / 2024-02-13 13:47:04
    And since we are talking about tasks and productivity... one element I am hyper-fixated on is personal strengths. Surely you already know whether you are more creative than analytic, or whether you are happier with spreadsheets than people, but perhaps you…
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    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • Walk a mile in their shoes

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 15:09:52
    Empathy is a fundamental trait of a great leader.  Why?  Because it makes it possible to "read" the very specific wiring of other people's brains. It makes it possible to walk a mile in their shoes, understand how they feel,…
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    • Soft Skills

  • The Nature Switch Continuum

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 14:47:55
    I came across this model by reading Coaching Outdoors  by Lesley Roberts.  We all crave time outdoors at times, but can you actually quantify how much time you spend in contact with nature?  Science tells us that any time is beneficial, even a picture of…
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    • Coaching

  • Distraction is a full-time job

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 14:45:16
    Did you know that we spend an average of 8 hours between TV and smartphones every single day?? The Netflix-ing, social media scrolling, Candy Crushing ones, you know? Those that we all say relax us and give us a break. …
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    • Productivity

  • Influencing lessons from the past

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 14:40:21
    If you want to influence others to adopt sustainability, the first thing you probably do is to prepare your argument: you might fill a PowerPoint with facts and data, and think about potential objections.  However, 35 years since the first IPCC…
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    • Soft Skills

  • Ikigai-ing your way towards career fulfilment

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 14:11:54
    If you are reading this newsletter, you are probably a self-declared eco-warrior. You want the world to be a better place for future generations.  However, like many people I work with in my coaching, you might struggle to combine your…
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    • Coaching

  • How do you decide what to work on every week?

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 14:09:32
    When planning for the week in the Productive Gorilla system, I suggest members that they should use the Eisenhower Matrix. This is a simple, yet powerful way, to decide what to work on every week, by focusing your immediate efforts only on urgent and important  tasks.…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity

  • How can you initiate a dialogue about sustainability starting from its solutions?

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 14:05:12
    What is the solution to the climate crisis?  Planting more trees?  Joining Just Stop Oil and throwing soup at paintings?  Waiting for the silver bullet technology that will save us all by sucking all the CO2 from the atmosphere? And,…
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    • Soft Skills

  • Your life is a sailboat

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 13:55:23
    Yep. Your life is a sailboat, and you are the captain, me hearties. Your personal strengths power you like sails, your values give you direction like a steering wheel, and your goals are your destination.  You can control all of those, but…
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    • Coaching

  • When you feel stuck...

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 13:53:15
    Now and then, we all feel stuck.  Perhaps there is a bad habit we just can't shake off or a challenge we can't seem to be able to overcome.  Unfortunately, our busy life leaves little space for deep reflection, which…
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    • Coaching
    • Productivity

  • How to use money arguments to push sustainability

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 13:49:00
    To make my money go a bit further, I recently switched monthly donations from Ecologi to ClientEarth, which takes governments and corporations to court when they breach environmental laws.  A few months ago, ClientEarth took Shell's management board to court. If that's not surprising,…
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    • Soft Skills

  • Ch-ch-ch-changeees...

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 12:01:32
    Now and then, we feel we need a change.  Perhaps we have grown out of the role we are in, or maybe we need something different because of new circumstances in our private life (parenthood, house moves, caring responsibilities, mental health...).  Sometimes,…
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    • Coaching

  • What do you do with the 50 hours plus you are not working every week?

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 11:58:46
    If you are like any other human being, on average you sleep for 7 hours a day, work for 8, attend to your body's needs (like eating, washing etc.) for 2, and commute or do errands or housework for another 2. …
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    • Productivity

  • The Fighting Language of Sustainability

    By Super User / 2024-02-12 11:48:32
    Did you know you are at war? If really feels like it, if you read the scary headings of newspapers and your LinkedIn feed talking about fighting the climate crisis, tackling environmental disasters, becoming eco-warriors... Without discounting the seriousness of…
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    • Soft Skills
    • Sustainability

  • How interconnected are you with nature?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2024-02-12 10:21:20
    August is a month I never really liked that much. When I was a child, we would go on holidays in July, so August meant boredom lined with unpredictable summer thunderstorm weather. Now, it means summer is nearly over and I…
    Read More
    • Coaching
    • Sustainability

  • Why your commitment to sustainability is not enough to make your sustainability-focused SME thrive

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2021-07-03 05:30:52
    The moment you registered your company with Companies House. The moment you got that first client who was willing to pay you to carry out an environmental assessment. The moment you hired your first employee to help you with the…
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    • Lunch & Learn
    • Small Business
    • Sustainability

  • Why the world needs more Jacindas to tackle the environmental crisis

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2020-10-06 05:30:52
    I have never considered myself a feminist. Not in the extreme sense of the term anyway. Although I have always advocated for equality of opportunities for everyone, whichever sex they identify with, I never contemplated burning my bra. I even…
    Read More
    • Resilience
    • Womeninsustainability
    • Your Community
  • The power of resilience in uncertain times

    The power of resilience in uncertain times

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2020-08-03 09:55:52
    I will echo many other people saying that we are living unprecedented times. Life as we know it has come to a weird standstill. Bars, restaurants and shops are starting to reopen after the pandemic, schools and offices have moved…
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    • Coaching
    • Resilience
    • SustainABLE Mastermind
  • Is sustainability a luxury?

    Is sustainability a luxury for the wealthier?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2019-03-01 09:55:52
    I have been thinking about my personal finances a lot, lately.I dedicated the whole of February to money wisdom. I worked out that I have about 25 years (everything going well) of working life still in front of me, and…
    Read More
  • Using science to influence sustainability clients

    How to use science to influence your clients and get them to do what you want

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2019-03-01 09:55:52
    If you have children, you might have heard about oxytocin, aka the “happy hormone”, which is released when you bond with your newborn baby, and is even injected into expecting mothers to induce labour. Oxytocin is produced after any emotional…
    Read More
  • Using storytelling in technical situations

    The underestimated importance of storytelling for technical people

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-12-11 09:55:52
    A few years ago, in a quest to refurbish a 1960 concrete block on the BRE site in the most innovative and sustainable way possible, I had the good fortune to meet an extraordinary man and architect. He was one…
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  • What is sustainable architecture?

    What does sustainable architecture really mean?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-11-15 09:55:52
    I was recently invited to deliver a CPD session on Sustainable Design at a small architectural studio. I was told beforehand that the office didn't specifically look at sustainability in their practices, as it was a small practice. In my…
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  • Can circular economy save the planet?

    Can circular economy save the planet?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-11-15 09:55:52
    This phrase by Walter Stahel, the man who also coined the phrase ‘cradle to cradle’, made me chuckle before I felt the heaviness of its meaning. How often do we actually feel that our single and collective actions have an…
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  • The difficulty of selling sustaiability

    Why aren’t your clients interested in sustainability?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-11-15 09:55:52
    I’ve been asking myself this question over and over again: why aren’t clients interested in sustainability? A couple of months ago, my eight-year-old daughter told me off because we were still using plastic toothbrushes. I’m a sustainability consultant, and sustainability…
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  • Selling sustainability to your co-workers

    The enemy within: how to approach your sustainability-cynic colleagues

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-10-28 09:55:52
    It’s another day in the office. Fights over the stapler, ‘elevenses’ gossip, passive-aggressive comments hissed in between the teeth, boiling in silence because your colleague is on Facebook while you are slaving away, talking to the boss instead of having…
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  • The top five skills of a sustainability consultant

    The top five skills of a sustainability consultant

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-10-28 09:55:52
    It was all over the national news a couple of weeks ago: according to a new assessment from IPCC, limiting global warming to 1.5ºC would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. One of the key…
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  • Women and the construction industry

    Why doesn't Wonder Woman wear a hard hat?

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-10-03 09:55:52
    In recent findings summarised in the report Delivering Through Diversity by McKinsey & Co. , it emerges that companies with executive gender diversity perform 21% better than less diverse companies. This means that companies with women in top executive roles, where…
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  • Sustainability performance with LCA

    The happy sustainability consultant (or how to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and still smile)

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-09-27 09:55:52
    At a recent networking event, I met a very happy sustainability consultant. Given that my new mission in life is to help sustainability consultants to feel happier in their jobs, mainly by making them more confident and able to ‘sell’…
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    • Getting Started
  • How to be assertive in sustainability

    How to be assertive in a world that relies on 'likes': A short guide for sustainability consultants

    By Virginia Cinquemani / 2018-09-27 09:55:52
    In today’s culture we are all more or less dependent on the pleasure caused by the rush of endorphins that we get when our posts on social media accumulate ‘likes’. Sounds a bit daft when you read it, even childish…
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    • Getting Started
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