Professional clarity

An in-depth training in the clearing process

“I think what you’ve been doing is unpicking instinct.” Peter Koenig

At the start of my career I happened to work with some of the most creative people in the world. And I saw they all worked in a particular way - and it wasn’t what I learned in school. 

There was a particular way of listening for what’s needed. A way of seeing how things fit together. And a way of finding some unexpected path that makes things possible. 

It made it very hard to go back to working how I did before. But, at the same time, I also didn’t really understand what they were doing. So I spent the next fifteen years figuring it out. 

It comes down to this. Getting things done (how I’d learned to work) is not the same as doing what’s needed (how they worked). And, it turns out, being good at doing what’s needed requires a very different set of skills. 

So, I’ve developed a set of tools that make it easy to develop those skills. If you need to get clear on your purpose, then you can use the very clear ideas process. If you need to keep track of how all the different parts of your work fit together - initiative mapping. And if you get stuck and need to find a creative way through a problem - identity yoga. 

If you’ve not experienced the clearing process before, book a session and bring something that isn’t clear. It can be personal, professional, organisational - whatever it is, I’ll show you how to find your way through. 

If you work with a team and you think they’d benefit from being more creative, more engaged, taking more initiative, prioritising more effectively and staying focused, then a group clear ideas session is a very easy intervention. (It’s about 80 minutes and everyone leaves knowing their life’s purpose.)

And, if you have worked with me before, I’d like you to know that these days I really, really love working with people who want to go deeper into the clearing process - making it an integral part of their professional practice. Get in touch if you’d like to know more. 

“Very Clear Ideas works. It works as a way to build engagement and agreement in an idea and it works to ensure that the engagement sticks. It works as a grounding tool when scope creep is rife. Very Clear Ideas enables the original idea to stay held by everyone involved… Very Clear Ideas works!” - Richard Corbridge, Director of Innovation, Boots UK (read full testimonial here)

42 days of clarity

A six-week immersion in the fundamental principles of clarity 

Imagine an old Buddhist teacher. He’s spent two years talking a group of students through his life’s work: a complete path to enlightenment. It’s the last day of teaching and they ask him: “Could you just sum that all up again?” And, in 42 simple one-liners, he does. 

I first came across this short teaching a couple of years ago and found I kept coming back to it. Because, whatever was happening in my life, one of those 42 points had the answer. It covers everything. It’s reliable. And, as you read, you’ll see it’s nearly all things you already know, but definitely need to be reminded of. 

Of course, hearing advice is one thing and following it is something else. I wanted to make this as easy-as-possible to follow, so I did four things. I rewrote the whole thing in very, straightforward, conversational English. I made a deck of 42 good-looking cards. I recorded 42 short lessons - some guidance on how to engage with each piece of advice. And I convened a small group to teach it to.

“I just want to thank you, really, from the bottom of my heart, for this course. I value it greatly. There is so much in it for me personally. And there are many aspects that help me develop my understanding of Zen Practice.” - Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi

Now you can buy the deck of cards and get to know them yourself. Or, order the full audio for the course to go along with the cards. Or, what I would love to do, is to take you through them. If you’d like to learn more, get in touch.

Happy money stories.

A short course in financial happiness

This is an invitation to meet and enjoy a kind of creative exploration of how we think and talk about money. Not just the numbers, but the stories we tell about the numbers. 

“Doing the money work with you has been the single most important learning I've done as an adult. It's fundamental.” Jenni Lloyd

I’ve run money workshops since 2005. It can be pretty fierce work, but this course is a bit of a different approach. I’d like us to just enjoy what happens when a group of people have the chance to meet and talk about what money means to them. To tell their stories, to hear each others and to write new ones. 

“Creating compassionate spaces in the financial realm feels like planting a seed in the desert.” - Aimee Fenech (describing her experience of the happy money story game)

Poetry for meditation

A personal, creative approach to finding clarity

The right words can change your mind in an instant. Poetry helps us find those words that work and meditation helps us take what we find and make it useful.

Whether you’re looking for a little peace, or more focus, or there is something troubling that you need to find your way through, Poetry for meditation is an easy and reliable way of engaging with your own mind. 

“Two years on: I was on the couch yesterday going through Poems for meditation again and thinking it’s the greatest. So thanks again.” Robin Black

The course starts with a set of four short poems (published as Poems for meditation in 2019). I’ll show you how to meditate with the poems, how to get the most out of that process - and how to start writing your own. It’s such a simple thing. And so powerful. 

Please, I’d love to teach you if you’d like to learn. 

“A friend of mine, who’s not a Buddhist and doesn't meditate, has taken a great likeness to your Poems for meditation, which I had gifted to her husband. Now, reading it has become her morning practice.” Annette