There is something slightly magical about mid-winter in the higher reaches of the Northern Hemisphere, the short days and long hours of darkness, with the sun rising around 8.00 am and setting soon after 3.30 pm. Stonehenge lies not far from my mother’s house, where our prehistoric ancestors laid out a ring of stones to celebrate these circadian rhythms.

On my kitchen windowsill is one of my grandmother’s orchids. I brought it home after she passed away earlier this year as it wasn’t faring so well without her particular care and attention – I understood how it felt. Although I’m still a newbie gardener and have zero experience with orchids, it started to revive and I felt the joy of her presence again.

More leaders are waking up to the awareness that business cannot continue as usual. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have moved from being a UN wish list to being investor requirements for many companies. Sustainable practices have shifted from being “greenwashing” to core strategy. From burning out employees, to drying up resources, to driving away the next generation of customers, companies are realizing that they themselves are unsustainable using extractive practices.

I quickly learned that a shakuhachi tells you what it is; that is, what key it will play in. This occurs upon the first blow, right after completion of the boring and utaguchi (blowing edge), before opening any finger holes. ‘Hello G3 shakuhachi, it is an honor to meet you.’

String Theory is on the ropes. At least that’s the summary from a recent review of the state of high energy physics and the lack of experimental support for the current ranking Theory of Everything. The Large Hadron Collider, the first of its kind powerful enough to detect the supersymmetry particles required for String Theory to hang together, has found nothing of the like.

We sat with the ‘I don’t know’ for several minutes, asking how the question left us feeling, a truthful or creative answer, the difference between an alignment or misalignment of head and hara. 

The Most Essential Leadership Skills And How Zen Reframes A Way To Master Them by Ginny Whitelaw. Originally published on Forbes.com An in-person leadership team…

As an adult I don’t get that automatic sense of new beginnings in a work context every year. January 1st for me is about personal change but I don’t have a career equivalent and there’s no reason why not. In fact, I think it’s crucial and why would we limit this refresh to once per year?

More leaders are waking up to the awareness that business cannot continue as usual. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have moved from being a UN wish list to being investor requirements for many companies. Sustainable practices have shifted from being “greenwashing” to core strategy. From burning out employees, to drying up resources, to driving away the next generation of customers, companies are realizing that they themselves are unsustainable using extractive practices.