Perspective
Welcome to my journal of personal musings and perspectives that don’t file neatly under any single heading.
Do get in touch if you want to reply or share your thoughts.
In any case, thanks for dropping by.
~ Thomas 🙏
Here’s my take…
One very interesting aspect of the role of the consultant was demonstrated in a recent classroom setting where three pieces of paper were out across the floor by our facilitator to form three points on a giant imaginary triangle. In this order, they read: expert, pair of helping hands, and collaborative partner
As we pondered those phrases before discussing our interpretation of them, the exercise was to tease out how we can as consultants work best with clients to develop effective solutions that meet their unique needs.
To say Hi to someone you don’t know in an elevator, or in the queue for coffee takes bravery, and is something I have worked on over the years because those moments can be really magical in creating new relationships.
But one interaction in the office will stay with me for a very long time. Not because it stood out.. in fact, quite the opposite - I only stopped by someone’s desk to say Hi for a few minutes before heading home a few weeks ago. We had a chat, parted ways, and that was that. Or so I thought.
What a Summer of fun we had… I had always wanted to own a convertible and I got the opportunity to pick up a fabulous SLK just in time for the glorious summer sunshine. And boy it was worth it.
However, with this cold Winter weather approaching, I am selling my lovely SLK300 by Mercedes Benz. So naturally it deserved a video…
On New Year’s Day 2011, I drank one final pint before announcing that I was giving up “for a few days”. The plan was to go a few days, and then a few more. Partly to prove I could. And partly because I knew the party was over.
Days became months and in the eleven years since, I have not had a drink and somehow become ‘teetotal’ in the true sense of the word. It remains one of the best decisions I ever made.
James Clear in an excerpt from Atomic Habits, his New York Times bestselling book.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently; success isn't found in the destination, but in how you frame the journey. It was this thought process that helped me give up drink (for good), lose weight, and now it’s helping me reset my career path.
Focus on coordinating across silos and adapting to change on the front lines according to Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes, and Charles Sull writing in the Harvard Business Review.
Five myths debunked. Like this one:
Communication Equals Understanding
Nat Rutherford writing in BBC Future:
...Epicurean happiness is a matter of being a good accountant and minimising pain in the most efficient way possible...
But the accountant’s view of happiness is too simple to reflect reality. Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Genealogy of Morals, saw that we do not merely endure pain as a means to greater pleasure because "man…does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering". In Nietzsche’s view, pain is not alleviated through pleasure, but instead through meaning...
That is why mountaineers and marathon runners - like all of us at one time or another - can rationalise the pain barriers they go through to keep going.
Where did the last three years just go? Scary to think of how much water has flowed at torrential rates under that bridge.. 2 redundancies survived, 4 businesses set up and wound down, hundreds of miles run, one bout of COVID survived, 4 social networks deleted, and 983** days since my last blog post.
What a ride that has been. And I am sure it has been the same for you too. (But not ‘U2’ who seem to have forgotten what the inside of a studio looks like. Come on guys!)
So what’s next for me in terms of creative, personal and professional direction? as you might guess… I have thoughts.
Hitting delete on facebook feels like that time I gave up the booze; a sort of "not knowing how long this will last" feeling. But hey, after 8 years without a drink... I can't say I miss it.
So I'm guessing I won't miss Facebook either. There’s only one way to find out. Let's see.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Foodservice Forum on day one of the 2017 London Produce Show at Grosvenor House, Park Lane.
In terms of subject scope around the topic of fresh produce, each presenter brought a unique perspective that was both fascinating and thought provoking. Here were my top five 'key trend' take aways from a fun and informative day.
The London Produce Show turned out to be a really worthwhile event in terms of learning and networking. Therefore I am pencilling it into my calendar for next year which is slated to be held on 5-8 June, 2018 at Grosvenor House in Park Lane, London. See you there!
To celebrate Yeats Day on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ireland's first Nobel Prize-winning poet, I have delved into his body of work to bring you three of my personal favourites as read by Michael Gambon, Shane MacGowan, and Richard Harris.
Getting thomaskilroy.com in place helped me get my personal brand into some sort of structure. But how much of it is style over substance? And what is the right approach?
Perspective: Archive
Notes on why I've kept this archive: When launching this website, I decided to press the reset button on my blogging output and bring all my content under one roof, so to speak. Today, the Talk Show together with my social media presence makes up the bulk of my output, with blogging taking a back seat somewhat.
“Space, the final frontier” as the famous phrase goes. Although now that I think about it… I tend to disagree. For me.. our imagination is the final frontier. That’s the true infinite.
Carl Sagan described all of humanity as living on ‘“a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” With this mindset, we can think of some setbacks in our lives as really not so big after all.