Monthly Archives: May 2021

Quiet Leadership: One Subject, Two Books

Posted on May 26, 2021 by julianstodd

This summer i am publishing two books in parallel: ‘Quiet Leadership’ and ‘The Humble Leader’. Both explore the same topic, but through two different mechanisms, and this week both have moved into production, which is an exciting time! Quiet Leadership … Continue reading →

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Evolution of Context

Posted on May 25, 2021 by julianstodd

Context is not static: held rather in a dynamic interaction with the things that flow through it. Stories are no exception to this: both formal stories, and the tacit and tribal folklore of the Organisation, these things flow through context, … Continue reading →

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The Strength of Culture

Posted on May 24, 2021 by julianstodd

The strength of a culture is held more within the smallest of individual actions than through tidal waves of aspiration.

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Illustrating ‘The Humble Leader’ #3

Posted on May 20, 2021 by julianstodd

Two more illustrations completed today, which just leaves one to go! I’ve really enjoyed creating the images for this new book, although i notice an interesting evolution of my drawing style: clearly having illustrated on the iPad so much over … Continue reading →

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Illustrating ‘The Humble Leader’ #2

Posted on May 18, 2021 by julianstodd

I’ve just completed the sixth of the twelve illustrations i need for ‘The Humble Leader’ [and i’m still deciding if that is the working title or the final one!]. All these illustrations are of leaves, which tie into the visual … Continue reading →

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Illustrating ‘The Humble Leader’

Posted on May 17, 2021 by julianstodd

I have the luxury this week of time to spend illustrating the next book: ‘The Humble Leader’ [working title] is an exploration of humility in leadership. It forms a guided, reflective space. I have known from the start that i … Continue reading →

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Learning #Sketch

Posted on May 13, 2021 by julianstodd

This is an illustration of learning. It’s a pragmatic sketch, illustrating our own certainty over time, and the ways in which learning may involve disturbance, ambiguity, and a series of connections and failures, each of which carries us one step … Continue reading →

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Big Loop Learning: the Folklore of Failure

Posted on May 12, 2021 by julianstodd

Every night i sing my son to sleep with a song: it’s been the unanticipated pleasure of the Pandemic that i have been home to do this, and now, aged two, he is able to ask for the song that … Continue reading →

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#WorkingOutLoud on Big Loop Learning Organisations

Posted on May 11, 2021 by julianstodd

Building out the work on ‘Big Loop Organisations’ today by exploring aspects of what it means to be ‘big’. The notion behind this is that legacy Organisations typically fall to ‘Diminishing Spirals’ of learning, as opposed to maintaining a momentum … Continue reading →

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Big Loop and Diminishing Loop Organisations

Posted on May 10, 2021 by julianstodd

We can consider Organisations in terms of entropy: the way that energy is bled out of a system through friction, inertia, radiation, and opposition, over time. Organisations that wish to change, to be in motion, to be changeable and dynamic, … Continue reading →

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