I’ve often been accused of being contrary...

which I have zero issue with, although I’ll also admit that on occasion, I might drop the odd ‘incendiary device’ into a discussion, just to get a reaction!

I believe exploring an opposite perspective helps to build a balanced argument, which helps to override the deeply concerning binary nature of the world today - you’re either in this camp or that one. There’s no discussion or debate to be had. It’s my way or the highway. I’m not so sure the pages of history look kindly on this way of being.

It was 2004 and I had just joined the newly formed management team at Grey Worldwide (London), prior to WPP 's acquisition of this multi-national advertising agency network. Gary Lacey had initiated seismic changes in his early weeks as CEO, and so it was that on the first day when the last new member of the Executive Team joined the business, a snap ‘all hands’ meeting was called in the beautifully re-furbished ground floor space.

I was running a workshop down by the beach at Bondi last week (not a bad gig) and found myself asking the participants to stand up and move to a part of the room where there would be no tables or chairs to hide behind. Yep, that’s right, an open conversation in an open space!

I enjoy morphology. I didn’t know that an interest in playing with words was called this, nor that words are made up of smaller components called morphemes & phonemes. But I do now, and I quite like this, because it makes me sound smarter than when I started writing this article!

Some years ago now, I arrived at a hypothesis which went something like ‘one can learn a huge amount about the culture of an organisation by its’ kitchen(s)’. I then had this idea of travelling the world to take photographs of office kitchens, while observing people’s behaviours in this space, and then conducting in depth interviews and facilitating focus groups, to ascertain whether this hypothesis was accurate.

Welcome to the very first edition of What I Know Now, a newsletter from the Founder & Director of Pigs Can Fly Too, Mike Read. My plan is to use this newsletter as a source of entertainment, learning, provocation and conversation. I hope I succeed and will always welcome your feedback as to how I’m going!

Here’s a number for you - 21. What immediately springs to mind? I imagine for most of you, it’ll conjure up memories (at least what you can remember), from the celebrations you had when turning 21 years old.*

Family and friends have often laughed or sighed at my tendency to be contrary from time to time. Everyone is turning left - I’ll go right. You should really do this Mike. OK then, I’ll do something else. I’ve also dropped the odd incendiary device onto Facebook to see what reaction I might get. This rarely disappoints!

Reciprocity - the give/get principle. It might go something like this - I am on the receiving end of childlike behaviour, so I will respond in a judgmental way, probably laced with childishness! Unlikely to get a great outcome…

It’s not really individuals who get things done in organisations. Nor is the whole of the organisation at work. It’s teams that make things happen. Which explains what we know about organisations that outperform expected norms - high-performing organisations are made up of high-performing teams…

Last week, I was in conversation with another small business owner about a subject I’ve written about before - the daily choice we have to be either judgmental…

I was reading a LinkedIn post the other day, in which a leadership consultant spoke about the privilege of working closely with some extraordinary leaders over the years. And that, while each had their own strengths, the truly unforgettable ones all shared one thing: a deep commitment to kindness…