Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
Coal to power the future? Ask your customers!
Over the past year, there has been a lot of talk through the media regarding renewable energy transitions. From the shutting down of coal-fired power stations, to the bans on fracking throughout various states and regions, a lot of chatter has occurred. It’s no wonder that the government wants to get involved in this dialogue…
Nobody likes a bully
Nobody likes a bully. It’s simple enough to say – a blanket statement that in a way, can be as aggressive as bullying itself. It’s something that resonates with most of us though. I mean, really… who could like a bully? A person who, via some possible tactics of intimidation, coercion, or even possibly abuse,…
NAPLAN: Comparisons are unhelpful. Ask the experts!
In recent news, Finnish education expert Dr Pasi Sahlberg is moving his family to Australia. He will take up a new position at the University of New South Wales, in the Gonski Institute for Education. His name might be familiar to those in the education sector – he was one of the architects of the Finnish education…
Australian political citizenship saga – where trust and power collide
One of the biggest things in the media at the end of last year in Australia was the political citizenship saga. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a whole whack of politicians have been stripped of their positions and removed from parliament due to having multiple citizenships. By-elections have been held,…
Centrelink: Busy signals are a symptom, not a cause
I have previously written about The Department of Human Services before. The article actually garnered a fair amount of attention, which is always a good thing… as such I thought I would revisit the DHS, Centrelink, Medicare, and so forth. The DHS could be a case study turned university doctoral thesis in itself, of how…
Business sentiment doesn’t matter… consumer sentiment does
I was watching the news this morning, when the ever predictable financial reports came in from so-called experts. This is normally the point at which my wife is telling me to calm down because I am yelling at these experts professing my disgust at their insights. This morning though, what they were saying took the…
Check-in, or check out
As a facilitator, you need a way to break into the group. Being the outsider, it is often that you are at a disadvantage. Entering a system that already existed before you even arrived can be challenging, daunting, and a bit intimidating. Even more so, bringing together a group of strangers in order to facilitate…
The power of a good customer story
Sometimes it feels as if the power of storytelling is ingrained in our DNA. Even before written forms of human history, tribes would pass down their learnings through story. Fantastic examples of this still permeating living culture today include much of the Australian Aboriginal dreamtime, or Canadian Inuit mythology. The most powerful of these stories…
Say ‘no’ to profit, and it will come
Greed can be such an amazingly powerful driving force. Likely, we have all had a taste of it at some time or another, at different levels and in different ways. A windfall, a bonus, an inheritance, or even a simple salary raise can have us striving for more. On the flip-side, we may have been…
Leadership, and a lack of it
I was having a conversation recently with a colleague about the structure of companies. It was very much along the lines of a piece I have previously written about, talking to organisational structures, and how some of the best can flourish in a disrupted world. Where the discussion turned interesting though was when I was…
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