From the desk of Caspar:
Be More Human
For the past two years I have made several attempts to capture in words what I’ve learnt about effective high-performance teamwork from both my struggles as well as a few successes. These are hard won insights from introspection, from experience.
In February this year these reflections began to take shape. Over the lockdown period, aided by a world class team, these ideas have accelerated into something that resembles what I hope is a much more coherent format.
The result is a book about teamwork, about high-performance teamwork. More specifically it is a book which recognises that it is humans that sit at the heart of teamwork, and that in order to create high-performance teams, we need to bring more humanity, more humility and more empathy to our working lives.
The message is Be More Human - put people first and results will follow.
Be More Human - Rethinking the Rules of High-Performance Teamwork will launch on July 16th. For a brief overview of the book (and if it piques your interest, you can find details to pre-order your copy, go to https://www.casparcraven.com/book
In this book I explore what it takes to take to deliver extraordinary results, develop resilient and engaged high-performance teams, as well as save your family life at the same time.
Tip: Be More Human - in a time when our working and home lives have been merged together and business needs to think hard about what type of businesses we want to rebuild, this is a call to put more humanity at the very heart of how we build teams together. There has never been a more important time to be more human.
There’s no going back
I’ve had many conversations with people talking about “getting back to normal” in the context of their businesses.
I rail against this and here’s why. The old rules have been ripped up by the changes that have happened in the world as a result of Covid-19. Change has happened and is almost certain to continue.
As humans, one of our innate needs is to look for certainty. One way of doing that is to look back. To look back for what we knew before and what used to work for us. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling to look back and know that that the certainty from the past has gone.
Another way to find certainty is to create it yourself. Or rather, to create it with those around you. To start with a blank sheet of paper and to imagine a future that is better than what you have today. To look at the resources you have access to, the people, the skills and the knowledge you have to hand and to then figure out a better way to move forward.
I believe we will hamper ourselves if we try to head back towards a place that no longer exists rather than heading forward to a place that you create.
Tip: In your work and in your home life, what’s the story of the future that is more exciting than the one of today? With a blank sheet of paper and your team, co-create the story that uses the resources, knowledge and skills you have available and look to the future.
Fireside Chat
Last week, the charity I work with, the British Exploring Society, hosted an online event with MP Rory Stewart. It was a fascinating set of stories shared by Rory as, in his late 20’s, he walked some 6,000 miles on his own across Afghanisatan. The photos and stories he shared were truly remarkable.
The big message I took from his talk was the independent thinking that epitomises Rory. You can see it in his expeditions, his writing and his stories.
It’s such an important message for all of us in this time of change that we should do our own thinking and come to the conclusions that are right for us wherever that journey or path leads.
We’ll be hosting more extraordinary speakers in the coming months - you can join the mailing list for more details here:
https://www.britishexploring.org/
Standard Life
This week, I spoke at the first Summer Series run by Standard Life Investments for their financial advisor community. There were some 450 people who joined the talk and I’m delighted we got feedback like that below.
Does your business need a shot in the arm - of inspiration, positivity and fresh thinking on how to adapt to our new world? Get in touch here if your business needs an injection of fresh thinking.
Leadership tip of the week.
One of the central messages I talk about in Be More Human, is that you need to put people first and the results will follow. I share this brief story of where I learnt this the first time in my showreel video here:
PS If you like this, you can subscribe to my YouTube Channel to get these tips every week rather than just every fortnight.
Thought for the day
