Our blog

We hope our blog variously provokes, comforts and inspires.

If there are particular themes, leadership dilemmas or rich provocations you would like to hear our take on, we’d love to hear from you.

If you’re a member of our community and would like to share some of your writing here, please do get in touch.

Simply contact us via info@leadingthroughstorms.org.

Kirstin Irving Kirstin Irving

This is the Hour. And yet…

What's your experience of trying to bring about a different future? What carries you forward, and what keeps you from reaching into greater, more meaningful transformation?

Here, Kirstin shares her reflections, including how our approach to deep-rooted dilemmas might be a vital part of patterning hope and a different kind of integrity.

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Annette Hennessy Annette Hennessy

What is the ‘real work’?

The theme of radical collaboration is one we return to time and again in our work. What's the idea and what part might it play in our current predicament? What does it take, and what shifts may occur as a result?

Community member, Annette Hennessy, shares her experiences and reflections.

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Kirstin Irving Kirstin Irving

How are you framing your response to our predicament?

Prof. Jem Bendell writes, “the evidence for the unfolding process of societal disruption and collapse is becoming overwhelming”.

Given this framing, what are your reflections on the transformation efforts you, your organisation, your community are engaged in? What is giving you hope, and which aspects of your leadership would benefit from a different kind of attention?

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James Barlow James Barlow

When we stray from the path

Blog 3 (of 3) on our ‘Four Pathways To Spirited Leadership’ framework.

We illustrate with an organisational story what can happen when we stray from the path, since sometimes we don’t act in the most mature ways!

We find that when don’t walk all four interweaving paths in balance, together, consciously, things can get pretty ugly.

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James Barlow James Barlow

There is no path, the path is made in the walking

Blog 2 (of 3) on our ‘Four Pathways To Spirited Leadership’ framework.

How can we each put our restless energies in service of what seems really needed, in acts of spirited leadership?

We work with four interweaving pathways to help us.

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James Barlow James Barlow

(The Restlessness Of) The Jack In The Box

Blog 1 (of 3) on our ‘Four Pathways To Spirited Leadership’ framework.

From our research we know that restless energies mean many leaders are oscillating between energetic, creative engagement and being deeply frustrated.

They want to commit time and resource to feel part of a bigger movement, to better find their voice and place in the world, to have support with whatever experiments they decide to pursue in service of a regenerative future.

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Simon Cooper Simon Cooper

How do we spend our Restless Energies?

Does individual change lead to system change or is it just a diversion, a distraction strategy?

Can we get our Adaptation Trojan Horse inside Mitigation’s walls?

Drawing on a hidden adaptation gem in the latest IPCC Synthesis Report we explore…

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Leading Through Storms Leading Through Storms

The lie of the Lone Wolf Leader

Our future lies in our ability to work together in light of the climate and ecological emergency we’re all going to have to face sooner or later.

The vision of the lone wolf leader fearlessly charging ahead with “the answer” is just as anomalous as our current state of ongoing #polycrises.

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James Barlow James Barlow

What do you do when the waters change?

At Leading Through Storms, we actively encourage leaders to question the stories that society uses to make sense of the world. Perhaps the ‘consensus reality’ is an unhelpful façade that hides what’s actually going on? 

Chances are you’ve felt something like this too. An inkling, or nudge, or outright feelings of disbelief -- “Am I the only one seeing this?”

If so, you may find the dilemma in the following story familiar...

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Kirstin Irving Kirstin Irving

The Space Between Stimulus and Response

In this piece, Kirstin considers what it means to draw a line during these exceptional times and how practices of action and inquiry can support timely and transforming leadership.

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