Author Archives: mappingmotivation

Do We Really Believe in Teams?

One of the mantras of most managers is that teams outperform collective individual performance. There is lots of research that substantiates that, and in any case it is summed up in that well-known poster acronym: T.EA.M., or Together Each Achieves More. Put another way: teams produce a synergy in which the net output is notContinue reading “Do We Really Believe in Teams?”

The Antidote to Fear: Trust

I read an ancient Arabic story the other day about a merchant traveller with his caravan on his way to Baghdad. Half way to his destination the merchant encounters Pestilence who informs him that he too is on his way to Baghdad. Pestilence’s reason for travelling there is to kill five thousand people. Having deliveredContinue reading “The Antidote to Fear: Trust”

How Nothing Creates Performance and Beauty

I was with some friends the other day, including Ginny Richards, and she had just played the piano superbly well. We were discussing how it is that some people play the piano – or instrument or sing – so expressively, and others, who may be technically proficient, make it all sound so dead. There isContinue reading “How Nothing Creates Performance and Beauty”

The Real Meaning of Christmas

I love Christmas, and I am especially looking forward to it this year because, as some readers of my articles may have deduced, I have been seriously ill and in hospital for three months. At one point it looked as if I wouldn’t make Christmas at all; and then as if I’d still be inContinue reading “The Real Meaning of Christmas”

Pedagogy and Motivation

I was asked an interesting educational question recently about motivation and pedagogy: to wit, what pedagogy is used to create classroom strategies that each motivator prefers? Pedagogy is a word that one doesn’t encounter as frequently as one did, say, in the Seventies; what does it mean? Pedagogy is the science of teaching, of instruction,Continue reading “Pedagogy and Motivation”

Visiting the Underworld with Orpheus

When I was a child I was fascinated by myths, and especially those concerning the underworld, what we sometimes call journeys into hell. It is difficult to account for why these sort of stories appeal, although now – at the later end of my life – it’s all very clear: having been to hell –Continue reading “Visiting the Underworld with Orpheus”

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

As we passed a church on the way to Bournemouth Rail Station the other day I saw a fantastic advertising poster. It said: “The B.I.B.L.E – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth! What a concept, what an acronym! In today's Western society there is – despite the relentless barrage of bad news, war and mayhem –Continue reading “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”

Coaching, Mentoring and Spirituality

Sometimes in mentoring and coaching the question of spirituality comes up with a client; it is not necessarily the issue they engaged you for, but the conversation spirals in that direction, and you are faced with that awkward moment of deciding whether to explore it with them or leave well alone. I think it isContinue reading “Coaching, Mentoring and Spirituality”

My Life After Death – a Vision

There are two stultifying views of life after death that must be refuted. The first is that there is no life after death; this view, promoted by atheists and humanists, is a desperate appeal to deny the collective wisdom of mankind from time immemorial that has decided otherwise. Even reincarnation is a way of lookingContinue reading “My Life After Death – a Vision”