Blue Mercury - Leadership

Even Arrangers miss things sometimes.

You can be someone who is usually good with logistics, planning, moving parts, people, details and making the thing happen.. and still have something slip through the cracks.

It does not always mean you are bad at organising.
Sometimes it means you are right at the edge of your capacity.

After a very busy couple of weeks, I had one day carved out to play golf. It was pouring with rain, but I was still unreasonably excited. I was looking forward to the group I was paired with, a bit of fresh air, a bit of a break, and some time out on the course.

I turned up only to find an empty car park.
The course was closed.

Apparently 15mm of water will do that.

So, instead of playing golf, I had a coffee and watched golf.

A gentle little reminder that even when arranging is your thing, capacity still matters.

Sometimes the thing that slips through the cracks is not a capability issue.
It is a human-being-at-full-load issue.

One of the strange things about the work I do is that I get a lot of connection.

I get to spend time with brilliant people, get to have great conversations.
I get to watch little lightbulb moments happen in real time.

But I do not always get to see what happens next...

The thing that happens after the workshop, after the workbook, after the conversation, after everyone goes back into the real world and does the much harder work of applying it.

So when I do get to see it, it is pretty bloody special!!!!

This project from Anna Kate Goodall was one of those moments.

She took a concept we had explored, made sense of it in her own context, and then properly ran with it.

Not as a copy and paste exercise.
Not as a 'this is what Kayleigh said' exercise.

But as a thoughtful, practical, embedded piece of work that clearly had her own thinking, leadership and context wrapped all around it.

That is the bit I do not always get to see.

And it is a very good bit! So I wanted to celebrate it.

I was recently BCCed into an email sent to another facilitator, asking them to quote for the same piece of work.

Not copied in. I was secretly attached....

My immediate reaction was: 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥?

What was I meant to do with that?

Reply all and reveal I was there? Stay silent while someone else unknowingly responded?

When pushed, the explanation was efficiency.

The person claimed they could get quotes from lots of people with one email. Less admin. Everyone covered.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐦?

It got me thinking about the difference between speed and efficiency, and what we risk losing as we bring more AI into the way we work.

Sometimes the conversation is not slowing the work down.

Sometimes the conversation is the work.

Read the blog below:

𝙐𝙨𝙚 𝘼𝙄 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣
https://www.bluemercury.co.nz/post/use-ai-to-save-time-then-spend-that-time-being-human

Here is a little 'how the sausage gets made' moment.

At the start of each virtual session, I take a screenshot of everyone.

Then, as we move through the session, I slowly work my way through it with different colours, tracking who has contributed, who has been in added to a group or a breakout.

Because in a virtual room, it is very easy for people to disappear.

And unless you are intentional about inclusion, it can become very easy to assume that “everyone had a chance” when actually, only some people did.

For me, this is part of the craft of facilitation. Paying attention to the humans in the room and making sure everyone has a way in.

Sometimes the magic is not magic....

Sometimes it is a screenshot, a colour code, and a stubborn little commitment to not letting people slip through the cracks!!!

I've just wrapped up the most recent cohort of LeadSAR, Land Search and Rescue’s Future Leader programme, I’m also saying goodbye to two incredible mentors - Emma Milburn and Paul McFall.

They deserve a proper moment.

Over the last two years, they have been such a pivotal part of shaping this programme into the awesome place it is now.

They have brought wisdom, honesty, challenge, humour, care, lived experience and a huge amount of mahi to the mentor space.

The photo is of them speaking to the participants at the end of the programme, alongside the other mentors. For me, it captures so much of what they have contributed: generosity, connection and a genuine commitment to supporting future leaders across LandSAR.

I have really valued the input, effort and energy they have put into LeadSAR over the last two years.

The programme is better because of them.

A huge thank you to two wonderful humans who have helped build something pretty special.

The other week I had a choice.

Spend time with very old friends, the kind I’ve had for the best part of 15 years.

Or go to something with a group where, if I’m honest, I’ve been feeling more and more like an imposter.

So I chose the old friends.

And instead of overthinking whether I belonged, whether I was interesting enough, good enough, useful enough, or whatever other nonsense my brain likes to throw at me…

I choose the old friends and played a game of how many mandarins can you balance on your face?

Deeply sophisticated I know...

There is something incredibly grounding about being with people who have known you through multiple versions of yourself.

The old jobs. The bad hairstyles. The big dreams. The 'remember when?' stories that are still funny almost 15 years later.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your confidence is not to push yourself into another room where you feel like you need to prove yourself.

Sometimes it is to go where you are already known.

Where you can be ridiculous.

Where you can laugh until your face hurts.

Where the only question you need to answer is whether four mandarins is impressive, or whether you can get to five.

Belonging is underrated, so is silliness.