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Having to travel a lot for my speaking engagements, like I did this month going to the Philippines, I’d like to share a great article about making business trips more memorable and enriching.
Keynote and Masterclass in Manila
Good fun to give a keynote speech and masterclass for the team of lawyers from Ayala Legal in Manila. We used my expedition stories as a starting point to help us reflect on and discuss how to have the courage to transform.
This photo shows a problem that arose whilst I was using a cart with beach wheels to cross a crazy Chinese desert – the wheels worked great on sand (they float over the sand like balloons), but then they can get punctures in the reeds at the edge of the desert.
Sometimes being on an expedition feels like a never ending stream of problems to solve and figure out – which (I don’t know about you) is very like how life in general feels sometimes!
I never used to think of myself as much of a problem solver, but now I’ve realised that if, instead of fixating on the problem, I ask myself “what can I control right now?” – my brain will usually give me a few possible ways forward. So I can solve the problem after all.
Making the Most of Work Travel
Juj Winn/Getty Images
Ever been to a new city for work, but then find you see nothing except airport-taxi-hotel-taxi-airport? Sound familiar?
A recent article from HBR challenged me to make more of work travel – even if you can only spare an hour, that can make the difference between a boring/tedious trip, and a memorable and enriching one.
- Is there an old friend in town you can have breakfast with? Could you get up and watch the sunrise?
- Walk to a local historical building?
Recently I found myself in Dublin to give a speech at a Sales Conference – it was my first time there and having read the article, I was pleased to make time to:
- Follow my mum’s instructions and find the house where my great, great, great grandmother lived in 1832 (it is now a vaping shop !!).
- Go for a dawn hike up the local mountain with an old friend – an Irish cyclist-turned-management consultant Daniel Ross who stayed with us in HK on his ride across Asia a few years ago.
Next time you are on a business trip, how can you take an hour or two to make the trip memorable and enriching?