Navigation notes #1 Headwinds

Almost every panel, every corridor conversation: headwinds. Policy headwinds. Market headwinds. Political headwinds. Megatrend headwinds. The word is on every mouth, and it carries real weight.

But as a sailor, I notice something.

It seems to me that most people using the word are treating headwinds as a wall, something so strong that we can't do much, and that the only response is possibly to push harder, or wait it out.

When you are beating upwind, you don't fight it head-on: you tack. And even then, there is an art to it: point too close to the wind and you lose power, the sails start to flutter and you slow down. Bear away slightly and suddenly the boat comes alive : you are still heading upwind, but now you are fast. You read the system around you: the pressure shifts, the current, the gusts building up. You choose when to tack and where, because a favorable current can actually compensate for the wind working against you. Miss the current, and you're sailing square: moving, but going nowhere. Read it well, and you are making ground, even in a headwind.

This is also what systemic coaching teaches: the signals that matter most are rarely the loudest ones.

Headwinds don't stop good sailors. This is actually where good sailors reveal themselves.

As London Climate Week unfolds around me, I keep thinking: what if the forums themselves navigated differently?

This is my new emerging project. Bringing techniques from systemic coaching and ORSC into the forums and rooms where transitions are being decided, alongside the advisory and coaching work many of you know me for.

Still emerging, but I believe there is something powerful here. Why not experiment in one of your next forums?

I'd love to have that conversation.