The Ko Lab
Welcome to the Ko Lab, my personal newsletter covering a variety of topics from leadership, business design, social impact, self-awareness, systems thinking, and philosophy. If that piques your curiosity, then please join the hundreds of other people on my monthly (ish) newsletter.
Ko Lab #11 – Our Spheres of Influence
I won't beat around the bush with this newsletter: The crisis in Ukraine is currently casting a pretty big shadow across our collective awareness. It's tough to ignore what's happening in the news or not to empathise with what the people on the ground are going...
Ko Lab #10 – Williamson Leadership Program kicks off, Proximity to Intent revised, and a question about misinformation
What a hectic couple of weeks it's been. Whilst I can't speak for others, down here in Melbourne it's felt like the world is starting to really thaw out, and I'm already sensing a faster pace of work. In ColourSpace land, we're starting to see more and more clients...
Proximity to Intent
Let's begin with a quick exercise: Think of a friend you know deeply and personally. Now think of someone you know by name only, such as the CEO of your local banking institution. Now imagine these two people both said on LinkedIn: "Men and women are different." What...
Ko Lab #9 – “Where did the time go?”
There goes January, hey? At this point, there's one of two things that I typically hear: "I don't know where the time went!" and "Xmas felt like it happened so long ago." For me, I have a strange sensation of feeling both – Xmas both feels like it was yesterday and...
Ko Lab #8 – Outcomes-driven grantmaking, reframing rewards, and an invitation for discussion
I hope the year has started off well, and I hope you have been able to take a break, not just from work, but from any weight of expectations. Speaking for myself, it's been great to have a few days to wake up and simply be in a headspace where I expected nothing from...
Ko Lab #7 – 2020-21 Year In Review: Finding Purpose
Happy new year! Hope you had a fantastic end to 2021 and that ringing in 2022 has brought some level of joy, whether that was with family and friend or - in my case - early nights, big sleep-ins, and having no expectations on myself for a few days. I just published my...
Ko Lab #6 – Empathetic listening, a ‘controversial’ take on purpose, and the quest to make myself redundant
In this penultimate newsletter of 2021, I wanted to cover a few different topics I've been reflecting on. By sheer coincidence, my good friend Ian Haycroft shared with me a Harvard Business Review interview featuring Hubert Joly – former CEO of Best Buy, an American...
Ko Lab #5 – Returning to work and group boredom, reflections on perceived value, and a couple of job opportunities
"Freeeeeeedom!" -Braveheart Since my last newsletter, I finally had the chance to get out and about to enjoy a bit of post-lockdown freedom. I've enjoyed long brunches people-watching at local cafes, immersing myself in a movie in a cinema (as opposed to flopped on a...
Ko Lab #4 – An award nomination for ColourSpace, ‘proximity to intent’, and Heroes
It's now been four weeks of being a CEO and I feel like I've started to settle in a bit. What's perhaps surprised me the most is that I don't honestly feel all that different. I'm leaning quite heavily into 'just being me' – by which I mean I'm engaging with people...
Ko Lab #3 – Is the label of a ‘leader’ claimed or bestowed?
Achievement unlocked: Two weeks into this CEO gig and no one's resigned. Winning! In this fortnight's Ko Lab, more thoughts on being a 'leader', an update on the social venture ecosystem report, and 'fessing up to an addiction. Is the label of a 'leader' claimed or...
Ko Lab #2 – Discomfort, social venture ecosystems, and Matthew McConaughey
I did it! I got a second newsletter out! Now on to the Ko Lab, where I cover what I hope to learn as an Acting CEO, new research on the social venture ecosystem, and reflections on Matthew McCoughany's new book Greenlights. Discomfort = Learning As of writing this,...
Ko Lab #1 – Welcome to the inaugural Ko Lab newsletter
Welcome to the inaugural 'Ko Lab' newsletter! I'm quite excited to finally launch a proper personal newsletter, though I'd be lying if I wasn't slightly apprehensive at starting 'yet another thing'. However, I'm at a particular convergence point in my zigzagging...