Insights & Articles

Your Brain Has a Smoke Alarm That Can't Tell Toast from Fire

Your brain has a smoke alarm that cannot tell toast from fire. It sounds in milliseconds, while the fire marshal (your reasoning brain) needs a few seconds to arrive. Self-control is simply letting the marshal arrive, and it works like a checklist: pause, breathe, evaluate, name it, choose. Three seconds can save three months of repair. What is the last message you wish had stayed in drafts?

20 October 2026

Your Teenager Isn't Being Difficult. They're Missing a Head, a Heart or a Pair of Hands.

What looks like resistance in a teenager is often one of three gaps: no head (the purpose is unclear), no heart (they feel unheard), or no hands (they don't know how). Drawing on Barbara Trautlein's Change Intelligence, I have adapted her three dimensions for parents and teachers, who lead change every day. Before you push harder, ask which gap is open.

18 October 2026

Your School Vision Is Wallpaper: Why Staff Believe What You Reward, Not What You Print

Walk into most school foyers, and you will find a vision statement in a frame. Now ask the teachers in the staff room what the school really values. If the two answers differ, you have wallpaper: it looks handsome, and nobody reads it. Purpose and Work (Kogan Page, 2026) by Jessica Zwaan, a people operations specialist and former Chief Operating Officer at Talentful, explains why that gap opens and how to close it.

16 October 2026

Stop Only Raising Your Children. Your Own Growing Up Is Not Finished.

Your children are not the only ones developing in your home. Erik Erikson showed that adults face turning points too: Can I be truly close to someone? Am I building something that outlasts me? Will I be at peace with my own story? Children learn these answers by watching us live them. A child's development is a river fed by the adult streams upstream. What are you building that will still be standing when you are gone?

15 October 2026

Stop Fixing Your Child's Behaviour. Answer Their Question.

5 October 2026

Not Everything Your Grandmother Taught You Was Wisdom

30 September 2026

You Didn't Choose Your Beliefs. Your Teenager Is About to Notice.

30 September 2026

The Wish Every Parent Inherits, and Why It's Time to Retire It

21 September 2026

Twenty Thousand Women Stood in Silence: Not Rule-Bound

11 August 2026