my mum the geek

The title of this post was the doing of my geeky daughter aged 13 who helped me quickly knock together a banner!  

Now, they say the first thing a group of geeks do when they get together is deny that they are geeks!  So, let me not keep you waiting.  I am NOT a geek!  

Catalyst for Magic has been my business title since I joined AMP on 2 April 2000.  I chose it because my real title is this long, boring, corporate-sounding sentence that puts people, myself included, to sleep.

Catalyst for Magic is much more fun, a fabulous conversation starter and the perfect summary of what I do…which is to help unleash the magic we find from employing human beings, as opposed to machines, to transform our organisation and our business. 

The important bit is that my work is not that of magician…the creativity, passion and “magic” is in everyone already, but with the help of a bit of pixie dust and a few wands, like listening and acting on ideas, using collaboration and creative thinking tools, providing access to information and resources, rewarding and recognising both success and learning from failures, and most of all believing in people and giving them opportunities to shine, we move mountains, like the one in my photo!

This is my 3rd blog…I used to write a personal one called MsMaverick but then I launched the whole Enterprise 2.0 thing for my company in July last year and to get the momentum going, I focussed every available blogging hour of the day on that! So, now that that “baby” is crawling and nearly walking, I have a bit of space to return to the world-wide blogosphere.

This is going to be a blog about leading a culture of innovation in a large, established financial services institution (159 years old), and what I learn along the way, how I stumble, and how I can draw insights and support from those of you who share a similar interest and passion. 

I look forward to the conversation.