Reflections 2nd October

Buttermere, Cumbria, 29th September

On my Mind

Leadership Containers, Fundamentals and Hedgefoxes.

Containers

In order to make sense of things, we need a container to hold what we are trying to make sense of. It might be a set of values, a culture, a tribe, a company, or even a political party. Something that can hold what we're examining whilst we work out what it is, and what it means. The relationship between the container and the contained is important. If the container isn't strong enough to hold the energy of the what's inside it, it gets very messy at best, and downright dangerous at worst.

The thought arose as we spent a few days in the Lake District, a "container" of immense tranquility from which to observe a set of actions that has left the U.K. in shock. It reminds me of those cartoons from my youth of the trainee soldier wandering round with a grenade asking "how do you put the pin back in?" and all around running for cover. Nobody had a container for this, from the party in w…