Refracting Ideas

In physics, refraction is the change in direction of a wave passing from one medium to another or from a gradual change in the medium. Today, in times of rapid and unpredictable change, we are all a form of medium. We take in ideas in one form, and turn them into something slightly different that we direct at those we associate with. This has an interesting implication - the quality of the light we absorb determines the quality of what we emit.

While sitting in my study reading, a thought occurred as a shaft of autumn sunlight played off some glass on my desk to create a rainbow on the wall. Like all of us who do what I do, reading is vital to our "stock in trade". It is fuel for insight and a part of our responsibility to clients, do the reading they don't have time to, and generate a continual series of challenges to our thinking and understanding. When things change this quickly anything less makes us stale faster than an artisan sourdough loaf.

It brings with it a challenge - how to…