Disrupted before I even started…
My initial experience of disruption was before I’d even finished my first university degree. I was part of the last year of Deakin University architecture students to study for five full years and not touch a computer. It was like preparing for a career driving cars after serving an apprenticeship riding horses. My career was out of date before I’d even started!
At first I was totally #$%?! off! It hardly seemed fair. And, as one door closed I simply had to open another… It was at this time that I started my sense-making journey. If I didn’t get my head around computers in architecture my future prospects would melt like ice cream in the summer sun.
As a result, instead of going into architectural practice I headed to the US to pursue a Masters degree. I finished up working in London and speaking at the two biggest architectural conferences in the world on the future I saw for architects. Later I wrote a book about this.
I’ve since had a number of different careers. I’ve run my own website design business, a coaching business, written corporate training programs and even designed board games for clients.
The big lesson for me in my career was that the only insurance I had was to study, learn and make sense of what was going on around me. It didn’t mean I could stop the tidal wave of change coming. It simply gave me the chance to see it coming.
And, I didn’t always get it right. One of the reasons I quit architecture was because I hated the idea of sitting at a computer all day. It’s ironic that this is now normal for me and most other people. That’s a great reminder that one person doesn’t know it all.
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A Potted History…
Education
- Master of Architecture degree (US)
- Bachelor of Architecture degree with Honours (Australia)
- Practitioner and Master Practitioner in NLP
- Multiple Team Leader of Team Management and Leadership Program, Landmark Education
- Diploma of Ontological Coaching from Newfield Institute
- Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) and The Mindful Life Program with Mark Molony
- Plus certificate courses in Small Business, Training and Assessment and a couple of others
Author
- Done
- Weekly Done
- Disruptive Leadership
- What the #$%?! is Going On?
- A Home-Office You Love
- Beyond the Electronic Drawing Board
- Every New Thing
- The Cuckoo
- Manifesto
- The Content Marketing Blitz
- Book Rapper – 60+ ebooks and webinars (downloaded over 75,000 times)
- Over 1000 blog post articles on this site
- Various articles in various publications
- More than 100 episodes of the Ideas Architect Podcast
Programs
- Project Done
- Leadership Habits with Taruni Falconer
- Content Marketing Blitz
- Being Creative
- The Create Club
Presenter and Facilitator
- American Institute of Architects – St Louis
- Union of International Architects – Montreal
- American Institute of Architecture Students – Chicago
- Eco-City: International Design Conference
- Eco-Design: International Design Conference
- Professional Speakers Association (PSA)
- (formerly National Speakers Association of Australia)
- Accelerative Learning Society of Australia
- Centre for Organisation Development
- Leukaemia Foundation – Victoria
- Leukaemia Foundation – Australia
- Leader Newspapers
- Thought Leaders
- Macquarie Bank
- James Hardie
- NEC
- Business Blueprint
- Local Government Lawyers
- Commercial Metals Group (CMC)
- Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE
- Leadership Development Centre (LDC) (NZ)
- Mornington Peninsula Shire
- More here…
Change Agent
- Facilitator of Strategic Planning events
- Coached small business clients to a wide range of successes
- Manifesto Maker at the 1000 Manifestos
Interesting Bits
- Exhibitor of his paintings and sculptures – including The Centaur
- Owner and chief strategist of a website design studio
- Architectural practice experience in Australia and the UK
- Stock market trader – this funded living in the US for 18 months
- Sports Nut – will marvel at almost any sport
- All-Australian Intervarsity Baseball team
- Read over 550 books in the past 12 years