Patterns, practice, and the bigger picture
A new year has a funny way of nudging us into reflection. Lately, I’ve found myself slowing down and paying closer attention to how I see things - not just in my work, but outside it too.
That instinct to step back and see the bigger picture is a recurring theme through this months’ newsletter.
The Job
January is often when leaders pause, zoom out, and ask the uncomfortable but necessary question: are we seeing the whole picture? In the world of acquisitions and divestments, that big picture can be surprisingly hard to hold onto. Every deal feels unique. Every deal is different. Context matters. Complexity varies wildly. But in broad strokes, most transactions move through the same recognisable stages.
So I want to sketch an end-to-end view of a deal lifecycle as I’ve seen it play out repeatedly across acquisitions and divestments. From my experience, projects typically progress through six phases:
The value of recognising these stages is not theoretical. It’s practical. When both sides work through them deliberately and in sequence, progress is faster, cleaner, and far less painful. When they don’t, chaos fills the gaps!
Interested in a little more detail? Drop me a line for a more details version.
The Head
I’m happy to say I’ve completed my second course with Cambridge PACE,
“Introduction to cognitive psychology and neuropsychology”
Here’s the credential!
At its core, we are still wrestling with the same old question: can the human mind be fully explained by biology, or is there something more going on?
That is what makes cognitive psychology so compelling. It sits right at the intersection of philosophy and science, trying to pin down an answer that has resisted us for centuries.
Layered below this is the tricky problem: how on earth do you measure the mind in a way that is objective and repeatable? For most of history, that was close to impossible. Advances in technology over the last fifty years have finally given us tools to make progress, but it feels very much like we are only getting started.
A large part of the answer may lie in how we learn and acquire language. Learning itself depends on how memory, perception, and consciousness work together, and modern research is steadily reshaping how we understand these processes.
Right at the centre of it all sits free will, (or perhaps the illusion of it!), alongside our capacity for conscious experience and our ability to focus attention on selected parts of the world around us.
Thanks to Giulia Mangiaracina, the course lead at University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education for providing a great introduction to some heavy subject matter that’s made accessible for ordinary folk!
It’s been quite a ride and I’m eager to continue. So I've signed up for “The neuropsychology of decision making" in February!
The Heart
I mention in my online profile that learning to draw is one of my hobbies. It started about fifteen years ago, after we received a school photograph of my older son, Neel. He is now twenty, and yes, I asked his permission before sharing this story.
I loved that photograph. There was something about it that made me want to do more than just frame it.
I decided I would try to draw it, to see if I could capture his image myself.
My first attempt, all those years ago, makes it very clear that I had a long way to go. Not just in terms of drawing technique, but in understanding how I approach learning, patience, and persistence.
6yr old Neel, at the time decided he could improve my drawing by scribbling on it and labelling it! But even with his input it was clear I needed to learn to draw!
So, I started. I drew more. I read books. I tried again. And again. There were many pictures, many false starts, YouTube tutorials, notebooks filled with sketches, and more pencils than I care to admit. Over the recent holiday, I tried again. And this time, it was different.
It is definitely better than that first attempt. I am really happy with it. It feels like I have completed a journey, even though I know there is still a lot left to learn and figure out.
What strikes me most is this. If that first attempt had been more successful, I might not have kept going. I might have stopped early, satisfied enough.
If that had happened, I would have missed out on the quiet joy of learning something slowly, imperfectly, and for no reason other than curiosity. I would have missed a hobby that has kept me sane at times, given me headspace when I needed it, and more than a few unexpected smiles along the way.
Being bad at something was the best possible place to start.
Stay in touch
Let's keep the conversation going, connect with me on here or head to my website for more info on how I can support you and your senior team.
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