Alan Patching - Educating Leaders

06/02/2017

Our Bond University team wound up its cultural, social and environmental review of project management today with a visit to the Inari Shrine just outside of Kyoto. Building and maintaining some 10,000 shrine gates over several hundred years would have been a massive project in itself.

Tomorrow is a day of reflection on learnings and their application in practice in the real world of projects, before heading to Narita for our overnight flight from 2-8 degrees to the 20-30 degree temperatures of the Gold Coast.

05/02/2017

Our Bond University project management students visited Hiroshima to get a real sense of the extent of work involved in major disaster recovery projects. Our trip was made special by our meeting Mita san and Tao san. Mr. Mito, now 71 (but looking about 52...clearly he never worked as a PM) was an unborn foetus at the time of the Hiroshima bombing. Ms Tao works three days a week volunteering as a guide around the monuments in Hiroshima and Mr Mito puts in as much time as he can doing likewise... and they do it to let people know that the world should never allow a nuclear weapon to be used again. Impressive is a huge understatement to describe the commitment an sense of purpose fo these two wonderful people. It was an honour for our group to meet them.

05/02/2017

Bond University students from the Masters in Project Management course on a study trip to Japan met Tokyo based students from the Bond blended learning subject 'effective project management' for a few drinks and an exchange of ideas. The 'Bondies' came from as far afield as Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Croatia, India, Japan and the USA.

05/02/2017

My Japanese colleagues from nearly 30 years ago in Sydney, Hiro Oki and Aki Tanaka, now Board Directors for an asset management company in Japan, have a laugh as they realise I was photographing the reflection of our Bond University students who met with them for an instant education on the difference between project management in Japan and that in Australia

05/02/2017

During a visit to Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, our Bond University project management study group met up with a 13 year old in traditional dress on her way to a coming of age ceremony. With her English speaking mum's encouragement, she agree to join the team for a photograph.

05/02/2017

Bond University project management students getting a feel for things in Tokyo as the trip gets under way.
Experiencing relaxing gardens at New Otani hotel - a metaphor for the need to include relaxation techniques in PM life.

05/02/2017

Our most informative subject trip for students of Project Management from to Japan is well underway. Study focus has been less on financial and performance aspects of PM and more on social, environmental and cultural responsibility aspects.

20/10/2016

Great to hear the Australian Girls Choir rehearsing for Queensland Premiers Export Awards tonight!

19/10/2016

Big day tomorrow, honoured to represent in my EMCEE role at the Premier's Queensland Export Awards at Brisbane Convention Centre. 650 of the state's most creative and successful business brains in the room - can't wait!

27/05/2015

New post (The Map is NOT the Territory) has been published on Transforming Business Minds

Things are not always as we perceive them to be

Get your PDF here!
0.0 Introduction
0.10 “The Map is not the Territory”
1.03 Maintain behaviour flexibility
1.35 Engage in useful conversation
Have you heard the expression “The map is not the territory”? It’s a very important expression to no about for life and business.
Hi, I’m Alan Patching.
The map is not the territory is an expression from NLP that simply means the way we see something may not be the way it really is or the way someone else sees it.
Any experience we have in life we process in our mind through internal representations, and the perceptions we gain from any experience through our senses could be quite different from that other people get who had exactly the same experience.
For example you might go snow skiing, you may hate the cold, you may hate falling over, and you never want to go snow skiing again, but the p ...

24/05/2015

New post (Behaviour Flexibility) has been published on Transforming Business Minds

Greater flexibility of behaviour amounts to greater chance of achieving your life ambitions

Get your PDF here!
0.0 Introduction
0.50 Build Relationship flexibility
1.22 The power of non-judgemental self-awareness
2.00 Charles Darwin and flexibility
Having trouble with some of your relationships with work or within everyday life? There’s a way to over come that.
Hi, I’m Alan Patching with another tip for Transforming Business Minds and Transforming Minds … and in particular in relation in a recent post which addressed behaviour flexibility.
In that recent post I said that the meaning of any communication is really the feedback you get back from that communication.
Clearly, if someone gives you feedback of what you been putting to them in what you said or did is not favourable to them, it’s not something they can relate to, they are responding in a way that you didn’t expect and/or ...

21/05/2015

New post (Meaning of Communication from an NLP perspective) has been published on Transforming Business Minds

We communicate even when we think we are not communicating

Get your PDF here!
0.0 Introduction
0.13 It’s impossible to NOT communicate
0.40 Adjusting behaviour elicits different responses from people
1.0 Internal self-communication
1.35 Gaining control
1.50 The meaning of communication (to the other party) is seen in the response you get
2.40 The choice – victimise or self adjust
Communications are a crucially important part of every day life, and every day business. Hi, I’m Alan Patching with another tip from the world of NLP.
You know, it’s impossible not to communicate, or to not communicate – which ever way you look at it.
Just imagine you’re sitting there being completely silent – that’s communicating a message to those around you. The message could be that you’re withdrawn, the message could be that you’re insulted. The message could be you’re not interested. The message co ...