Lighter: The Forgotten Fourth Dimension of Successful Investment
As an investment adviser, I ‘engage’ with fund managers and companies to encourage them to adopt a stronger 4D perspective and implement associated practices, such as transformational leadership development. This engagement is intended to help funds and companies perform better and our investment clients’ money matter more. We aim to create more sustainable wealth and well-being and to transform money, business and the world. I wholeheartedly encourage fund managers to ask company leaders they are considering investing in: How are those companies investing in developing the ‘lighter’ and ‘deeper’ sides of ‘human capital’ and specifically what they are doing to be more fun?!
For example, I’m involved with an approach that offers a workshop titled ‘Are We Having Fun Yet?’ The key takeaways from this workshop are:
Embrace joy and playfulness as transformative forces.
Cultivate a ‘light touch’ in navigating life’s challenges.
Uncover the profound truths that often hide behind moments of laughter.
Discover the art of balancing depth and lightheartedness on your inner journey.
It was fun to attend the recent ‘Wankernomics’ event in Auckland presented by James Schloeffel and Charles Firth from Australia. Their website describe “This is the must-have handbook for navigating the buzzwords, bureaucracy and bullshit of the modern working world. From pointless meetings and passive aggressive emails, to meaningless purpose statements and impressive-sounding acronyms (ISAs), you’ll learn how to outmanoeuvre your colleagues with nothing more than an obnoxious Linkedin profile, a passive aggressive email and the phrase ‘circle back’. Part self-help book, part scathing satire, the book is a laugh-out-loud, wince-inducing ‘oh-my-god-that’s-exactly-what-happens-at-my-work’ account of the way we work.”
The authors encouraged me to apply the approach to investment. Here are some initial offerings:
“We’re overweight equities”
→ We’re hoping shares go up and don’t want to miss out“Tactical asset allocation tilt”
→ We made a guess… but in a sophisticated way“Market dislocation presents opportunity”
→ Things are falling… but let’s sound optimistic“Volatility is your friend”
→ This is uncomfortable, but please don’t panic-sell“We maintain a long-term conviction”
→ We’re sticking with this… for now“Alpha generation strategy”
→ We’re trying to beat the market (like everyone else)“Downside protection overlay”
→ We bought something expensive to reduce risk (maybe)“Liquidity event”
→ Someone sold something big
Stay tuned for more from me on this subject! I’ve also enjoyed meeting and laerning from Berlin-based Belina Raffy (a former finance professional). Her website describes how she “uniquely combines exquisite facilitation skills, global environmental and social project experience, and a profound understanding of how to help nervous people to shine while being generous, connected, and loving…This course has run over 50 times online and across 11 countries. It was part of National Science Week in Australia twice. Alumni include climate scientists, humanitarian workers, sustainable transport professors, and more”. I’ve signed up for her next course and am excited to weave this into my financial advice seminars!
Another funny and wise person I’ve been honoured to meet recently is Jo Randerson, author of the wonderful book ‘Secret Art Powers’ - “six ways that thinking like an artist can increase personal resilience, unleash innovation, dissolve unhealthy power relationships and help us describe and navigate the complex and changing world of the twenty-first century, and to sing while we do it”. I’m not planning on much singing; however, I’m looking forward to Jo helping me create my versions of videos inspired by the amazing Make My Money Matter videos. The videos featuring Jo and friends are well worth watching!
Click the image or the link here to watch these videos.
Click the image or the link here to watch these videos.