Comments and Musings podcast

Gratitude is a powerful emotion that can have a significant impact on your mental and physical health, relationships, and overall wellbeing. By understanding the science behind gratitude, practicing gratitude daily, and cultivating gratitude in our lives, we can experience the many benefits of this powerful emotion. So why not start today and begin to experience the power of gratitude for a more meaningful life? The show notes for this episode are at https://francislynch.me/2023/05/06/the-power-of-gratitude-for-a-more-meaningful-life/

Mindfulness has been shown to have a positive impact on various aspects of our lives, including work. By reducing stress, improving focus and attention, building better relationships, and increasing creativity and innovation, mindfulness can help to improve employee engagement in the workplace.  There are many different mindfulness practices that can be used in the workplace, many of them quite easily integrated into workplace practices and routines. Get in touch if you want to learn more about how to do this. You can see the full article and review the references on the website page for this podcast here.

The difference between the meaning "of" life and meaning "in" life is an important distinction to make. My musing on this distinction reflects that the meaning of life is a more abstract and universal concept, whilst meaning in life is more personal and specific. The blog post for this episode is here

I like things to go the way that I expect them to – most of the time anyway. A predictable life with lots of routines and habits means I don't have to think about every little thing that I do. What I hadn't appreciated until recently was how these routines help me find more meaning in my life. Not in the sense of helping me find the “Meaning OF life” – more the sense of finding life to be meaningful and that it makes sense. The blog post for this episode is here. A journal article referred is here.

If I spend time doing something, or building something it's likely that I'll value it more than if someone did it for me. The things that I build are also likely to add a little bit of meaning in my everyday life. See the blog here The article referred to is here

In this episode Matt Jackman and Harmonie Jackman, brother and sister, talk about their experiences during the lengthy lockdown periods in Melbourne during two waves of Covid-19 in 2020. Matt and Harmonie both live with Bi-Polar and discuss with me how thier support services have adapted to the changed circumstances this year. They talk about how their NDIS Support Coordinator has been working with them to deliver flexibility in how their allocated funds can be spent. They also reflect on how their Support Worker, they both have the same one, has kept visiting in person and how this has been very important in keeping them on track during the stresses of this year. Harmonie also discusses her experience of being pregnant this year and how her antenatal care has been difficult due to health system impacts of Covid.

In this episode I speak to Dave Pugh, the CEO at Anglicare NT, who has worked in the community sector for many years across Australia. Working in Darwin and regional parts of the Northern Territory during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 has been quite different to the experiences of other parts of Australia. Join me as Dave and I talk about how Covid has influenced work in the NT.

Margaret Augerinos is the CEO at the Centre for Non Violence and has worked in leadership in the family violence area for many years. Margaret has led CNV through some major changes in 2020, starting new services, advertising their services in the mainstream media when referrals significantly dropped, and keeping all their staff connected and engaged during 2 lockdowns.

John Cleary has worked in leadership positions and consulted to the residential aged care sector and is the Managing Director of Blue Chip Consulting Group. He has some clear views on why the sector has struggled with Covid in 2020.

Ann-Maree Davis is the CEO of Amicus, a disability support organisation, working in central Victoria. She has been the CEO for 12 years and has made significant changes in the way they do their work, including the transition to the NDIS for much of their funding. "The period between March and May we had about 70% of participants suspend all support.." Amicus has had to make major changes to its service delivery as they have adapted to what people want from them. Whilst 2020 has been a challenging year Ann-Maree is confident that they are well placed to keep supporting people in the community.

Karyn Walsh AM is the CEO of Micah Projects in Queensland. She has been leading the organisation for many years and also led many sector projects at a state and national level. Her commitments have included leading Chairing the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness, and being a past President of the Queensland Council of Social Services. In this interview Karyn talks about how the outreach nature of Micah's services has been challenged, but been a key strength of how they have been able to support people in 2020. She also talks about how their existing integration of nurses into their outreach teams has been a significant factor in keeping homeless people in Brisbane well during these times.

Dr Nicky Howe leads a community aged care and community services organisation in Perth, Western Australia. We discuss how Southcare has adapted to the Covid-19 challenges. Whilst WA has not had a second wave of Covid, Southcare is acting as if they are in a high risk environment and has built its response as if they have Covid positive customers. 

I was surprised when I was reading the Australian Institute of Company Directors report recently, it was a report on Not For Profit Governance and Performance in 2015.  The report was saying that one of the factors was that 8% of all boards in the non-profit sector have discussed winding up in the last year.  I was surprised by that. I know there’s been a lot of discussion around mergers over recent years, but that number, 8% of boards having discussed winding up in the last year, is surprising to me.  And the interesting thing too, is if you look at the size of the organi

This episode refers to the benefits that I have received from using the Via Character Strengths test, and my belief that it is helpful for leaders to know how to use both their signature strengths and their middle and lesser strengths. The Via Institute on Character can be found at http://www.viacharacter.org/www/ The Character Strengths Test can be found at https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register The Via Me! report that I mention in the podcast can be found at http://www.viacharacter.org/www/Resources-Courses-Reports/The-VIA-Me-Report I really encourage you to at least do the free test and get the short form report. 

It's easy to get caught doing work that doesn't really add value to the clients that you are serving. So how do I keep focussed on what my clients want? I have 7 simple tips of what might keep me focused on doing the things that matter. The show notes for this podcast include a downloadable tip sheet.

Do I create the right workplace environment to allow people to bring their creative and playful selves into the workplace? Or are many people, including myself, leaving useful parts of ourselves at the front door of the workplace along with our dirty work boots.

It appears that some private corporations see a market opportunity in helping to address, and maybe even solve, wicked problems like homelessness and domestic violence. Is that ok? Does it matter? If it does what is to be done to create a different future?

My thoughts on why it is more important to change myself before I go charging off to change the world.

As leaders we all must work out the best ways of engaging people. there are new approaches coming up all the time. In this podcast I suggest that we need to act like startups and try lots of things, ditch what doesn't work, and keep doing what looks promising.

This is the speech that I gave as the opening of the ACOSS Conference in June 2014. This was only a few weeks after the horror first Budget of the Abbott Government. Many in the community sector were shocked at the attack on low income people and were afraid of the consequences for vulnerable people and themselves.    An associated blog article is here. The ACOSS website is at www.acoss.org.au  My blog is at francislynch.me