Systems Within Systems
From an early age I was aware of the interconnectedness of various systems, which shaped my path to leadership and thought leadership. At 13 a friend invited me to join a field hockey team run by European war refugees. Hockey wasn’t a well-known sport in Australia at the time. Their club needed juniors to survive and thrive. I took to the game like a duck to water and was made captain of their first junior team.
I was asked to write weekly team reports and soon my involvement extended to wider club administration tasks. Thus began a rise to state and national hockey administration responsibilities over the next 20 years.
I was working within systems – individual efforts within a team environment, the team within a club, the club within a state association and the state association within a national system and field hockey within a community social system. I began to understand the role of the bigger picture in everything we do.
My Midlife Awakening
A pivotal moment occurred at a one-day seminar when I was 35. It highlighted that “leisure may well be the social issue of the next decade”. This led me to pursue a Graduate Diploma in Recreation Planning, passing with Distinction. I became a recreation planner within the South Australian Government system, state recreation and sporting association systems and national and international systems of developing recreation and sport.
Joining the relevant parks and recreation professional association further broadened my perspectives, leading to voluntary roles on the State and National Council. Eventually I served a term as National President including responsibilities within the global parks and recreation development systems.
Bucking the System
The analogy of a manager’s task to guide people through daily jungles and leaders to rise above the jungle to check they are in the right jungle has long resonated with me.
Yet thought leadership is also about testing the bigger picture thinking and, if necessary, bucking the system. It’s how new thinking comes into existence.
Advocating the enjoyment factor as the driver of personal growth and development in life was, for many years, challenging. In a world dominated by the work ethic, my words tended to fall on deaf business ears.
The breakthrough came at the highest global system level, through the impacts of pandemic-driven long periods of lockdown. It was the pause we had to have for people to reflect and realize their real purpose in life through enjoying being their true selves and doing work they love.
It’s gratifying to now be acknowledged as a thought leader in advocating the power of the enjoyment factor in improving almost every facet of our personal and business lives. Less because of the world suddenly deciding it was ready to hear that message. More because of the many dots that were joined over my life. My curiosity, constant questioning, exploring and challenging the status quo (the bigger picture). The product of increased depth of understanding myself and others and my depth of perspective and insight.
My hope now is that many will follow me in embracing and promoting the enjoyment factor as key to opportunities in this emerging new world.
I can personally vouch for the truth in the words of The Voice (australia) contestant when he said :”Being who you really are is a risk worth taking”. I was 30, in a safe and responsible position in the Australian Treasury in Canberra. I looked out my window one day thinking ’35 more years of this and then a gold watch? And that’s it??” I decided I hated working for no purpose beyond just paying the bills.
In a work ethic world enjoyment was seen as separate to work – some fun or pleasure that gives you a rest from the realities of an economic rationalist world. Bosses often saw it as a competitor to work – slacking off in a world where “time’s money!”. 
Enjoyable experiences are much more than simply having a good time. They actually energize and expand your growth.
Why are we sucked in by this word "old"? Who decided anyone was old or at what stage of life one becomes old? It’s a fact that we age from birth to death but old has always been a matter of perception. And usually perceptions of other people, not of self..."whether you think you are old or think you are young, you're right!". Nor do I know of any health or social issue that is solely age-related.
