Author Archives: Charlene Norman

Three Traps That Keep Us Stuck

There is something I keep noticing in the conversations I’ve been having with colleagues and clients this month. The pattern is consistent enough that I think it belongs here, in the wider community. For years, I was the person with the colour-coded planner, the non-negotiable morning routine, and the running list of serious, ambitious things […]

Read More

The Art of Not Forcing

  Have you ever thought about flow? I know, it sounds woo-woo, doesn’t it?  But bear with me. Some old writings on Taoism crossed my desk recently. Specifically, something I hadn’t read in decades, and I read the same passage three times. In Chinese, Wu Wei is written 無為. The first character means “without” or “absence.” […]

Read More

Apprentices to Ripening

Last week, I argued that efficiency is a manufacturing concept we swallowed whole and have been choking on ever since. This week, the harder question. If that’s the wrong metric, what do we replace it with?   I want to start with a word. Ripening. Not growing. Not scaling. Not optimizing. Ripening. The kind of […]

Read More

Fifteen Years Too Late (Don’t Be Me)

One of the hardest lessons I’ve ever had to learn is how to graciously receive. Today I’m asking you to learn it faster than I did. Because your heart will rejoice, your shoulders will lift, and you will stand so much stronger in your own skin. Don’t be like me. Please don’t be like me. […]

Read More

What If They’re All Someone’s Child?

Is there someone who crossed your path and permanently altered the way you see the world? Not a mentor you sought out, but someone who found you at exactly the right moment, with exactly the right idea? I never met Bob Chapman personally. I stumbled across him the way the best discoveries happen: the right […]

Read More

What AI Can’t Give Your Kids (and why that’s actually good news)

Everyone is talking about the jobs. Which jobs AI will take. Which jobs are safe. Which skills to learn, which to abandon, which to pivot toward before the window closes. It’s a reasonable conversation. It’s also missing the point by a considerable margin. Because entry-level jobs were never really about the work. Yes, they paid […]

Read More

Forget Freezing Their Heads. Preserve Their Thinking Instead

Behind this button is the accumulation of a lifetime of work. Nearly twenty books, countless lectures and papers, and who knows how many notes. Written and spoken by one of the world’s smartest brains. (Not my superlative. That’s straight from Forbes.)   Ask anything. And listen. Really listen. To the answer. Mind-blowing. Ai Richard I’m […]

Read More

What Happens When There’s Nobody Left to Conquer?

YES, I know there are multiple wars going on. NO, this is NOT specifically about any of them. But if you see similarities …… Did you hear that Unilever is buying McCormick’s spices? It’s a bit complicated. Unilever is spinning off its food business to merge with spices leader McCormick & Company in a ginormous […]

Read More

The Grudge that Outlived its Reason

Last week was Easter. For Christians, it’s the season of atonement, forgiveness, and renewal. Even if you don’t follow that tradition and you simply feel some kinship with a source greater than yourself, you likely understand forgiveness at its most fundamental level. It has nothing to do with the other person. It has everything to […]

Read More