Culture

Leave things a little better than you found them

admin@example.com — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 23:20:19 +0000

Leave things a little better than you found them

Story time:

A man in an upscale suit washes his hands in an airport public restroom.
Instead of just leaving, he uses a paper towel to meticulously wipe down the wet sink counters.
When a bystander jokingly asks about the "well-dressed help," the man replies: "Why not leave it a little better than you found it?"

The best part? It tends to be viral and infectious as the bystander does the same before leaving and hopefully so do most of us.

Found one or two unwashed cups in the office sink and have 3 minutes? It's someone elses responsibility won't work here. All of us should take the opportunity to help when needed.

Not only with our physical environments but also the atmosphere. Let us be the kind of people uplift the atmosphere better than we found it.

Talent is overrated & the importance of real skills

admin@example.com — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 23:19:08 +0000

Talent is overrated & the importance of real skills

Our society and culture tends to put a little too much weight on talent. We call them rockstars even if they're not musicians. Job descriptions seeking the latest rockstar talent.

There are absolutely talented people out there but they're not as common as we'd want them to be. Can we be honest with ourselves? Maybe we don't have as much talent as we'd like.

But here are 10 things that require ZERO Talent:

Being on time
Work ethic
Effort
Body language
Energy
Attitude
Passion
Being teachable / coachable
Doing extra
Being prepared

Ever worked with someone talented? It's great. But have you ever worked with someone talented who can barely check 3 from the above list? Unbearable and a waster opportunity.

Also somewhere along the road we've put so much attention to hard skills that we didn't bat an eyelid with the semantics of soft-skills. Is soft really the correct adjective and how important are they? Are they even optional these days?

So we prefer to call them real skills.

Also while we're here and on this topic:

Hire for attitude, train for the skill.
Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines co-founder

The rule of 3rds - mentors, peers and mentoring

admin@example.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 20:23:47 +0000

The rule of 3rds - mentors, peers and mentoring

While many have come across the mantra that we’re the average of the 5 people we most hang out with, sadly this has resulted in some trying to treat this as a zero sum based game where some obsessively only surround themselves with people who are further ahead in the journey or “successful”.

Think of a fish tank full of crabs or lobsters where everybody is for themselves, and no one gets to escape!

A more wholesome approach is to recognise that there is indeed value in having mentors who are several steps ahead of you and likely also several decades older than you. A lot of wisdom comes over compounded trails over time.

And we sure need peers of people on a similar journey to use in our given time and cycle of life. Those who can encourage and be encouraged who can relate closely to our day to day rhythms.

However, everything and everyone can be our teachers too and the chances are that some can benefit from your mentoring as you may be ahead of them. Having been mentored should inspire you to mentor and help others they way you yourself were helped.

Today make a conscious effort to look up to those ahead, look to the side to be of encouragement and to those who look up to you to lift them up.

And if you want a friend, start by being a friend. The same applies to mentoring and encouragement. There’s no greater gift than giving.

Curiosity, learning and change as a muscle that needs to be exercised

admin@example.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 20:27:57 +0000

Curiosity, learning and change as a muscle that needs to be exercised

And just as a muscle needs movement before atrophy so does our mind and brain. Sure, feel free to start going to the gym at your 40, 50 or even at your 60’s. It’s not impossible but it will be harder. Being curious is a mindset and provides de initial impetus to affect change. Learning news ways of thinking and doing which catapult change. The more you change and expand your mind, the easier it becomes and flexibility becomes the norm.

How many times have you changed your mind despite the fallacy of sunk cost, based the fear of making a drastic decision or u-turn because of invest time and money which frequently can’t be recovered anyway.

And so the mantra becomes:

That was 10 me ago’s, because I’m willing and able to change over time.
Diego Moore

The physical molecules in our body die and change every day and once 10 years have lapsed all molecules have been replaced. So from a biological point of view we’re not who we were 10 years ago. Why should we continue to also think the same as 10 selves ago?

But how?

Here is a framework for learning. A hierarchy that helps as absorbe new information and change better which can be summed with another mantra:

You finally know if you have mastered a concept if you can explain it to your grandmother
Diego Moore

The learning pyramid approximates our ability to retain information:
Retention	Method	Type
5%	Lectures	Passive
10%	Reading	Passive
20%	Audo-Visual	Passive
30%	Demonstration	Passive
50%	Discussion Groups	Participatory
75%	Practice by Doing	Participatory
90%	Teaching Others	Participatory

Sadly much of what we know is merely repetition or a rep in gym speak. Our muscle has learnt a pattern and so we repeat without questioning. It’s frequently only when we’re put in a new context where we have to teach outside the bounds of repetition to someone who does not have the full context that we get to question our understanding of what we know vs. what we were just repeating like a parrot 🦜

Open Communication and Asynchronous Collaboration by default

admin@example.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 19:46:09 +0000

Open Communication and Asynchronous Collaboration by default

We mostly understand the importance of being honest, of telling the truth in caring and loving ways and by contrast we also understand the cost of not doing so. Let’s call them both positive and negative energies if you will.

Equally the energy it takes to keep things under wraps or secret is higher. As an example, praise should always be public for maximum impact while correction or rebuke should be private, one-to-one and direct.

Communication should be by default - unless there’s a specific need - open. And there’s no harm in over-communicating as the purpose of communication is not passing on information but being understood. This empathetic view improves communication for good and helps collaboration.

Hand-in-hand with this value comes along respecting people’s time and space. Before the United States of North America had trains which connected towns and cities there was no need to have fully synchronised clocks. It’s a relatively modern concept to be fully synchronous.

So before you send that message, that “hello” without the ask. Have you put in all the emotional effort that is required? Do you need help, a decision or do you need somebody's attention? Because if what you need is someone’s realtime attention then maybe what you need is to call them.

On the other hand if you require feedback or action then maybe it’s best to put in all the effort for an equally appropriate response. What does this look like in practice?

If you have an idea or a concept then put in the emotional labour of materialising it. Put thought into paper, into a doc, a presentation or a prototype. Once you have it then publish or distribute your craft and only then maybe request a synchronous meeting for feedback. Those invited can review the material in their own time and come prepared with questions and feedback. We no longer require hours of synchronous talent to give feedback. The bulk can be done async and the expensive synchronous time can easily be halved.

How else can this look like in practice? nohello.org