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David Cooke is a man likely familiar to many out there. A business leader of serious repute who through his own personal journey transformed the practices and cultures of the businesses he led and worked at. Most notably David spent eight years as the Managing Director and Chairman of Konica Minolta here in Australia, but has also held the position of Chair at the United National Global Compact Australia and the UNSW's Human Rights Institute Advisory Committee, he was a roundtable member of Westpac's Safer Children Safer Communities programme, and is now an author of his first book - Kind Business Values Create Value; A corporate world reimagined where people and planet are placed at the heart of leadership decisions.

A man of stillness who has practised transcendental meditation for more than fifty years and has brought a powerful spiritual and humanistic approach to management and leadership, all for the betterment of people, society and the environment. He exemplifies the type of person and the characteristics many of us wish were the leaders of the organisation we work at - the qualities of leadership he espouses and encourages in this book are nothing short of radical to what is the status quo - sadly and tragically.

Real world problems like the climate crisis, the housing crisis, the domestic violence violence, the scams crisis, the biodiversity crisis - there is no shortage of societal and environmental crisis out there. They have one common origin to me - a crisis in the soul of humanity and the priorities and qualities of leaders in organisations around the world. If we truly cared, if we truly had empathy, or compassion, or awareness - not emails or statements that simply described what was important - but truly in the sense that intention equated to action, I deeply believe many of the real problems and crisis our planet and all species face would be reduced, maybe even eradicated. Speaking to David reminded me of the power of stillness, the strength that comes from spending time in deep presence with self. Maybe this is all too woo woo - but is our approach to doing more more quickly getting us where we hope to get to?

I remember hearing Deepak Chopra responding to a question about the chance humanity had to build back better in the middle of the Covid lockdowns in 2020 - he replied; 'build back better. It's more likely we'll just go more quickly to the next crisis'. He meant this in the context that we rush, we crave, we urge, we desire - but what if slowing down really was the paradoxical answer we are looking for? And in that stillness we come to deeply appreciate, recognise and embody that a new paradigm of operating at the surface level of actions and behaviours requires a deeper paradigm shift - one that involves kindness, stillness, reflection, care, pride.

The theme for the newsletter this month is mavericks, and as we heard, David's approach to business leadership could be considered to be pretty radical. His life in practising transcendental meditation twice daily your fifty years has delivered him great clarity and helped him go from having an intention of caring for others and being kind to really doing that in practice consistently and regularly. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes - 'I've never had to work so hard to stay so still'.

Until next time, thanks for listening

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