Blog

My dad was a very good painter and decorator, eventually running his own (very small) business complete with the obligatory Trotter’s Trading Company yellow van. I used to work with him in the summer...

Ashley Cooper, Photographer and Force4Good collaborator For the last 20 years, I’ve been a professional environmental photographer and have spent 14 years travelling to every continent to document the...

David Williams, Founder and CEO of Impact and Force4Good Collaborator I first came to the Lake District in 1974 at age 18 to attend Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside. I was training as a teacher in...

Jonathan Stevens, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Fellow, Leadership development consultant and collaborator. I’m at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with Jonathan Stevens, chair of the RGS...

Simon Rayner, owner of the Hare and Hounds at Bowland Bridge, and Force4Good collaborator The Hare and Hounds is a gorgeous 17th-century inn, located in the picturesque village of Bowland Bridge, not...

Fourteen years ago, I started to read about climate change, at a time when few people were aware of the problem. As an environmental photographer I decided to do something. I organised a specific...

Rich Metcalfe, Owner of Homeground Café, Windermere, Lake District and Force4Good collaborator Having just celebrated its 7th Birthday, Homeground is a pinnacle of the Windermere community. Situated...

Winnie Poaty, Entrepreneur, @winniepoaty Meet one of our Impact Force4Good collaborators, Winnie Poaty. She is an open water swimmer, and advocate for mental wellness and diversity. Winnie is based on...

Paul Riley, CEO and owner of Coniston Corporate, High quality customised embroidery workwear It’s not without a little apprehension that I approach the meeting point with Paul. Paul is a very good...

Sue Hunt, Non-Executive Director of Impact Previously: Director of Strategic programmes London 2012 Olympic Games; MD Goldman Sachs; Chartered accountant What is your connection to the Lake District...

I have been working as a mountain guide this winter, taking clients backcountry skiing in the mountains of Hokkaido, the north island of Japan. Clients come to ski the best lines in the best...

The Royal Albert Hall has been hosting concerts in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust since 2000, with the biggest names in music and comedy coming together each year to raise money to help young people...

Where does your drive to contribute to the world come from? For some reason it is easier for religious people to talk about “a calling.” A sense that you were put into the world to pursue a particular...

Why employee engagement is one of the most undervalued drivers of lasting change. When it comes to digital transformation, a step-change in focus on customer experience is commonly seen to be one of...

A four-year-old girl will ask almost 390 questions a day. Eventually these numbers dwindle as she ages, in part because they don’t include the questions she mutters to herself while submerged in...

The first update on our three year project to research and educate on the global problem of plastic pollution in our oceans. Early in January 2017, after many weeks of preparation and getting Sula...

‘This mountain reminds me that I am made of steel! ’ said an MBA student, fresh off the summit of Kilimanjaro. Another student wrote to me the following week: ‘I’ve wanted to do humanitarian work for...

Roots and Wings. Hopefully we are cultivating or challenging one or the other at any particular time. We see it in the news and in our own lives. Obama’s parting comment to African leaders was that...

This is an edited excerpt from the book "Future Fit" by Giles Hutchins, published by the Future Fit Leadership Academy. An old Chinese proverb says, "In times of great winds, some build bunkers...

I first met David Batstone when he was speaking at the FRED leadership conference in Denver in 2015. It was clear to me then that we were both trying to make a positive change in the world by applying...

We live in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times, but have you actually acknowledged this out loud or in your thoughts? Has one of your direct reports voiced this to you? We like a...

As Millennials form a bigger part of our workforce and SMEs an increasing role in the labour market, it is imperative that businesses consider how to retain ‘early careers’ talent by embracing a...

We all do it. We aim so high at the beginning of the year. We set those personal and professional goals and feel that this time we’ll really keep the momentum going. Then, come February, we’re back to...

Every year the PR giant Edelman publishes a global survey on one issue - trust. It considers the levels of trust we have in our public institutions, technical experts, each other - and our business...

That was an instruction at a recent Satipatthana meditation course I attended recently. 8 days of sitting on a meditation cushion, doing nothing but observing one’s sensations with equanimity. To ‘do...

Businesses unite in a bid to make the UK economy ‘fit for the future’ by backing sustainable development Earlier this week Impact along with 80 other organisations united to call on the Government to...

Funny how something as playful as play can have negative connotations. On one hand, when we play we express our joyfulness, imagination and freedom. In other contexts, we can be seen as self-indulgent...

All of our SME clients find it difficult to compete with larger businesses for talent. Whether it’s attracting graduates out of university or retaining mid-level managers, it’s a challenge for smaller...

Francesca Burton-Project Manager, International Development Policy Unit, WWF-UK In September 2015 the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a new...

A three year project to research and educate on the global problem of plastic pollution in our oceans. The last time we took our yacht Sula offshore sailing was in 2008. The previous year we had been...

For the past few years I have been competing each summer at various mountain bike orienteering events. These can vary from UK based events to packing my bike and flying overseas to some of the larger...

I have always loved stories and characters. To me, these offer a fantastic insight into the drivers and motivators that influence who we are and how we interact with the world. In my forthcoming book...

What are we really struggling for? Growing within the organisation often means to acquire more power. Power within the organisation can often represent an influence tool, a career indicator, a...

I have an oddity. Or I guess, I am an oddity. I love change. I love new things. I love to change things up a bit just for the heck of it. This could be as simple as moving my office around or as major...

It’s the end of work as we know it. Gone are the days when having a job meant “doing your job.” No longer can anyone anywhere expect the future of work to be the same as it was in the past. Innovation...

We are in the midst of a metamorphic period of change unlike anything the world has seen since the Late Middle Ages. With “meta” (meaning “form”) and “morph” (meaning “change”), the word suggests the...