You know that friend that you had in university? The clever, funny one? He usually had his nose in a book, or his head in the clouds, or his hands in some piece of technology, figuring out how it works (or how to make it work better).
That’s Mark. He’s a bit of an iconoclast. But he’s an amusing iconoclast. Holds a PhD, and dropped out of university. First degree was in the liberal arts (drama, no less). Final one was in strategy and decision making, with a side-helping of psychology. Works as a management consultant. Moonlights as a stage manager. Reads books because he’s curious. Writes books because he’s dissatisfied. Relentlessly curious and ridiculously diverse.
It’s difficult to put a label on Mark, but we can try. He spent a lot of time in project management, and arguably still does. He’s been spending a lot of time in strategy, and that likely will continue. Decision making, personality, biases, innovation, change, politics, sensemaking are a few domains he considers fascinating (and that he knows contain depths beyond which he has yet explored). Diving into any one of these areas is interesting. Making connections across them is fascinating. Making them meaningful to the rest of the world is his happy place.
In his spare time (yes, he still manages to find some) he cooks, enjoys wine, motorcycles and travels. He especially likes to travel to places that offer new food to try, new wine to sample and new motorcycle roads to follow).
Mark is both an impressively deep thinker and a brilliantly organized and articulate presenter. I am a “Raving-Monster-Loonie” supporter, because these webinars expand and challenge my thinking.