An editorial archive
Field Notes are stories from my life as a partner, father, pilot, executive, non-executive and mentor, drawn together by a simple question: what holds judgement steady when conditions are moving quickly?
Each note begins with something lived. A warning light. A room going quiet. A person out of position. A detail others miss. A decision that asks for courage. A moment when speed begins to look like progress, but may only be noise.
The purpose is not nostalgia. It is to examine what those moments reveal about calm, consequence, instinct, care, coherence and the way people behave under pressure.
Some notes come from work. Some come from flying. Others come from family, sport, mentoring, culture, failure or the small observations that explain more than they first appear to.
Together, they form the evidence base behind Calm at Speed: a way of building, deciding and staying steady without losing humanity, taste or commercial clarity.
AI is increasing the premium on executive judgement, not reducing it. On emotional intelligence as a genuine operating capability and why clarity under pressure remains the scarcest resource of all.
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The most sophisticated creative and operational leaders are usually paying attention to details other people walk past.
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High performance often depends less on intensity than on whether people are positioned where their instincts can operate freely.
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The best operators rarely ignore instinct. They simply understand where instinct really comes from.
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Nightclub doors taught me that leadership often begins long before anyone starts speaking.
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Flying humanitarian aid into Ukraine reinforced something aviation teaches very quickly: calm is procedural.
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