I’ve had a little bit of fun over the last couple of days putting together a high-performance training package in my classroom. What’s high-performance training about, I hear you ask? Well, in a nutshell, it’s just some ideas on how to behave within teams so that you get the best out of each other. I find it super interesting, and I get a massive thrill when teams take some of the ideas on and do really well as a result. A quick shout-out to @Daniel Halls . You mentioned you were putting your own high-performance stuff together, particularly around psychological safety. You inspired me to put what I had into my classroom. Now you can use what you need for your own course structure. I hope it helps you mate. It might at least point you in the right direction. I made this package up a couple of years ago when I was going through a Star Wars photography phase. The course is within my premium classroom. I’ll offer a free preview to 3 of you who are interested in taking a look.

When something really incredible is happening, how do we call on a visionary mindset for our children? Artemis II is launching today. It’s a massive rocket launching four people on a mission to orbit the moon. It’s been 53 years since man has ventured beyond earth orbit and headed towards the moon. The whole world was watching back then. Well, they watched Apollo 11 land on the moon with Neil Armstrong. They became interested when Apollo 13 had a failure and the astronauts only barely made it back to earth. Following that no one really cared. So how do we get the children of today interested in such a visionary adventure? With the amount of noise out there and options of things to do and watch, it’s very easy to not even care what this actually really means. Or am I the only one that’s excited?

One of my roles within Defence is HF/ NTS facilitator (Human Factors / Non-Technical Skills). It means working with aircrew, maintenance, ATC and support agencies to understand the human nature behind serious accidents. I'll share some with you. I hope the tone isn't too dark. Nobody crashes a plane with one mistake. In the Potomac collision, an American Airlines passenger aircraft and a US Army Blackhawk helicopter crashed into each other, resulting in 67 fatalities. The airliner was on final approach to land at Reagan International Airport, a stone's throw from the White House. The helicopter was on a military training flight. The NTSB didn't find a cause. They found a chain. A faulty altimeter. Separate radio frequencies. A controller managing two jobs at once. A missed instruction. A course correction that didn't happen. A helicopter route that left 75 feet between military and civilian aircraft on final approach. Seventy-five feet. In the busiest airspace in the world. Here's what makes this so hard to catch in real time. Each of those factors, assessed on its own, looks manageable. They sit comfortably below the line. None of them a showstopper. Together, they bulk up as aggregate risk: the point where individually acceptable conditions stack into collectively catastrophic ones. The risk isn't in the single piece. It's in the accumulation. And the accumulation happens quietly. Nobody sounds the alarm because at each step, nothing looks alarming. The system appears to be coping. Work is getting done. The checks are passing. "We've always done it this way." "It'll be right." "No one said anything last time." That's not reassurance. That's a whole lot of aggregate risk building. The question isn't whether your workplace has these stacking conditions. I can assure you, it does. Every workplace does. The question is whether anyone is trained to see the pattern forming. To look across the whole picture, not just their piece of it. Human Factors gives you that view. Throwing a HOP lens over the top gives you that view. They’re not just courses you attend. They’re a way of looking at the world that makes you dangerous to complacency.

This week I had a couple of conversations that genuinely made my week. The first was with @Bryanna Patterson, who reached out to share that she'd watched my courses and found real value in them. I jumped at the chance to connect and we ended up in a spontaneous live chat. Bryanna, your feedback energised me more than I can express, and the suggestions you offered for improving the courses were exactly the kind of honest input this community exists for. Thank you. The second was my regular Wednesday night connection call, this time with @David Ferris, who works in an industry I know very little about. We swapped real stories, had a few laughs, and got genuinely serious at points too. The best kind of conversation. Bryanna and David, a heartfelt thanks to you both. It's conversations like these that remind me exactly why I started this community. I walked away having learned something from each of you, and I'm really looking forward to more of these chats.

Some people dream of having a swimming pool at home, while those who have one barely use it. Those who have lost a loved one feel a profound sense of loss, while others often complain about the relatives still in their lives. Those without a partner long for one, while those who have a partner often fail to appreciate them. The hungry would give anything for a meal, while the full complain about the taste of their food. Those without a car dream of owning one, while those who have a car are always looking for a better one. The key to happiness is gratitude. To truly see and value what we already have, and to understand that somewhere, someone would give everything for what we take for granted. What are you grateful for today?