Lessons From The Flightdeck ✈, GameShift’s next open pop-up event with Howard Atkins will come live from his simulator cockpit at Luton airport on 14th December at 08:30 - 10:00.
I’ve known Howard Atkins for many years since we first met at Ashridge Consulting. I knew about his passion for people development, and his skill in organisational work, but I had no idea at all about his expertise in a very different field. It turns out that Howard is a qualified flight simulator instructor – and that he now owns his own flight training facility at Luton.
It probably shouldn’t surprise me. Howard is one of the most experienced consultants I know, with a calm head and a steady hand in the most demanding situations. He’s a perfect fit for my idea of a flight instructor. “It’s been a dream of mine for years” he says, “and I finally got the chance to do it”.
At its heart of course is the same attention to people and their development that Howard brings to his coaching and team development. Building on two decades of organisational work, since his Masters in psychoanalytical studies, he has helped many people to become the very best of what the aspire to be.
Howard is a humble leader – you won’t find much written by him, nor will you find him doing keynotes and TED talks: “it’s just not my thing, in fact I recoil from that kind of publicity” he says. He prefers being a quiet and generous host to taking centre-stage.
So, it is a rare chance indeed to hear Howard speaking in public about his work – and making the links he sees between his organisational work and the experience he has gained in thousands of hours on the flight deck.
I’m fascinated, partly because of my respect for Howard, but also because I know that aviation is one of the most rigorous fields ever for learning from adversity. Many of you will know Matthew Syed’s excellent “Black Box Thinking”, in which he compares the rigorous inquiry of flight accident investigation to the often ego-driven, power riddled processes by which mistakes are hidden in some other fields, often leading to great harm.
I can’t wait to join Howard on the flight deck, to learn the lessons of his cross-over career. I hope you can join us. There’s a link to sign up below. As usual it’s free to come and you will be most welcome.
#leadershipdevelopment #leadershipcoaching #organisationdevelopment
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