How’s things? I hope you’re counting the days… or hours until a well-earned break to close out 2024. What are your highlights for the year?
It’s been another big year for me, with plenty of fun playing at the place where regenerative leadership, design, and innovation meets wellbeing and purpose.
I’m lucky to spend my time coaching and working alongside leaders to solve problems that matter for teams, customers, investors, and our planet – solutions that make money, do great things for people and our planet, and increase wellbeing.
Thanks to all the awesome clients, collaborators, program participants, and students I get to spend my time with. I love the work we do together. Thanks for inviting me in and trusting me to work alongside you and cheer you on.
While there are many things to celebrate, I also want to acknowledge that it’s been an extremely challenging year navigating a very tough market. It’s been full of uncertainty… and sadly several great organisations have made the painful decision to call time.
I’m not immune from that and I’m really hoping things pick up early 2025. Running Dynamic4 since 2001, I’ve been through many of these cycles… and while they’re not fun, we adapt and play on.
This time of year I take a break but I’m open for business if you’ve got something you want to get over the line to close out the year and make a fast start on 2025 😃
A time to relax in the sun, hang with my family, take photos, immerse in music, read, write, reflect on the year that’s been, and plan for the year ahead. I’m also synthesising the Leading Regenerative Change research I’ve been doing. Thanks to everyone who’s participated.
I hope you get a regenerative break… and look forward to an exciting 2025!
My 2024 headlines for everyone who asks what I actually do…
🎉 Dynamic4 turned 23… and I celebrated 30 years since co-founding my first startup at the age of 18. I’ve also been working in financial services for 31 years now. I think I’ll just call it 30+ years for both now until I clock up another decade.
📖 My book Solve Problems That Matter turned three and it’s reached people in 25+ countries. The book is supported by free worksheets, resources, and the social enterprise healthcheck. I love the photos I receive from readers showing their very well-used and marked up books.
💗 Worked with 50+ corporate senior leaders and seven social enterprise/impact partners across seven countries on two project-based experiential leadership, design & innovation skilled volunteering programs that we lead with one of our global financial services clients. A long-running collaboration that I love!
🌱 Worked with 400+ UTS TD School Bachelor of Creative Intelligence & Innovation (BCII) and Diploma in Innovation students on their startup projects… focused on taking a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and entrepreneurship, regenerative business models with embedded impact, and happiness habits. Awesome to be part of the UTS Transdisciplinary School teaching team since 2019.
💬 100+ survey responses and interviews as part of the Leading Regenerative Change Research I’m doing. Synthesis and report in progress.
🎤 Organised/hosted/spoke at 30+ events and programs ranging from conferences, meetups, podcasts, webinars, and workshop facilitation.
💡 Spent 220+ hours coaching & advising and designing & delivering project-based experiential learning programs focused on building personal, team, and organisational capability to solve problems that matter through regenerative leadership, design, and innovation with a focus on wellbeing and purpose.
💕 Invested $50k+ helping build the purpose-driven and design ecosystems and supporting social enterprise ideas.
🌍 Offset 20% more than our calculated emissions (which we continually minimise). We’re proud to have been climate positive since 2010 – both Dynamic4 and household.
🤝 Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) meetup is now a community of 9,700+ members – the biggest design thinking specific meetup globally (on meetup.com). We ran 16 in-person meetups, including our 100th meetup on our 9th birthday and four design megameetups as Design Connection with our friends from EUX and CCX.
A huge thanks to our SydDT community who make it so much fun, all of our speakers who share their valuable insights and experience, and to our collaborators… and more thanks here.
🎶 15 gigs (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Presets, The Chemical Brothers, Jungle, Air, Elefant Traks 25th Anniversary – The Finale, Underworld, Mos Def/Yasiin Bey Performs MF DOOM, Moonchild Sanelly, Rei, The Weeknd, Thom Yorke, Horrorshow, Crowded House, Katchafire)… and a shout out to my Sydney Gig Crew for the fun. Added 110+ album micro-reviews with my ongoing #MusicMeanderings project.
📸 1,000+ photos in my #PhotoMeanderings photo journal project.
In summary, it’s been a fun and full year. This might give you a clue why I tend to freeze when asked what I do and what I’m working on 😄
Plenty to celebrate… and of course, everything is a work in progress and an experiment.
Finally, another massive thanks and hug to all of my family, friends, collaborators, and clients.
Bring on 2025!
Ideas
A blog post for you…
SydDT #107/Design Connection #4: 2024 Reflection & Celebration
We reflected on and celebrated the year that’s been at SydDT #107/Design Connection #4 on 28 November. This was our 16th and final SydDT for 2024. A fun interactive session and another in our design megameetup series with our friends from the CCX and EUX meetups.
We’ve got a big year planned… including our 10th birthday.
Let’s Collaborate
At Dynamic4, we specialise in coaching and working alongside leaders to solve problems that matter. This draws on my 30+ years leading, designing, and delivering strategic change in financial services, digital & tech, health & fitness, and building startups/social enterprises.
A key way we do this is by designing and delivering action learning experiences with masterclasses, workshops, innovation sprints, and leadership, design thinking & innovation programs.
We bring together design thinking, regenerative innovation, wellbeing, and purpose into an integrated practice.
These sessions build personal, team, and organisational capability to lead with confidence, clarity, and purpose:
🌿 Confidence to navigate complexity and solve problems that matter for your teams, customers, shareholders – and build momentum with more certainty and less risk while increasing your wellbeing
❤️ Clarity to empathically engage your stakeholders, make better decisions, and collaborate to create solutions that your teams and customers love, make money, and do great things for people and our planet
🎯 Purpose that drives progress on your goals and creates meaningful value that you’re proud of for all stakeholders – and build the relationships, workflows, rhythms, and habits for success
Keen to chat about how we can have fun collaborating to solve problems that matter? Book a free 15-minute discovery call.
Have fun!
Ben
