The Occupational Philosophers is the curious love child of John, a mild-mannered, middle-aged British man with a love of curiosity and philosophy, and Simon, a slightly louder, middle-aged Australian surfer man, artist and published author on creativity.
You can find out a little more about them below - what they do for work, their back story and why they are passionate about enabling people and organisations to discover their creativity, imagination and curiosity.
About John
The Official Stuff
John Rice is a director with Bowland Consulting which has the core belief that great teams and organisations stay curious enough to ask questions of themselves and have the courage to listen with open minds to the stories which emerge.
He is passionate about using questions to shine a light and sharing his observations and insights to act as a catalyst for deeper conversation, action and change.
Over the last 20 years, John has worked globally with senior executives, teams and organisations from across a diverse range of industries that includes Legal & General, McCann, CBRE, Kelloggs, Hearst, Schroders, and with particular experience within professional services firms.
The unofficial stuff
Hello there, it’s John here.
I have always been drawn to philosophy and philosophers - finding those ideas, quotations and aphorisms which illuminate something meaningful about life in a succinct way and which can provide a useful guide to how we navigate it.
More than anything though, I recognise that philosophers ask searching questions, continuously, to stimulate deep thinking - and that’s not something we often do in our day to day lives, be that at work or otherwise.
Maybe we feel the pressure to just ‘get stuff done’, or to always have an answer, or we have simply fallen out of the habit - whatever the reason, staying curious and asking questions is the touchpaper to creativity, imagination, and change.
So, I hope the podcast helps you hang a few more question marks on the end of some of your thoughts. Would you like to use this one? It’s free, go on, take it...
You can find out more about John:
- On his company website https://bowlandconsulting.com/
- Or email him john@bowlandsolutions.com
- Connect with him on LinkedIn:
Listen
About Simon
The Official Stuff
Simon Banks is an author and international keynote speaker (oooh, and now a podcaster) on creativity and innovation and a happily recovering artist. He describes his geek out spot as the intersection of creativity and design, learning, people and passion which he sees as essential building blocks for future leaders and developing an innovative culture. His Big Why? To build a more creative world to enable people and business to thrive in the Modern Age.
Simon has facilitated over 1300 successful events across Europe, Asia, America and Australia, including conferences; innovation hackathons, visual storytelling programs, and creativity and design thinking workshops.
He's worked to bring fresh thinking and innovation out of teams in companies that include: EY, Laing O’Rourke, The Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Sportsbet, Newcastle University, NSW Department of Education, ANZ, Geoscience Australia, The QLD Government, and Volkswagen, to name a few.
Simon lives and breathes creativity. He’s also a talented professional artist exhibiting both in Australia and the UK, has lectured at the National Gallery of England and developed programs for institutions such as The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.
Simon is the author of A Thousand Little Lightbulbs: How to kickstart a culture of Innovation in your Organisation.
The unofficial stuff
Hey, it’s Simon here.
Why do I get passionate about building a more creative world? Because this stuff matters!! To create something, to imagine, to be curious is to be human. And guess what’s at the top of almost every ‘future skills’ list needed to thrive in the workforce of now and beyond? It’s creativity, it’s curiosity. It’s the human things that technology and automation can't yet do. As I said, it matters!!
And here’s the deal, we all have this in abundance IF we choose to use it. It’s there, an untapped resource waiting to complement all the great things we do already.
I also think a creative life, a curious life and a life where we use our imagination is a happy life. It’s good for us and it’s good for our soul. It feels amazing to rediscover and reconnect with that part of us we were all born with.
I’d go so far as to say it’s our Superpower.
Hope you enjoy the podcast. We really enjoy making it.
You can find out more about Simon:
- On his website www.simonbanks.com.au
- On his company website www.visualfunk.com.au
- Or email him simon@simonbanks.com.au and
- Connect with him on the socials:
About Us
The Occupational Philosophers is a not-so-serious business podcast to spark imagination, creativity, and curiosity.
Contact Us
Address:
Sydney, Australia,
and Brighton, England
Email:
letschat@simonbanks.com.au
Copyright © 2021 - The Occupational Philosophers