We recently met two inspirational Kiwis Hannah Wrathall and Alice Marsh. They both come from opposite ends of NZ but they’ve been brought together by a desire to help millennials succeed in taking actions on issues they care about, through creating social enterprises, leading transformational cultural change and platforms to bring issues to the forefront. Hannah gave us some insight into what they are doing to help inspire people to make their dreams a reality.

What did you want to for a career when you were young?
For most of my childhood I wanted to be an actress (it’s never too late, right?). Alice wanted to be an optometrist (she has never had great eyesight!) 

Author: David Epstein

Reviewer: Kristine Chadwick

I am not sure if I was more excited about the kedgeree brunch at Ozone or the discussion of the book.  As a specialist generalist, I love the idea that I wasn’t alone and that there was evidence that being a generalist wasn’t a draw back in a world seemingly dominated by specialists.  

While we waited for our brunch to arrive, discussion ensued.  We agreed that one of the best things about being a generalist was it gave us the freedom to collaborate with other disciplines and we could easily communicate across silos. If you do the hard graft, learn all the disciplines, then you’re in a position to ask for what you want, whether it be a promotion or to work on a specific project.

Author: Daniel H. Pink

Reviewer: Libby Gordon

The secrets to perfect timing; a big claim! And as a time-poor London dweller this book appealed to me as I, along with the rest of book club, was keen to understand Daniel H Pinks theory on how timing might enable us to make the most of the hours in our day through his book “When”. As with all our books some people loved it more than others but the book itself was easy to read and gave the right mix of stories to illustrate points and practical takeaways. What did we each find interesting? Did we learn? And most importantly what changes had we, or did we want to make, as a result of reading this. 

Naps!
One idea that stood out to all of us unanimously, as we all sat around the table with coffee (or tea) in hand, was the idea of Nappachino. (Well we all thought that naps, whenever, were a good idea!) Nappachino: Drink coffee (or other caffeinated drink), nap for no more than thirty minutes, wake up, caffeine kicks in as your brain is refreshed from your nap, you are ready to take on the world. We were not sure how, however, we could integrate this into day to day working life but working from home days did allow for this!