Heartfelt trip to Portsmouth!

I'm grateful for the opportunity to connect with leaders across our Liberty Mutual Insurance technology group in Portsmouth this week. I enjoyed the various insightful conversations I participated in. Thanks to Anne Taylor and Brenda Campbell for the invitation to represent Liberty IT alongside you. The importance of allyship and sponsorship emerged repeatedly throughout the trip, and I am genuinely grateful for yours!

The fireside chat with Alison Erbig hugely inspired me. Her ability to outline the financial complexity of our multi-billion-dollar business in an accessible way is awe-inspiring. I love the insight into how our organisation works with our actuaries to provide for long-tailed risk in service of our noble purpose. I loved learning about how these dynamics continuously shift as the market's price appetite shifts and our perspective of future losses shifts. It was affirming to hear how trust in her team enables her to succeed in her challenging role while unlocking time to read to her two young children and show up for purposeful work she cares about. Alison is a board member at Girls on the Run International . This organisation builds and supports young women's social, emotional, physical and behavioural skills to successfully navigate life experiences.?

I was also moved by Kathy Asher 's talk on diversity and inclusivity. She shared her story as an example of how our stories shape our perspectives and create the opportunity for bias. These days, people seem to walk on eggshells around Spirituality; I appreciated her authentic recognition that her Faith is an essential source of her strength. This authenticity paved the way for Disha G. and me to connect authentically about our respective perspectives on Faith, which shows up in our unique stories. We talked about Sai Baba, a Hindu teacher from Disha's Indian heritage. I find India's Hindu tradition fascinating, and it was interesting to look at Hindu Polytheism as a manifestation of personal?experiences with the?Divine. This notion of a direct personal experience with the Divine resonated with my Quaker tradition.

I loved the conversation I had with Neena Patel ! We started our discussion by comparing wine notes on our developing palettes. Neena reminisced fondly about her time touring the wine farms in my home country, South Africa! Our conversation deepened as we reflected on prioritising charitable giving in your personal and collective financial strategy. Also, it is important to put the just empowerment of people at the centre of the containers in which we collaborate. We also discussed the importance of integrity. Staying "in South Africa", we reflected on how Nelson Mandela embodied integrity by putting the needs of the many above his own. Living from a place of integrity becomes more challenging under the strain of real opportunity, power, influence and wealth. The human ego quickly corrupts our highest intentions once those opportunities become real.

I cherished the opportunity to learn from Deborah Saffer 's fantastic journey. I appreciated her perspective on building culture, and she gave me great advice on delivering a message others have yet to be willing or able to see. As an analytical and strategic thinker, I am desperate to master this skill.

Alison Hughes Elukanlo 's call to action deserves a special mention: be good, be kind and be safe!

I love the energy that Lelan Oake-Libow and Kara Phillips brought into facilitating such a fantastic event!

What are we reading? Culture Map by Eric Meyer seemed to come up in various conversations; I'll add this to my reading list. Everyone went home with a copy of Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe 's book, The Calm Within the Storm. Robyne's moving and frequently humorous keynote invited us to view resilience not as a grit practice, the "fighting harder" and "being tougher" approach, but instead as a heart practice in which we seek authentic self-alignment. I can't wait to read her book.