Happy Christmas and welcome to Postcards from the Ledge. Two or three times a year we take the most interesting articles, links and pictures the Totem team have found over the preceding few months and put them into an email which we deliver to your inbox. Expect pieces on outdoor learning, tips and tricks for the workplace, beautiful photos and news of upcoming open courses. Our aim is to provide a little bundle of inspiration in what can sometimes be a grey world.

We love hearing from people so if you enjoy this issue, let us know and if you come across something you think we might find interesting, send it to us and we may include in the future.

Sam
sam@totemdevelopment.co.uk

Definite Articles

The best articles we've seen on the internet over the last few months.

Don't Tell Your Audience you aren't Prepared!
A pet peeve of mine is summed up nicely by Jason over on the SvN blog. If you stand in front of an audience and say "I've not really prepared for this", it does two things. Firstly it tells them you have no respect for them, and secondly it makes them spend more time looking for mistakes than paying attention to your message. (more...)

Billion-Dollar-Gram
Worldwide government spending is difficult to get a grip on sometimes. Billions spent on this. Billions spent on that. This infographic is a nice way of comparing just some of that spending.(more...)

Explore your own Backyard
Adventure need not be on an international, or even national scale. William Gurstelle heads out into his back garden with a microscope and has his own minibeast safari. (more...)

Rope Scars
I've spoken before about the depths of friendship and the bonds that arise from climbing with someone. Over on UKC, Marc Chrysanthou has written a moving piece about his discovery of his father's old climbing rope, and how it defined his relationship with him. A very moving article. (more...)

A View on the World

Bravery or Stupidity? It's a fine line!

Best of the Blog

We try and fill our blog with the same interesting articles you get in this newsletter, mixed with a good amount of original content. The best of the last few months is gathered below

September 16th - Do you Know what your Job is?
October 16th - Innovation using the Peapod
November 4th - 10 years to Save the Earth

See all posts for leaders, for managers, for trainers or for individuals.

Wise Words

Simplify, simplify.

Henry David Thoreau

One 'Simplify' would have been sufficient.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Totem News

The next Anything Could Happen course is likely to take place in March 2010. This course aims to draw together a diverse group of people, beautiful surroundings, and challenging activities to create an open-outcome experience. It has been described as "a month of life packed into 48 hours!" If you are interested in attending but haven't signed up to our announcement list, you can do so here.

The office will be closed from the 22nd December until 4th January. We're heading off to the West Coast of Scotland to see Hogmanay in in style. We'll try and respond to email during that time but our usual quick response might be a little slower than normal.

Keep in Touch

We love hearing from people and sharing our ideas about learning, the outdoors and life in general. We use the following social media services so if you have accounts with any of them, click on the logo, befriend us and join the conversation.