[Interview] Chasing Certainty, Guerrilla Mindfulness, and Teachable Moments | Mike House

Описание: What if chasing certainty is actually making you less certain? Most leaders look outward for stability when everything's shifting, but that external focus keeps them perpetually off-balance. When the environment refuses to cooperate with our need for predictability, where do we turn?


This conversation explores a different kind of certainty: the kind that lives inside your team's clarity about who they are, not just what they do. Mike House brings an unexpected lens to leadership development, drawing from 20 years as a survival instructor watching people navigate genuine uncertainty in the outback. He's discovered that the same principles that help someone thrive when stranded with a soapbox-sized survival kit apply when we're leading through complexity.


What's possible when we shift from seeking certainty in circumstances to building it through identity and practice?


Mike spent two decades running what National Geographic called "the toughest thing outside the military anywhere in the world," dropping people into the Australian outback with minimal resources. Now he helps leaders and organisations navigate uncertainty by developing what matters most: the ability to respond rather than react, to spot moments of disproportionate impact, and to create systems that don't need them. He challenges conventional thinking about development, and shows that the most powerful growth often happens in 30-second exchanges we're walking right past.


In this conversation, you'll discover:


• How guerrilla mindfulness, a three-breath practice, can shift your leadership in moments of pressure


• Why looking for certainty in the environment will always leave you more uncertain


• What makes brief mentoring moments more powerful than formal development programmes


• How the gap between circumstance and response is trainable, not fixed


• Why the best mentors might be those creating systems that don't need them


• What survival priorities can teach us about leading through uncertainty


• How to develop the courage to act on teachable moments when you spot them


• Why purpose and identity create more certainty than any strategic plan


Timestamps:


(00:00) - Navigating Uncertainty in Leadership


(17:44) - The Power of Mentoring Moments


(32:12) - Adaptability in Uncertainty


(35:24) - Survival Skills for Business


(39:42) - Creating Conditions for Growth


(43:27) - Identifying Teachable Moments


Other References:

1. Pilbara Region (https://www.bobcoopersurvival.com/)
2. Box Breathing (https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is...)
3. Emotions wheel (http://isu.edu/media/libraries/counse...)
4. fMRI (Functional Resonance Imaging) (https://www.psychologicalscience.org/...)
5. The Five B’s for Thriving at Work (https://digbyscott.com/thoughts/the-f...)


You can find Mike at:


Website: mikehouse.com.au (http://mikehouse.com.au)


LinkedIn:   / themikehouse  






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