Introducing The Turquoise Bit
See what was always there
Turquoise, the colour of warm, clear waters, the sort you can see all the way to the bottom. Nothing hidden, just a pure unobstructed view of what is beneath.
I want my thinking and communication to be clear enough that people can see all the way through to the idea underneath, and believe it. That’s why I am here.
The magpie has it too
Double Magpie, is a brand for my ideas that I created nearly 20 years ago, though it hasn’t always been visible.
The magpie is full of angles. People see a noisy, opportunistic bird, collecting shinny things. What they miss, if they never look twice, is one of the most cognitively sophisticated creatures alive. Fiercely intelligent. Drawn to what glints. Impossible to ignore once you really see it. Positive in most culture too. And that iridescent blue/green tail. Catch it at a different angle, a different light, from a different direction and suddenly it is, in my view, extraordinary. It’s not black and white like we think, it is a shade of turquoise. We just needed to shift our view.
This is my point.
So what is The Turquoise Bit?
It’s for people who are done sleepwalking.
The world is moving fast, it’s relentless and it is too easy to just keep going the same way. Making decisions, leading teams, building businesses, living lives, yet never really stopping to look at what’s in front of us. What matters.
We rush past the detail things, accept the first version and in doing that we might miss what makes us unique and miss an idea that could change everything.
The turquoise bit is the space where we slow down enough to look again, playfully, but seriously too.
What would you find here?
I write about thinking differently, not just conceptually, but as practice. Stories, metaphors and the splash of colour that makes it come to life.
The sort that could change how you lead, how you decide, how you communicate and how you see the world you’re walking through, maybe even appreciate more of it.
That might sometimes mean sitting with a difficult decision a bit longer, asking what’s really in the bag of tools that you bring to it - your values, your experience, your gut feel, your stories and the trust that people have in you. Sometimes asking a better question of the data.
Sometimes it might just mean watching the grass grow or playing. Letting an idea take shape, often visually, not forcing it. I’m hoping you’ll find and trust that slowing down does not equal falling behind.
Whatever it looks like, I’ll keep it honest. I’ll share what I’m still working out not just what I’ve already solved. I’ll ask questions and I’ll try to write the same turquoise clarity that I’m always chasing, so you can see all the way through to the clear underneath and decide for yourself what it’s worth.
So who am I?
Hello, I’m Fiona McDonnell a mum of two, with 30 years leadership in large business under my belt and a world view that’s been shaped living, working and travelling through many countries, cultures, and languages.
I believe that the most important shift any of us can make in business, in leadership and in life, is to simply stop accepting the first version of what we see, to question and to let things be simpler. My upcoming second book Decisions That Carry grows from the same place, a belief that answer and the trust we need are already there if we change what we combine and how we look.
I spent years working with leaders who are capable of extraordinary things and sometimes they need someone to hold up the light at a different angle so that they can see what was always there. That’s what I do. That’s what I hope this is for you.
Your turn
I’d love to know about you. What made you stop and read this, what you’re looking for and perhaps what you now suspect could be worth a second glance? Feel free to tell me in the comments. Thank you for being here.