I have just finished my second stint of five days delivering some CMI Level 7 material on organisational change to future leaders in the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport. Someone asked me what it was like and my first thought was it could’ve been Nottingham (nothing particular about Nottingham, it could’ve been Derby of Bradford, Manchester, Bedford or…). What did I mean by that?

Well, you get up in the morning, have your breakfast, get to the venue, deliver your training, go back to the hotel, review how it went and make adjustments for the following day, have dinner, sleep, work up etc. Everything is air-conditioned, so apart from the odd hundred metre walk around the hotel and 20 m into the venue (the Abu Dhabi Men’s College) and the somewhat warmer weather and more exotic birds and plants it could be anywhere.

Actually, I have really enjoyed myself, partly because I really enjoy delivering this stuff and partly because I am very happy for somebody to fly me halfway round the world to a country and culture I have not visited before and pay me doing what I enjoy doing. The pay isn’t actually all that brilliant, and I accepted the gig because it has always been part of my personal vision to do exactly what I described in the previous paragraph-fly around the world offering my knowledge and expertise to anyone who is prepared to listen to me and so long as it doesn’t actually cost me anything and I will consider any offers along those lines.