Lens Not Label See things differently.

4 September 2026

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Happy Friday, Reader!

This week whizzed by, didn't it? The combo of August bank holiday here, start of school and September, and everyone being back to their desks sure felt intense! But we made it.

It feels like many of us are diving back into things, whatever those “things” are. And that may come with some challenging conversations. The kind that, if you stop and think about it, bring up tricky thoughts and feelings. Maybe we've been here before…

• “Ooof. I'm not trained in this.”
• “This feels bigger than both of us.”
• And this emoji: 😬

Maybe it's beyond our expertise. Or there's a systemic problem. Or you've inherited a legacy issue.

Maybe we don't even know what it is.

But once we recognise that this thing might be beyond what you two can handle together, what can you say?

For leaders and managers:

Try: “This might be something we can work out between us and/or we might need to ask for help. Let's see how far we can go right now and then we can decide what to do next.”

For coaches:

Try: “This might be for coaching, this might be for somewhere else. Let's see how we get on and check-in as we go.”

Now onto this week's book update…

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Uncontained Yak-shaving

There's a common phrase in software development called 'yak-shaving'. This refers to times when you start off intending to do one thing, but it's blocked by something else. So you start to untangle that piece. And you discover yet another thing that needs doing first. And before you know it, you're in a field in the middle of nowhere, shaving a yak and feeling very far from what you originally set out to do.

As always, Sketchplanations has a great illustration and explanation:

Anyways, back to what I meant to say…

Parts of the book publishing process can feel a bit like this.

For example, we're itching to share the full cover of Uncontained with you . And we'd love to get our book officially locked in with an ISBN, too. Which can be done in a couple ways, but each one sets us on a certain and irreversible path. Decisions, decisions, yuckyak.

Anyway, before we can do either of these things, we need to get the subtitle wording right. Which is shifting as we write.

These are some of the joys of self-publishing! But we know that if we try things, check-in with ourselves and each other, and ask for help along the way, it will all work out.

For what it's worth, I'm actually energised by these types of puzzles, both in conversations and in publishing. I'm reminded of an article I read recently by Adam Mastroianni about how to really unpack the question of what you want to do with your life…does your chosen career pass the coffee beans procedure?

With flying colours,
Kim, Claire, and Nathan

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