I give you 5 coaching reflections (questions, frameworks, and tools) with every episode of The Community Leadership Coach so you can apply them to your context and put new learning and strategy into action. You're not meant to try and be brilliant alone.
You will get the best results if you grab a pen and a notebook so you can jot down your thinking. All the science shows that thinking visually, using actual pen on paper, lights up more of your brain and creates more impact than typing or simply reading.
Apply The Peter Durand Principle: Show up and keep being willing to be the dumbest person in the room.
This is not AI Slop. You are getting access to my professional coaching expertise, but this experience only works if you allow yourself to be open to the experience and get a little vulnerable.
Reflection 1: Reclaim your collective impact
Peter begins the interview by sharing how Visual Facilitators make meetings, workshops and events more impactful and explores why being intentional about engagement matters. Think about a recent conversation, meeting, workshops or event you were involved in.
- What was the purpose?
- Where were the engagement gaps? What were the consequences?
- If you were accountable for engagement and gave yourself permission to shake things up, what would you do differently?
- What other typical rituals would be worthwhile to rethink?
Reflection 2: Show up if you want something to happen.
"Isolation is an illusion we choose. Nothing happens if you don't show up... you have to show up with your full body" Peter Durand
Something which I picked up from Dr Vivek Murthy is that loneliness is our body’s way of telling us we need to connect. Just like thirst tells us we need water and hunger tells us we need food. Peter frames the isolation crisis as a choice. We choose where we show up and how we show up, but nothing happens if you don't show up.
- What does showing up and being fully present, as part of life, look like for you?
- What areas of your business and/or life are most important for you to ‘show up’ in?
- Think about those areas a little deeper. How well are you 'showing up' in each of those domains? How well would others rate you? Score both perspectives out of a total of 7.
- Look at your scores. What jumps out to you?
- What can you start doing differently?
Reflection 3. The rag's not the problem.
Peter shares a story about an oily rag.
If someone dropped an ‘oily rag into your turbine’, what would your reaction be? What is the consequence of your reaction be? Think of a recent time where you reacted to an ‘oily rag in the turbine’ in your organisation, team or family. What was the consequence of how you responded? What could you do differently to handle the situation and build Psychological Safety?
Reflection 4. Who is your Brad?
When I facilitate leadership workshops, the sponsor is always concerned about the cynic in the room. Here's what I have learned though. Cynics are still there because they care. With the right question, you can flip the energy and turn them into a performance multiplier.
- Be honest with yourself, Who is your Brad?
- What's one question you could ask to help them create change with you? (Peter suggests: What are the pain points? If you were in charge of this, what would you eliminate immediately? What would you build?)
Reflection 5. Making Space for Recovery
What I love about Peter is his deeply ingrained sense of service to others. Leadership is service, but you can't serve others if you don't look after yourself. I see many coaching clients who are high-performers but on the borderline of burnout, putting the needs of others and their business before their own health.
- Which plant best represents you and your team's energy levels?
- What's the smallest step you can take towards creating consistent space for honest recovery?
About our guest
Peter Durand is the founder and Creative Director of Alphachimp Studio, where he has spent over 25 years as a visual facilitator, strategic illustrator, and educator. He has drawn live inside global boardrooms, high-stakes strategy sessions, and transformative leadership conversations, from South by Southwest to the front lines of healthcare.
Peter specialises in translating complex dialogue into visual clarity, helping leadership teams build the conditions for active co-creation through psychological safety, visual stewardship, and collective alignment.
Beyond the boardroom, Peter facilitates Think Visual! Houston — a free monthly community for visual thinkers and creative problem-solvers, held every First Friday at The Ion in Houston. He is also an active board contributor to The Value Web, an international network of facilitators, systems thinkers, and designers working on complex global challenges.
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