I got to know Bryan in 2019 through Robert Kegan’s work on deliberately developmental organisations and I had the chance to join his emblematic and memorable course on personal self-management.
What impressed me immediately was how deeply Bryan understood that all meaningful transformation must always start with ourselves. “Learning is not development”, he used to say. “Learning is knowledge, development is letting go”.
Like few other leaders, Bryan walked his talk. Before finding in Decurion a place that ”was committed to something more than financial return”, Bryan had spent a year to “read a hundred books” and research for more enlightened ways to do business.
And with all his celebrated achievements, he never stopped searching: with deep humanity, disciplined patience, humble willingness to continually improve himself, and passionate dedication to elevate others. He knew that we could only “wake up” the system if we “develop the capacity of everyone to wake themselves up.”
As John Quincy Adams once said: ‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.’
Bryan was such a rare, true leader. I deeply regret his passing, yet I shall always remember him for sparking in me and many others a desire to get better, in service of something larger than ourselves.