Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
Can you see their hesitancy?
Sometimes it's obvious... We notice when our friends and associates are holding back from committing to something—or maybe someone—which in itself is preventing them achieving the results they want. We might encourage them to "go for it" or to "have the courage of...
Do you need the big roll-out?
It’s striking how some organizations think first of the scale required to roll something new out to the workforce at large—a daunting and expensive undertaking. And yet often the same effect can be achieved with the leadership group attending thoroughly to their own...
How much does a call cost?
Are your perceptions of relative cost up to date? I’m struck by how often people comment on the cost of phoning transatlantic. “That’ll be really expensive they say.” Actually, landline-to-landline, with my pretty average phone contract, it costs about £3 or $5 for an...
We’re all the same; we’re all very different
During a workshop recently, I asked for observations on the learning exercise we’d just done. Two people spoke up almost in unison, except that what they said was very different... “It’s amazing how different people are,” said one. “It’s amazing how much we’re all the...
The trouble with profiling
Well, one of the troubles with profiling... In forming teams, it's a good idea to bring together complementary skills and personality types. Diversity brings performance, though it may not be comfortable at first. So we reach for the psychometric tests—how handy to be...
Are we too busy justifying ourselves to let knowledge in?
It's a curious thing... When we have someone with knowledge or authority in front of us, do we get them talking in order to learn as much as we can from their expertise? Or do we take more of the airtime ourselves, because we feel a greater need to explain what we...
We don’t laugh at the majority
We don't laugh at the majority, because the majority has power. And we don't laugh at power, because it's dangerous. It might throw us out. But we do laugh at minorities, because minorities are weak. And we do laugh at weakness because it's safe. Minorities are...
How consistent is your business?
Or you could say, “How congruent?” Let’s focus on the individual first... A congruent person is one whose behaviour is a consistent reflection of their values and beliefs, and their sense of identity. Some of these values and beliefs may be in tension with each other,...
Are you looking in the right place?
It’s a conditioned reaction... Anything nebulous, intangible and “irrational” we want to fit into familiar tangible, rational and logical processes, usually in the form of paperwork or information on a screen. Then we can process the result, and we can share it with...
Does a close relationship help or hinder profit on a contract?
It’s likely you’ll have an immediate response to that question. But is it actually so simple? And is your response the same as everyone else’s? From the opposite perspective, we could equally ask, “Does a close relationship help or hinder cost-effective procurement?”...
Is that it?
Probably, yes. It seems we’re conditioned to expect complicated answers to problems. And yet, when it comes to issues relating to other people, it’s often the simple things that make the difference—sometimes so simple they seem hard to get hold of at all, almost not...
Sustaining a purpose
How do you keep it going? How do you build your earnings to sustain what you are doing without compromising your leadership "mission" (if that's the right word)? If you're not careful, you end up contracted to deliver something that's at odds with what you see as...
Someone has the answer: The question is do you want it?
Or would you rather keep searching yourself? It’s tempting to say “Of course we want the answer if someone else has it”? But do we really? Sometimes the loss of face, the embarrassment, or the hurt to our ego is too much to bear, and we avoid seeing what’s offered. Of...
So where are they in their learning?
It’s a funny thing... Socially, it seems to be expected that we behave as if everyone knows what they need to know; that they are not learning anything further; that they are complete. And yet... We’re learning all the time: How to deal with new situations, new...
Being real
For organisations to learn, people need to tell the truth, and to discuss the “undiscussable.” If they think one thing and say another, how can the collective entity ever understand what’s really going on? In other words, people need to be “real,” or “congruent” in...