Sometimes we need to lift our heads and figure out where we are going. I was leading a project team meeting the other day, on a project that’s fairly early on in its lifecycle. We focused on how we could work better as a team. We were supposed to return to the strategic intent of our […]
Read more ...
“They are stepping over the dead bodies,” I told him. My friend and I met at a business conference last week, and he was giving me his reflections on the new organisation he had been hired into recently as a senior strategist. He spoke about patterns his colleagues no longer seemed to notice. “You still have fresh […]
Read more ...
A dangerously underweight fifteen-year-old girl looks into the mirror and sees herself as disgustingly fat. Such extreme conditions as anorexia nervosa are shocking in their effects upon people. However, could we all have milder distorting self-beliefs about ourselves, perhaps? How about this: We walk into a room and believe everyone is looking at us critically? Or, we […]
Read more ...
Here’s an experience this summer in which I didn’t come out of very well. Or did I? You be the judge. I was shopping for summer shoes. So I found a pair I liked in an M&S outlet. So I took these shoes to a stool to try them on. The right shoe did fit me […]
Read more ...
What if creativity always starts with what is in your hand? What if having to create something without reference to what has gone before is illusory. This would mean that being purely original is a nonsense. Even God, in the Genesis account, made the man out of the dust of the earth. Was that pure creativity? No. But it was extraordinary, […]
Read more ...
This question – what is stopping you – is a compelling one. I find it crops up in all kinds of places, including change management theory, agile practice, and the theory of forming personal habits. It reframes a challenge from “I must try harder” to “what is stopping me?” and then to “How can I […]
Read more ...
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to interview a couple of my clients from the British Antarctic Survey: Linda Capper, who is the Head of Communications, and Andy Jeffries, the Programme Manager for the new polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough. I was honoured to be invited to the launch of the […]
Read more ...
What is one of the biggest problems of anybody leading change? If you have tried it even once, I imagine you will say: “The other people involved.” It can seem like resistance to change is normal. As a result, many of us avoid dealing with these stakeholders. “They will only cause trouble.” This can make matters […]
Read more ...
I was honoured to be invited on Saturday to the launch of the British Antarctic Survey’s Sir David Attenborough. Although for me this meant a 14-hour return drive, it was worth it. The launch was a historic milestone and a significant move towards a safer world. Quite apart from that, the launch itself was quite […]
Read more ...
In my last post, I began to explore radical transparency from a the example of a client organisation. To lead transparently generates trust. This kind of leadership shows up before people with integrity. Lead transparently and you generate trust. Click to Tweet However, a lot of leaders baulk at precisely this invitation to transparency. It […]
Read more ...