2 min read
Public sector leadership: navigating the layer of crazy
I worked with a team late last year who were struggling to reconcile what they saw as the right way forward for their agency, with the fickle demands...
3 min read
Creativity, strategy and magic
I’ve spent my life in a quiet awe of musicians and creative people. People that seem to be able to create beauty out of nowhere. What an incredible...
2 min read
Focus - to have, to do, or to be.
I had a minor mutiny on my hands last week. I got so little “work” done in the last two weeks that my long-suffering Business Manager Diane revolted....
2 min read
Strike while the iron is hot.
I went to a blacksmiths festival recently. A bit out of the ordinary for my general weekend entertainment, to be honest, but talk about impressive....
2 min read
Strike while the iron is hot
I went to a blacksmiths festival recently. It's a bit out of the ordinary for my general weekend entertainment, but talk about impressive! It’s...
3 min read
Only that which can change can continue
Remember Pokemon Go? What a sensation! Blowing up from what felt like nowhere, Pokemon Go was the third most popular app download in 2016, behind...
2 min read
Internal functions are the strategy engine room
Have you ever heard that cliché about the janitor at NASA? You know, the guy who knew his job was putting astronauts on the moon? Like most...
2 min read
Put your money where your mouth is
It’s budget time again – how’s yours going? Do your budget conversations sound at all like your strategy conversations? In my experience, they don’t....
1 min read
Embrace awkwardness for better decisions
Good decisions need diversity. And I mean real diversity - age, background, gender, the whole lot. This is bad news for those who use the "diversity...
1 min read
Strategy is everyone’s job
Have you ever heard of Not My Job (NMJ) syndrome? There are some particularly hilarious examples on the internet. I like this one:
2 min read
True freedom is making your own rules
Have you ever opened your calendar, only to see nothing but other people’s priorities staring back at you? Take a look at it now and see what the...
2 min read
Strategy is simple
If I met anyone from your senior leadership team in the lift, and asked what your strategy is – how many different answers would I get? It’s hard to...
2 min read
The future of work
ATMs and Strategy When ATMs were first rolled out, economists, politicians, and the media panicked. Automation was to rob bank tellers of their jobs!...
2 min read
Public sector strategy: community, not competition
There’s a common cliché about working parents—we’re expected to perform our jobs as though we don’t have children and parent as though we don’t have...
2 min read
Public Sector Strategy: Community, not competition
There’s a common cliché about working parents – we’re expected to perform our job as though we don’t have children, and parent as though we don’t...
1 min read
Earn Trust: Engaging for change
Imagine proposing at the first introduction. At the Magiq Conference dinner on Monday night, I had attendees do exactly that, by proposing marriage...
1 min read
Make better decisions by anticipating disaster
People are stupid when it comes to risk. For one thing, we don’t understand risk in our personal lives. We grossly overestimate our chances of...
2 min read
First things first: prioritise progress
I’ve been a productivity nerd since day one. So much so, that I spent the summer between my first and second year at university reading books about...
2 min read
Move on from project failures
I ran a Strategic Focus workshop with a group last month, and one of the participants alerted me to the most beautiful quote: “The past is a foreign...
2 min read
Playing the long game
With parenting, it’s what we do that counts, not what we say. When my two eldest girls reached 7 and 11, I decided to institute a more formal...