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Practical reads on all things strategy, change, and leadership. 

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2 min read

Embrace Your Journey

I received a great message over the weekend, that totally made my day. I’d just had a total fail of an attempted trail run, and I was feeling all...

1 min read

Celebrate Failure

Do you think it’s OK to fail? What about your teams, do they feel able to? I’ve had some interesting conversations with people recently about failure...

10 min read

How Running A Marathon Became Resilience Skills Training

I ran my first marathon in September this year, in beautiful Tauranga. It was one of the big-ticket items on my bucket list and with a milestone...

2 min read

Embrace Your Inner Rebel

I was at a wedding on Saturday and, thanks to what I was wearing, received some inquiring comments about a tattoo that’s usually covered. It sits...

2 min read

Resilient People Need Resilient Organisations

There’s a parenting meme doing the rounds that really hit me in the feels recently. It goes “One day I’ll be happy my daughter is an independent,...

1 min read

If Everything Is A Priority, Nothing Really Is

I facilitated a workshop session recently that required attendees to link our discussion to the organisation’s strategic objectives. The results were...

2 min read

Prioritise Recovery For Success

Ever finally gone on a long-awaited holiday, only to get sick? The Dutch call it leisure sickness – the idea that when you finally take a break from...

3 min read

The Habit Is The Result

I knocked a big goal out of the park this last weekend – and didn’t keep it much of a secret… anyone who follows any of my social media will have...

3 min read

Translate Strategy to Action

All three of my kids are bookworms – influenced, I like to think, by my own love of reading. I’ve enjoyed being part of the “learning to read”...

3 min read

How to Make Space When BAU Won't Quit

You know that feeling when you go and do some offsite training or attend a conference and get all inspired and energised? You’re all fired up on good...

2 min read

Know Your Job and Do It Well

At a conference I attended earlier this year, Matt Church told a story about leadership and team work, using a powerful story about a basketball...

2 min read

How to Walk the Talk

Have you ever had one of those ‘practice what you preach’ moments? Where you realise you need to walk the talk to have any impact? I have those...

2 min read

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

Apparently doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I think that applies to 'doing more of the same thing'...

2 min read

Money Isn’t Everything: How to Uncover False Constraints

What would you do if you won Lotto? I bet you know the answer to that question, and that you've had this conversation at least half a dozen times...

2 min read

Start With Now

"Diet starts Monday" - strategy killer number one. Have you ever bought into a new fad diet, only to discover that it doesn't align with what's in...

3 min read

Do More of What Makes You Awesome

Did you ever have career counselling at school? The first question you were asked was probably something like "what are you good at?" or 'what are...

2 min read

Slow Action Lets Down Good Strategy: Get moving on what matters

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week." General George S. Patton, Jr. Hi, my name is Alicia McKay, and I'm a...

3 min read

How to Take Calculated Risks: 3 Key Steps

Fear Is Like Alcohol .. because it makes parties more interesting. JUST KIDDING.Fear is like alcohol because it clouds our judgement. And when we...

2 min read

How to Defeat Strategic Overwhelm

In this week's post I want to talk about one of the drivers for strategic overwhelm. There's a few - strategic misalignment, lack of leadership,...

2 min read

The Curse of Common Sense

Common sense is a real curse when it comes to solving problems. The Oxford Dictionary defines common sense as: "Sense and sound judgement in...

1 min read

Prioritise With Intent

Prioritisation takes place every day in every organisation. However, if priorities are not set at the strategic level, judgement calls are pushed...

2 min read

Get over yourself: tackle decision bias

We are all flawed when it comes to making decisions. Like it or not, people are intuitively pretty crappy decision-makers. We often can't see outside...

1 min read

Focus Means Saying No

I came across this fantastic old video while I was procrastinating on the internet today - here's the link for those of you that can bear the crappy...