2 min read
How to think about change
If you’re not doing ‘change’ right now, you’re not in fashion. Whether it’s organisational change, personal transformation (hi Spring!) or even...
4 min read
Before you restructure, read this
In a client mentoring session on Friday, I was looking forward to hearing how a job interview had gone. After an extended secondment and a long...
1 min read
How to stop being a plastic bag
American Beauty is one of my favourite movies. In one memorable scene, we watch Ricky’s video of an empty, wrinkled plastic bag tossed about in the...
1 min read
Freshen Up Your Focus
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that priorities shift. As we returned to our homes, spent more time with our families, watched our health more...
1 min read
How to live your values
I’ve had an absolute sh*t of a few weeks. I’ve made some of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make in my personal life, in the face of confusion,...
1 min read
Just Keep Going
It’s hard to stick to new stuff. We sign up to new things all the time – fitness regimes, ideas, podcasts, committees – and the initial burst of...
1 min read
Commit or Quit
Do you ever sit in a conversation where everybody furiously agrees, leave feeling great about what you’ve decided – but then nothing happens? I see...
1 min read
How to Tame Talkfests: Focus prompts for frustrated facilitators
Man, I get sick of people talking sh*t. To be fair, it’s an occupational hazard. I run strategy and leadership workshops, where people are used to...
2 min read
How to find your purpose: 7 questions from Mark Manson
Purpose gets a bad rap. It’s the domain of the out-of-touch woke millennials who spend more time thinking about working than actually doing it… and...
1 min read
How to make people listen
When people ask me to help them run workshops and meetings, they often come in with lofty goals. How do I get people to really be in this? To own...
1 min read
Stop being a hero
I used to think I was a bit of a hero—I was even proud of it. Beating the odds, I shifted my life story from high school dropout, teen mum, and...
4 min read
Public Sector Leadership in Quiet Times: Readiness
I wrote a Wednesday Wisdom last week, that I had to do an emergency withdrawal for on Tuesday night, after the Prime Minister’s COVID announcement. I...
2 min read
Beware the lure of the new: sustainable change
It’s been a hell of a few months. We’ve had to adapt fast as the world has gone mad. For many of us, it hasn’t been all bad. COVID has provided the...
2 min read
Good decisions
When COVID hit, many of us experienced – and are still experiencing – serious financial uncertainty. Businesses lost revenue, people lost jobs, and...
1 min read
Friends at work
I often meet leaders with an “I don’t go to work to make friends” attitude. I get that; I really do. One of the reasons I’ve never lasted in an...
1 min read
First things first: be careful of second-rate priorities
It’s school holidays! My girls and I had a trip to Germany planned for these school holidays, but we had to cancel that for obvious reasons. Instead,...
1 min read
Thinking needs space
I’m off the grid this week, holed up in an adorable little cabin in Martinborough, finishing up my second book, From Action to Impact: The Strategic...
1 min read
On micro-influence.
Influencer marketing is the most popular guerrilla marketing strategy of the last ten years. In 2018, 81% of marketers reported that influencer...
1 min read
Act as if: how your identity changes your habits
Goals motivate us When I started running, I could only motivate myself to train if I had an event coming up. I started at a 5K, and a few years...
1 min read
Leverage as Less
Leverage: is it about doing more - or doing better? Doing everything with nothing I love the idea of ephemeralization, the brainchild of clever...
1 min read
Risky business
Injuries suck. I hurt my right shoulder this week, and it turns out I’m a terrible patient. I don’t rest well – not just because of my personality,...
1 min read
Nothing Important Happens by Accident: Align priorities to action
If I looked at your calendar for the week – could I tell what really matters to you? If I looked at your team and decision process - could I tell...
2 min read
The invisible list
My middle child is a bit of a sage. Since she was little, she’s habitually said profound things that make you look at her sideways. In the way that...
2 min read
The New Zealand way.
Sometimes we don’t really see ourselves, until we look through the eyes of others. Aotearoa has had unprecedented attention on the world stage over...