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The grey area
I often discuss the importance of brave public service—community-focused, impact-led policy and strategy decisions that change our world.
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Fear Breeds Complexity: Simplify The Public Sector
The Global Simplicity Index tells us that, in the private sector, simplicity pays. The majority of consumers will spend more, for an easy customer...
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Practice makes autopilot
I invest in professional development for three days every three months and head off to business school in Australia. Those three days are always the...
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Get Out of the Weeds You Love
Do you miss the "real work"? The 'paradox of leadership', according to Greg McKeown, is that as we advance in seniority, we can become so overwhelmed...
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Design and Delivery: Better Together
Collaboration that actually SAVES time and money?! Some years ago, I had a job writing tender responses for large construction and infrastructure...
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Take the handbrake off: systems change
Eating well sucks. I’m currently in training season for a marathon and doing my best to put the right fuel in for long Sunday Rundays. I’m also on a...
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Time to light some fires
Firefighters have a demanding job. On the one hand, they do everything we expect in a crisis, like turning up and fighting a roaring blaze. Behind...
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Preparation beats prediction
One of my favourite strategy workshops to run is about strategic risk - preparing for the worst. I recognise that sounds dire, but I promise it...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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:
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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...
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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!...
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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...
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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...
