6 min read
How and when to quit things (and how to do it well)
Last Friday, I announced I was retiring Not An MBA, an executive leadership programme I founded in 2021. It's been a wild ride. For the most part,...
Newsletter (2)
1 min read
Eiffel tower leadership
Today, the Eiffel Tower is a global icon synonymous with Paris and its allure. But it wasn't always that way. During the tower's construction, many...
1 min read
Connect, don't control: turning strategy into action
There are four reasons why strategy implementation is so difficult: we get stuck on details, work in silos, go too slow and are scared of the...
2 min read
Three ingredients of perspective
It's conference season, and I've been a busy girl the last few weeks, hitting stages on both sides of the Tasman.
2 min read
There is no right decision
This newsletter is brought to you by Not An MBA, the accelerated executive leadership programme that transforms your life and work in just eight...
1 min read
Make the minimum viable decision
What are you tangled up in knots about right now? I bet you've got a decision weighing on you. Whether it's a job offer, a location change, a...
1 min read
How to make tricky decisions
The average person makes 17,000 decisions a day. Most of those are easy, like what to have for breakfast or what time to leave for work, but some are...
1 min read
Delegate, or rip off the taxpayer
What do you do for work?” Gulp. When you work for the government, sometimes it’s tempting not to tell people. Primarily if you work in local...
2 min read
The future of work belongs to the strategist
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
Stop being a hero
I've always been a bit of a hero. Beating the odds, I shifted my life story from high school dropout, teen mum, and no-hope foster kid to university...
6 min read
This is an intervention: it's time to get unstuck
In this post: What to do when you're feeling stuck Strategic leadership: skills to change your life Stop planning, start strategising: how to stay on...
1 min read
If you were them, you'd be a jerk too
Change is hard to talk about because people feel personally attacked. If we're not careful, "let's make it better" sounds more like "You're doing it...
2 min read
3 myths about decisions that need busting
I've been interested in what it means to make good, long-term decisions for a long time. Fresh out of university, I entered a policy career, all...
1 min read
How to move fast without breaking things
Hi, I'm Alicia McKay, and I'm a serial fast-moving thing-breaker.
7 min read
When progress goes too far: becoming a top woman manager
Over the weekend, I picked up this delightful little read in my favourite Woodville op shop. At first, I laughed. The cover is dated, the terminology...
4 min read
Hope is a terrible recipe for change
The planning fallacy Hope is not a recipe for change How to create realistic plans and strategies
1 min read
Put your bloody phone down
Hi, I'm on holiday and don't have much time, so here is a quick serve:
1 min read
Stop being a plastic bag
In American Beauty*, we watch Ricky’s video of an empty, wrinkled plastic bag tossed about in the wind. We follow the bag as it whips about...
3 min read
Fear is universal but action is personal
Being a person is pretty scary, to be honest. If you're a mildly anxious human like me, you might face a frequent war with your brain as it churns...
2 min read
6 ways to stay on track when things turn to shit
When I was at university, I was a broke single mum. Funds were tight, and I was a militant budgeter. I’d sit down and create detailed household...
4 min read
That restructure will not fix your organisational culture
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...
6 min read
Why change gets worse before it gets better
Angela, a Wednesday Wisdom reader, asked me to write about the immediate impact of organisational change on productivity. She wrote:
1 min read
Don't worry about your culture
I hear a lot about organisational culture. It’s pretty trendy, and seems to be blamed for a full spectrum of ills at work. Makes sense, it’s nice and...
1 min read
Go off plan but stay on strategy
When I was a broke student and single mum, I remember doing countless household budgets to try and keep on top of things. I’d put the ideal budget...