4 min read
Understanding idea technology
Idea technology, a term by Barry Schwartz, is an excellent framework for thinking about the ideas that drive our thinking and decisions.
Strategy and strategic planning (2)
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...
2 min read
Big questions enable bold choices
Most meetings and workshops are a waste of time. They're full of people resolving trivial issues that could be handled by email or delegation with...
1 min read
When to try new things: 4 options for creating change
This week, I've been thinking about the warning signals that something needs to change. It stems from some work I'm doing around change and...
3 min read
Why are you like this?: how strengths overused become weaknesses
Why am I like this?!" is a bit of a catchphrase in my house. Usually, I’m bemoaning something I’ve stuffed up. Either I’ve messed up my admin, worked...
2 min read
The public service has citizens, not customers
I started a new programme with the senior leadership team at Christchurch City Council last week. One thing I noticed about how GMs communicated was...
1 min read
How to move fast without breaking things
Hi, I'm Alicia McKay, and I'm a serial fast-moving thing-breaker.
2 min read
Make peace with problems
Let me paint you a picture of a workshop I facilitated recently. Fourteen senior leaders crowd around the boardroom table of an artful...
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...
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...
5 min read
Your 2020 digest
It would be easy to treat 2020 a bit like a regretful purchase – you know, when you throw the receipt away without looking at it or stuff your...
3 min read
Get your meetings under control: 6 questions to help you banish back-to-backs
Everyone is having too many meetings. In many teams, people click from one conversation to another, becoming paradoxically more bored and overwhelmed...
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...
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...
2 min read
How to convert a cynic: assume positive intent
As a facilitator, I can spot a cynic a mile away. Their body language is pure resistance: folded arms, suspicious expressions, and deep sighs. They...
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...
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...
3 min read
3 things you can do to make your meetings suck less
Because they probably suck… and it’s probably not your fault. Why are so many workshops and meetings that are supposed to be important, so hopeless?...
2 min read
Strategic leadership: 3 ways to be less operational
Fire fighters have a demanding job. On the one hand, they do all the stuff that we expect in a crisis – like turning up and fighting a roaring blaze...
4 min read
Facilitating difficult groups: 6 lessons i learned the hard way
When I was 22 years old, a graduate policy wonk in my first real job, I was tasked with my first strategic planning assignment. The brief: prepare a...
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...
1 min read
Meetings are murder
Every session I run, in every organisation, inevitably turns to the meeting problem.