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...
Strategy and strategic planning (3)
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
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… wants...
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
Heroes overcome odds. We need to change the odds. I used to think I was a bit of a hero. I was proud of it, even. Beating the odds, I shifted my life...
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 around us has gone mad. For many of us, it hasn’t been all bad. COVID has...
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
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
Go Back to Basics
I injured my ankle badly in November 2017, when I started training for my first marathon. After a tough uphill slog on a sunny Monday morning, I was...
1 min read
Meetings that Matter: Rethink your purpose
How many meetings have you been to this week? I ran an afternoon workshop for one of my learning communities recently where one of the participants...
1 min read
When in doubt, zoom out.
Early last year, I visited the M.C. Escher exhibit in Melbourne and enjoyed having my mind blown by some of the mind-bending perspective pieces on...
1 min read
You Can’t Work With What You Can’t See
Put your hand up if you’re ever been a martyr. Walking around carrying an invisible load of resentment, wondering why every other unreasonable person...
2 min read
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...
2 min read
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....
1 min read
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:
2 min read
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...
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...
2 min read
How to focus more clearly
I’ve always been close with my Nanna. I’ve turned to her a lot over the years as I’ve juggled kids, work, study, friends, relationships and...
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
Public Sector Leadership: Connect to Outcomes
Ever caught the show Undercover Boss? It’s just the kind of brilliant mind-numbing reality TV that you need for a sick day in bed – which is how I’m...