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....
Practical reads on all things strategy, change, and leadership.
2 min read
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....
2 min read
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...
2 min read
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....
1 min read
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
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
With parenting, it’s what we do that counts, not what we say. When my two eldest girls reached 7 and 11, I decided to institute a more formal...
2 min read
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
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
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
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...
1 min read
What’s the name of your last Shelf Strategy? You know the one – where you did all those workshops and argued over semantics. The one where you wrote...
3 min read
I had dinner with a colleague in Melbourne last month, who proclaimed at one point that “timing is meaningless. It’s simply a human construct to...
2 min read
Strategy needs space. Time, headspace, and physical space. I’ve just returned to New Zealand after a few days of professional development in...
10 min read
I ran my first marathon in September this year, in beautiful Tauranga. It was one of the big-ticket items on my bucket list and with a milestone...
1 min read
I facilitated a workshop session recently that required attendees to link our discussion to the organisation’s strategic objectives. The results were...
3 min read
All three of my kids are bookworms – influenced, I like to think, by my own love of reading. I’ve enjoyed being part of the “learning to read”...
2 min read
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...
3 min read
Did you ever have career counselling at school? The first question you were asked was probably something like "what are you good at?" or 'what are...
2 min read
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week." General George S. Patton, Jr. Hi, my name is Alicia McKay, and I'm a...
3 min read
Fear Is Like Alcohol .. because it makes parties more interesting. JUST KIDDING.Fear is like alcohol because it clouds our judgement. And when we...
2 min read
In this week's post I want to talk about one of the drivers for strategic overwhelm. There's a few - strategic misalignment, lack of leadership,...
2 min read
Common sense is a real curse when it comes to solving problems. The Oxford Dictionary defines common sense as: "Sense and sound judgement in...
1 min read
Prioritisation takes place every day in every organisation. However, if priorities are not set at the strategic level, judgement calls are pushed...
2 min read
We are all flawed when it comes to making decisions. Like it or not, people are intuitively pretty crappy decision-makers. We often can't see outside...