1 min read
The grey area
I often discuss the importance of brave public service—community-focused, impact-led policy and strategy decisions that change our world.
Wednesday Wisdom (10)
1 min read
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...
1 min read
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...
2 min read
Public sector leadership: navigating the layer of crazy
I worked with a team late last year who were struggling to reconcile what they saw as the right way forward for their agency, with the fickle demands...
2 min read
Strike while the iron is hot
I went to a blacksmiths festival recently. It's a bit out of the ordinary for my general weekend entertainment, but talk about impressive! It’s...
2 min read
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....
2 min read
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...
2 min read
Public sector strategy: community, not competition
There’s a common cliché about working parents—we’re expected to perform our jobs as though we don’t have children and parent as though we don’t have...
1 min read
Make better decisions by anticipating disaster
People are stupid when it comes to risk. For one thing, we don’t understand risk in our personal lives. We grossly overestimate our chances of...
2 min read
First things first: prioritise progress
I’ve been a productivity nerd since day one. So much so, that I spent the summer between my first and second year at university reading books about...
2 min read
Move on from project failures
I ran a Strategic Focus workshop with a group last month, and one of the participants alerted me to the most beautiful quote: “The past is a foreign...
3 min read
People want to connect
Last week, I wrote about how to get people interested in your strategy and change initiatives and the importance of being real and using plain...
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...
1 min read
Public time is public money
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...
1 min read
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...
1 min read
You have plenty of time - it's space you need
Have you ever achieved more in an hour than you managed the rest of the week? I have. I get a serious case of what I call “travel clarity” – I can...
3 min read
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...
2 min read
How to get people interested in change
Every time I walk into a workshop with a new group, I have a job to get out of the way: establish credibility and generate interest. Is this partly...
2 min read
Should the public sector have customers?
I ran a programme with the senior leadership team at Christchurch City Council about five years ago. One thing I noticed about how GMs communicated...
1 min read
Public sector leadership: connect to outcomes
Have you ever caught the show Undercover Boss? It’s just the kind of brilliant mind-numbing reality TV you need for a sick day in bed – which is how...
2 min read
New years resolution hack: aim for habits
Man, do I love the smell of a fresh year. Crispy new stationery, damp summer evenings, long days and warm nights. It’s hard not to feel excited about...
3 min read
The importance of timing
I had dinner with a colleague in Melbourne last month, who proclaimed at one point that “time is meaningless. It’s simply a human construct to...