Blog

Articles and think pieces on life, work and leadership. Subscribe for more.

Subscribe

Join 12,000+ subscribers who get fresh new content.

Wednesday Wisdom (10)

2 min read

Let go of the good

Are you a hoarder? A minimalist? Or something in between?

2 min read

All change is people change

I have a theory about change: All change is people change.

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...

2 min read

Strategy needs space

Strategy needs space. Time, headspace, and physical space. I’ve just returned to New Zealand after a few days of professional development in...

2 min read

6 tips for leading through uncertainty

Have you ever heard that old saying: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”? I’ve had a jampacked few weeks facilitating strategy...

2 min read

Embrace your journey

I received a great message over the weekend that made my day. I’d just had a total fail of an attempted trail run, and I was feeling all dark and...

3 min read

Make changes, not excuses

I used to work with this chick that drove me mental. Let’s call her Vicki. She was the perennial victim – you know the type, had something new to...

2 min read

Resilient people need resilient organisations

There’s a parenting meme doing the rounds that really hit me in the feels recently. It goes “One day I’ll be happy my daughter is an independent,...