As part of my interest in developing a philosophy that makes sense for me I have been enjoying a wide range of books. Two of the most recent are The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Power, Pleasure and Profit by David Wootton. Reading through their work prompted me…
The idea of establishing the conditions where executive teams can operate as truly high performing teams by surfacing their selfish interests with the view to creating shared intentionality occurred to me while I was listening to the narrated version of The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark. The Sleepwalkers explores the…
For many years I have challenged the notion of hidden agendas – not because I don’t believe people and organisations have agendas – but more because I believe it is natural and normal to have an agenda. By naming it as ‘hidden’ we create a power and strength to it…
In the past 2 weeks I have worked in 3 very different organisations and cultures. One an Executive in the C suite of an organisation in the European Financial Sector, another a Global Organisation seeking to achieve system wide change and a Not for Profit organisation focusing on working with…
As organisations we do seem, rightly in my view, to be very pre-occupied with managing change well. There are a myriad of books, articles and words of wisdom on the topic. There is an element of change however which I think we need to pay more careful attention to and…
For many years I have been fascinated by the thinking of ancient philosophers – not for any grand purpose other than to try and enjoy my life more and be a more positive energy in the world. One of the philosophers I am most drawn to is Epicurus – and…
“If you’re confident about your strength, you don’t need to show me by putting somebody else down – show me by lifting somebody else up” – Obama. It was while watching a video of Obama recently where he was talking about the work he is doing to develop young…
People tell me that one of the things they value about the work I do is the way in which I re-present common sense. I believe that the reason it is seen as powerful is because at those times we most need our common sense, it leaves us. A project…
Recently, I attended a Herman Miller networking event entitled, “Engaging people for Change”. The session was led by Graeme Rainbird, Senior Consultant at the leadership development/organisational change/employee engagement organisation Questions of Difference. Grame kicked off the session by asking us to engage in three rounds of ‘speed dating’, asking…
