Keeping Faith & Keeping It Real. The Stockdale Paradox

As all around the world, lives are turned upside down by Corona Virus, and as families around the world are hunkering down to stand-firm in the face of the second wave, I was reminded of the mindset, and approach of Admiral Stockdale. Brilliantly codified and shared by Jim Collins in his best seller, From Good…

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Transform how managers manage

OCTOBER 4, 2018 Author, Yves Morieux, Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG Sooner or later, every technological revolution gives rise to an organizational revolution. To realize the potential of new technologies, companies devise new ways of working; those that fail to adapt end up losing in the marketplace. The steam engine was fully exploited only with…

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October reading sorted

The Fifth Discipline. The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter Senge. Helping leaders to understand ‘systems thinking’ and how organisations can tap into the collective consciousness of their people to drive transformative change in complex business environments. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your…

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Conversations around Self Managed Teams

In conversations whilst planning new ways of working for sales organisations, one of the team surfaced maxims from Myron Rogers, a leader in systems thinking. Reminded the team of how Self Managed Teams can and will thrive. • People own what they help create • Real change happens in real work • Those who do…

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Customers expecting faster responses. Are you fast enough?

This weekend I was cycling with one of my mates when he shared with me a story about United Airlines and a customer’s broken guitar in 2009. It was so impressive I had to check it out. “Broken Guitar Has United Playing the Blues to the Tune of $180 Million.” This was the headline from…

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Four truths about people & change

In briefing some new leaders involved in transformational change, we entered a great discussion around people and change. It’s sometimes nice to reconnect with some truths. Change can be complex and often engaging and creating space for cooperation can cut through complexity. People will support what they help to create. (Weisbord, 1987) People do not…

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Why the carrot or the stick?

It’s an open question to you the reader. Why are we attempting to motivate the 21st century knowledge worker, interacting in increasingly complex environments in the same way since the 19th century?   As business leaders we have more than four decades of scientific research on human motivation available to us, yet there has been…

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Reading & Listening this week

Podcasts The Big Sort Seth Godin presents why taxonomy matters. I use taxonomy (the practice and science of classification) every day in business, especially in strategic and transformation sessions. Albeit we use different nouns to refer to taxonomy, like; ‘segmentation’, ‘personas‘, ‘customer archetypes‘. Always good to hear how Seth clarifies and help us to remember what we…

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Finding the edge

In the pursuit of excellence whether in business, sport or my personal life, I like to continuously challenge where my real or perceived limits are. I often find that when I explore a limit, I find an edge. This edge is where I start to explore, understand and challenge the belief that is defining the…

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