Blog
Take a look at recent insights in leadership, strategy and more.
What’s the difference between an answer and an essential condition for success?
The contributors round the table are, in turns, articulate and persuasive in their advocacy of their particular way of looking at the problem and their approach to its solution. After all, their...
When someone isn’t taking in what you’re saying, what do you do?
Picture this... The tone of voice changes: The “uh-uh”s and “yes”s are still there, but they have a hollow sound to them. The nods of the head are automatic. The gaze is no longer intent. He’s gone....
How much learning do we need to make something different happen?
“If you are not seeing things properly, you have no hope of any sort of breakthrough,” so wrote Joshua Cooper Ramo in his thought-provoking book “The Age of the Unthinkable”, quoting the Buddhist...
In role models, do you notice your weaknesses or your strengths?
As we look at our role models, it’s easy to notice the pieces of their capability that we don’t have, or don’t have yet. Not so obvious in the picture—in fact, not visible at all—is what we have...
Ever wonder why some discussions go round in circles?
... and what to do about it? You’ll have been there, I’m sure... The conversation waxes and wanes, ranges about, goes round and round, without anybody ever seeming to “nail” the issue. Nobody falls...
What could an engineer possibly bring to relationship skills?
In three words—system and structure—though that’s perhaps not for everyone. My apparent shift from engineering to relationships seems to fascinate. The typical introduction goes like this: “He is an...
The trouble with “gaming” the system
The meeting starts in the late afternoon—to prepare for the big one the following day. The purpose is to “spin” the numbers to get the outcome we want in the meeting tomorrow; to construct an...
Switching off dates on blog posts – good idea or bad idea?
It's seems a clever idea - switching off the date stamp on your blog posts. That way you can tweet about them later and readers won't realize they're not new. Well, most of them won't... The...
Relationship mastery: For the young or for the wise?
Relationship skills are sometimes seen as a subject for members of the younger generation—as if their need is the greater and older colleagues already know what they need to know. But it isn’t...
Change for leaders – Does it start out there or in here?
Messing about with key phrases on Google such as “change for leaders”, it’s very striking that most of what comes up is about doing change to other people—organizations, employees and so forth,...
How readily do you laugh at yourself?
(Occasioned by a certain politician failing to see the funny side of the routine humor dispensed on its cover by a well-known current affairs magazine.) What do we do when someone attempts a joke at...
Do you solve a problem when you can?
If you’re anything like me, your first reaction to the question might be ”Of course I solve a problem when I can.” But do you? Do you always make the choice to deal with an issue when you have the...
The trouble with “going off-site”
When it comes to a strategy or learning day, we’re used to the practice of “going off-site” to a venue away from the usual workplace. Our intention is to get away from the distractions of the office...
The mistake most of us make about NLP
We think NLP is something out there, when actually it’s something in here. OK, the name is unfortunate. It stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. What sort of mouthful is that? It simply refers to...
Your “power to”, do you use it?
We all have power to achieve things or to be a certain way, possibly more than we’re comfortable admitting. As Marianne Williamson said, "it’s not our darkness but our light that most frightens us."...