According to McKinsey, half the in-person programmes in North America and nearly all the events in parts of Asia and Europe have been postponed or cancelled. But as the authors say, companies simply can’t push the pause button on critical workplace learning, even as they rush to put employee safety first.
Read MoreIn this blog Mike talks about the transformation he’s seen working directly with a client, Active VMA, who are moving further and faster. As Troy, their Production Manager says “getting shit out the door faster than ever”.
Read MoreI found the process of exploring without purpose was good for my soul. We spend so much of our lives being purpose driven and outcome driven – I've got this objective by that date as a step towards that long-term goal. And of course, as an Achiever on the Enneagram scale, my need to hit targets of any kind is hard-wired.
Read MoreI don’t have McKinsey’s fabulous research resources, so I can’t prove my theory, but I believe self-awareness and a learning mindset are essential in any stage of an organisation’s development. As Jack Welch said, “when the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”
Read MoreSomeone was telling me the other day that they were sick of mindset. I’ve been a fan of Carol Dweck’s work for 10 years, so I asked her why. She said that in her experience the way it was being used was as a bit of a putdown by managers.
Read MoreWhen it was introduced at the Leadership table, he and the CFO rolled their eyes at each other. In their minds it was one step from hugging trees and singing kumbaya.
But now they’re sold, although they don’t use the mindfulness in public. We call it Active Leadership to distinguish it from personal mindfulness practices like meditation, breathing exercises and gratitude. What we’re talking about is mindfulness@work.
Read MoreAcknowledgement: I stole the name from a University Revue in 1979. It’s also a song by Sabertooth Zombie but you probably knew that. At the end of every decade we may feel that the human condition/society has lurched another step down. But the reality is much more uplifting: most of the poorest people today have better lives than a billionaire had a century ago. As we head for the beach and then gear ourselves up for a new decade, give yourself some reasons to be hopeful.
Read MoreThe HR Industry Benchmark Survey Report 2019 released in November identified that succession planning was a challenge for 16% of respondents – well behind leadership development, culture change and change management.
But for those facing the issue, it can be their greatest challenge.
Read MoreI was leading the debate for the cynics by asking why we should start with why. I lost the argument.
Being clear about purpose and values doesn’t drive performance on its own. But it helps you hire and grow people who get what that purpose is about and who you are. And it helps you dehire them too, which is every bit as important.
Read MoreThere’s not a lot to say about the result that hasn’t been said. That’s sport. That’s life.
But I was interested in how Ian Foster characterized Hansen’s approach. He praised his combination of high expectations, empathy and compassion, which I thought was just a fabulous definition of what good leadership looks like.
Read MoreCertainly, one of the things I enjoy about playing guitar is improvising on the spot, just picking it up and playing whatever comes into my head and fingers, creating something that will disappear the minute I stop.
But being self-taught cuts both ways. If you’re a genius like Paul McCartney, you don’t know the rules so you create all sorts of extraordinary music that changes the world, not just the music industry.
But I’m not a genius.
Read MoreWe want to empower people, let them get on with it, avoid micro-managing, let them make mistakes, allow them to fail, give them responsibility.
However, there are times when it’s your job to chuck all that and read the riot act. Only once, and only when it really matters. But in such a fashion that people never forget the experience of your displeasure. Anger, rarely expressed, can be the best evidence of your commitment to quality.
Read MoreI’ve been thinking and talking a lot about performance culture. One of my reference points is the All Blacks who exemplify a self-regulating performance culture
There’s one dimension which I think underpins everything else – the strategy of devolved leadership. This was developed very early in Graham Henry’s tenure.
Read MoreThe words came back to mind when I was thinking about high performance culture. I’ve believed for a long time that the only source of sustainable competitive advantage is a self-regulating performance culture. That is a culture that is able to adapt to its environment without being directed from above or being forced to change by external forces.
Read MoreEmmy Lou Harris has collaborated with many (perhaps even most) of the great recording artists over the last 30 years in the country/folk rock space. She said, "When you combine two unique voices it creates a third phantom voice.”
I know what she means.
Read MoreIn a recent AMP Co-lab meeting with a client’s team, we discussed both clear transmission and listening actively. Mark made a wonderful observation that sometimes listening is not conducted face to face. Sometimes the most important part of listening is to go away and think about what the other person has said and continue the discussion later.
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