Communication

The Ties that Bind Us: External Social Capital and Innovation

Few partnerships could be considered more profitable than that of “Wintel”. Microsoft and Intel dominated the PC-era and led the market in a range of metrics, managing to achieve a continuing level of innovation which delivered better PC performance for...

Amplifying Voices: Optimal Feedback Loops

A San Francisco-based executive consultant recounts a conversation he overheard about Steve Jobs’ feedback style while at Pixar. Jobs would point to a person in a meeting and ask, “Tell me what’s not working at Pixar.” He would continue to...

Headwinds and Tailwinds

If you’re serious about diversity and inclusion, pay attention to the winds. Many of us have experienced exclusion at some point in our lives – a time we felt the acute pain of being overlooked, underestimated, or belittled. If we’re...

Leading Through Ambiguity

Are you climbing the ladder, spinning your wheels, or up the creek without a paddle? The use of simple analogies in business is widespread. They help us quickly grasp and communicate feelings, concepts, and processes because we all ‘get it’...

Trust in the Age of Affinity

We are living in an Age of Affinity and when it comes to work, people are attracted to organisations and teams that share their purpose and values. For leaders, one implication of this is the importance of finding the right...

The Power of Shared Language

Have you ever had a cryptic conversation with a close friend? The kind where you only need a few keywords and phrases for them to understand you? The kind that anyone else you know would have trouble deciphering? That quick...

Reading Between the Lines | Ask vs. Guess Culture at Work

Are you a Guesser or an Asker? It’s still a conversation topic over a decade after the question was first posed back in 2007 by writer, Andrea Donderi. Since then, this somewhat polarising cultural observation has found some legitimising status...

How to Make a Success of Succession Planning

During the pandemic, some leaders have found themselves in situations that have seen their teams depleted of people to perform important roles, due to the impact of lockdowns or other Covid related events. This kind of global disruption is a timely reminder of the importance of understanding the critical nodes within our workflow and of constantly building resilience into our whole system through methods such as succession planning.

Belonging – the power of inclusivity

Research tells us that a sense of belonging is the key ingredient in maintaining a relatively stable workplace. Find out why it’s so important, and how we nurture a “belonging” environment that prioritises inclusivity… Now that the training wheels are off...