What is Strategy?
Mike Tyson once famously said: “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” And it can certainly feel that way when we are ‘doing’ strategy. It’s messy, big and volatile. But regardless of these challenges, strategy has...
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...
Cultures of Recognition
“Social capital is fundamentally about how people interact with each other.” Dekker and Uslaner The Coronavirus pandemic has tested and stretched us; it’s also been the catalyst for many transformations in the work environment. Patterns and processes that we thought...
Growing Pains: What The Science Behind Hybrid Working Tells Us
Zoom fatigue, back-to-back meetings, and lack of commute time to decompress… Hybrid working has brought with it a whole new raft of considerations and challenges. And while we know instinctively and practically how much our patterns of communication have changed,...
The Social Animal: Finding Fulfilment
Many years of sociological research have identified a number of primary social needs that drive human behaviour. During periods of change and disruption, we can experience a particular threat to these needs, which may translate into anxious, stressed, and even...
Regenerative Teams: Rhythm and Reach
Few interpersonal relationships are more important to organisations than the dynamics of teams. It’s uncontroversial then to say that getting them right should be a priority. On the one hand, the look of teams has changed irreparably in recent...
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...
The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Shift is a Learning Shift
The case for diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in organisations has been made extensively. To start, in our practice at Performance Frontiers we see it as the right thing to do on a human level. We are also seeing that...
What If Your Boss Was A Computer?
Depending on who you speak to, you might receive any number of predictions for the future of work. Lists, prophecies, and projections abound. However, one universal feature we see amongst them is the impact of advancing artificial intelligence and automation. ...
