Last year, while browsing my LinkedIn feed I came across TedX Pretoria’s call for speakers. On the spur of the moment, I decided to nominate myself, never really considering the consequences if I was actually accepted. A couple of weeks later I received the email that my nomination had been successful, and promptly had a “what were you … Continue reading What I learned from speaking at TedX
The number of failed change implementations in large corporates are staggeringly high. Our traditional linear and project driven change models simply aren’t sufficient in a world of continuous and disruptive change. People are becoming increasingly fatigued of processes that are aimed at “yanking” them to someone else’s preferred state. We will explore using Narrative … Continue reading Narrative & a new theory of change – a workshop with Prof Dave Snowden
One of the intractable problems that seem face most companies is effecting real and lasting change across the entire organisation. Many organisations are littered with failed change initiatives and more and more it seems that traditional change management methodologies are failing. Most large organisations seem to be profoundly stuck when it comes to enabling change; plagued with stories … Continue reading Enabling (vs mandating) change
A discourse that has been gaining prominence in business nowadays is around adaptive and resilient organisations. Some of the world’s leading business thinkers like Prof Gary Hamel are making the case for adaptive capacity as being critical for businesses today. In this HBR article the authors speak of Adaptive Advantage as the new competitive edge. Similarly, resilience has been … Continue reading Building the adaptive core of your organisation
People often think that a story has to be long and follow a particular structure in order to have impact or be memorable. This belief often inhibits us from sharing our stories, but it is simply not true. Sometimes, the best stories are really short little anecdotes. I came across this one in a recent … Continue reading A great story needn’t be long
I’ve been reflecting on how often we allow other people’s (and society in general’s) ‘shoulds’ to influence our choices and even our identity. Now I have to say up-front, some ‘shoulds’ are legitimate, for example, everyone should respect life and not go around murdering other people, and it’s probably best not to cheat on your … Continue reading Don’t allow others (or yourself) to should on you!
In the same “lost” Steve Jobs interview I blogged about last week, he shares this anecdote as a metaphor for team work. “When I was a young kid there was a widowed man who lived up the street. He was in his eighties. He’s a little scary looking. And I got to know him a … Continue reading A great metaphor for teamwork from Steve Jobs
