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A Heard of Elephants: Managing Gnarly Stakeholder Issues

do a lot of stakeholder management, either building teams, helping to change how organisations work, or getting conflicting groups to collaborate. And it’s staggering how often the agenda and subsequent outcome of the initiative is driven, not by the leaders, but by the elephants in the room. The inconvenient, invisible and usually surly metaphorical pachyderms that people know are there, but aren’t willing to deal with. But you have to. In fact, if you want to do this well, start with the elephants.

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The Opposite of Work Is Not Play, It Is Dysfunction

Play is a biological necessity. We need it as much as we need food, water, sleep, shelter and sex. All animals play. Man is the only animal that sees it as either a luxury or frivolity.

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The Secret to Taming Your Messiest Problems (Part III in a series on Wicked Problems)

This is the final article in a three part series on Wicked Problems. If you missed Part I (the difference between Simple, Complex and Wicked problems), click here and for Part II click here. So you’ve diagnosed your problem and have most likely come to the conclusion that at least a significant chunk of it is…

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Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART II IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

This is Part II of a three part series on Wicked Problems. If you missed Part I (the difference between Simple, Complex and Wicked problems), click here. For Part III, click here. So how do you tell what kind of a problem yours is? Any of these sound familiar? The company restructure looks great on…

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Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART I IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Think of a problem. In fact, think of two. A professional one and a personal one. Problems that are of the gnarly-never-seem-to-go-quietly variety, regardless of how often you take a run at it. Maybe you can’t get a micro-managing boss to give you enough space to do what you can do, or you need to…

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Design isn’t a Development: It’s an Inversion

There is a lot of talk these days about company orientation. Is your company a Decision (Divided Hierarchy) or Design (Connected Holarchy) company? (Dave Gray). Does it have a Delivery or a Discovery mindset? (Gregerson / Dyer / Christensen) A sales or marketing focus? Is it business process or customer centric? They all sound distinct,…

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Want Real Innovation? Fire The Prom Queen Committee!

Why is consensus around new ideas seen as a desirable thing? Because it isn’t. It’s like kryptonite. New things are by definition disruptive. They have to challenge the status quo: to be heretical. So surely what we should be looking for is healthy controversy rather than consensus? After all, we don’t all agree on whether…

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Eyes Wide Shut: perception and change

You cannot consciously change what you do not consciously notice. Of course, we unconsciously change things all the time. We fail to notice the bin as we back the car out and change the shape of our bumper bar and the mood of the day. The boss is consistently late or didactic and pretty soon…

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Spellbound: when jargon replaces action

Have you ever turned someone into a frog? Of all the magic words in all the stories through history and time, Abracadabra, or later, Abrahadabra, is probably the most recognisable. It was the Word Of Double Power that represented the union of the microcosm with the macrocosm and roughly translated into the rather wonderful phrase…

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Change Mutiny: it’s not what we should do but what we’re willing to do that matters.

I’m still not sure why I succumbed. ANY CHARACTER HERE It was late in the evening. I was unwell. It was a moment of weakness. We had the same name. I must have been nuts. Even when Maureen rang me the night before to confirm the appointment, I didn’t rescind. It wasn’t until she showed…

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Archives of #change

A Heard of Elephants: Managing Gnarly Stakeholder Issues

The Opposite of Work Is Not Play, It Is Dysfunction

The Secret to Taming Your Messiest Problems (Part III in a series on Wicked Problems)

Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART II IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART I IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Design isn’t a Development: It’s an Inversion

Want Real Innovation? Fire The Prom Queen Committee!

Eyes Wide Shut: perception and change

Spellbound: when jargon replaces action

Change Mutiny: it’s not what we should do but what we’re willing to do that matters.

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