Change Management

/Change Management

How to unlock a narrow-minded person

I like to think that I am open minded, but I know that there are certain areas where I am far from being so. Take music for example.  From the days of Focus and German electro pop, right through the nineties and up to yesterday morning, I was not at all open to any kind of music that was not played on conventional instruments. But last night I was listening to a podcast about a musician called Richard David James, or ‘Aphex Twin’ as he is better known by many.  I gave it a few minutes, decided I was too [...]

2018-07-13T08:45:59+00:00 0 Comments
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Identifying with the team

With the World Cup well under way, it is fascinating to witness participating nations getting behind ‘their’ teams.  In seems that in victory and defeat there is a common understanding and appreciation that goes deep into our psyche. However, this allegiance and loyalty only works when there is a clearly defined competition, one team against another.  Wouldn’t it be great if, in our organizations, a similar allegiance could be achieved for a project team delivering internal projects? Just imagine how effective and powerful the team could be. It is the role of the Change Manager to try and ensure that [...]

2018-06-28T07:47:50+00:00 0 Comments
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What was your biggest ‘light bulb moment’ ever?

A few weeks ago, I invited a number of business leaders to share their biggest light bulb moments; the moments in their lives when they made their biggest discoveries or experienced their ‘eureka’ moments of sudden understanding.  Their stories were as inspiring as they were varied and really helped cement together the essence of intellectual leadership in the day to day work place. However, there was one moment with the group that I would like to share with you.  It was late in the second day and one of the delegates was telling his story. He was a little embarrassed [...]

2018-05-09T05:58:22+00:00 0 Comments
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Closed to new ideas

While doing my research for my upcoming lecture and workshops on Leadership, Intellectual Stimulation and its relationship with creating a culture of innovation and creativity in the workplace, I came across a video of a talk by John Cleese where, while referring to the work of Donald W. Mackinnon from the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, University of California, Berkeley, he talks about people being in one of two states ‘open’ or ‘closed’. I just love it when I learn something so obvious that I ask myself ‘why haven’t I thought of it like that before?’  - Simon Sinek’s ‘Why, [...]

2018-04-23T08:46:10+00:00 0 Comments
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It’s the boss who’s the problem

What if it’s the boss who’s the problem? And what if you are the boss? Well I’ve got good news for you! All in my 40 years in business I have never yet met the perfect boss.  I have worked with some pretty awful ones and with one or two great ones too, but never the perfect one.  This week I am preparing a two-day lecture workshop on innovation and leadership and in doing so, I find myself reflecting on leadership styles and their impact on creativity and innovation in the workplace. It’s very easy to blame a lack of [...]

2018-04-16T06:28:17+00:00 0 Comments
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