Let’s imagine you go to the doctor with a pain all across your lower back and down your left leg. When you go into the doctor, you sit down and say, ‘I know exactly what I need, Doc. I’ve got this pain; if you’ll just do me a prescription for these specific named...
Do you find yourself complaining that you spend much of your time ‘firefighting’? It’s seems to be one of the diseases of the busy times we live in. But what do we mean by ‘firefighting’ – and if it’s such a problem, why don’t we just stop doing it? Firefighting is...
Do you sometimes wonder if you are talking to yourself? You give instructions or make requests. People say, ‘yes, I’ll do it’ – and then they don’t. Or they do something totally unexpected and not what you wanted at all. Assuming that most people come to work to do a...
One thing we’ve noticed in our work is that the pub (or the wine bar) seems to loom pretty large in amateur theories of management. Problems with someone’s performance? Have a chat over a swift half after work one evening. Someone seems to be upset and complaining a...
Do you sometimes feel like a referee? Do you find people come to you with complaints about how other colleagues or other departments have let them down? Do all the little niggles of business life somehow seem to end up at your door, so you feel the weight of people’s...
Do you ever wonder why you’ve tried everything, and yet the people who work in your organisation still don’t seem to feel the buzz? You’re excited by the way your business is going – why aren’t they? You look forward to the annual state of play meeting – they see it...
Are you having trouble with people in your organisation finger-pointing and complaining about other individuals or departments? Just waiting for instructions and not thinking for themselves? Or seeming demotivated, just going through the motions? A natural and easy...
“All I seem to do is fire-fight” “I never get round to doing important long-term planning” “Someone is always knocking on my door needing something” “Work seems to be one emergency after another” Do these phrases sound familiar to you? Here’s how we addressed these...
In marketing our services to businesses large and small, I’ve noticed something interesting – there’s a widespread confusion of ‘organisation development’ with ‘HR’. Organisation development (OD) is the process of building an organisation as a whole. OD specialists...
We can learn a great deal from organisations whose strong and adaptive ownership cultures give them a powerful competitive edge. Here are our top 10 lessons: Leadership is critical in classifying and maintaining an organisational purpose, values and vision. Leaders...
Find out how to create and manage a brilliant culture that underpins a truly successful growing business.
Find out how to create and manage a brilliant culture that underpins a truly successful growing business.