I crashed whilst mountain biking in the Pyrenees last week. It hurt. Ten days have now passed and tomorrow I will have my tenth ‘first’ examination of the injuries. Each time the conclusion has been to refer me onwards, and at each link in the chain they have repeated the same first examination and induced […]
First published in the HR Director on 9 May and Insights (Chartered Management Institute) 11 May 2017 Our obsession with well-calculated and polished communications is nuts. We have conflated the ability to communicate well with the ability to do a good job. And it’s wrong. It is driving a lazy approach to understanding that is costing us all access […]
First published in The Huffington Post on 6 March 2017 After the First World War, much work was done to find a way to measure fatigue but it was deemed such a subjective concept as to be impossible to develop any meaningful way of objectively measuring it. It was not possible to fathom out the complex interaction […]
“I don’t have the time to do what you do.” The implication is that somehow I have more free time, a less demanding job, or fewer family commitments. I must have heard this comment said to me dozens of times. It’s nonsense. I’m married, have a family, and along with my colleagues, run a successful […]
First published in BDaily on 25 November 2016 I admit sometimes it can go wrong. It can hurt in so many ways. I was reminded of this as the bruise the size of a plum formed on my elbow and my battered knee swelled and my brand new jacket was shredded. It was a reminder that trial […]
First published in The Huffington Post on 9 September 2016 In need of finding a public convenience, the driver rolled slowly along the road scanning the surrounding buildings. As he passed the entrance to a shopping village, he swung the car hard to the right, failing to see the fast moving racing cyclist who was mid overtake. […]
First published in The Huffington Post on 25 July 2016 The illusion of facts If there is one thing I have learned following Brexit, it is the meaningless value of “facts”. They provide an illusion of credibility that rarely exists in reality. Brexit was a brilliant illustration, a wealth of facts and a poverty of reason. Whether […]
First published in Business Daily and The Huffington Post on 2 June 2016 Never has ‘to wash your hands’ of the problem been so apt. The clues to organisational behaviour can be found in the humble paper towel. We know context drives behaviour. Zimbardo’s infamous Stamford Prison experiments and Millgram’s obedience to authority research established this. Today we control […]
First published in The Huffington Post 18 May 2016 It’s still written on the whiteboard next to where my static bike lives. The previous night I was sitting at the dinner table, despondent, complaining about how hard it was to complete the training necessary to achieve my cycling ambition – to be the fastest tandem team from […]
First published in The Huffington Post on 6 April 2016 How good a driver are you? Ask any group of drivers and almost all will rate themselves above average. If that’s the case, who are all the bad drivers out there? Ask a manager if he’s good at his job and almost all will tell you that […]