My Blog
This blog is for me, it’s my sketch pad where I think things through and work things out. Having worked ‘stuff’ out I think it’s good to declare it, so I am sending it to you. Hopefully you will also find it useful.
Latest Posts
Double-plus coming of age
“What one piece of wisdom would you give that people would want to share?” Mine is this: your capacity for success equals the conversations you’re having, minus the conversations you’re not having, multiplied by the way you’re having them.
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Calling time on the team away day
We were sent out to shout at the trees. It was the annual management team away day. It was a ridiculous workshop with absurd exercises, totally unrelated to the business numbers. However I did enjoy the shout, not sure about the tree and the golfers definitely didn’t appreciate it. And I forgot about it the day after; in fact I have only just remembered it now 25 years later. So much for team away days.
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3 simple tips for inclusive meetings
You want it to be more inclusive round here. You have your reasons. You have told people, announced it, even exhorted it. But what are you going to do, talk is cheap, to bring about that inclusivity? Exhortation isn’t going to cut it, they have heard it all before. Well, you could start with your meetings, you have so many of them. Here’s three tips that work. Take some courage, it’s a bit different. Some may wonder ‘what’s going on?
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Focus on the next lamppost
You got a big challenge ahead; you can see a large part of it. Its daunting, even overwhelming. I remember as a young trainee civil engineer on Howdon Sewage Treatment Works thinking how does the Site Agent manage all of this. The size of the task seemed incomprehensible to me. Round about the same time I watched a film about the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon and thought wow! I could never do that. Well, that was in the late seventies and I’ve come a long way since then, thanks to this little strategy…
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Just better, that’s all
I believe things can be better for construction people, all the way from the operative digging in the cold and dirt to the CEO dealing with disgruntled shareholders and everyone in between.
Who wouldn’t want things to be better for them self and the people around them? And in the process change things for the better. Here’s why and how…
Should leaders do tables and chairs? An example of a Curated Leadership Conversation
There is an opportunity to come up for air, breathe, think together and work things out – the things that really matter.
It’s really difficult, uncertain, even chaotic. Leaders swim in the chaos and know there is no single answer and that there is only progress, but in what direction? They consider as best they can, informed by conversations with excellent people, and they point the way forward and their followers act in that direction.
There is a place to have these conversations – it’s called Curated Leadership Conversations. Here is an example.
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My top ten reads from 2021
Here’s the best 10 books I read in 2021. And here’s what’s included: a career changing top tip from a serial entrepreneur, a deep meditation on quality, rediscovering our place on planet Earth – in conversation with a guerrilla, Unilever leading the way, numbers and measurement and the trouble that causes, marketing wisdom viewed 57 million times – there must be something in it, how to think and how coaching could change everything…
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We don’t need any more ‘heroes’ on site
For many years I was a big fan of the classic construction hero manager with their belligerent unstoppability and determination to almost single-handedly get the job over the line. Times have long since changed. Here I ague that such an approach is a sign of our industry’s weakness. And don’t just take it from me, find out what Nathan and Anne have to say. And what about the client, what sort of team would they prefer?
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We can adapt
This is evident. Enable someone to work it out for themselves and they will reliably get it done.
Tell someone what to do and how to do it and they stop thinking and it won’t get done, or at least not without you nagging them.
If you don’t know how to enable, you are stuck with telling and nagging
Few managers have a robust way of enabling people; the training has not existed until now.
To start to change your organisation, put 10 people on the course. To change it fast put 1000 people on the course.
What we do in Curated Leadership Conversations
Here’s my last blog post before Christmas.
In the New Year I start a series of Curated Leadership Conversations with the directors of an organisation. Early on we distinguish between ‘doing’, ‘managing’ and ‘leading’ and from then on we talk about leadership in the context of their business. Our time together is pure headspace and a rare opportunity to reposition and permanently operate at a higher level.
Happy holidays.