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

Just check in, to see what condition your condition is in

25th January 2021

What do BIM, The Construction Playbook and my weekly confidence Zooms have in common? They are tools, techniques and strategies used as interventions for improvement. There is something about interventions not widely understood. I am going to share it with you in this post. What’s different about BIM, Playbook and my weekly Zooms? I think my Zoom session will make the biggest difference to your success, here’s why ….

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John’s lost it. It’s normal. But what can he do about it?

18th January 2021

What if your confidence is down? First up, its normal, take it easy. Our confidence is dynamic, it goes up and down. Secondly, lacking confidence we lose clarity of thought and we produce less or we don’t inspire others to produce. It’s costly, pay attention! Third up, you can do something about it. You can protect your confidence with easy steps, things you like doing. Here’s how…

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How to protect your confidence in tricky times

11th January 2021

I don’t know about you but when my confidence is down I sit there for ages procrastinating and worrying. And I don’t get much done. I know I am not alone. And confidence is down right now, what with all the stuff going on. What if you are procrastinating and not getting much done, what if your people are sitting there, looking busy, though not producing? Confidence is the lifeblood of business, but how do you protect it? Here’s how…

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What is the essence of coaching?

21st December 2020

We are going to change the construction industry from the bottom up. To do that we need to change the default conversation. Command, control and blame as a conversational style does not work; its crushing. You have felt it. There is a better way to gain commitment and get things done – big or small. Use a coaching style of conversation. But what is coaching?

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How to kill off talent

23rd November 2020

My Big Idea is taking shape, now I need to get young professionals on board with it. I’ve suggested ‘what’s in it for them’ though I don’t really know. So, I am reaching out here to find out and then I will shape things to fit. But first let’s see how to kill off talent, cos we don’t want to do that, right?

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If it works in sport, it can work in construction

16th November 2020

I’ve got a big idea. It’s about changing the construction industry from the ground up, and energising thousands of young professionals and their organisations along the way.
For the last eight weeks I have been articulating this Big Idea, here in my blog.
In this post we get down to brass tacks including: costs, benefits and executive legacies.

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Psychological safety and the dangers of deferential silence

9th November 2020

You could change the organisation for the better, perhaps together we could change the construction industry; though not without psychological safety.

Maybe that’s the elephant in the room – you have something that could work but think it would be career limiting to mention it – there’s no psychological safety round here

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The high cost of unhappiness

2nd November 2020

In our last post we highlighted the opportunity for changing the construction industry from the ground up based on the survey of millennials we did with the help of the CIOB. In this post we see the opportunity globally. 85% of the global workforce is disengaged. My Big Idea has just got a whole lot bigger.

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What our millennials really feel about the industry

23rd October 2020

We wanted to find out what our millennials really feel about the industry, so with the help of the CIOB we asked just under 9500 of them. Here’s the results. It makes for uncomfortable reading though I am full of hope. This is how construction’s young professionals can make the changes they want and change the industry for good

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Coaching vs. Management

5th October 2020

When it comes to ideas they don’t come much bigger than this, at least not in my head. I’m thinking of industry change from the bottom up. I’m thinking, coaching on a grand scale. But what is coaching? Here, I distinguish between coaching and management. It’s about the nature of conversations…

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