The EU referendum offered voters a simple binary decision, ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’, an either/or answer to a hugely complex question. Neither was going to solve the problems we face in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, and either way a significant portion of the population were going to be dissatisfied with the answer.…
If a bat and ball costs £1.10 and the bat costs a pound more than the ball, how much does the ball cost? If the answer that jumps to mind is ten pence you are not alone, but you are wrong! Have another look (the answer is at the end of this post). The problem is…
Here’s a challenge for you and a colleague. Get yourselves a large piece of paper (a sheet from a flipchart or a broadsheet newspaper is ideal) and place it on the floor. Now, the challenge is for you both to stand on the paper, but without being able to touch one another. Sounds impossible, but…
Sheryl Sandberg famously advised women to ‘Lean In’. However, when dealing with difficult tasks and decisions women and men might be better advised to ‘Lean Back’. Research has revealed that people who are having trouble making decisions can benefit from creating some physical, and thereby psychological, distance between themselves and the problem. The researchers, Manoj…
I am an introvert. That doesn’t mean I’m shy or afraid of what people might think of me: I’ve spent my career standing up in front of people. It just means that I tend to get my energy from quiet time, when I recharge my batteries, and I like time to think and reflect. You…
Stakeholder engagement is one of the key aspects of management and inevitably leads to some difficult conversations. The reality of human behaviour means that stakeholders will not always appear to be fully rational and amenable. When this happens it is important to understand why they behave the way they do and, if necessary, persuade them…
Leadership development programmes fail for a number of reasons, but one common mistake is to underestimate people’s resistance to changing their beliefs or behaviour. The problem with change is that you are often asking people to let go of something well known and tangible in favour of something which may be completely alien and untried.…
This month I want to return to the topic of conversations, in particular the quality of conversations. In his book ‘Social Physics’ Alex Pentland relates the findings of his research into group intelligence. Surprisingly, the most important factor in predicting group intelligence was not group cohesion, motivation or satisfaction, but equality of conversational turn-taking. Groups…
In a former life I worked in a big multinational organisation, with colleagues from Europe, America and Australia. We got on very well and felt that we were an efficient and effective strategic planning team. On one occasion however, as we sat fervently agreeing with each other about the way forward, an American colleague raised…
In the run up to the Rugby World Cup I happen to have been doing a lot of work with teams. They have come from a variety of sectors but shared a common theme: grappling with changes to their structure at a time of considerable flux in their business environment. A not uncommon occurrence these…