List

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January 29th, 2021

‘Self, us and now’: the very old, uncomfortable trio for a modern look at leadership

Hillel the Elder, or ‘Rabbi’ Hillel, a Jewish leader who died in 10 CE, is remembered outside the Jewish tradition […]

January 27th, 2021

Your mental frame, as defined by words, will dictate your actions. Even your values. Words are dictators.

The purpose of the organization is… The objectives of the strategy are… The reason why we have restructured is… From […]

January 25th, 2021

‘I am the captain. We are on a collision course.’

Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road.    This is a great story […]

January 22nd, 2021

Corporate grammar could learn from Obama’s spelling guidelines

Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road  ‘This isn’t a period, it’s a […]

January 20th, 2021

The Tragedy of the Obvious

Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road    ‘A man was leading a […]

January 18th, 2021

If in doubt, make it personal

Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road    Invited to present at TEDx […]

December 24th, 2020

Happy Christmas and New Year to the Daily Thoughts Community

Happy Christmas and New Year to everybody in the Daily Thoughts community. We have all had the most challenging year […]

December 19th, 2020

The Irish Health Service’s silent culture revolution was driven by ‘if-not-us-who?’ employees

Four years ago, starting in the Midwest of Ireland and replicating to other parts of the country, a bottom up […]

December 18th, 2020

Storytelling wins wars whilst everybody else is fighting battles (1 of 3): the ingredients

Today, we are in front of daily wars of narratives: political, social, models of the world, futures, concept of Man. […]

December 17th, 2020

The corporate mille-feuille. Layers of initiatives don’t touch each other

In a large company, what do a leadership development, a culture change and a business integration programme typically have in […]

December 16th, 2020

The alternative post-mortem of failed change programmes(5 of 5): we communicate too much

In this mini series I have shared so far four inconvenient truths uncovered by the forensics of ‘change management’ failure: […]

December 15th, 2020

The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (4 of 5): Too much vision, not lack of it

Fourth in the mini series:  uncovering of truths of the failure of change and transformation programmes via a reverse engineering. […]

December 14th, 2020

The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (3 of 5): Antibodies to start with.

Third instalment in the uncovering of truths via a reverse engineering of the failure of change and transformation programmes. Finding: […]

December 12th, 2020

The alternative post-mortem of failed change programmes. (2 of 5): It was fireworks and corporate flash mobs

Second instalment in the uncovering of truths via a reverse engineering of the failure of change and transformation programmes. Many […]

December 11th, 2020

The alternative post-mortem of failed change programmes. (1 of 5): There were too many people involved and too much debate. Not the opposite.

This five part mini-series (!) is not glamorous. It tries to uncover some inconvenient truths via a reverse engineering of […]

December 10th, 2020

The impact of unintended/extended positive consequences of organizational initiatives maybe bigger than the individual desired outcomes. So who sees them?

‘Co-benefit’ is a term broadly used in the Climate Change movement to explain the unintended/extended consequences of actions beyond an […]

December 9th, 2020

Agree conceptually on values, then abandon the labels as fast as you can and focus on their behavioural translation

In my Daily Thought back in September, I suggested that leadership competence-based systems may be better at providing a language […]

December 8th, 2020

The pharma company that forgot to display its purpose

A few years ago, I was in the lobby of a global pharma company waiting for my appointment. I sat […]

December 7th, 2020

A small company is not a big company in small. In the growth from small to big, the trouble is in the middle.

Small, sometimes entrepreneurial companies (small and entrepreneurial are not the same) enjoy ways of working that are fit for their […]

December 5th, 2020

Imperfect data, imperfect instructions, low predictability, high trust: just a model for business (from boat racing)

My very good client BTG plc created a habit of getting leadership teams together to race boats for a day, […]