Improving delivery through culture, mobilisation, and engagement
The more experts in a group, the more dysfunctional it will be:
Collaboration and how to get it to work at its best
Experts and collaboration do not go hand in hand. It’s tough. As the world becomes more complex, organisations construct all sorts of ways to divide us into like-minded silos. We have more specialists, each with their own way of working, language, and rules. We also need more collaboration to make progress and perform better. With the right setup, cross-boundary groups reach high levels of cooperation. We look at how to do this.
Why won’t they just get it?
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” How to use emotion and meaning to unlock the brain and engage people. Four routes to building emotional response, and four ways to build meaning.
The hard truth behind the “soft” side of leadership
Why do people resist new plans and what we can do about it? What new research in neuroscience tells us about what causes a dysfunctional reaction to new events and plans in organisations – and what leaders can do with this insight to create the conditions for successful change.
A Bigger Prize: the power of collaboration vs the dangers of competition
A summary of Margaret Heffernan’s book on why competition so often delivers the opposite to what we intend, and why collaboration so often delivers better outcomes.
A bias for action: building a delivery culture
Building a delivery culture. Failure of strategy is mainly due to failure to execute effectively. Only 10% of leaders think their organisations do this well. Six common features of cultures strong at execution – all sustained with determination by leaders.
Lost in translation?
“Vision without execution is hallucination,” said Edison yet only 15% of companies say they are designed and managed to execute decisions well. Seven practical solutions for turning leadership plans into effective delivery – a look at the best-researched components for success.
Grow: by making work more meaningful for employees and customers
Sodexo ‘Quality of Life’ is an example of building a solid, meaningful, emotional core to driving business. Six reasons to learn from Sodexo’s approach.
Employee Engagement – the “great hoax” or a great idea that is misunderstood?
The world is full of ‘engagement’ experts – all focused-on things we can put in place in the organisation, from better surveys, or how to use slack, to the art of storytelling. A Forbes article called this a hoax of immense proportions. It is worth stepping back to look at the original compelling research about what enables an individual to be more engaged.
Moments of truth
How to move quickly from principles to action. A practical reminder of a well-used route to identify, address and act on those key moments of high emotional energy that determine how your business engages with customers, employees, or any stakeholder.
The second mouse gets the cheese
Why CEOs tell stories to spark change. Is storytelling help or hype? What Hollywood script doctor Robert Mckee – and a range of other research – says about engaging people with compelling stories. Why the approach aligns with the key steps to successfully managing change.
Using culture to merge faster and more successfully
Avoid the reasons most mergers fail. Research shows most mergers do not deliver on promises – and culture is the key factor. Four practical ways to start early and urgently. Getting it wrong leads to 42% of CEOs being sacked following integration.