, ,

Now is the time to PROJECTIFY

After nine months of blood, sweat and tears, my book project PROJECTIFY – How to use projects to engage your people in strategy that evolves your business is finally released into the world.

This is no big Bestseller Launch…no Grand Opening (thanks Seth)…there are no Adword campaigns …no free giveaways for the first 100 people that click the link below.

This is the beginning of a journey. A consistent and persistent journey to share my ideas with those people who believe the relationship that a business and its people have with their workplace is changing. People that believe that creating businesses that are more focused on evolution than growth will be required to thrive in the highly dynamic business environment of the future. That the adaptation necessary to drive this evolution can only come by tapping into the depth and breadth of an organisation’s capability – by fully leveraging the skills, experience and thinking of its people.

Read more

/0 Comments/by
, ,

The Radical Humanisation of the Workplace

I had the pleasure of spending Friday at my colleague Mykel Dixon’s Business Romantic 2017 event in Melbourne. This event was conceived as a contrast to the archetypical business conference with its jam-packed agenda of speakers, carefully curated to serve a central theme. The event title was drawn from the work of its featured speaker, Tim Leberecht. Its design was far from the careful curation of a singular message. The other facilitators (a better term than speaker in this context) were as diverse in message, style and delivery as they could possibility be – from poet to performance artist to entrepreneur. The progression of the day was more an exploration than an agenda. However, the shared purpose of the event was clear – the radical humanisation of the workplace. Read more

/0 Comments/by
, ,

The 3 myths you must overcome to unlock the greatness in your organisation 

I believe that exceptional business performance – be it customer service, product development or growth and profitability – comes from operational excellence. It comes from a team that is constantly striving to be great at the job of delivering value to your customers. It comes from not accepting ‘good enough’ but from constantly searching for ‘better’ – constantly searching for greatness. Looking to create a culture of operational excellence is that search for greatness. Read more

/0 Comments/by
Make your past a bridge to your future
, ,

Become extraordinary by making your history a bridge to the future 

Most people base their view of what’s possible in the future on what has happened previously – their history, including all things leading up to the moment they contemplate beyond ‘now’.

While it’s normal to base our worldview on past experiences – and this is as true for individuals as it is for organisations – this belief that history pre-determines our future can create a chasm between current reality and new possibility. Read more

/1 Comment/by
Engage autopilot
,

Why putting your business on autopilot is a GOOD thing 

We’ve all heard the expression that a team or an individual was “operating on autopilot”. Usually this means operating in an automatic, unthinking manner – it’s a bad thing. However, I believe that creating and engaging an autopilot for your business is a good thing. It ensures that the business stays on course no matter what the external influences are. It also gives the business’s leadership – its pilot, if you will – the time and attention necessary to take a longer term view and plot the optimum course for the business. Read more

/1 Comment/by
shifts in thinking for 2017
,

The 7 shifts in thinking that successful organisations will be embracing in 2017

As the year starts to wind down, I like to immerse myself in the thinking that I believe should shape the coming year. My take on #BigIdea2017 is that more organisations will look to actively make their people the engine that drives not only the operational elements of the business, but also its growth, development and adaptation. In 2017, I believe we will see a fundamental move away from getting our people to engage in what the business values to valuing what our people have to offer the business. Read more

/0 Comments/by
,

Why Greatness, Not Leadership, is the Secret to a Thriving Organisation

I’m a bit over discussions on Leadership. As we often use it, I don’t like the term Leader. It conjures up images of someone who needs to be followed. We tend to think of strong leaders as the central point of control, someone directing the troops, with their hands firmly on the wheel, providing decisive decision-making. This makes leadership a position not a quality.

I prefer the term greatness facilitator. Someone that inspires and helps to create greatness in everyone around them. I think defining greatness as a quality and talking about increasing its frequency in your enterprise is the difference between mediocrity and excellence. It’s the difference between performance that serves your customers and the perception of performance that serves no one.

Read more

/2 Comments/by
,

Make Projects the Bridge between the Business and Your People

I have a confession to make – as a “project guy” I don’t actually love projects. I’m passionate about projects, but not for the reasons you might think. My passion for projects comes from what they enable…the greatness that they can create.
Read more

/0 Comments/by
, ,

Move Your Improvement Efforts from Intervention to Intention

I recently had a brief exchange with an existing client organisation that speaks volumes about how a great number of businesses are managed today – the need for improvement is driven by crisis. Instead of being intentional about pursuing excellence, improvement has become a synonym for recovery. More and more the manager’s job has become the never-ending search for the next hole in the cost report that needs to be filled or the next deviation from “the plan” that needs to be corrected.

Read more

/0 Comments/by
, ,

Is safety management today more cult than culture?

Over the last three decades, the safety of the construction environment has improved dramatically. Yet, construction sites are still one of the most dangerous workplaces the world over. As a result, today’s safety management efforts are focused on ensuring that no amount of harm is considered acceptable on a construction site. This commitment to the “zero harm” standard is now regularly included on company logos, plastered across work site and is a mantra that has become a part of standard industry speak.

However, all of this focus on zero harm, and the approach that it entails, begs a few questions that very few people are asking:

  • Are we actually making construction a safer place to work?
  • Are safety statistics and field reporting becoming a more or less reliable source of information to improve the wellbeing of our people?
  • Does it drive the behaviours and actions from our people that we intended?
  • Are we bringing safety and our work methods closer together or are we driving them further apart?
  • Are we making conversations about safer ways of doing work easier and more open, or are we creating a language of political correctness?

Read more

/2 Comments/by