Latest Posts


  • The Creativity Productivity Paradox

    You can’t endorse a top-down authority structure and be serious about enhancing adaptability, innovation, or engagement. Gary Hamel Employers are facing a conundrum: a generational gap in job satisfaction. Research seems to indicate that while Gen Z and millennial workers… Continue reading

    The Creativity Productivity Paradox
  • Analysis Paralysis and The Threat To Innovation

    A much delayed first post of 2023, which has been for a couple of reasons. Firstly I’ve taken a super relaxing break and switched off completely rather than my usual rambling around. I’ve been staying in one of those Caribbean… Continue reading

    Analysis Paralysis and The Threat To Innovation
  • Designing For Ambiguity

    When you introduce ambiguity, rather than control, into a system, people think for themselves and find a way to reach the right answer. Mark McArthur Christie The only traffic sign in the small northern Dutch village of Makkinga says ‘Verkeersbordvrij’ which translates… Continue reading

    Designing For Ambiguity
  • Why Big Teams Keep Getting Bigger

    Large teams, like large movie studios, are more likely to generate sequels than produce anything new Continue reading

    Why Big Teams Keep Getting Bigger
  • What To Do When You’ve Become A Legacy Organisation

    The outside world can push you into Day 2 if you won’t or can’t embrace powerful trends quickly. If you fight them, you’re probably fighting the future. Embrace them and you have a tailwind Jeff Bezos Highlight of my week… Continue reading

    What To Do When You’ve Become A Legacy Organisation
  • Turning Constraints Into Innovation Opportunities

    As we enter a further period of economic uncertainty we will undoubtedly see a slash and burn approach to cost reduction in many of our organisation’s. An impending crisis often triggers suboptimal decision making that tends to focus on survival… Continue reading

    Turning Constraints Into Innovation Opportunities
  • The Unintended Consequence of Putting People in Boxes

    The world’s population will reach 8 billion sometime in November 2022, and each one of those people has a different personality, different background and different set of values – making us all unique. You wouldn’t know it though if you… Continue reading

    The Unintended Consequence of Putting People in Boxes
  • Understanding The System Beats Recruiting People Every Time

    How much better off would we ALL be, if all the resources poured pointlessly into chasing talent were instead poured into understanding systems, and systems thinking? The Quintessential Group This week I got the opportunity to speak at the prestigious… Continue reading

    Understanding The System Beats Recruiting People Every Time
  • Few People Get Promoted For Asking Difficult Questions

    Research indicates that even when everyone within a group recognizes who the subject matter expert is, they defer to that member just 62% of the time; when they don’t, they listen to the most extroverted person   Khalil Smith Innovation must be founded… Continue reading

    Few People Get Promoted For Asking Difficult Questions
  • Where Do We Start When So-Much-Is-Happening-All-At-Once?

    Companies have been punched in the mouth, and whether they had or did not have a plan, it’s time for a new one. And not just a plan to deal with this or other viruses, but a completely reconsidered society.… Continue reading

    Where Do We Start When So-Much-Is-Happening-All-At-Once?