At first glance, Purpose Statements are a great thing. They serve to articulate a company’s reason for being, beyond maximising profits for investors. But these seemingly innocuous positive statements are a double-edged sword, carrying the potential to enable megalomaniac tendencies, fanatic tunnel-vision and purpose-washing. Now, I don’t mean to demonise…

Over the past 6 weeks, we surveyed 175 teams to uncover which Cultural Viruses were most prevalent as we wrapped up 2020. And the results are in. …

When a co-located team transitions to remote work, some of the biggest challenges are miscommunication, visibility on progress, and staying motivated. On top of these team challenges, a sudden transition can also impact our individual productivity as our well being and focus suffer. We suggest three practices you can implement…

As the world grounds to a pause, many are wondering what will happen next. Events will have been cancelled, business meetings won’t have happened, deals not signed, sales not made. For many, the numbers will look bleak. Many will have to rethink their jobs and potentially their life-styles. But there…

Have you ever been to a gastronomic restaurant and had the waiter artfully place the napkin in your lap? Did you notice that you had stopped talking with your dinner companions? It’s a perfect example of rules over principles. In high-end restaurants, service is meant to be seamless and cover…

The most important platform in your organization isn’t people. It’s conversation. You can’t build upon individual people but you can build upon the conversations among them. Equally, you can’t design people but you can design conversations or, more precisely, you can design the framing and platforms for conversations. You can…

After four days of back pain, I decided to visit an osteopath — a physician specialising in the spine, joints and the muscles. I barely managed to crawl my way to her practice supporting myself with an umbrella. Once there, she started inquiring about everything from car accidents and stress…

Feedback advice has experienced little change in years, with the usual method being ‘the feedback sandwich’ — start with something positive, then follow with constructive criticism, and close by another positive. Although this advice is well suited for certain cultures, we increasingly operate in intercultural environments, and the top-down structures…

The current mantra goes, empower your teams and everything will be alright. However. . . Constant reorganisations and the raising complexity of work means teams tend to be increasingly short-lived and projects require input from external experts as much as internal ones. Moreover, a growing proportion of workers demand flexible…