Over twenty years of consulting has led me to believe this: one individual can disrupt a system but a vulture culture is a system whereby disruptive, debilitating, unethical or toxic behaviour is perpetuated or enabled by the system. A counsellor friend shared a story with me a few years ago that illustrates this in a very different system to that of a business. … Read More
A Long Time Coming
There was never a question I was going to go. I felt I owed it. To the organiser who worked so hard to track us down, to plan it and to get us there. To the friends in my year who had passed away; so many of them I’d hear people tell others that my year at school was “cursed”. … Read More
Fallen Heroes
It was 2001. I’d gone out on my own a few years before but still did some work through a large training organisation. I confess to being somewhat star struck by the account executive with whom I partnered. She was stylish, confident, resilient, and successful. When I grew up I told myself – I was in my 30s – I … Read More
Beware Razzle-Dazzle Mumbo-Jumbo Neuro-Speak Bearing Promises of Awesome
An email hit my mailbox this morning promoting a leadership coaching program. The content looked good. I didn’t know the presenters and the flyer said nothing of their backgrounds which immediately aroused my suspicions. Firstly I wondered if I was about to click on a virus-infested spam email. Secondly I noted the course was in St Louis Missouri … Read More
Julie Bishop: Gracious and ‘Glass-Cliffed’?
One of my close friends is a former judge for the Children’s Book Council of Australia and she once went off at me once for using the verb “incentivise”. She won’t be happy that I have turned the relatively new notion of “glass cliff” into an adverb. But how did Julie Bishop, a woman described by so many people on … Read More
Waging War…at the Water Cooler
It has often been said that as long as two people stay in a room long enough, there will be conflict. I think it’s safe to say that we could put one person in a room and establish that they are, on a bad day, a seething mess of internal conflict! We only have to contemplate what is happening … Read More
Wimbledon 2018 – Cause for pause to reject old paradigms and flawed thinking
I have been fortunate enough to travel overseas for work often enough that I know my post-return jet lag profile. I tell myself “I don’t do jet lag”, function well all day and then lapse into unconsciousness, somewhat impractically for someone who only does around 5 hours sleep a night, at around 9pm. However this week I knew one thing … Read More
Damned If You Do and Slammed if you Won’t
On my morning jog yesterday, I listened to a heartbreaking This American Life podcast entitled Damned if you Do. It poignantly portrayed the story of a Somalian refugee interned in Dadaab, Kenya who was ultimately compelled to return to war-torn Somalia because the only way to pay the debt to the store owner accumulated trying to feed her children, was to accept … Read More
The Even Darker Side of Sexual Harassment
It was 1993. I returned from maternity leave to my big bank employer and walked into a firestorm. The bank was facing the single biggest case of gender discrimination in this country until the David Jones saga would eclipse it almost 20 years later. The Executive finally realised we needed to change the culture of the bank. As a learning … Read More
CBA: The two-edged sword of comfort and cohesion
It was 2004. I was conducting a workshop with the top 200 Australia managers for a global sporting brand. I’d done my homework. I‘d interviewed suppliers, retailers, consumers. There was a need for them to lift their game. Retailers were angry about the supply chain and unreliable and inaccurate orders. Suppliers felt bullied. Consumers loved the shoes and hated the … Read More