The Perfect Case Study for Transition through Change

You don’t need me to comment further on the factors – cultural (“win at all costs/god complex”), interpersonal (team cohesion/loyalty) and intrapersonal (seething rage/resentment in a natural born fighter like David Warner) that I believe catalysed the biggest scandal in Australian Sporting history since an underarm bowling action. I’ve done so on radio in the last week and in my latest LinkedIn post. However, … Read More

No Room to Field Bad Behaviour

This week we’ve seen it plastered across headline after headline. We’ve read the stories about Darren Lehmann claiming he had no idea what was going on and whilst I have to say I believe him (based primarily on his unprintable expletive-laden enquiry of Peter Handscomb when he saw the disturbing vision of Cam Bancroft) , this doesn’t excuse him. We’ve … Read More

Storytelling as an Influence Strategy

In the space of a work week we may find ourselves having to shift from trainer, to facilitator to keynoter to consultant; making allowance for varying paradigms of power, presence and expertise and perpetually judged by how well we do that. Yet with the challenge, the responsibility, the skills, patience, energy and empathy required comes an extraordinary privilege. Whether it … Read More

Generations or Generalisations?

I’d like to think I know something about so-called Millennials. I have four of them at home. I’d like to think I know something about Baby Boomers. Many of my clients are boomers. As for me, I like to think of myself as a Gen X trapped in a baby boomer body but that’s for another time. We constantly hear … Read More

A Reminder that Black and White aren’t the Only Colours

Photo by Getty I must admit I did a double take when I learnt the news. A part of me groaned inwardly. Was it a smart decision? Do we need the grief? Will people see the ‘frame’ or just the convenient canvas? I could hear the trashy (but clever) memes. And I could see the pain of people I know and … Read More

When looking on the bright side ain’t so bright

There is no doubt we all can be placed on a continuum of optimistic to pessimistic. That is not to say we will have the same predictable reaction to everything, but we may tend to lean one way, to the middle or to the other. Some people have a voracious change appetite that manifests as a genuine restlessness to be … Read More

Organisational Psychologists – Staying Relevant

OK, we may be domiciled within an HR department, labelled with varied nomenclature from Personnel Services to Employee Relations, People and Culture to Organisational Capability. Each label will presumably reflect the orientations of that organisation. The titles aside, whether or not the heads of our Business Units, Divisions or Branches sit on the organisation’s senior leadership team will say a … Read More

Struggling with Juggling

Is there any more that could be written on work/life balance that hasn’t already been said? Probably not a lot and yet some of us need to hear things 9 times (according to McKinsey disciples) for things to sink in. At worst the whole balancing act thing is just that – an act. We may appear to be coping but … Read More

Time to take bad behaviour off the menu

I was fascinated to read the buzz last week surrounding the finalists for the Josephine Pignolet Young Australian Chef of the Year. Of course it registered that nine nominees were male and one female but if that’s merit-based selection at work and not unconscious bias, then there’s nothing more to say except that I believe the gender ratio will shift … Read More