News

Regardless of the size of the organisation, constant ‘busy-ness’ is still as much of an issue now as it was in the height of the recent recession. People tell us that their work environments are such that family and personal time continue to suffer and the much sought-after work life balance remains as elusive as […]

Let me share a lesson I learned in my early management career. I was always good writing at school. This prompted me to add ‘excellent written communication skills’ to my CV. One day my manager gave me feedback that my written communication needed improvement; it was too flowery, lacked structure and needed to be more […]

Same old agenda, same old format, same people speaking (or not speaking)… all getting a bit predictable? Meetings should have no hiding place. Everyone should contribute. If you feel your meeting could benefit from a livener and shake up, here’s a really quick, simple tool that gets people engaged from the outset. How to use […]

Have you ever wondered whether to laugh at a potentially racist/sexist joke? Does not saying anything against a discriminatory joke mean that you’re complying with the view expressed?  Knowing where to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable banter isn’t always easy in practice. With legislative changes and controversy surrounding ‘political correctness’, have we have […]

It happens to us all at times because we are human. Indoctrinated by processes to the extent that we stop seeing the bleeding obvious. To us the way organisations typically manage performance is a classic example. Process, process process. Ask these questions, fill in this form, assess against that, tick this box, do your appraisal […]

Everyone is talking about it, and with good reason. Patrick Lencioni’s ‘The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team – A Leadership Fable’ is an outstanding business book. It’s simple and powerful. If you haven’t already done so, we strongly recommend that you read this book. So what’s so good about it? It’s about successful teamwork – nothing […]

So here’s the challenge – as a training function/department you are expected to deliver a wide training portfolio to employees within strict budgets and often with reduced resources. In a nutshell, you have to deliver more with less. Good trainers know that developing great training takes time. Training designed on the back of a car […]

Following an interesting conversation in the office about the differences between the qualifications available to managers; we realised that there is a lot of vague information out there and thought it would be useful to provide some specifics and answer some common questions asked around qualifications. Why get a qualification? A qualification sets out what […]

In an ideal world, projects would come in on budget (cost), done well (quality) and done quick (time). However, this ideal is often unrealistic. Sometimes we are forced to compromise on one or more of these 3 elements based on which are the project imperatives. The ‘triple constraint’ is a great, simple tool that can help […]

Action Learning is based on his premise that: “There can be no learning without action and no action without learning”. It is an effective and efficient method of problem solving, thinking and reflection, which is achieved through working in small, facilitated groups, and then converted into practical action. Not only do participants solve problems, but […]