Most of us have had the experience of walking into a room and noticing something that everyone else seems oblivious to; a persistent noise, a smell, a tension in the air. Mention it, and the response will often be along the lines of: “Oh yeah, I'd stopped noticing that till you just reminded
Read MoreIf you’ve ever been fly fishing, you know this. A slight change in temperature. A subtle shift in light. A minor change in water level. And suddenly the fish stop biting. The fly that worked beautifully an hour ago is now completely ignored. The fish haven’t disappeared. They haven’t become irrational. They’re simply responding to their...
Read MoreI often hear from people, at all levels within a business, about how the focus always seems to be on the here and now - the immediate problems, the next fire - and how they wished they 'knew what the plan was'. A short term plan would be great, and knowing the longer term plan would be even better. It strikes me that this is not really just...
Read MoreWho knows what GDP stands for? Gross Domestic Product. The number politicians point to when they want to prove things are going well. Up? We’re winning. Down? We’re in trouble. It’s the same with the stock market. Market up? Champagne. Market down? Panic. GDP measures the total monetary value of goods and services produced. It tells us how much...
Read MoreA frustration I hear over and over again from people in management and leadership positions is how their people are 'resistant to change'. I know it can seem that way, but often, that's not what's really going on. Peter Senge said that “People don’t mind change - they don’t like to be changed”. A short statement with a lot of wisdom. People...
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again.Spreadsheets are open. Fingers are crossed. People are hard at work forecasting next year’s revenue. Too often, I see a number plucked from the air. "Let’s try and hit $10 million this year!" Unfortunately, that $10 million can look very different depending on how you measure
Read MoreEach January, the Edelman Trust Barometer is published with a presentation at Davos. Now in its 26th year, it has become one of the most reliable lenses we have for understanding how people feel about the institutions that shape their lives - business, government, media, and
Read MoreSpoiler: It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions. We started out by asking it simple stuff. “How many board feet of timber does Canada ship each year?” Not bad. Then we got more ambitious. “Who are the three main purchasing contacts at Caterpillar?” Bit of a swing and a miss. And eventually: “Design a...
Read MoreWell, here we are, almost half way through January already. That means that if you were one of the roughly 40% of people that make New Year Resolutions, there's a 1 in 4 chance that you have given up on your resolution already, and by the end of January, there's a 50% chance you will have given up. If you stick it out past the end of the month,...
Read MoreBack in December, I asked you to think about your big priorities for 2026 - the ones that matter, the ones that keep getting pushed down the list. Now here we are. First full week of the year. Clean calendar. Blank page. Green light. For a lot of CEOs we work with, the answer isn’t new ideas. It’s old ones - important initiatives that have been...
Read More