- Great Uncertainty needs Exceptional Strategic Thinking - This war is creating LOTS of uncertainty, and in times of uncertainty, some good strategic thinking is the order of the day. I have written before about the effects of uncertainty (Insidious Uncertainty); we humans, and I include business owners in that, really dislike uncertainty. When fa...
Read MoreLast week, Andrew wrote about the 3 stages of growth that a company experiences. While a company needs to adjust what it does as it grows, it also needs to change what it is, and this parallel change in being is a cultural journey. Your culture is created by the people within your company. Cultures often naturally drift and evolve over time, but...
Read MoreI am a great believer in the value of a company being in touch with its values. And I am greatly saddened when I see those values distilled into a mere list of words that are written on walls and published in websites. And you know some of the words I'm talking about: Communication, Respect, Integrity and Excellence are a few of the common ones...
Read MoreMy name is Graham Birkenhead and I am a procrastinator. I'm not alone, I'm not even in the minority. It is estimated that 15 to 25% of adults are chronically affected by procrastination, and up to 75% of adults procrastinate on a regular basis. Not only does it mean that you put off doing tasks and activities that need to be done, but the knowled...
Read MoreWe humans are paradoxical creatures. On the one hand, we like habits - good or bad - where we follow routines, and especially if we did something that worked really well, then we are quite happy to do the same again, and again, and keep doing it. Eating the same things, at the same times, going to the same place for vacation year after year, a...
Read MoreIt's amazing how often I see people in leadership positions doing one when the other would have been more appropriate. These 2 words are often used interchangeably, and you could say that to use one word rather than the other is a matter of semantics. But, for the moment, let's just entertain the notion that they are quite different and being ab...
Read MoreWhen I was a child, I had a VERY active imagination (I guess like a lot, if not most children). I had limited exposure to the world, yet that didn't stop me. Every new experience provided opportunities to ask more questions, everything I saw on television (even in black and white) or heard on the radio, or conversation overheard, gave me more inp...
Read MoreI was once told that the only advice you should give is: 'never give advice unless it is asked for'. And that was by a person who seemed to have no end of unwanted advice to proffer. But at least that was one bit of valuable advice. As consultants, part of our role IS to advise, although we usually do wait for at least some sort of tacit request...
Read MoreUnemployment figures continue to improve; we have a little way to go before we are back to pre-pandemic levels, but we are moving in the right direction. Currently, unemployment in Canada is 7.5% (1.5m) and in the US it is 5.4% (10m). These figures will include people who are ‘looking’ for work; they won’t include the people who could work but f...
Read MoreWhenever the name Thomas Edison is mentioned, people often think about ‘the man that invented the light-bulb’, and most are aware of the many variations of his famous quote about trying to make the lightbulb work: “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”.
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