How to Stay Resilient in a Difficult Job
A practical, science-informed guide to staying resilient, motivated, and mentally steady in a difficult job with poor management, shift work, low morale, or constant stress.
One room at a time: the radical simplicity of local citizenship
We often wait for grand changes to happen elsewhere, but real transformation occurs in our immediate interactions. Exploring the wisdom of "one room at a time," we discuss how taking ownership of your current environment, whether a boardroom or a living room, is the ultimate act of citizenship.
The radical act of acknowledgement: why saying hello is a basic citizenship skill
Saying hello is more than just a greeting; it is a declaration of shared humanity. We explore how the simple act of acknowledging strangers on the street, especially when the cultural norm is to look away—, builds the social fabric of our neighbourhoods. By moving beyond our social hesitation and reclaiming our presence in public, we can transform the street from a space of transit into a common space of belonging.
Letting go of being right: why certainty is the enemy of citizenship
Being right is a barrier to being related. In day eight of our series, we explore how loosening our grip on certainty allows us to create deeper connections in our workplaces and neighbourhoods. By choosing understanding over rightness, we move from being experts to being citizens who are willing to learn from one another.
Taking ownership: moving from a culture of blame to a culture of agency
Blame is a declaration of powerlessness. In the final day of our first week, we explore the transformative power of taking ownership. By asking what part of a situation is ours to own, we stop being onlookers and start becoming co-creators of our workplaces and neighbourhoods.
Choosing your response: how agency transforms leadership and community
Choice is the primary tool of the citizen. In day six of our series, we explore how moving beyond our automatic reflexes allows us to reclaim our sovereignty in our workplaces and neighbourhoods. By intentionally choosing a thoughtful response, we stop being victims of our circumstances and start becoming architects of our collective future.
Catch the story early: how vigilance transforms community and leadership
Our stories have a way of becoming our reality. In day five of our series, we explore the importance of catching our internal narratives before they limit what is possible. By choosing curiosity over early conclusions, we can build more open, accountable, and resilient communities in our workplaces and neighbourhoods.
Naming what matters: the commitment behind the complaint
Behind every complaint is a commitment. In day four of our series, we explore how naming what truly matters allows us to move from being critics to being co-creators. By identifying the values we are protecting, we can lead with greater authenticity and build more resilient, purpose-driven communities.
The power of the pause: slowing the moment
Speed is often a barrier to real connection. In day three of our series, we explore how slowing the moment and creating a pause allows us to move from automatic reactions to intentional, soulful responses in our neighbourhoods and organisations.
The wisdom of the body: why noticing and naming your reaction is an act of citizenship
Our bodies often decide how we feel about a situation before our minds have even processed the data. In day two of our series, we explore how noticing your internal reactions can move you from being a reactive onlooker to a calm, intentional citizen in your workplace and neighbourhood.
The sovereignty of the narrative: why we must question our story
Our stories create our reality. In both our neighbourhoods and our workplaces, the most dangerous thing we carry is a settled narrative. Learn how to shift from being a victim of circumstances to a co-creator of the future by challenging the assumptions you hold today.
Return to social media – 365DaysofCitizenship
After a five-year break, I am returning to social media with an experiment in working out loud. As my work pivots deeper into the community space and with the launch of the eYou platform, I am committing to producing 365 posts around the theme of citizenship. Inspired by Peter Block and asset-based community development, this journey explores how we can move from being onlookers to becoming co-creators in our neighbourhoods and workplaces
Inviting leadership: how to move from command to commitment
Inviting Leadership is a field manual for transitioning from industrial-age push management to complex-age pull leadership. Discover how human engagement is a voluntary gift that must be invited rather than commanded. This deep-dive summary features ten core takeaways on "Game Box" design, five detailed sketchnotes, and a practitioner-focused FAQ on accelerating organisational clockspeed and building genuine ownership.
The Performance Paradox: Why the Athlete-to-Corporate Training Myth is Holding Your Team Back
Is the viral "Athlete vs. Corporate" infographic actually accurate? Discover why the divide between performance and training is a myth, and how the 70-20-10 model proves that high-level work is the ultimate laboratory for professional development.
2026 Skills Report: Leading AI Transformation through Human Adaptability
The FSSC 2026 Skills Report reveals a massive shift: Adaptability has overtaken Coaching as the #1 in-demand skill. Discover how Learning Agility and Complexity Leadership can help you navigate the AI-driven "moving target.
How can I make my leadership training actually stick?
Most leadership development fails: research shows only 10–20% of training is applied on the job. Discover the 5 "shadows" that block behavior change and the shifts required to turn leadership training insights into lasting habits. Bridge the gap between learning and leading with a practical playbook of 52 invitations to act with intention. Stop learning more, start using what you already know.
What the evidence really says about executive coaching
Executive coaching is widely used, but does it actually work? A meta-analysis of 20 randomised controlled trials shows that coaching delivers measurable results, particularly in behavioural change, strategic thinking, resilience, and goal achievement. Here is what the best available research reveals about the real impact of executive coaching.
100 acts of connection: A field guide for restoring meaning, care, and agency
Organisational culture doesn’t change through strategy decks or mandates. Explore 100 acts of connection that help leaders build belonging, strengthen relationships, and create a more human workplace through everyday moments of leadership.
Why Your Team Won’t Change: The Architecture of Behaviour
Stop fighting human nature. Discover how to use Kurt Lewin’s B = f(P, E) formula to remove friction, align your team, and make behaviour change inevitable rather than forced.
The Leader as Architect: 15 Strategies for Designing Sustainable Change
Behaviour change in organisations rarely fails because of strategy. It fails because the environment makes the right behaviour harder than the wrong one. This guide explores fifteen behavioural design strategies leaders can use to shape motivation, reduce friction, and make high performance the natural path for their teams.
The Architecture of Change: A Leadership Toolkit Based on the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (v1)
Behaviour change often fails not because leaders lack insight, but because they lack a practical framework for turning intention into action. This guide explores the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy and shows how leaders can use evidence-based strategies to improve performance, shape culture, and make organisational change stick.
Beyond “Types”: Why vertical development matters more than horizontal categorisation
Finding your "zone of genius" is comforting, but it can arrest your growth. True executive leadership requires vertical development: the capacity to master what you do not naturally enjoy.
When leadership frameworks offer clarity, but quietly overreach
Leadership frameworks and assessments often promise clarity, energy, and better team performance. Using The 6 Types of Working Genius as an example, this article explores where such models genuinely help and where they quietly overreach, and why leaders should treat them as conversation starters rather than sources of authority.
Is your leadership making the organisation stronger or making you indispensable?
Most leaders believe they are building empowerment and capability. Yet over time, judgement, risk, and meaning quietly route through the strongest leaders. What looks like trust becomes dependence. The real leadership question is no longer how good you are, but how necessary you have become.
The Shadow Side of the Five Movements
Even healthy teams have a dark side. Explore the "shadows" of the Five Movements model, like when "Belonging" mutates into "Artificial Harmony" or "Aligning" becomes "Rigid Dogma." A diagnostic guide for modern leaders on how to spot and fix hidden dysfunction.
OpenSpace Beta – Niels Pflaeging and Silke Hermann – Book Summary
OpenSpace Beta is a radical 90-day model for transforming hierarchical organisations into decentralised, self-organising teams. This practical summary explains how invitation, Open Space Technology and peer governance replace command-and-control, enabling faster decisions, stronger engagement and real ownership in complex environments.
The Complexity Leadership Library: How to lead complex adaptive systems
Organisations behave like living systems, not machines. The Complexity Leadership Library introduces twenty-five leadership capabilities for leading complex adaptive systems under uncertainty.
Leadership myth: Every team needs a vision
Most teams are told they need a vision. But many teams quietly lose trust, clarity, and meaning because of it. This article explains when vision helps, when it harms, and what teams actually need instead.
Leadership habits that stick: why resolutions fail and what to do instead
Why do so many well-intentioned leadership resolutions fall apart by February? This article unpacks why traditional approaches to change fail and offers a design-based alternative grounded in behavioural science.
The mental model myth: why leadership thinking gets complexity wrong
Mental models are often presented as the key to better leadership. But neuroscience and complexity science tell a different story. This article challenges the mental model myth and explores why leadership change comes from interaction, not introspection.
The iceberg illusion: How this modern systems myth undermines real change
The Iceberg Model is one of the most enduring frameworks in systems thinking. But its promise, that by uncovering what lies beneath, leaders can solve complex problems, creates a dangerous illusion. It turns leadership into a technical exercise and overlooks the human, adaptive, and relational nature of real change. This article challenges the leadership myth embedded in the model and explores what it means to lead from within complexity, not above it.
Why silent employees are not disengaged: Debunking a leadership myth
Many leaders assume that silence means apathy or disengagement. But what if silence is something else entirely, a signal of caution, fear, or protection? This article challenges a persistent leadership myth and explores what silence really means, and what leaders can do in response.
Article review: Strategic leadership at high altitude: Investigating how AI affects the required skills of top managers
Artificial intelligence is changing the nature of executive decision making and redefining what leaders contribute. This review highlights four leadership capabilities identified in new research that will help leaders navigate the growing presence of intelligent systems in their organisations.
Start With Why Is a Leadership Myth: What Leaders Should Do Instead
Many leaders rely on the idea of “starting with why”, but this approach often oversimplifies how commitment forms. This article explains why purpose is not the starting point of leadership and shows how conversation, connection, and shared ownership build genuine engagement.
The leadership myth that transformation programmes save organisations
Many leaders still believe that a transformation programme can save an organisation, yet most large scale change efforts fail because they treat complex systems as if they can be controlled through planning. This article exposes the leadership myth at the heart of transformation, explains why organisations remain drawn to big programmes, and shows what research on complex adaptive systems reveals about how change really happens. It offers practical guidance for leaders who want to create real, sustainable transformation through learning, interaction, and shaped conditions rather than rigid roadmap
Why the leadership myth that a good plan guarantees successful change still misleads
Many leaders still believe that a good plan guarantees successful change. This view, inherited from a more predictable era, persists in organisations that value control and certainty. Yet research from thinkers such as Kotter, Stacey, and Snowden shows that in complex environments, outcomes emerge through adaptation, not execution. This article explores why the myth endures, the costs of over-planning, and the practices that help leaders lead through learning rather than prediction.
The leadership myth that culture is ‘soft stuff’: why this belief harms performance
Many leaders still describe culture as “soft stuff”, something intangible that sits alongside the real work of strategy, planning, and execution. Yet decades of organisational research show the opposite: culture is a powerful driver of behaviour, performance, and long term results. When leaders overlook it, they miss the hidden forces shaping how decisions are made, how people collaborate, and how strategy is interpreted. This article challenges the leadership myth that culture is soft, explores why the belief persists, and shows how culture functions as strategic infrastructure rather than atmosphere. It also offers reflective questions to help leaders bring culture back to the centre of their thinking.
Debunking the leadership myth that people do not like change
The belief that people dislike change is one of leadership’s most persistent myths. In practice, people embrace change when it is meaningful, fair, and well supported. What they resist is loss, confusion, or inconsistency. This article unpacks the research, explores examples from organisations, and offers practical questions to help leaders design change that people can actually commit to.
How to craft a compelling business case: a leadership guide
A business case is more than a technical document. It is a moment of leadership that creates clarity, builds trust, and earns genuine commitment. This guide explores practical principles for shaping a compelling business case that people believe in and want to support.
Why the leadership myth that leaders must have all the answers still misleads
Many leaders still inherit the idea that they must have all the answers. It is a belief shaped by the industrial age, reinforced by organisational culture, and sustained by our collective discomfort with uncertainty. Yet research from thinkers such as Heifetz, Senge, and Edmondson shows that knowing is not the work of leadership. The real task is to create the conditions where people can think, learn, and sense what the system needs next. This article explores why the myth endures, the cost of pretending to know, and the practices that help leaders move from answer giver to steward of shared insight.
Why the leadership myth “If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It” misses the point
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” is one of the most persistent leadership myths. Often attributed to Peter Drucker, it distorts his thinking. This essay explores why measurement brings comfort but not always insight, and why true leadership begins where data ends.
What gets measured gets managed: why leadership needs more than metrics
“What gets measured gets managed” is one of leadership’s most quoted lines, often credited to Peter Drucker. Yet the phrase hides a deeper truth. Measurement can guide or distort, depending on intent. When leaders use data to learn rather than to control, numbers become tools for meaning. This article explores how to build a healthier relationship with metrics in complex organisations.
People don’t leave jobs; they leave managers and other half-truths about why people quit
The phrase “people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers” feels true, but it tells only part of the story. This article unpacks the evidence behind the myth, revealing how turnover reflects not just bad bosses but broken systems, poor design, and misaligned purpose. Explore what really drives people to stay, to leave, and to lead better.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast: What the famous quote gets wrong (and right)
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is one of the most quoted, and misquoted, lines in business. Peter Drucker never said it, yet it endures because it feels true. This essay explores where the phrase came from, what research really shows about culture and strategy, and why effective leaders treat them not as rivals but as partners in shaping organisational success
Leading in complexity: How pilots, probes, and experiments help organisations learn their way forward
In a world of volatility and uncertainty, traditional planning falls short. This article explores how pilots, probes, and experiments help leaders navigate complexity, build resilience, and foster curiosity. Learn practical ways to turn uncertainty into a learning advantage through small, safe-to-fail actions that reveal what truly works.
How to make team charters work: eight shifts that build alignment and trust
Most teams build charters to align around purpose and values, yet the document often fades after the workshop. This guide explains practical shifts that turn team charters into living agreements that strengthen trust, clarity and collaboration.
Five questions that change everything – John Scherer – Book summary
Five Questions That Change Everything by John Scherer offers a simple reflective practice for authentic leadership and personal growth. This practical summary explores the five questions and how to use them in everyday work and life.
Sharpening the Axe: How leader and teams build their SHARP EDGE
Like the woodcutter who paused to sharpen his axe, effective leaders know progress requires renewal. The SHARP EDGE framework helps teams reflect, refocus, and stay sharp over time.
The Circle of Control: Leadership, choice, and the discipline of attention
Leadership maturity begins where control ends. The Circle of Control reminds us that what defines us is not what happens, but how we meet what happens. This piece explores the mindset that turns reaction into responsibility.
E + R = O: The leadership mindset that separates reaction from response
Discover how great leaders use the E + R = O formula: Event plus Response equals Outcome, to stay composed, intentional, and effective under pressure. Learn practical ways to lead with awareness, shape outcomes through choice, and build a culture of conscious leadership grounded in self-awareness and reflection.