Stop the cycle of repeated feedback. The CEDAR model (Context, Examples, Diagnosis, Actions, Review) helps leaders break the "illusion of agreement" and turn difficult performance conversations into genuine commitment.
Most feedback fails because of poor preparation. The BOOST model (Balanced, Observed, Objective, Specific, Timely) is your quality-control checklist to ensure every conversation builds trust rather than defensiveness.
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.
Groups rarely struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because their thinking has no clear pathway. This article explores how facilitators guide groups using clear methods and processes, from establishing context to managing group dynamics, so that discussion leads to appropriate and useful outcomes. It offers practical insight into IAF Core Competency D1.
Tuckman’s team development model shaped leadership thinking for decades. But modern teams are more fluid, diverse and interdependent than the world it was built for. This article explores why the classic five stages no longer fit today’s work and introduces a contemporary five-movement pattern for leading teams through complexity.
Effective facilitation begins long before a group gathers. IAF Core Competency A1 Develop Working Partnerships, invites us to build partnerships rooted in trust, clarity, and shared responsibility. This article explores the three strands of strong working partnerships, why they matter, and what happens when they are overlooked. With reflective questions and practical guidance, it offers a steady foundation for anyone designing conversations that help people think and work well together.
Stress in leadership is constant, not occasional. In the EQ-i, stress tolerance reflects the capacity to stay grounded, clear, and intentional while activation is rising. This piece explores why stress tolerance matters within the EQ-i model and introduces practical practices leaders can use before, during, and after pressure to preserve clarity, composure, and effectiveness.
Most teams struggle not from lack of effort but from scattered attention. The Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) offer a simple, proven way to focus on what matters most, act with purpose, and sustain momentum through shared accountability.
Social responsibility sits at the heart of emotionally intelligent leadership. This guide explores how to act with awareness of others, contribute meaningfully to teams and communities, and balance personal goals with collective good. Includes six practical exercises to strengthen empathy, fairness, and shared purpose.
Interpersonal relationships are the foundation of emotional intelligence. This EQ-i guide shows how to build trust, connection, and collaboration that endure. Through six evidence-based practices, learn how to strengthen relationships and create a culture of mutual respect and belonging.
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.
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.
Setting boundaries is not about control but clarity. Learn how to use boundary mapping to create shared agreements that build trust and improve performance.
Grumbling is part of organisational life, but when it becomes the culture, energy drains away. This article explores five research-based pathways leaders can use to shift teams from complaint to contribution, rekindling agency, pride and possibility.
In times of uncertainty, strategy alone is not enough. Learn ten practical ways leaders can help their teams steady themselves, build resilience, and sustain trust and creativity in the face of constant change.
Learn how to answer tough questions under pressure with clarity and confidence. A simple five-step approach to stay calm, connect, and lead.
Leaders often ask, “How do I leave work at work?” This article explores boundaries, recovery, role transitions, autonomy, and resource management. Grounded in research and written with a reflective tone, it offers practical ways to switch off and reclaim balance without guilt.
Most meetings drain time without delivering value. Research shows up to one third are unnecessary and 35% unproductive. This article explores ten practical yet human-centred ways to make meetings meaningful, focused, and effective.
Discover how Nancy Kline’s Ten Components of a Thinking Environment help leaders practise stewardship, build trust, and create shared responsibility.
A team member dislikes their role but refuses to resign. As a leader, how do you respond? This article explores five research-based frameworks that explain why people stay unhappy in jobs and what you can do to re-engage them with meaning, trust, and choice.
Burnout is at record levels in 2025, with two-thirds of employees at risk. Drawing on Maslach’s burnout framework, this guide shows leaders how to motivate burned-out teams by addressing six critical mismatches in hybrid workplaces.
When trust is broken in leadership, clarity and control rarely repair it. This article explores the psychology of trust: ability, integrity, benevolence, fairness, and psychological safety and offers practical ways leaders can rebuild confidence through convening, fairness, and community.
Town halls and webinars are efficient at spreading information but rarely build ownership. This article explores why big formats fall flat, using insights from behavioural science and group psychology. It also shows how to redesign gatherings, physical or virtual, so people co-create meaning, commit to action, and leave with a sense of shared ownership rather than passive compliance.
What do you do when one of your top performers is also the most toxic presence on your team? This article explores five leadership lenses that reveal the hidden costs, relational fractures, and cultural risks of tolerating toxicity, and offers practical moves to protect trust, balance results, and safeguard the future of your team
When one person dominates meetings, valuable ideas are lost, engagement drops and frustration rises. This guide offers practical facilitation strategies to balance participation, engage quieter voices and create meetings that work for everyone.
Hybrid work has changed how teams connect. Learn how to build trust, create equity, and design simple rituals that foster belonging in remote and hybrid teams.
Discover how workplace wellbeing drives sustainable organisational performance. Explore behavioural, systemic, and relational strategies to prevent burnout, boost engagement, and build resilient, human-centred workplaces.
Many leaders struggle with cameras staying off in virtual meetings. This guide explores practical ways to build presence, trust and engagement in remote and hybrid teams rather than relying on camera rules.
Discover how to run a Future Search that gathers every key voice, explores the past, creates a shared vision, and commits to action in just three days.
An Appreciative Inquiry Summit brings the whole system together to imagine its best future and design strengths-based change. This guide explains how to run an AI Summit and turn large gatherings into spaces of shared vision and committed action.
Discover how to run an Open Space: a dynamic large-group facilitation method that hands the agenda to participants and sparks self-organising action. This practical guide explains the process, principles, hosting tips, and real-world examples so you can create events where energy, ownership, and collaboration thrive.
World Café is a powerful large-group facilitation method that helps organisations and communities surface collective insight and shared ownership through meaningful conversation. This step-by-step guide shows how to host a World Café, craft powerful questions and design conversations that lead to lasting change.
Blog piece on Virtual collaboration lessons learnt as an OU student
Interesting tips on virtual facilitation
A simple sketch note on key ideas from Peter Block's Flawless Consulting "Discovery process"
Art of Hosting guide developed by the AoH community
A short presentation delivered to Nedja Petranovskaja's Remote Cafe Session on Face to Face versus Remote Facilitation?
CCL white paper on how polarity management can be used effectively in virtual teams.
Link to distance learning resources
A link to Remote Worktree a resource for remote workers and their leaders
Lauren Green has created an editable collection of icebreakers for virtual meetings HERE Worth a look!
Resources for effective collaboration
This web page has been designed to hold all of the links and resources from earlier posts around graphic facilitation. If you have any resources you think I should add, please do reach out via a post below or a message via twitter / facebook or LinkedIn. You can also email me! The resources on this page are in no [...]
Three sketchnotes on the webinars by Julian Stodd looking at remote working
This post shares some resources to support dealing with issues around loneliness and remote working
An overview of my online / remote service offering in a simple PDF.
90 Minute online / remote training sessions ran LIVE by myself - an overview of the service offering
This week I have come across a couple of different resources which may be of interest for those involved in virtual facilitation or learning. The first are printouts that allow participants to interact through the use of the colourful cards. Head HERE to get a print out. Thanks to Deb Aoki for sharing the link to these.. The second is a [...]
I am currently involved in helping a range of clients shift their facilitated meetings and training courses to online. Online facilitation can be more effective and productive if everyone is focused and making the best use of technology. Here are 10 tips I have prepared for those being a participant on a live virtual delivery session. 1. Maximise bandwidth - switch [...]
