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Business writing, Humanising business, Leadership, Organisational change, Personal Reflections, Purpose, Storytelling
Two Monsters
When my eldest son was three years old, my brother bought him a book that had been one of his own favourites when he was younger. It’s a book called Two Monsters, by David McKee and it’s about, well, two monsters. The two monsters live on opposite sides of a mountain – one on the east side, and one on the west side. They have never met, but they can speak to each other through a hole in the mountain. One evening, the sky is beautiful, and one monster shouts to the other through the hole, ‘Look! Isn’t it beautiful! Day is departing.’ ‘Day departing?’ replies the other monster? ‘You…
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How to Keep Your People Engaged in Times of Uncertainty
We had one of those rare family evenings around the dinner table just recently when the bickering stopped and we had a ‘proper’ conversation. My ten year old daughter asked, apparently apropos of nothing, ‘What’s your favourite feeling?’ We covered joy, laughter, cosiness, relief, gratitude … and then my thirteen year old son alighted on ‘Looking forward to something’. That fluttering sensation in your stomach, the way the air feels like it’s buzzing, the sky a little brighter … the way you can be assailed with this feeling even if you momentarily can’t remember what it is you may be looking forward to … and how it’s such a close…
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Purpose over Process: How Your Gantt Chart Causes Damage During Periods of Change
Change is coming, everyone in your organisation can feel it and there’s a general undercurrent of unease. We are not creatures who like uncertainty. We’re programmed such that our brains feel better when we can see patterns and predict the future. We like to sense-make.
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And they all lived happily ever after: Why change leaders need to ditch process in favour of telling a good story
So, your organisation is facing change. You’re in charge. What is the first thing you’re going to turn to, to help everyone make it through?
