‘But why?’ can be two exasperating words, words that chisel away at parental resolve like water dripping on a tin roof. Of course the fact that they are used in a highly concentrated way at around the three-year benchmark makes it even more unfair and harder to endure. But that is the way it is [...]
The South African, the Australian and the Blonde: The flawed maxim of leadership
Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they more often than not repeat exactly what you shouldn’t have said. In response to the Sunday School (what a terrible name for any freedom loving kid! – it should have been ditched decades ago) teacher’s question of who in the class would like to stand up and repeat [...]
Generation Why And All Their Potential
Every generation thinks that the one that comes after them are somehow going to ruin the planet, the business or the ‘system’ by causing chaos, disrupting the way things ‘have always been done’ and generally making everybody ‘who knows what’s going’ life on a lot of misery. I always remember my Silent/ Boomer cusper mother [...]
Should Loyalty be Rewarded?
I wonder how many of you reading this blog have received benefits for your loyalty to a company or service? There are many loyalty programmes around today, some good and others pretty average. To me it seems such an easy platform for companies and services’ to acknowledge the public, who continually support them – yet [...]
Note to Leaders: You are not alone
How often have you heard those in leadership positions utter the mantra, ‘It’s lonely at the top’? They usually serve it up in a sort of self-congratulatory and somewhat condescending manner that expects no one but themselves to really understand. It is almost as if the mantra is the coded password to an exclusive club [...]
Teaching Generation Why?
At the start of a new academic year in South Africa, I thought it would be a good idea to give teachers some things to think about for teaching Generation Why successfully. However, many of the observations can be applied to managers, team leaders, corporate trainers, human resource practitioners, departmental heads and even parents, with [...]
What can beer teach us about systems?
The Beer Game was invented by MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s and has since been used in academic and corporate fields of study alike to demonstrate on a practical level what it means to think in systems. You start out as a beer retailer who orders from the wholesaler who in turn [...]
Making the most of IM in your business
Our team in the UK have recently been involved in analysing the results of a new survey released earlier this week by Symantec. It focused on the issue of instant messaging, and discovered that although many people understand the benefits of using IM in business, not many companies have made its use easy or acceptable. [...]
Exploring the Future: What Leaders Need to Learn
Sitting with two of my kids the other day I asked them, “so what can we learn from the great Explorers of the past?” – a probing question fueled by something I was reading at the time. “Like the guys who sailed around?” responded one of the Saplings … (this is what I get for [...]
Why people follow brands on social media – insights for social marketers
I was watching a video by one of Microsoft UK’s top digital marketing strategists (you can too, it’s available on YouTube, courtesy of Digital Surrey). In it, he shows research about why people follow brands on social media. It’s very insightful. Before you look at it, ask yourself this: why do you (or would you) [...]
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