When locked in debate it’s easy to dig in and entrench our position. This is my position, if I explain it enough to you then you’ll come round to it. … Continue reading Practise being wrong
Category: General management
Companies taking a stand is basic humanity
In recent days a number of high-profile US corporations have publicly criticised lawmakers in the US state of Georgia for implementing voting laws that particularly penalise voters of colour. The … Continue reading Companies taking a stand is basic humanity
It’s good tactics to start with the goal
Recently I wrote about the need to state the problem for any solution—that is, when proposing or discussing some kind of approach or thing to do, it’s really important to … Continue reading It’s good tactics to start with the goal
The human bug report
The other day I was speaking to a friend about having conversations with colleauges when you’re unhappy with something they’ve done. It’s important to be clear, and it’s important be … Continue reading The human bug report
Editing down for clarity
While reading Kim Scott’s Radical Candor recently, I was struck by this (on page 93 of my paperback revised edition): The next time you spend 2 hours helping somebody edit … Continue reading Editing down for clarity
Creating guidelines using reverse engineering
Quite often I have to write down rules or guidelines about what’s considered acceptable for some situation. These might be bullet points in a job advert (characteristics we want candidates … Continue reading Creating guidelines using reverse engineering
Supporting difficult conversations
A couple of years ago a colleague sat me down to have a “difficult conversation”. He was unhappy with something I was doing, and wanted to tell me about it. … Continue reading Supporting difficult conversations
Determining success criteria
I used to work with a content production team. Every day they would write and source various articles, and every day they would publish a good deal of material. Then … Continue reading Determining success criteria
Embedding process in technology
Some time ago I was discussing the use of a centralised software system that had various configuration options (naturally), one of which would allow us to force employees to follow … Continue reading Embedding process in technology
Advice doesn’t have to agree
A colleague once needed some help with a work-related problem, and she spoke to a large number of people to see how they had tackled similar problems in the past. … Continue reading Advice doesn’t have to agree
