4 months ago

Book summary: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

By Staff Writers

In Articles, Book Summaries

4 months ago

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18February

There are five fundamental causes of team dysfunction: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. These dysfunctions can lead to team failure. The way to address these dysfunctions is through building trust among team members, encouraging open and honest communication, fostering commitment to shared goals, establishing clear...

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Wednesday, 8 July 2020

Cobras and butterflies: dealing with complexity

By Joel Bailey

In Articles

Wednesday, 8 July 2020

7 Min Read

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08July

Complex adaptive systems can be particularly challenging when making important decisions. To help navigate these challenges, we have developed some guidance and a simple canvas that will help in understanding the complexity of the systems you work with, and to make better decisions within them.

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Monday, 22 June 2020

The importance of values

By Sean Craig

In Articles

Monday, 22 June 2020

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22June

As we’ve discussed in similar articles on both mission and vision statements, organisational values are an often used concept, but rarely well executed. Many organisations have developed a set of values, but very few have applied them in a way that truly and uniquely defines the way they work in practice. If you look up the values of any organisation, you will usually see a list of concepts...

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Tuesday, 9 June 2020

Book summary: The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

By Sean Craig

In Articles, Book Summaries

Tuesday, 9 June 2020

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09June

The strongest organisations are those that are healthy, not just smart. Organisational health depends on four disciplines: developing a cohesive leadership team, creating strategic clarity, over-communicating that clarity throughout the organisation, and reinforcing strategy through systems and ways of working. Clarity doesn't need to be complex and abstract, instead it can be achieved by...

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Monday, 1 June 2020

The power of clarity

By Joel Bailey

In Articles

Monday, 1 June 2020

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01June

Consider the following set of seemingly unrelated questions: When a company is recruiting: Should we employ this person?For an infrastructure owner/manager: Should we keep maintaining our old assets, or replace them with something new?When you sit down to start work: What should I work on today?For a nation or community: What must we do to respond to our changing climate?During a meeting: What is...

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Sunday, 17 May 2020

Define your organisation’s value proposition in five easy steps

By Joel Bailey

In Articles

Sunday, 17 May 2020

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17May

During a recent workshop with a client’s board and leadership team, a great question was asked which had everyone in the room stumped. We were discussing the organisation’s purpose (see our article on the importance of purpose here), which we felt was quite well-defined at this point; the purpose related to ‘creating value’ for a particular industry. Then came the question: “so what types of...

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Monday, 11 May 2020

Book summary: Measure What Matters by John Doerr

By Sean Craig

In Articles, Book Summaries

Monday, 11 May 2020

7 Min Read

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11May

Objectives and key results (OKRs) provide a simple and collaborative goal-setting methodology that can be used by any organisation, team or individual. OKRs comprise of an objective - WHAT we're seeking to achieve, and one or more key results - HOW we're going to achieve the objective. OKRs have successfully helped many organisations, including - most famously - Google, prioritise what's most...

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Sunday, 3 May 2020

Our favourite podcasts about work and business

By Joel Bailey

In Articles

Sunday, 3 May 2020

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03May

We love podcasts. They’re super convenient, cover every genre imaginable and usually free – what’s not to love? Beyond pure entertainment, we find podcasts to be a powerful tool for learning. There are many great podcasts covering the world of work and business that we listen to regularly that provide insights and ideas for creating and running great organisations. We’ve listed some of our...

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Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Our 10 favourite tips for creating clarity

By Joel Bailey

In Articles

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

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28April

Clarity is a fundamental element of great strategy, organisations and relationships. At its core, clarity is simply the state or quality of being clear, coherent, intelligible and free from ambiguity. It exists in multiple forms – as a quality of something (e.g. clarity in the way we communicate), and/or an outcome (e.g. achieving clarity on an important issue). In our article on the power of...

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Monday, 13 April 2020

Be crystal clear on your organisation’s purpose

By Joel Bailey

In Articles

Monday, 13 April 2020

6 Min Read

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13April

I have recently been reading about the history of outdoor clothing and gear company, Patagonia. There are a number of stories about Patagonia that perfectly illustrate the power of purpose in business. Examples include: Suing the US President over the reduction of protected national parkland.Abandoning their most profitable product line due to environmental concerns.Telling their customers: don’t...

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