What are we optimising for? A critique of productivity in mental health services
Across the NHS, and certainly within the Trust I work in, there’s a growing emphasis on increasing productivity, improving efficiency and reducing lengths of stay.
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Articles about organisational and leadership development, influencing policy and practice and strengthening innovation systems.
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Understanding 'lateral relations' in the workplace
We often frame some of the trickiest problems at work as failures of leaders and leadership.
Boiled potatoes and mushy peas: incohesion in groups
Reflections on Earl Hopper’s fourth basic assumption
Revenge in organisations
We live in a world where revenge is increasingly normalised - in politics, in media and in public discourse.
Holding your nerve: humanitarian decision-making in the wake of Myanmar’s earthquake
In the early hours of Friday morning, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar.
Governance as strategy
How an organisation's internal capacity shapes its ability to influence and engage externally
Troublemaker or truth-teller?
Why difficult people might be voicing unspoken anxieties in teams and organisations
Investing in leaders: how to know if development programmes actually work
Leadership development programmes are everywhere and consume huge amounts of money.
Why traditional leadership training falls short and what to do instead?
What is Leadership?
The digital workplace: navigating challenges and possibilities
The way we work has undergone a significant transformation.
Navigating endings: what a consultancy closure reveals about organisations
Like many people receiving funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), I experienced an ending a couple of weeks ago - a rather abrupt one - to a research project I was working on.
Values in organisations: myths, realities, and a better way forward
Values.
The art of beginnings: entering an organisation as a consultant
Beginnings matter.
When purpose fades: why addressing the primary risk matters
Organisations often pride themselves on being clear about their purpose, seeing it as a guiding principle for what they do.
Goddess Durga: what Eastern mysticism can teach us about the tricky process of relating to others
The festival, myth and rituals
This is who we are
A reflection on the recent far right riots in the UK and their relevance to the workplace
Challenging orthodoxy: the political and emotional consequences of consultancy
Deviating from the norm
Rationalising the irrational
The emotional impact of change in organisations
How and why we avoid talking about the 'elephant in the room'
Even with the best of intentions, many of the teams and organisations we work in, experience ‘issues’ or challenges which can get in the way of doing good work.
Facilitating learning across research consortia
In this essay I suggest why it’s helpful for large consortia conducting research and engagement to undertake collective learning, what this looks like in practice, what people might learn about and finally how learning might be facilitated to improve the chances that participants learn and learn well.