Reading · Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation

There have been 100 editions of Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation since I started writing it in January 2023. The idea has been to look at how we can organise both effectively AND humanely. I submit that these two elements are not necessarily in conflict; there are options for leaders, managers, coaches and consultants which do both, with one reinforcing the other.

I have also been seeking to bring together my various field of expertise and experience – Solutions Focus, Host Leadership, accelerated learning, even nuclear power generation – to bear on current issues and challenges. These articles are often precipitated by recent events and happenings, which can give contemporary focus alongside the fairly classical themes which have run through my work over the past three decades and more.

You can see the ‘Top 10’ list of posts in terms of reader numbers at the end of this piece. What themes and conclusions can we draw so far?

There are several pieces based on Solutions Focus (SF), which has unquestionably been my main focus since discovering it in 1993. My commentary on the ‘Death of Resistance’, Steve de Shazer’s classic SF paper from 1984, is in second place with around 1750 views. I am very happy that this piece is high on the list; I think I was able to both reflect the original paper fairly accurately and offer a perspective from forty years on about why it’s so fundamental in SF thinking in all its many forms.

I was very pleased to be able to share my colleague Daniel Hummerdahl’s resource about designing effective micro-experiments for the workplace. Making progress with small steps is a key part of SF. Daniel’s background is in safety management and the Safety 2.0 approach (now known as Human and Organisational Performance or HOP), which helps make his work both rigorous (as one should be with safety), powerful and inclusive. Perhaps sharing resources from others is something I should do more often; educationalist Tim Brighouse’s list of 20 things that teachers do is in fourth place. This was shared in memoriam, and it is perhaps a shame I hadn’t caught up with it earlier.

I was also pleased to share Revealing Metaphors, Judy Rees’ proposed addition to the Liberating Structures set. Where SF works with expanding detailed descriptions, Judy works with the Clean Language approach which is about expanding metaphors. It’s an interesting alternative. My post on how a Japanese garden in Kyoto helps us understand Ludwig Wittgenstain’s line that ‘everything lies open to view’ is in 10^th place. Everything is indeed open to view – but not all at the same time or from the same viewpoint!

Everything lies open to view - but not all at the same time!

I think that leading as a host (not a hero or even a servant) is a key part of organising effectively and humanely. Spotting host leadership in real life (even if the people involved don’t call it that) is always illuminating. My experience with Edinburgh restaurateur Victor Contini at last summer’s military Tattoo was a fine example of host leading in a crisis situation.

Back in 2023 I was pleased to connect with Altogether Better, an UK National Health Service network which helps doctors surgeries connect in different ways with their communities. Their approach to working in the ‘liminal space’ between the formal world (of qualifications and standards) and the life world (of real people, stories and messiness) was inspiring to me, and to over 1000 readers.

I was delighted to finally meet Canadian therapist and thinker Allan Wade at the European Brief Therapy Association conference in 2025. Allan made an inspirational keynote where he urged us to recognise, affirm and amplify small acts of living and resistance to oppression. I was very pleased to organise and publish an interview with him afterwards, entitled Dignity Is The Opposite of Violence and published in the Journal of Solution Focused Practices.

And the number one article? My post from late 2023 about the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in UK football (soccer)! This was (and still is) a big talking point here; games were being held up too the frustration of nearly everyone involved while officials in a distant studio examined video footage to check decisions. I took an SF stance and looked at what worked in other sports with potentially similar settings and offered some thoughts about how to improve the situation. This topic is not (of course) restricted to mangers and therapists, which may be why it’s had twice as many views as the next post on the list. I even had a very polite email from a school student in the Midlands asking if he could use it in his school project! (The answer was yes of course – as long as you reference it and give a link to the original.)

A referee indicating that there is a VAR check in progress while giving a good impression of someone who is not in charge of his game!

What conclusions can we draw from this list? Clearly people like to share useful resources. Connecting SF and Host Leadership with current events seems useful. Building articles on my recent experiences (as with Allan Wade and Victor Contini) is as nice way to make these articles personal as well as (I hope) relevant.

So here’s to the future. Maybe another hundred posts (which would take us up to the end of the decade at the current rate of a post every two weeks with breaks for the summer and Christmas). Look out on alternate Wednesdays at 4.30pm UK time…

What would you like to hear about? Please feel free to leave ideas and suggestions in the comments below.

(The number next to the title is the sequence number of the article, starting from 1. The list has the most-read post at the top.)

40. What wrong with VAR? And how to fix it…

Dissatisfaction with the use of football’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR) gives lessons into how to organise ineffectively – and how it can be fixed

17. The Death Of Resistance: what is it and why it’s so important in Solution Focus

The landmark 1984 paper by Steve de Shazer marked a vital shift in SF practice and is still key in building progress today

1. Start here: Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation

Humanity AND effectiveness: a new idea, a life’s work - or both?

42. Tim Brighouse’s list of ’20 Things That Teachers Do’

The inspirational educationalist who was a powerful force for good in schools, education and life

82. Designing effective micro-experiments for your workplace

Small changes to workplace routines and rules can make big differences – and you don’t need permission to do them!