Have you noticed how people often fail to take best advantage of the opportunities they have in life because they are fearful of the consequences? Or rather, they are fearful of what they think the consequences might possibly be in some kind of worst case scenario, that they create in their heads. I know I've …
So, it's all over bar the shouting – or perhaps, given the apparently calm (in public, at least) way in which the three main parties are exploring their coalition options, it's more accurate to say, it's all over bar the very polite, respectful conversations. For me there are two things of particular interest in the …
What can be learnt from the UK Election? (and I don’t mean politically) Read More »
A while ago, on the train into work, I overheard a man sitting opposite me make a phone call. Now, I don’t make a habit of listening to other people’s conversations, but as you probably know, it’s not always that easy not to overhear them on the train. He was evidently speaking to a colleague …
In his excellent recent book "59 Seconds: Think a little, Change a lot", Professor Richard Wiseman describes research done in the 1990s into the effect of praise on children. The investigation carried out at Columbia University involved over 400 children between 10 and 12 and from a range of backgrounds. The key finding of a …
Following on from yesterday's rant about bad/ineffective/authoritarian/bureaucratic/secretive (call it what you will) management, I thought today I would be rather more constructive and put forward some proposals about how to become more effective in the way that you manage. It's about developing a style that I am going to call Managing with People, and if …
I spotted this article on the Chartered Management Institute web site, reported in the Financial Times last week: "A new survey of the workforce (5,000 adults surveyed by One Poll) highlights the three most common management styles within UK workplaces as authoritarian (according to 21 per cent), bureaucratic (16 per cent) and secretive (12.5 per …
I've been continuing to think about the whole thing of trust since my post on Tuesday, There seems to be a huge surplus of lack of trust around these days (Can you have a surplus of a lack of something? – anyway, I hope you know what I mean). We don't trust politicians – they …
Richard Wiseman's "59 Seconds" is an excellent book that I thoroughly recommend. Interesting, amusing, authoritative, useful and easy to read – it fulfils pretty much all of my requirements for great non-fiction. Over the years, I've used a lot of the methods and approaches discussed in it, and as a practitioner it's really handy to …
Three weeks ago I attended a really great talk by Professor Philip Zimbardo at the RSA. Phil Zimbardo is probably best known for the (in)famous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment in which the planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended after only six days because of what the situation was …
The Time Paradox – How your perspective on time affects your behaviour. Read More »
What is your Trust level in business and life? Many people say a primary trait they want in political and business leaders is Integrity. But if you ask what they mean by that, the number of different answers is likely to equal the number of people asked. Integrity is one of those words that tends …
