Design like an Italian, build like a German and execute like the Chinese. It is a crude generalisation I know, but I have been thinking that we need a lens through which we can benchmark our own performance. Maybe it is simpler to say that everything we do should be beautiful and done with great […]

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I read a great piece recently titled, The Rise of American Authoritarianism, which seeks to explain the ascent of Donald Trump – https://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism What made the article universal was that it spoke of latent conservatism and fear, where people see change as a threat and would rather life, not only stay the same, but return […]

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Dear Friends and Colleagues, Since our last Newsletter, early this year, People At Their Best have helped 5 businesses articulate their strategic plan, facilitated more than 40 executive coaching sessions, delivered over 30 leadership workshops, helped launch 2 new businesses, run 1 Mayoral campaign, corrected over 100 university exam papers, published 2 articles, administered countless […]

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THE election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the USA and the decision by the UK to exit the European Union are, I believe, consequences of where we are on the evolutionary journey, mere manifestations of the fear that drives our behaviour. In many ways the election of Trump was inevitable — it represents […]

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Q&A with Directing Growth’s Dom Meli In his role as AICD’s People and Culture Facilitator, Dom was recently interviewed about the role of culture in growing a business. Why are a positive culture and engaged workforce critical to business success? A lot of research has been done in this area, and what it shows is […]

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Over the past 2 years, I have written extensively about staff engagement and the opportunity for leaders to drive the discretionary efforts of their people.  It is not the employment contract that determines how hard and effectively a person works but the quality of the relationship a person has with their boss and their organisation. […]

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Matt Wade, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, reported that our collective welfare improved in 2015, according to the Herald / Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index. How we managed this improvement in societal wellbeing is off the back of greater collective ‘know how’ or human capital such as higher rates of people finishing year 12; attaining […]

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Towards the end of 2015 we helped our client Associated Grain design a Code of Conduct. This innovative organisation is always looking to get out in front of issues and proactively self-determine what behaviour is acceptable and not acceptable for itself. Some of the discussion we facilitated was around whether components of a Code of […]

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Dear Friends and Colleagues, The most common mistake that leaders make when trying to grow a business is not defining the organisation’s mission and vision.  There is simply nothing more fundamental to an organisation than understanding what its ‘purpose’ is and ensuring that everyone is aligned behind that cause and working in service of it. […]

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At the 2015 World Leaders Forum in Sydney, I had the pleasure of listening to and meeting Professor Lynda Gratton of the London Business School. Gratton was in Australia to talk about the key trends shaping the future of work, many of which are to be found in her insightful 2011 book The Shift. Download […]

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