https://vimeo.com/878256974?share=copy Birds are born altricially, which means they are still underdeveloped at the time of birth so, in order to survive, their parents have to feed them. But this creates obstacles when the birds venture out into the outside world on their own. As you can see from the video…

“Instead of using multiple different ways of explaining the same thing between different functions of the company then try to use one: A map.” — Simon Wardley⁠ As we explored in Book One,⁠ the modern business world shares some similarities with warfare — competition with rivals and uncertainty (as we…

At the collapse of the USSR a theory emerged in the West arguing that we had reached the ‘end of history’. Liberal democracy, it claimed, had “won” the battle about which system of economic governance was best. Yet, right around the time Francis Fukuyama (the most famous of these ideologues)…

When I joined a large consulting firm I was tasked with realising the idea I had raised during the interview process — to build a more efficient ‘ghost structure’ alongside the current one that would meet the needs of partners (and ultimately their clients). Once we had proven this to…

On the day before International Women’s Day in 2017 a small statue of a young girl appeared on Wall St., facing down the famous charging bull that epitomises the US financial services industry. Inscribed on the plaque in front of the new statue were the words: “Know the power of…

The biggest mistake organisations make is trying to satisfy their own needs rather than users’ needs. Internal meetings of department heads, who are focused on meeting their own Key Performance Indicators (KPI), descend into battles for power and resources, while meeting the needs of external users, (which is how organisations…

The “most underrated skill in management is … clearly articulating the problem you seek to solve before jumping into action.”* However, many managers choose ‘solutions’ first and then look for the problems this will fix: “We’re launching a cultural/digital/agile transformation” they announce “to address our talent/technology/innovation gap”. Managers do this…

Most people have heard of the ‘butterfly effect’ — a butterfly flaps its wings in Rio de Janeiro and a tornado hits Chicago as small changes can have large effects elsewhere. This is the popular version. Yet the real version is far more interesting and far more useful for organisations…

No matter how often the business media likes to portray some leaders as all-seeing, all-knowing strategic geniuses modern business is too complex for any single leader to be on top of everything. To truly lead their organisations modern leaders must free themselves from the impossible burden of thinking they have…