Blog
The meaning of AAR. What have the words triclosan, frontline and hiraeth got to do with AAR?
Making sense of our experience as human beings is heavily dependant on the words we use. This year has demonstrated just how true this is as the creation and adoption of new words has dramatically increased. Major dictionaries such as the OED and Merrriam Webster have...
Five things to stop doing
What are you going to stop doing this week? As the pace of change has increased, so has the pressure for teams to get the rapid actionable learning that comes through AARs, yet we also need to be willing to let go of old plans and preferences.
Five steps towards greater inclusivity
The dramatic scenes we have been watching as people protest about the death of George Floyd can, for those of us fortunate enough not to have personally experienced racism, seem a world apart from our own day-to-day work activities. Yet it brings into sharp focus the issue of bias, whether conscious or unconscious, and the urgent need to address it in the workplace and beyond. This article gives five ideas for small but practical contributions towards helping create a fairer and more inclusive society.
What gets in the way of changing things for the better at work?
In more normal times (and they will come again) some very human factors create resistance to changing things for the better. Last week I referred to Robert Glazers’ excellent bog about the transformation CEO Alan Mulally led at Ford to ensure the uncomfortable truths were shared at the Board room table. This week, I describe some of the other barriers to bringing about culture change.
What gets in the way of open honest conversations in the Board Room and elsewhere?
Robert Glazers’ excellent blog last week made me wonder what gets in the way of every senior meeting conversation being as honest and open as Alan Mullaly’s board room discussions?
How does After Action Review build emotional resilience?
Many of us found that these exceptional times have increased our need to speak to each other and so, instead of having more time when remote working, many of us are finding we have less. The last face to face After Action Review (AAR) I led before remote working began, illustrated the importance of being heard.
What can Benjamin Franklin teach us about coping with the Covid 19 response?
Benjamin Franklin’s diary contains perhaps the earliest record of After Action Review and it offers some valuable insights to help us cope with this fast changing world.
Quality isn’t guaranteed. What can you do to raise the quality of your online meetings?
Some online meetings fall well outside what we would call “effective” and “productive” because the participants behave exactly as they want to. What simple thing can you do to improve online meeting behaviour?
What is the cost of blame in the workplace?
“We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you're the one who has got to change.” Katharine Hepburn...
What can we do to create more open cultures?
News reports in whatever country you live in will periodically be dominated by a story whose horror is compounded by the fact that there were bystanders who could have prevented it. We have had one of these this recently in the UK and it shines a light on something...
What can Australia Day teach us about leadership?
On 26th January every year, Australians have an official holiday to mark the day when Captain Arthur Phillip guided a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia in 1788 (notwithstanding the Aboriginal...
How can you build lasting psychological safety in your teams?
If you type the term “psychological safety” into a search engine like Google, you will get around 758,000 results and the number is increasing daily. This demonstrates the extent to which this concept has come into vogue, largely as a result of two things; the...
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