20/2020
COVID-19: Tips for engaging your team in a changing world
If there’s one solid theme that’s emerging from the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s that things won’t be quite the same again.  Whilst old habits do die hard and we should expect a return to semi-normality, there’s still a raft of changes that may form new ways of working in the…
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04/2020
When your corporate values can work against you
There’s a common trope in HR circles – that the number one reason for employee turnover is due to the candidate not being the ‘right culture fit’ for the organisation. This ambiguous and woolly term might represent anything from “they’re just not ‘our sort’ of person” to there being more…
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02/2019
Good numbers don’t mean you’re good
For this blog, we’re going to start with a quiz!  The answer will be at the end. During the First World War, the Army replaced all the soldiers’ cloth caps with tin helmets.  The injury rate of those soldiers actually went up by quite a long way…  What was the reason? What we measure Statistics may…
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20/2019
Cognitive dissonance: Why you keep eating doughnuts
Over the past few days, I’ve been exploring the role of cognitive dissonance at work. Started by Leon Festinger’s work, it flies in the face of the widely-held belief that people are ‘true’ to their beliefs… Cognitive dissonance theory states that people strive for internal consistence and psychological comfort. It says that people who are…
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26/2018
The behaviour dilemma
I’ve recently participated as one of the contributors in the Stoddart Review – a well-respected study on workplace productivity. Around the table of my presentation were a range of the industry’s leading lights, ready to face my ramblings on the future of the Workplace. Below is the third of three points I…
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29/2017
The purpose of work
I’ve recently participated as one of the contributors in the Stoddart Review – a well-respected study on workplace productivity. Around the table of my presentation were a range of the industry’s leading lights, ready to face my ramblings on the future of the Workplace. Below is the second of…
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20/2016
The productivity trap
I’ve recently participated as one of the contributors in the Stoddart Review – a well-respected study on workplace productivity. Around the table of my presentation were a range of the industry’s leading lights, ready to face my ramblings on the future of the Workplace. Below is the first of three points I…
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15/2016
Why don’t organisations ‘self-audit’ their personalities?
Of course, every one of us are different. We all have different pasts, different stories, different mind-sets.  Organisations are the same – they all have different origins, different ‘DNA’ and different narratives. They are as culturally unique as snowflakes.  Although arguably, organisations are far more complex because of the…
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23/2016
Why you should pick a new boss, not a new job
Most of us have changed jobs; some of us have done so several times. And I’ll bet that most of the time, it happened in the same way… Whether an internal move or with a separate company, you’re usually sent a job description or a role profile, either directly or…
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07/2016
“A workhouse, not a workplace”
Mike Ashley is one of Britain’s richest men, and the founder of Britain’s biggest retailers. The BBC news has today reported that in a Guardian undercover investigation (and subsequent parliamentary review), Mike Ashley’s firm has been found to be running “a workhouse, not a workplace” Staff are effectively paid less than the minimum wage, because they…
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