Locked away in our silo-ed industry cocoons, our primary way of imagining what other people are like whom we have not yet experienced is by the regurgitation of history and hearsay. As a consequence, we naturally expect that all other tribes will lean towards being blaggards, self centered, blinkered or...
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A call to action my male friends and colleagues. My dad was a construction and engineering man. UK Major projects, Middle East and North Sea – in all these he worked for change in working conditions. I followed in his footsteps. Now, my daughters (9 & 11) have already been...
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“Project bank accounts are the most effective mechanism for ensuring that supply chain SME’s are in regular and timely receipt of their cash. Other initiatives such as fair payment charters have proved to be a waste of time and effort.” Professor Rudi Klein, CEO of the Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group...
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Some 18 years ago my supervising Coach said ‘Paul, the issue the client comes to you with is never the issue’. As it turns out, she was right and that tip has served me well time and time again, whether facing an individual human being, a Leadership or Project Team...
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It is a perhaps an unfortunate but inevitable fact that we can end up doing business with people who lack integrity; they mislead, duck, dive, blame and refuse to take responsibility. What we often end up doing, more than anything else, in these rare but tricky scenarios is beat ourselves...
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“I resent that,” said Pompey the Great (Roman General & Statesman 29/9/106 BC – 29/9/48 BC) “Well you may resent it all you like, but you will still need to demonstrate that it is not the case,” retorted Cicero (Roman orator, philospher, lawyer, consul) who knew that the surest way to a great...
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There is a sign in the Care home that my mother resided in that read ‘Everyone has the right of freedom and with freedom comes risk’. To attempt to give the residents a good life, many with dementia, it was understood that trying to protect them from every risk would...
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The very fact that we call a pause in conversation an ‘awkward silence’ points to a root belief that inhibits our ability to really listen, create rich conversations and hear well. Awkward, therefore bad, therefore needs correcting, therefore fill that space as quick as we can. Nature abhors a vacuum...
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My parents, children of rationing, never quite lost their poverty mentality. Their children would implore them to ‘splash out’ take the sort of holiday they talked about… but somehow it always seemed that ‘little bit too excessive’. After 4 year of recsesion the markey might well ‘have ballistic’ with ‘work...
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Are you open to new ways to do things, of thinking about things, to jettison old beliefs and judgements, to usher in views that are precious to those that have served you well for years? Of course – so stop reading here. But really – how can you be so...
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