Learning to swim

I've just spent an hour attempting to teach my daughter to swim. I'm not a very good swimming teacher. Apparently Adrian Moorhouse was coached to Olympic success by a man who couldn't swim. I can't manage to coax my daughter out of water wings for more than five minutes. Whilst attempting to get her to …

Left hand drive and being a new starter

I'm in Lake Garda for a few days, soaking up the sun and reading some books. In an ill advised moment of bravado I decided that I'd brave the Italian roads rather than get a taxi to and from the airport. That was an error of the highest magnitude. I have never driven in a …

The Elephant Powder Test and HR

A guy is walking down the road and he comes across an old man sprinkling white powder on the road. He walks up to the old man and the conversation goes something like this What are you doing? I'm sprinkling elephant dust What does that do? It keeps away elephants But there aren't any elephants around …

5 Lessons from Yorkshire – #CIPDNAP15

I'm off the to the CIPD Northern Area Partnership Conference today. It'll be just the second time I've been back to York since I moved back 'down South' 3 years ago. I spent 15 years in Yorkshire - learning to love a good pint of bitter, play cricket with a bit more aggression and to …

The Performance Balcony and Informality

Last week I spent some time sitting outside on a balcony chatting with Matt Partovi. Matt is the founder of Culturevist, a community of people so passionate about culture that they'd leave their jobs rather than see theirs compromised. Check them out their events here. Ostensibly it was a business meeting (because we talked about maybe …

Rumours, Movie Making and Greatest Achievements

Confounding people's expectations was a way to maintain integrity - Lindsay Buckingham About 6 months ago I watched an extended interview with Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. It was a both enthralling and awkward hour of TV to watch, as he was asked about the relationship 'complications' that dominated the band's greatest years. Whilst he …

7 Lessons from The Newsroom

I've been thoroughly enjoying Aaron Sorkin's 'The Newsroom', despite the fact it is deeply flawed. Maybe I'm drawn to sporadic moments of genius, they seem more fun than the mundane nature of constant genius. Here are 7 simple lessons drawn from some of the show's inspired dialogue. Lesson 1 You don't need to criticise good …

Making me count

There is a growing recognition that making people feel like they count is a good thing. Quite why this is a growing realisation rather than a way of life is a question for another time. Traditionally business strategy has been a job of compartmentalisation. Of box filling. We start with what we want to achieve …

Muppets & The Rainbow Connection

The other day I was discussing profiling and psychometric tools with a small group of colleagues. There was a general cynicism around both the tools and the usage. Someone suggested that it might be more useful to ask people to define themselves as Muppets. It was a proposal I was immediately drawn towards. People started …

Jimmy Stewart & Leadership Moments

If you were unlucky enough to have my company on Friday night after work you would have been assailed/assaulted by my views on why 'It's A Wonderful Life' is one of the greatest films ever. More specifically you would have had to put up with me talking about the George Bailey and how perfectly he …