“if you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.” Love this from Pixar co-founder, Ed Catmull. Always been my experience with the multitude of […]
Books
Freedom has Consequences
Freedom. So easily abused and misunderstood when we have it. So fundamental for our humanity that we have to fight for it when we don’t. My heart (and many more useful things!) goes out to those fighting for their freedom. Whether in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria or elsewhere. Those of us with the privilege of freedom […]
Mess in your strategy is normal
“No one should develop a strategy without taking into account the effects of organizational friction. Yet we continue to be surprised and frustrated when it manifests itself. We tend to think everything has gone wrong when in fact everything has gone normally.” This from Stephen Bungay’s excellent book on getting strategy done, “The Art of […]
Thinking and Saying is the Easy Part
Coming up with a strategy is easy. Articulating values is easy. Defining a company purpose is easy. Articulating them well is much harder. But hardest of all? *Doing* them. Making them real. Mostly because it takes some planning, a process, discipline and a team to take them from words to reality. But if you put […]
Accept bad behaviour to make it your culture
For “new behaviour model” read values or purpose. I don’t think I’ve worked in or supported a company that hasn’t gone through this dilemma. A “good” performer, i.e. one that nails their numbers or gets big wins or makes useful intros, but who doesn’t live the values or has a negative impact on the team […]