News and Ideas

Operating Practices for Leaders

Operating Practices for Leaders

A little while ago my colleague Dr Garth Britton and I began thinking about the ways in which our work as consultants and coaches had changed over the past five years. At the time we developed a very rough description of an approach we called Open-Ended Consulting based on some broad broad patterns we had …

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How do we develop people to lead in the midst of complexity?

How do we develop people to lead in the midst of complexity?

Recently I had the pleasure of introducing Jennifer Garvey-Berger, co-author of the book Simple habits for complex times: powerful practices for leaders[1], before she led a workshop for coaches, consultants and organizational development leaders on the topic, “Supporting our clients in an increasingly complex world”. What follows is a modified version of my introduction. For more than …

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Yes and … yes but I

Yes and … yes but I

In my a recent post I explored what kind of practice might support “rapid and fluid midcourse correction”. During last week New Zealand based consultant, Stephen Billing, posted a short video on his Changing Organisations blog. In it he explored the idea of joint enquiry. I liked the video because Stephen speaks about joint enquiry …

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Everything we do is subject to error

Everything we do is subject to error

If you have been following what I have been writing recently you will be aware that I have been reading Mary Catherine Bateson’s book, Peripheral Visions. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the practical ways we can proceed when we can’t predict with any certainty what lies ahead or when the landscape around us …

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