An old photograph and the stories we tell

I don't know where my father took this photograph or who the figures are. But it taught me something important about storytelling, memory and the way we make meaning.

A big collective experience of trust

A reflection on Britain's postboxes, Anthony Trollope, and the remarkable act of trusting an invisible system for almost 175 years. And what we might learn about work.

Every Presentation Is an Exchange

Every presentation is an exchange. The audience gives us their finite resources, and the speaker gives value, perspective, meaning and something worth paying attention to.

The man who took out half of Sheffield

A brilliant, vastly interesting man, a telegraph pole, and half of Sheffield's phones. On the strange gift of fast feedback — and how much better work gets the moment the signal comes back quickly.

Every Organisation Has Someone's Initials On It

A wall in Winchester bearing initials dating back to 1772 offers a reminder that every organisation is built on decisions made by people who came before us.

Magnifying the Murk

The telescope didn't improve the view at all. It just magnified the murk.

Public speaking and the power of the stage

Dame Judi Dench, Louis Theroux and feeling alive on stage. The power of public speaking.

Gratitude — a way of seeing what often remains invisible

A lot of what underpins a business goes unnamed precisely because it often works. An episode of The Word at Work on gratitude as a form of seeing — and the question it leaves behind about what's carrying your work this week that you've stopped noticing.

Everyone is trying to release value

A product team had twenty million pounds and until year-end to turn it into something people would pay for. Then two other teams' good work landed on top of theirs — and someone had to choose which value moved first.

There Is No Perfect Notebook

There's no perfect notebook — only the right container, with the right rules, for how long a note needs to live. Here's the method, and the six on my desk.

When a Meeting Isn't a Meeting

Most meetings that fail aren't badly run. They produce agreement instead of alignment — and the difference between the two is what people do on Thursday.

The Circles of Contribution

A model of how contribution actually travels across a working life. Four concentric modes — Practitioner, Multiplier, Reader, Author — communication as the carrier, and the practice underneath that keeps good ideas moving through work rather than dying on a Thursday afternoon.