Creativity & Climate (Engine)
On Music, Work, and the Shape of Attention
Music reliably helps with mood and stress at work. Its effect on performance is task-dependent and personality-dependent. What the research says — and what I actually do.
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Learning & Practice (Flywheel)
Trade Skills : What Commercial Awareness Actually Means — and Why It Is So Rare
Commercial awareness is not just reading a P&L. It is five habits that determine whether ideas survive contact with reality — and why so few people actually have them.
Orientation & Direction (Map)
Strategy Is Direction, Not a Document
Most strategies fail not because the direction is wrong — but because reality is avoided and the plan never gets communicated. Three principles that change that.
Learning & Practice (Flywheel)
Workplace Ethics Is Not a Policy — It Is a Daily Practice
Ethical work is not enforced through policies. It is practised through daily habits — truth-telling, note-keeping, critical thinking, and treating people fairly. Six principles from journalism that transfer directly into how leaders build — or quietly erode — trust at work.
Creativity & Climate (Engine)
Why Good Employees Disengage — and What Nash's Pyramid Reveals About It
Most employee disengagement is not a personal failing. It is a system signal.
Idea to Value (Physics)
Why Most Good Ideas Die in the Boardroom
Most good ideas die in the boardroom. Not because they are bad — but because they are told in the wrong language, connected to the wrong type of value, and presented without the translation that decision-makers actually need. This essay explores the gap — and what to do about it.
Creativity & Climate (Engine)
The Eight Intelligences We Need at Work
For decades, workplaces have prized one narrow form of intelligence — logical, mathematical, rational thinking. But there are at least eight kinds of intelligence.
Communication (Wiring)
Why watermelons are a problem
A project can be Green on the outside and Red underneath. Watermelon reporting isn't really a reporting problem — it's what happens when telling the truth becomes personally expensive.
Learning & Practice (Flywheel)
Actions speak louder than words
The words we choose matter. How we behave matters more. When words and actions do not align, the message is still received — just not the one we intended. A short, practical essay on why behaviour is the only leadership message that truly lands.
Idea to Value (Physics)
Hierarchy Isn’t the Problem We Think It Is
Every few years a new wave arrives promising flatter organisations and fewer managers. But most complaints about hierarchy are not about structure at all — they are about poor behaviour, weak leadership, and unclear responsibility. Removing the hierarchy rarely fixes any of those things.
Learning & Practice (Flywheel)
Why Training Alone Does Not Create Competence at Work
You can teach the basics of any craft. But mastery — real competence — only arrives through doing the work. This essay explores why so much organisational training fails, the difference between information and ability, and what leaders can do to create genuine learning environments.
Communication (Wiring)
Feedback Is the Difference Between Sending and Communicating
Effective communication is not about the clarity of the message. It is about the clarity of the outcome. Communication only succeeds when meaning travels — and the only way to know whether it has is feedback. Sent does not mean received.