What if leadership focused less on fixing what is wrong and more on amplifying what is already working? Traditional approaches to organisational challenges can leave people focused on deficits, problems and what needs to be fixed. Appreciative Inquiry offers a different possibility. Developed by David Cooperrider and Ronald Fry, Appreciative…
Prologue: This story is inspired by European history but is applicable to organisations and businesses around the world. During the Middle Ages, the Norsemen are often remembered for their fierce and uncompromising nature. Yet there is one important thing that today’s senior executives and other organisational leaders can, and should,…
It sounds like a small question. It is not. The dominant answer in management education has been remarkably consistent for fifty years. A leader sets direction, makes decisions, and ensures execution. The leader is the agent. The organisation is the instrument. Things happen because the leader makes them happen. This…
I trained as an astrophysicist before I trained as a manager. That habit of mind has stayed with me. When something is not working, I ask what system produced it. So, when we talk about burnout, disengagement, and the quiet quitting that has now become a global phenomenon, the question…
