A recent experience got me thinking about how inconsistent delivery of unheroic stuff is a surefire way to lose customers and erode the value stored in the brand. The story began when I opened my 2024 car insurance policy. My jaw dropped. After ten years with the same insurer, I’m used...
From day one, Sue landed like a firecracker. After the grind of a tough few months, co-workers said they loved her enthusiasm and energy. Yet despite that promising start, excitement dissipated once the honeymoon period ended, and after a few more months, it was clear she wasn't going to work out. Like...
Accepting her Grammy for album of the year, and becoming the first person to win the award four times, Taylor Swift’s speech was a love letter to the unheroic work it takes to succeed. What is unheroic work? It’s a term that first landed in my language via a quote by...
I first encountered renowned Canadian designer Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth decades ago. And one of the points he made stuck with me. He said, "AVOID FIELDS, JUMP FENCES. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order...
In an episode of Ted Lasso, when Rupert makes a disparaging comment about Rebecca, Ted turns to him and says, “Hey, better manners when I’m holding a dart, please.” Perhaps people on the frontlines of service need their own projectiles. Indeed, something needs to shift amid news over the past few...
“The primary organising dynamic in life is identity. The first act of life is to define a self, whether a micro organism or a human being. How we humans define ourselves determines our perceptions, beliefs, behaviours and values."Margaret Wheatley 1 The word identity was first recorded in 1560–70 from late Latin identitās meaning...
"No one is beating down the door for it,” wasn't what I expected to hear. I'd just asked about sending out important follow-up information promised at a recent event and found out it was delayed, but no one had reset expectations.As you might imagine, I'm allergic to blithely blowing off promises. They...
No board can make the right decision if they aren't considering how it adds or erodes value in the organisation's brand. A lesson trumpeted as the front page news this week, with the Board of OpenAI firing and now reinstating CEO Sam Altman.I won't go into chapter and verse of what feels...
When organisations think about capital, two dominate. Financial and human. Both are crucial, and abusing them will collapse value and drive you out of business. Yet, you accumulate value across more than those two. But don't necessarily consider those things as capitals when making decisions. As a result, choices erode rather...
"Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts." Alain de Botton Travel always reveals… something. A recent trip reminded me of the importance of getting the essential things right. No matter what your business does. There is one thing that is...