Finding related wisdom from people poles apart is always a nice surprise. And it’s hard to come up with two more divergent types than witty finance wizard Charlie Munger and rebellious rock star Nick Cave. Cue my happy dance when a quote from each man recently crossed my path. And their lessons reverberate into how...
There’s a shaky, slightly blurry 2009 video showing a guy dancing alone ona grassy hill at the Sasquatch Music Festival. After a few minutes, first one person, then two, join him. And soon a crowd is exuberantly jumping around to the music. Author Robert Cialdini calls this ‘social proof’, and his weighty tome...
Over a cup of tea one morning I was reading an article by The Good Place actor and activist Jameela Jamil when a passage stopped me mid-sip. She said, "We abuse the concept of “boundaries” to justify not showing up for each other anymore, to no longer working through hard or stressful things. We just...
In a past episode of his podcast Making Sense, Sam Harris talked to author and NY Times columnist David Brooks about his book The Road to Character. The episode was titled ‘On Becoming a Better Person’* and my ears perked up when it landed on promises. David commented, Self-improvement is part of being an...
Choices are chances. Go this way or that. Do this, not that. On repeat, hundreds of daily moments where your actions say, ‘this is who I am’. Intrinsic to work. They get shaped by the processes, policies and protocols powering every enterprise. And in the rumble of the everyday doing, become...
“I have to believe in the place where I work.” Bam. There it was. In a neatly turned nutshell, my client had revealed how to improve a culture. Not motivate me with a world-changing mission. Not inspire me to great feats or pay me a gazillion dollars. Simply show me I...
There are 5 people in front of a whiteboard waiting to work on their values. And I’m talking about Roger Federer. Fed was back on centre court last week for the opening festivities at the Australian Open. And as he parried shot, after shot, after shot back to Hewitt and Rafter, thousands...
When did values become divorced from character? In his book “The Algebra of Wealth”, professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway suggests a timeline. While commenting on a shift in literature between pre-and post-WWII he notes, “older works encouraged readers to build success based on virtues like temperance, industriousness and patience. The...
Commonly recommended practices for how to 'do' culture often include the idea of champions. I’m not a fan. Because it suggests there's a special set of people responsible for it. So now, I don’t have to do anything. Instead, I advocate that everyone should champion the culture. And the distinction is...
Have you ever seen the term ‘values-based policies’? A company using it meant a policy that determined people’s behaviour, for example, a code of conduct. Yet, more broadly, all policies exist to shape and guide activity and decisions. Meaning if your values are genuine, they should form the foundation. Turning...