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Showing posts from 2022

What is the toughest position? A CEO or a goalie?

Which one of the roles is the most challenging, as both are isolated and unforgiving? In either position, the opposition will not like you when you're doing well.  When doing badly, your supporters are not on your side.  Irrespective of if it is a good or bad day in the office, everyone else knows they can do your job better than you can, and your backers are never happy, always wanting more.  So what is the toughest position?  Being ahead If you're thinking three, four, or five plays ahead, you're not suitable for this role. There is a reality to both roles that you have to be ahead, to be in the right position at the right time to ensure success, but everyone else just thinks you are lucky.  Anyone can do the job, but those who can see signals and read the play will excel.   Blame No matter how many great things you do, everyone only remembers you for the one you missed In either position, you have to accept that you’re the last person in the line of defence, and you wil

Chaos and the abyss

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This read describes the space between chaos and the abyss, where we find ourselves when we allow machines to make decisions without safeguarding collective criticism or realise they can change our minds.   ----- There is a reality that we are not forced to recognise our collective ethical and own moral bias without others. However, these biases are the basis of our decision-making, so asking a machine to " take an unelected position of trust " and make a decision on our collective behalf creates a space we should explore as we move from human criticism to machine control. Machines are making decisions.    Automation is incredibly powerful and useful, and we continue to learn to reduce bias in automated decision-making by exploring data sets and understanding the outcomes by testing for bias.  As we continue testing, iterating and learning about using past data for future decisions, we expose many of our human frailties and faults.   The decisions we ask machines to make toda

We need more unethical morals!

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I explore ethics, morals and integrity in the context of decision-making. This piece explores the void between ethics and morals and why we need this place to exist because it allows us to explore the reason why unethical morals force us to new thinking. The difference in definition between Ethics and Morals Definition : Ethics are guiding principles of conduct of an individual or group. Definition : Morals are principles on which one’s judgments of right and wrong are based. Therefore an important difference between ethics and morals is that ethics are relatively uniform within a group, whereas morals are individual and heavily influenced by local culture and beliefs. How to change someone's mind is a super article from Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries at Insead.  It is important because if we want more people in the moral group, we need those with different ethics to change. And if we want to update our morals, we need to be able to change our ethics. In Manfred’s article, I believ

Why does fear fill the gap?

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In that moment of panic, we forget to reflect on what type of gap this is and why it has been filled with fear. Leadership is a recognition of the gaps, that not all gaps are the same and how to prevent fear being the first response. Image source: Susan David, Ph.D (love her work) Fear and Gaps  Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the immediate or expected threat of danger, pain, or harm, but it is also so much more.  We know fear sells in terms of marketing.  We understand FOMO (fear of missing out) and the fear of failure (FOF) are significant drivers. We are aware that fear produces a unique reaction in the body driven from the gut ahead of the brain ( Antonio Damasio research ). Fear is a stimuli but is subjective and how fear is perceived is different for everyone. Different types of fear spread at different speeds. Brands and the media use fear and to create headlines and force change.  COP27 and climate change agenda are not adverse to utilising this insight. We should be

How to build a #team fit for #uncertainty

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The pandemic changed us, our views, what we value and how we work.  We might not recognise all the changes and hang on in the hope of a return to something we loved, but we must make the best of it now.  We should be aware that the change has not only affected us but also our teams.  Whilst the Bruce Tuckman 1965 forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development is timeless. No one is likely to dissent that phases remain necessary and inevitable for a team to grow, face challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results.  However, because we have changed, so has the utility of the tools we apply that move us along the journey from forming to performing.  Tools learnt and built in stable and certain times, have less applicability when we are faced with volatility and uncertainty.  It is the usefulness of tools we utilise that move us on the journey from forming to performing that has changed.  More books and articles on “teams” and “leadership” exi