Some tensions are problems to solve. Others are polarities to manage. Polarity mapping is a disciplined way to navigate interdependent opposites without collapsing into false choices, compromise, or managerial relativism.
Durable advantage is built less on intensity than on cadence, habit, and protected attention. If you want to design routines that stick, reduce attention residue, limit false work, and turn standards into rhythms—read on.
Hard work isn’t one thing. In part one of this series I map three forms leaders confuse—Outthinking, Pure Effort, and Opportunistic positioning—and shows when each helps (and harms). Part two tackles Consistency and Focus, and how to make them compound.
A practical method for how to turn AI into a thinking partner—surfacing assumptions, testing arguments, and strengthening decisions through disciplined cognitive friction.
On the Subject of Leadership is a long-form podcast for people who carry responsibility. No slogans—just clear thinking on authority, judgment, coordination, and accountability under real constraints, through research-led conversations with founders and executives.
Chris McGowan is the founder and CEO of ThunderLabs, an Australian firm working across digital experiences, customer identity, and specialist recruitment. Before building ThunderLabs, Chris spent years inside the recruitment
AI makes language effortless—but thinking is done best when it is effortful. Thus, beware the “chat trap”: how casual use of generative AI can quietly soften judgement by replacing framing, definition, and trade-offs with fluent prose.
The Scribbler The Case for Friction0:00/615.7681×
Good evening, and welcome to this edition of The Scribbler—a newsletter that circles one organisational problem until it shows itself.
In an age of cheap text and AI-generated plausibility, leaders are not misled by too little information but by too much of the wrong kind. In this piece I explore why attention has become a governance risk—and why learning what to ignore now matters as much as what to know.
Metacognition is the discipline of noticing—and revising—your thinking in real time. It sharpens judgement, steadies emotion, and turns debriefs and assumption checks into a practical system for better decisions.
Bad news rarely breaks trust; bad delivery does. Too often managers turn necessary cuts into needless cruelty. Yet, predictability, clear reasons, real control, and concrete compassion can preserve dignity and actually build trust even when decisions hurt.
