Everything published, most recent first. Two a week: a standalone piece, and a reflection on that week's conversation.
333 essays
Working with excellent colleagues is energising; managing poor performers is not. Incompetence, gaming, and legal barriers make dismissal costly, harming high performers. Strong performance management demands clarity, documentation, and strategic discipline to protect organisational integrity.
In planning, hope often crowds out critical thinking as leaders chase the next project as the imagined fix. Seen in publishing’s “green awning effect,” this bias favours new ideas over hard lessons from history. Better strategy comes from learning what already failed.
Critical thinking is vital but demanding. It isn’t fixed; it’s built through practice. Time for deep thought, less multitasking, patience, writing, and wide reading sharpen judgment, creativity, and the development of original, valuable ideas.
Anyone can ask questions, but effective questioning is a leadership skill. Senior leaders must use strategic inquiry—not just operational queries—to guide teams through uncertainty, strengthen decision-making, and foster innovation.
The first in a series on learning from history and its value for organisational decision-making. Today, those who draw lessons from the past risk being labelled “on the wrong side of history,” much as dissenters in business face exile for challenging dominant narratives.
This week I examine how AI improves the polish of business writing while obscuring weak logic. As decisions often rely on form over substance, AI can legitimise flawed arguments. Leaders must read more critically and recognise AI’s limits and biases.
A fixed mindset breeds stagnation and toxicity; a growth mindset supports learning, collaboration, and innovation. But it isn’t blind optimism or effort alone. Real growth requires self-awareness, discipline, and balancing the fixed and growth impulses within us.
Inspired by *Kaizen*, incremental improvement unlocks latent potential by favouring small, continuous changes over quick wins. The 1% principle shows how steady progress compounds into significant long-term personal and professional gains.
Overconfidence distorts managerial decisions, fuelling poor strategy and ego. Shifting from prediction to preparation, grounding judgment in rational thinking, and valuing informed anecdote alongside data helps balance confidence with pragmatism and improves organisational outcomes.
In an uncertain employment landscape, context matters. Work serves the organisation, not individual agendas. When employees and managers act in good faith and meet their obligations while preparing for multiple futures, organisations become healthier, more stable, and more effective.
When we judge the principle 'be right a lot' on inputs rather than outcomes we can make rational choices about the future, secure in the knowledge that we have positioned rather than predicted our future, that our future is based on skill and not luck, and that we are people worth following.
Good morning, and welcome to this edition of The Scribbler. Given it is Easter, I thought I would take a moment to revisit my first intellectual love, history, and examine
Although we cannot know what tomorrow brings, we can use a pattern recognition approach to lower risk and devise stronger strategies. This is because while it is nearly impossible for us to predict one specific future, we can confidently position for multiple probable futures.
John Boyd’s OODA Loop—observe, orient, decide, act—highlights agility, context, and speed in decision-making. Challenging linear models, it shows why adaptive thinking is critical to leadership and organisational success.
Effective governance depends on capabilities shared by managers and informal leaders, recognising that risk, strategy, and culture are inseparable. This calls for rethinking traditional governance models—and the rise of the governor-manager.