On the philosophical inheritance—classical and modern—that most leadership, management, and organisational writing skips.
40 essays
A certificate records that a person completed a defined process on a defined day. It does not record whether judgement was formed — and in most organisations, nobody is asking the second question, because the first one has tidied the file.
Every serious corporate failure of the past two decades has been examined, in retrospect, by people who found the frameworks in good order. The risk register existed. The policy was
A double issue. April and May kept returning to one move: swapping something legible—a competency grid, a diagnosis, a silver-bullet hire, a perpetual pilot—for the harder work of judgement. The task is always to weigh the particular case, not reach for the proxy that spares the weighing.
What does it actually take for a strategic intent to survive contact with the business that must implement it? In this episode of On the Subject of Leadership, I speak
When the board itself becomes the obstacle to clear thinking, no governance code can save the company. On groupthink, pluralistic ignorance, and the difference between directors who serve the company and those who merely sit on its board.
AI models mirror WEIRD cultural norms while claiming universality. Alignment methods reinforce this bias, projecting one community’s “common sense” as global truth. Recognising plurality through Wittgenstein’s language-games and Popper’s falsification reframes alignment as provisional and adaptive,
In an age of information overload, mastering the art of not reading is vital. Schopenhauer warns against indiscriminate consumption, urging deep engagement with quality works to cultivate sharper thinking, intellectual discipline, and true independence of mind.
Margaret Mead argued for keeping Santa as myth, not deception—preserving wonder while nurturing critical thinking. Treating Santa as symbolic and drawing on diverse traditions fosters imagination, honesty, and cultural insight.
Innovation drives growth only when balanced with organisational, ethical, and cultural frameworks. Pursued without restraint, it can erode values and stability. Sustainable innovation respects tradition and long-term purpose.
Advances in LLMs show promise, but token bias undermines their logical reliability. Small input shifts can distort outputs, posing risks in fields like medicine, law, and policy. Their dependence on pattern recognition over true reasoning demands closer scrutiny and better design.
In leadership, few tasks are more consequential than making decisions — especially difficult ones. Decisions often come with uncertainty, incomplete information, and conflicting values. The best leaders manage these complexities by
Karl Popper's theory of falsification provides a powerful framework for modern leadership. By embracing the principles of falsification, leaders can foster innovation, agility, and resilience in their organisations. This also allows the evolution of our understanding by discarding theories that do n
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
While our own short lives may lack the eternality of the Holy Spirit we can transcend events by our choices. Choices which, religious or not, have deep and long lasting moral implications.
We do well to live and let live, we also do well to post and let post. Devote what limited energy we are gifted with to thought and the formulation of our views and let the 'reply guys' reply. They are, generally, all sound and fury signifying nothing.