It’s summer. At the time of writing it has been warm and wet.  The grass, the plants and all the weeds have grown profusely and it’s hard to remember just how difficult it can be to create a garden in the first place. But I can assure you, if you haven’t tried, that it is…………

I hope your organisation doesn’t suffer from the problem I’m about to describe –  but we all know examples from organisations that do. It hit me forcefully on a recent occasion when a relative was in hospital. Without going into too much detail, he was admitted with an electrolyte disorder. Once the hospital managed to…

Wombats are fascinating creatures and from just looking at them it is hard to believe that they have survived. But they have some interesting characteristics and killer strategies. The wombat has evolved to survive and kill its main predator. But what happens if the threat changes? How do our companies survive? How many of us…

Gorilla management is one suggestion. Gorilla gardening is where an individual or group of people take over a piece of land which is not their own and improve it through planting flowers, shrubs and so on. Gorilla Management is exactly the same — it is where an individual or group of individuals usurp enough power…

Matthew Syed’s book “Black Box Thinking” (2015, John Murray Publishing, London) highlights some interesting aspects of learning from failure. Syed compares the learning culture of the US Health Care Industry with the Aviation Industry and talks a lot about transparency, openness, reporting and the opportunity to learn from mistakes. He also presents some challenging questions…