Three heresies from an advisory board event
Last week I attended a pre-summit event with the Advisory Board Centre, a professional body for people who sit on advisory Boards that also helps private and family businesses set these Boards up.
Your AI will never have a mandate
An AI can't starve, can't be sacked, can't be ashamed. Accountability needs something that can be hurt.
Directors, put your body on the line
AI will soon write a polished strategy. Boards need to bring more than rationality to assess and approve.
Chekhovian strategy misfires
Last weekend, I saw the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Uncle Vanya. The set design is the stand-out: there are no wings, lighting and spare chairs are stacked up and trucked flats stand ready upstage.
Talking to tape on a stick
I was lucky: my kids’ teenage years fell in the golden age of Marvel films. Up to Avengers: Endgame in 2019, every film was a family event.
How I reflect - action planning from Leanne Hughes' ConCon.
Doing beats thinking: notes mean nothing until they're turned into actions
Organisation stuck? Wiggle your elbow
Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and the NFP Stack
Going nowhere - blame the hamster or the wheel?
When the new CEO is having Board conversations that all agree are “… full of sound and fury, signifying nothing…”
Does your risk management connect to anything?
The risk register feels like control. But it's useless unless it's woven through the organisation.
When reality at the bottom looks like failure from the top
The new strategy was launched six months ago with a CEO roadshow and big A2 posters in the break room.
The map most boards are missing (or, the conversations no-one is having)
The NFP map is a tool to help Boards and Management understand the full system they’re operating inside - purpose, hierarchy, rhythm and ownership
'What's the solution?' is the last question you should ask
Be alert for 'thought-terminating cliches', and facilitate like Henry Fonda
On viewing Zhao's masterpiece: consultant as filmmaker
I'd been seeking a metaphor to describe what consulting feels like - and found it in Chloe Zhao's Hamnet
Interim vs Permanent
Leaving an interim CEO role after 15 weeks and handing over to the permanent CEO yields lessons on the differences between permanent and interim roles.
Interim vs Consultant
Reflections on being six weeks into an interim CEO role. Crucial differences between consulting from the outside and leading from the inside
Build your "non-deformable passenger cell"
Most people haven’t heard of Béla Barényi. I’m going to nerd out on his influential automotive safety innovation, why it matters for strategy development, and then why i’ve moved my newsletters to be substack-first.
Can you see beyond your frame? Can you escape it?
How do you go about solving a problem? We're taught to first define the problem fully. But we should spend more time on how we are describing the problem in the first place - because the metaphor shapes our thinking, unconsciously. Framing matters.
Strategic Planning is neither
You spend months crafting a 'Strategic Plan', and everyone works to it diligently. Yet in every Board meeting, questions pop up, like: But are we really focusing on the right things?, or How do we know our strategy is working?