How to look at your project from another perspective
When seeking to be wiser together we are often called to walk in each other’s shoes, to look at the world from a different perspective. In…
Am I Getting My Ducks in a Row, or Collaborating?
When we are worried about how our stakeholders will react, the urge to get the ducks in a row can become irresistible. But of course the…
Why taking the risky action is the path to reducing risks
Are you circling the wagons or leaning in to manage angry stakeholders? I once had a client at a council where the General Manager had…
Are you managing risks or managing outrage?
By treating people as human we stand a chance of reducing their level of outrage, which is likely to reduce their sense of the risk. I have…
Three Ways to Achieve More Learning in Meetings
One of the things that clients most appreciate is our suite of tools for collaborators. In creating this toolkit we sought to ‘bottle’ as…
Vote 'Yes' to Listening and Curiosity
Vote 1 Polarisation In Australia we are deep in the public ‘debate’ about the upcoming referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament…
Down with Difficult Debates
“We need to have a difficult conversation with them”. So said my client the other day when discussing their relationship with one of their…
Failing to Reach the Summit of Collaboration
Remember Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 summit, billed at the time as a people’s forum to help “shape a long-term strategy for the nation’s…
Do Be Do Be Do Collaboration
To do is to be (Kant) To be is to do (Neitsche) Do be do be do (Sinatra) So goes the undergraduate joke. But whatever these three famous…
Isn't it great that we disagree?
Why disagreement and divergent views are the essential raw material of collaboration, to be embraced, acknowledged, even celebrated.…