Inspired by the folks at Obvious, with whom I spent a memorable five years, and their playbook in the public domain, Obvious U, I am sharing insights on organisation building. How culture takes root Inspired by the folks at Obvious, with whom I spent a memorable five years, and their public-domain playbook, Obvious U, I’m… Continue reading How culture takes root
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Why culture is a system, not a slogan
Culture is the sum of the behaviours an organisation rewards, tolerates, and quietly punishes. Change the incentives and you change the culture. Most culture work fails because it treats culture as a message to be broadcast rather than a system to be redesigned. Downstream, under pressure and on an average Thursday, the culture people experience… Continue reading Why culture is a system, not a slogan
Psychological safety, by design
Safety is not softness. It is the precondition for the honest disagreement that good decisions require — and it can be engineered. Psychological safety is the shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks — to ask the naive question, admit the mistake, challenge the senior person in the room. It is the… Continue reading Psychological safety, by design
Is this your circus? Is this your monkey?
Entirely too often, founders and HR folk get pulled into situations that need not be handled by them, and often, in looking elsewhere, miss out on looking at other essential things that did need their attention. Leaders I work with ask a version of the question, usually sideways, over a second cup of chai: is… Continue reading Is this your circus? Is this your monkey?
