INSIGHTS

Competing by managing asset bottlenecks

Peter Drucker quipped, ‘Business has only two functions—marketing and innovation.’ Early in my career, I focused obsessively on innovations in productivity. The really hard part, though, is convincing an organisation that a better way of delivering greater productivity exists. Allow me to try.(more…)

Sharing stories

The first two parts of our series on storytelling focused on the overarching narrative: the big stories we tell ourselves. In this final article, we look at smaller stories—the kind we tell every day—which can add up to a shift in mindset from the listener.

We no doubt need the large stories that place us as the hero on our journey to something greater than ourselves. But how do we get there? What do we encounter in our daily adventures at work? And how can we learn from others in our field—or even way outside it? Smaller stories make our points more memorable to the listener. Done right, they can spread throughout the organisation. (more…)

Telling big stories

In Part One of this series on storytelling, we looked at the importance of stories as a way to inspire change in the people we seek to lead. This article looks at the big, overarching narratives that can drive our people to see themselves and their work in a new light.

We tell our biggest stories at the level of myths and legends. They answer the questions about why we’re here, how we must behave within our cultural group, and what we must do to live a good, true and beautiful life. (more…)

What’s your story?

Stories are how we make sense of the world. They also stir our emotions in powerful ways, often persuading our audience more effectively than any reasoned argument. If we’re trying to inspire change, we should use them. This three-part series explores how.

I sometimes imagine the first humans with conscious thought, looking across the African savannah, gazing at the infinity of the night cosmos above. When did they start asking the eternal questions: ‘Who am I? Why am I here? What’s going to happen when I die?’ What stories did they tell themselves? (more…)

Five essential steps to your goal

No one likes spending money on maintenance. Take your car in for a service and you’re not only left with no transport, you have to pay for the privilege to boot. In fact, there’s only one thing worse than planned maintenance. An unplanned breakdown.

I recently had the chance to talk at one of the premier asset management conferences in Australia. It felt like being in a guild—in my case, of engineers and asset managers. People like us are charged with ensuring that billions of dollars of assets—whether aircraft, manufacturing plants or mines and refineries—can deliver safe, reliable, cost-effective outcomes. (more…)

Working between the silos

What are you accountable for? And what kind of authority do you have to properly acquit that accountability? Whom do you report to? How do you get inducted into the role? Who decides which tasks are to be done, of what type and by when?

Everyone craves clarity in their role. We want to know who makes decisions about hiring and firing from the team and who will do the appraisals. Who has the authority to negotiate pay, whether up or down? The classic job description often covers many aspects of your role. But what happens when you get assigned to a project outside of your functional home? (more…)