I talked recently to the Young Fabians (a UK-based left wing think tank) about "Britain's puzzlingly poor productivity".  In such situations, people often want to know the 'secrets' or the 'answers'. The YF were too smart to expect that. They understand that complex problems require hard thought, experimentation and multiple potential interventions. Of course, experience

I used to ask myself the question... What have you done today to improve the organisation? Now I am older and wiser, I ask ... What have you done today to improve your life? After all, work is part of life and we are understandably being asked to think about work-life balance. Too many people

UK productivity has been bad for quite a long time and productivity growth is currently low. What impact will BREXIT (the departure of the UK from the European Union) have? Well, we don't know all the implications but here is one scenario. The UK is currently a high employment, low wage economy with lots of

Do you use a task manager to help you schedule tasks and activities?  Many people do.  There are many apps out there to help you. Do you wake each morning, look at your list of outstanding tasks and feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of things you should achieve that day. You are setting yourself

What is the most important thing to be done in a business? Is it creating the vision? Is it setting strategy? Is it managing people? Is it building a supply chain? Well, all of these are important - but perhaps the biggest single thing to be done is to build relationships - with all stakeholders

We are often asked to reflect on 'what we think'.  But, rarely, on how we think. Many of us are charged with making improvements, with innovation, with important planning and decision-making.  How we think - and how well we think - is therefore important. Yet most of us don't know.  We think how we think

"Our people are our greatest assert:".  So say most companies.  Yet few of them behave as if they really believe it. They fail to involve, empower - even train and develop - their employees and then are surprised when those employees fail to maximise their contribution - if they stay at all ... they are

I have spent much of my life urging companies to become more efficient - and helping them to do do. But, of course, I know that some do not go far enough. Becoming more efficient should not be an end in itself. Becoming efficient creates capacity - it gives an organisation the headroom to start

Recruitment is perhaps the most important function you ever undertake If you don't recruit talented, skilled, flexible staff, you can't expect your staff to exhibit talent, skill and flexibility. But you also have to create an organisation in which that talent, skills and flexibility can thrive and grow. You have to impose your will ,your

If you run an organisation - and run it well, how do you manage to keep it running well when you are not there.  This can certainly be a problem for small, startups and growing organisations that do not have an established management structure. First of all, let's hope you have recruited well - employing