Take Away Line Loving work and higher productivity go hand in hand. We know the link but in stressed times the tendency is for leaders to drive harder not love more. As a leader, how can you put the love back in to leadership? For good! One way is to consider a really great new…
Take Away Line Innovation is as much a social process as something a genius does on their own. Simply put, innovation comes better when ideas hit against one another in an informal way. The key thing is breaking down barriers between groups within an organisation so the light can get in. While you can’t command…
Take Away Line Creating relationships between employees and employers that are meaningful and sustainable as well as productive requires an understanding of both how to engender and maintain engagement in the first place, but also an understanding of the darker side of high levels of staff engagement – and how to deal with its consequences.…
Take Away Line A working holiday in a hospice in Romania? Sounds tough or ‘noble’ or both. Perhaps it is, but if the hosting agency gets the organisational arrangements right it can feel neither…and mine gold for all concerned. Reflections and eight good practice tips suggested here towards the end of the European Year of…
Take Away Line Failings in healthcare delivery, as pointed out by the CQC’s report on care for elders on hospital wards last week may have an ultimate origin elsewhere. And Monitor’s governance report, also published last week, indicates significant weaknesses at the top of NHS trusts. Is there a connection here? Experience in other sectors…
Take Away Line Turbulent times call for even greater sophistication in leadership. Linked to culture change, effective leadership development programmes should have direct benefits for all-staff engagement levels, which in turn predict future organisational success. Measure and re-measure engagement levels and you predict the ROI from your leadership intervention. But choosing the right programme is…
Take Away Line When learning and development budgets are under strain, every £, € or $ has to show its worth. There are signs in some quarters that spend in this area is beginning to rise again. Slowly. Greater impact for the available cash can be had by paying more attention to the precise learning…
Travel broadens the mind One of the joys of being a consultant is travel: new places, new people, new challenges. Equally one of the woes of being a consultant is when travel doesn’t work well. Or feels as though it’s going to be disastrous. Here’s a case. On climbing aboard the packed standard class Virgin…
Take Away Line Consulting across boundaries has many joys and some pitfalls. Some of the models and idea do not translate well; others do. Recent experience in working with a group of NGO leaders in Russia suggests that the four areas where intervention can be most useful and appropriate are at the sector policy level,…
Take Away Line Spending their hard-earned cash and time to be together for a conference is a sign that consultants see value in their membership of professional body, EU Consult. It also means we care about the issues our clients a re facing in tough times. But going from being a group that associates across…
