Last week, an Edubrain survey of 3,500 Americans aged 18-60 uncovered something many of us have long suspected. Many adults, just like schoolchildren, are surprisingly willing to outsource thinking to anyone or anything that will do it for them. Yes, I’m talking about AI, and the damage it is already doing to our collective cognitive…

I recently considered hiring a high-priced strategy coach to help me navigate the ever-shifting Motivational Speaking industry, but I’ve decided to go in a different direction. I’m taking up cromniomancy. For the uninitiated—and I assume that is most of you—this is the ancient and noble art of interpreting the sprouting pattern of an onion to…

“If ever there is a misnomer, it’s change management. It rarely causes change—and it’s almost always mismanaged.” That cutting observation comes from Phil Gilbert, the former head of design at IBM. If, like me, you’ve sat through a ninety-minute “vision deck” presentation, only to go back to your desk and carry on exactly as before,…

We’ve all heard the old chestnut: “People don’t like change.” It’s the go-to excuse whenever a new system rollout goes belly-up or the team looks at you with sheer horror when you suggest throwing out the half-dead office pot plant. But I don’t buy it. If we truly hated change, we wouldn’t take holidays, we’d…

Why does change at work trigger the same brain response as being chased by a pack of hungry hyenas? It’s just biology. A natural survival instinct. When leaders announce a change programme, the employee’s amygdala (the brain’s irrepressible drama queen) can light up like an emergency beacon. It doesn’t see “improved efficiency”; it sees a…

I’ve really been getting into podcasts recently. Not just listening whenever I can, but appearing on them too. The podcasts I enjoy the most give me a feeling like I’m eavesdropping on an interesting, intimate chat between friends. That’s when it works best. When the conversation just flows and you feel part of it, but…

Let’s be honest: trying to force change in an organisation sometimes feels like trying to herd squirrels. Angry, stubborn squirrels who have been diligently doing things the same way for 20 years and see no reason to start storing their nuts tidily in some fancy Tupperware box. I’ve seen it many times, and I’m sure…

Years ago, I was sent on a two-day training course to learn how to use an overhead projector. That probably dates me a bit, but back then, it felt like a genuinely valuable skill. We were taught how to layer transparencies, adjust the light without blinding people, and how to keep eye contact with the…

I remember the moment it first hit me – that feeling as though things were starting to change faster than I could keep up with. I was in a meeting at Microsoft: one of those long, back-to-back days where the agenda keeps shifting and no one seems to know what problem we’re solving anymore. A…

Plenty of experts tell us that being resilient is vital for career success. So much so that “Resilience” (now with a capital R) has become one of those sought-after traits. “You’ve got to be able to tough it out,” they tell us, “so you can cope with the highs and lows, and whatever shiz life…