During one of many visits to the beautiful island-country of Madagascar, between workshops in Antananarivo for government employees, I managed to squeeze in a few sight-seeing hours and tour the city. My guide took me to see many varieties of lemurs, government buildings that harked back to North Korean architecture and to some of the…
I love art – sketching, drawing or painting. I don’t spend enough time practising, but when I get a moment to relax, I retrieve the pad, eraser, pencil and the watercolours. I find a quiet spot, shake off the accumulated stress from the week’s events and begin planning the next piece. On a particular Sunday…
Many years ago, a certain motor vehicle manufacturer in South Africa had an employee who was responsible for the door assembly area on the production line. He was good at his job, led his team well and contributed admirably to the finished product. At times, he made improvement and other creative suggestions to enhance process,…
Some time ago, I had fifteen regional sales people from a well-known international software company attend a workshop that I was facilitating, all of whom complained about overfull inboxes and the amount of mail they received on a daily basis. I happened to ask how big their problem was and they replied unanimously: “Between 180…
A couple of years ago, I did development work for the regional leadership team of a large milling and baking company, located in the northern part of South Africa. During the workshop, we looked at “stretch” for the business, attempting to find possible solutions to grow the business and bring it up to near full…
A colleague of mine shared a personal story of her son, when still very young in junior school, playing rugby for the first time. He had gone to practice during the week and came home beaming about his experiences – running with the ball, tackling others who had the ball, kicking and so on. My…
I have a whistle that has four notes, obtained in Chattanooga in the United States of America. There is nothing particularly special about these four different notes and they are almost weak-sounding, even when you blow on them individually with some force. When you blow them together, however, they produce the sound of the steam…
I am sure that you have heard those words from people on countless occasions. Other forms of the same expression include “that is not my role”, “that’s not in my employment contract” or “I can’t do everything in this organisation, you know”. People that use expressions like the above tend to pass the buck, make…
In my visits to organisations globally, a lot is spoken of regarding commitment levels of staff to their jobs, teams and their respective organisations. Senior management in these organisations are expecting effort and energy applied appropriately within the business to ensure productivity and results. In many cases, this same management group are even expecting staff…
