Speaking
I speak on topics that can be grouped into three domains of complexity:
Contextual complexity – sample topics include:
- Discovery-led decision-making
- The role of paradox in reframing strategy
- How do buyers behave – and why?
Organizational complexity – sample topics include:
- The role of evolution and error in innovation
- Unleashing the power of teams
Human complexity – sample topics include:
- The use and abuse of the story drug
- Selling disruption
- Captivating communication
- Inspirational leadership – the management of meaning
- Avoiding traps in decision-making
Enterprise Education
I have taught enterprise education programmes in conjunction with Cambridge Judge Business School, Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
I can design and deliver smaller programmes requiring a single faculty member. The topics of these programmes can be grouped into three domains of complexity:
Contextual complexity – sample topics include:
- Discovery-led decision-making
- Strategy as a system within a system
Organizational complexity – sample topics include:
- Reconciling alignment vs. autonomy
- Middle-out leadership: becoming a leader of leaders
- Harnessing conflict for collaboration
Human complexity – sample topics include:
- Strategic insight: seeing what others don’t
- Neuroplasticity: resilience in tough times
I design and deliver programmes that are larger in size and duration in collaboration with The Janusian Partnership – janusian.io – of which I am a Founding Principal.
Advisory
I was a management consultant for over a dozen years, so I have experience of helping enterprises tackle complexity in a variety of ways:
- Running offsites for senior executive teams.
- Conducting advisory engagements that combine ‘problem-finding’ and ‘problem-solving’ – typically at the intersection of strategy, organization and leadership.
- Providing business and leadership coaching to individual leaders.
Research
I conduct customized research for enterprises on a variety of complexity-related topics. Examples include:
- Writing a report on the emerging principles of digital innovation for an investment bank.
- Helping a networking forum conduct research on how the future of employee reward might unfold over the coming decades.
- Synthesizing the research on how information technology (IT) affects productivity for a large corporate, and how they should therefore structure their IT investment.
- Evaluating research on whether enterprise transformation is typically driven outside-iin or inside-out for an advertising agency.
- Developing future scenarios for the evolution of both the supply- and demand-sides of the IT sector for a Chief Information Officer networking forum, which we used to run sessions at their annual conference.