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Journal

Use words to get things done

October 12, 2021

Last year I worked with a client on how we could guide people to make good decisions in situations of uncertainty. One of the things they told me was that their clients found it very difficult to describe the possible states of affairs they did and didn’t want. At the time we were talking specifically…

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Making decisions is hard

August 5, 2021

Perhaps we need to talk more about what it’s like to do that? I’m talking decisions about what to do when it’s just not obvious what is the best thing to do. Really, that’s what a decision is. After all, when things are certain, there’s nothing to make a decision about. It’s only when there…

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“Getting beyond the edges of our knowledge”

August 3, 2020

This text has been circling in a holding pattern for almost the whole time of the COVID-19 crisis. In those months there have been so much that makes me think—yes, this is why: political leaders showing what they really think about the people they purport to lead, the emergence of conspiracy theories relating to the…

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Thought leadership in times of change

April 7, 2020

Thought leadership is about leading people to new thoughts and new ways of doing things. It means taking a position and building relationships of trust. It’s also about sharing knowledge generously. Communication is often thought of as simply packaging up information in a nice, digestible form. It is much more powerful than that, shaping what…

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Dealing with risk in the environment

January 6, 2020

Why it’s difficult, here in Australia, to translate research findings into commercial products and services? Risk aversion has to be part of the answer to that question. Research can be uncertain in its output and commercialising innovation is risky. There has to be firm ground somewhere to offset that—and a culture that supports people with…

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Effective communication depends on cooperation

January 6, 2020

So many of our big issues need cooperation but instead we use the language of opposition. Rather than being harmless, I think it damages our ability to work together to get the outcomes we need and want. When facts are contested and the stakes are high what we get, more often than not, is opposition.…

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