The interview I interviewed somebody the other day. I prepared by googling the “Top 10 questions to ask at an interview”. In at number 4 was the classic awkward stakeholder question. I tried it out. This is how it went… Question 1. How do you influence stakeholders? The interviewee jumped up, grabbed a white board […]
Cauliflower for Brains
Your brain is finite. Your brain is roughly the same size, shape and weight as a cauliflower. There the similarities end. Your brain is — I hope — physiologically more sophisticated than your average brassica. Some people’s brains, like cauliflowers, are bigger and better developed than others. But everybody’s brain, no mater how big or […]
Good Boss, Bad Boss
What makes a good boss? Julian Birkinshaw wanted to know. After pondering the question for a while, he came to the conclusion that the best way to find out was to ask some employees. They are the people most capable of defining what a good or bad boss looks like — we have all worked for a nightmare or […]
How to Walk in Your Customer’s Shoes
We have all been told to “walk in our customer’s shoes”. When we walk in our customer’s shoes we can understand what our customers want: What their problems are What pressures they feel What is going on in their minds And if we can really understand our customers we can: Communicate better with them Give […]
“Group Think” is no Laughing Matter
In the 1970’s the psychologist Irving Janis coined the term “group think” to explain why group pressure results in poor decisions, or, as he explained it, why groups show: A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgement That is a little more erudite than the way I would put it, but the phrase […]