I was travelling for work recently and had a really interesting conversation with a stranger (over wine of course!) about our views on work and how we’re trying to raise our families. I mentioned that I think it’s really important for kids to help clean the house and to get a casual job as soon as possible so they can learn the value of money and the...
read moreLast week I heard a conference panellist describe herself as ‘a self-taught engineer’. Meanwhile the writer Sarah Wilson and chef Pete Evans were once again paraded on TV as experts in health. It is infuriating. What will happen to us, when bona fide experts such as scientists, doctors, engineers, criminal profilers and so on are no longer sought for...
read moreI worked on a project not so long ago that involved conducting in-depth qualitative interviews with around 15 people in an attempt to get the nub of the problem we were trying to solve. In presenting our findings, a summary of the themes of our conversations, we were asked: “This is all great, but do you have any quantitative data around what you heard?”...
read moreI’ve been concerned for a while now that words like ‘innovation' and ‘entrepreneurship’ are being thrown around with reckless abandon in Australia, yet the serious work required to create something truly valuable seems rarely understood. Last month, I travelled to Israel as part of an Innovation Mission organised by the Trans-Tasman Business...
read more“The new 'attention economy’ demands generosity and thoughtfulness. It requires real investment in taking the time and energy to create content that matters.” – Brian Honigman, Adjunct Professor, New York University. I recently listened to a podcast from the ABC program Future Tense that explored some of the pressures ever-present digital...
read moreThere seems to be an obsession with ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘innovation’ and ‘disruption’ right now. I’m concerned this is fueling a myth that anyone can make millions if they pursue their Big Idea and that start-ups have a monopoly on creativity. Most of all, there’s a lack of understand about how it’s actually consumers that are driving...
read moreThere is growing evidence that listening is increasingly becoming a key driver of organisational success because it’s critical to being ‘agile’ – that is, having the ability to sense, decide, and act quickly. However, a new study by Professor Jim Macnamara from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has revealed a “crisis of listening”...
read moreDuring the recent Federal Election Wendy Bacon from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism wrote about how images are now “weapons in a communication war”. Referring to the imagery used in the asylum seeker debate, Bacon outlined the primacy of imagery over text in eliciting an emotional response, and highlighted the growing importance...
read moreIn a week that’s seen the resignation of Swimming Australia boss Barclay Nettlefold and yet another violent outburst during the State of Origin defended by the powers that be, I believe it’s time for every code and every sport to be part of turning around what has become an ugly, excuse riddled sub-culture. First, we must stop referring to men who play...
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