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Early in our marriage, my husband had a routine for asking about a night out with his workmates. He would decide he wanted to go. Then he would spend days deciding how to tell me. He had good reason or thought he did. He’d watched the other blokes at work plan the same nights out,...
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Every senior leader has a blind spot: the “anti-persuasion system” that switches on the moment someone senses they’re being persuaded.
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Years ago, I learned to ride a motorbike. I’m not the most coordinated person and my husband has been known to make rude comments about my ability to balance any two wheeled bike, let alone one with an engine. So, given my lack of natural talent I did an extra rider safety course. The part...
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When your usual approach stops landing, more force isn’t the fix. It’s a fresh read of the conditions, and that’s hard to get from inside your own organisation. Seek out senior leaders from different organisations and ask: what do you see that I don’t?
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Senior leaders across health and human service NGO providers, peak bodies and commissioners recently came together for the first Wider Lens session. Different organisations, different seats in the same system, sitting at one table under the Chatham House Rule. Partway through the morning, one of them described a change they know they need, but were...
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Two questions to ask before the next big decision you make. Most senior leaders are good at the first call. The second is where the damage compounds.
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There was a stretch of my career when I was delivering and meeting expectations but could not have told you what I enjoyed about the job. Nothing was going wrong. In fact, I was being asked to take on more. Every time the role expanded, something small had to go to make space for it....
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A client of mine had a win recently. A good one. They helped shift a government position without losing the relationship they still need afterwards. They know influence has three layers: the current you are in, the line you choose, and the undertow you have not named. They lead a national network in the community services...
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My work often puts me on a plane. Over the past year I have flown to a lot of different parts of Australia, and a pattern has shown up that I can almost set my calendar by. Within about a week of a flight, I come down with something. A cold, a cough, whatever was...
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If you want to get ahead of the curve, start having the suggested conversations outlined in the Convergence Trap Strategic Field Guide.
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I have a Coke No Sugar habit, others might say addiction. The sort I keep meaning to deal with and do not. So you can usually find a box of it in my shopping trolley. At the self-checkout, before I had even started scanning the small things, an attendant came over. She did not ask....
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When I was working with an organisation building a new policy framework for how it enters into formal arrangements with partners and funders, the money turned out to be the smallest part of the picture. These arrangements are meant to be mutually beneficial. The organisation gets something it needs, and so does the other party....
Read itIf the complexity in your organisation isn't going anywhere, and you have less certainty than you'd like, that's ground Susanne has worked for thirty years.
Start with a conversation to find your team's way through.
