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Decision making: the games we play
Decision making: the games we play

Decision making: the games we play

By in behaviour, change, decision making, Influence, Leadership, Performance, Strategy
5 months ago
5 months ago 0 0 65

This post is part of the series on decision making.  Building on the research around the factors of decision making open to influence, we explore 3 common decision scenarios (games as defined by Nash) and how you can improve your personal decision making. Scenarios for decisions: Consider the following situations: You win at the casino, and believe you have discovered a ‘method’ for winning every time you play. A relative passes away, and there is disagreement over the division of the estate, and the relationships are permanently damaged. You have a rival who would rather harm your chances more than get any benefit, as long as they do better than you they are happy to wear some pain, too. You are in a negotiation and you the other side is asking for and expecting impossible things from you, ensuring the negotiation goes nowhere even though the path seems obvious to

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Are you managing innovation? – well STOP IT!

By in behaviour, change, Coaching, creativity, Customer focus, innovation, Leadership, organisation, Performance
7 months ago
7 months ago 0 243

Is your success good enough to last?

By in business development, change, Customer focus, Leadership, organisation, Performance, Strategy, Transformation
8 months ago
8 months ago 0 0 195

Summary: Being successful does not guarantee future success. Human biases impact how we research business success Success can breed ‘expectation’, rather than encouraging staying attuned to your customer Change happens, how are you going to adapt to stay relevant, valuable and fit to serve your customers at their new normal? Research in the 20th century focused on what makes a successful company ‘great’?  Business luminaries like Tom Peters and Jim Collins became ‘gurus’ of the business world by applying research to this exact question. The belief was that the things that make a great company can be distilled from examples of companies that have been successful. This led to a range of ‘business principles’ (like the hedgehog concept from Jim Collins) that became the fads of the late twentieth century management ethos. Years after the initial publications of these works, there was almost a sense of ‘glee’ from parts of

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Are you insane in your approach to success?

By in behaviour, change, Coaching, communication, decision making, Leadership, organisation, Performance
11 months ago
11 months ago 0 0 493

I once sat in a training seminar where they ‘challenged’ the group with a (pretend) statistic: “Less than 10 percent of you will implement this fully, and less than 5% will be successful”.  They were obviously trying some reverse motivation – but without realising it, they were clearly identifying the biggest issue with what they were doing.  They were asking their ‘students’ to be insane in their approach to success. The definition of insanity: Einstein has been credited with saying ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”. How does this apply to people and organisations trying to generate sustained success? The answer is simple: you are insane if you think doing what someone else has done will make you successful. It doesn’t seem to make sense – it is insane to do keep doing the same things and expect different

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Agile as a mindset or a methodology?

By in behaviour, business development, change, innovation, Leadership
2 years ago
2 years ago 0 0 923

There is so much to be gained by using positive project methodologies such as scrum or agile. It can positively change organisations when they take on modern project methodologies that turn old ways on their heads. The problem with these approaches is when they become fixed in the business as a methodology, rather than unleashing what they can being as a mindset. Let me explain. If I use an ‘agile methodology’, then I become process bound to do ‘sprints’ and all of the other specific process elements that are described in the agile process. Sure, I can get a certificate in agile process, and then become rigid around enforcing that process in my business. I have seen one sales team that used the scrum ‘daily standup meets’ with all of the hoopla, and a complete disinterest from the staff involved. However, because it was ‘in the process’, it was put

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Should they be in charge? (Assessing leadership)

By in behaviour, business development, change, Coaching, Leadership, Performance, teams
2 years ago
2 years ago 0 0 703

The Australian opposition just selected as new leader, and the UK Tories are currently starting the process of finding a leader to replace Ms. May and take them forward. It is likely that the people selected for these roles are not chosen on their ‘ability to lead’, but rather may other elements.  In a ‘perfect world’, how do we go about assessing leadership, both in current leaders and leadership aspirants?  In truth, people are routinely terrible at identifying and selecting great leaders. Whilst we are desperate to identify them, install them and even emulate them, knowing what will make a great leader is fraught with human error. In our desire to find and become great leaders, we often get sucked into the myth that is the cult of leadership. Why are we suckers for the cult of leadership? Humans seem to have a need to raise onto pedestals people who

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The stories that can ruin your business (part 1)

By in behaviour, communication, decision making, Influence, Leadership
5 years ago
5 years ago 0 0 1138

I was presenting on culture and leadership at a recent conference (#100millionimpacts, for B1G1), and whilst facilitating a panel discussion, a common theme that emerged was the importance of the stories in business. In response to many questions after the session, here are a few thoughts on stories in business to extend that discussion further: Stories are powerful means of communication. Often, people believe that storytelling ends when the kids grow up. However, there are stories being told within your business – and about your business – that can either take it to new heights of success or lead it to ruin. What stories are being told about your business? People communicate through stories. As people communicate, they engage each other through analogy (this is like that), metaphor (the army of sales reps) and stories. Humans are always using these processes to engage their listeners, develop shared meaning and convey

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The trust advantage (building and leveraging trust, part 2)

By in behaviour, Leadership, organisation, Performance
6 years ago
6 years ago 0 0 1153

Trust is such a critical thing in business. Understanding what trust is, and how to develop it and leverage it is critical to success. Often an even more important question is “how do I rebuild trust when it is broken?” In part one, we looked at what trust really is (predictability of behaviour), its value and its costs. In part two, we explore the concept further, and how it can be leveraged for maximum advantage. How is trust built? We develop ‘trust’ in something or someone in highly personalised ways. In fact, many people would not be able to describe how they know who they can trust, except for a vague statement like “I get a feeling about them”. Feelings and emotions (or ‘intuition’) are often poor methods for deciding who to trust. It can mean that some people, when faced with the same situational cues, will be too trusting,

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Analytics: Big data, bad behaviour?

By in behaviour, innovation, Leadership
6 years ago
6 years ago 0 0 1180

We exist in a world where ‘big data’ drives many decisions about what happens to us, what we are offered, and how we interact. The process of advanced business analytics is welcomed by some, who enjoy everything from customised medicine through to seamless online experiences, whilst others are afraid of what people know about them, and what they can do with this knowledge. Does ‘big data’ mean ‘bad behaviour’? So what is all the fuss about? What are people scared of with data analytics – and should they be? If companies have access to all of our data, does that mean that they can do things which we would consider unacceptable breaches of our privacy or individual identity, or make bad decisions – that is, demonstrate ‘bad behaviour’? What is ‘big data’ anyway? Data analytics is seen in business as a massive driver of competitive advantage. The more you know

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Are you making the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ mistake?

By in behaviour, Coaching, culture, innovation, Leadership
6 years ago
6 years ago 0 0 1203

Focusing on both successful outcomes and successful behaviours is the key to building sustainable high performance in business. Caveat emptor – buyer beware. It really is true that you get what you pay for. This is absolutely true when you consider the things we focus on – and incentivise – in the workplace. Consider the following examples: • Jordan Belfort – the ‘Wolf of Wall street’ only focused on outcomes (making money), which encouraged behaviours which ended with him in prison. • Companies set their salesforce a goal, and once they achieve it, they start ‘banking’ sales for the next quarter. • The business puts out a behavioural edict to ‘manage costs’ – and misses business opportunities because it becomes more important to ‘watch the penny’ that capitalise on opportunities to deliver business results. In these examples, if we focus only upon ‘outcomes’ we may get exactly what we pay

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Phil Owens – Founder of The Bigger Game

Phil is one of Australia’s leading performance and leadership specialists. He honed his skills working with executives and leaders around the world, coaching and consulting in over 30 countries, from entrepreneurial start-ups to boards of multi-billion dollar businesses.

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