Why Would Anyone Want to Work for You?

Graham Birkenhead, August 10 2021

Unemployment figures continue to improve; we have a little way to go before we are back to pre-pandemic levels, but we are moving in the right direction.   Currently, unemployment in Canada is 7.5% (1.5m) and in the US it is 5.4% (10m).  These figures will include people who are ‘looking’ for work; they won’t include the people who could work but...

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A Bowl of Cultural Soup

Graham Birkenhead, May 11 2021

There really is nothing quite like a good bowl of soup; warming, nutritious and tasty. The thing about soup is that there is almost an infinite variety of possibilities of what you can make – whether it is using a different combination of ingredients or a slight variation of the same ingredients. Adjustments to the cooking time or temperature,...

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Creatures of Habit

Graham Birkenhead, August 11 2020

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in why people do some things and why they don't do other things. Why some people achieve a little or a lot – seemingly regardless of how big or small they think.  The nature of luck - is there such a thing or do you make your own luck? And, the roles of motivation, challenge, power and fear,...

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Accommodating the Non-standard Worker

Graham Birkenhead, July 28 2020

By the late 40s, the US Air Force was experiencing an unacceptable increase in the rate of air incidents and crashes.  This was the era of the introduction of jet aircraft. Apart from appearing to be pilot error, there didn't seem to be a common underlying cause.   But there was.   Back in 1926, the Air Force realised that pilots came in all...

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The Human Cost-benefit of the Home Worker

Graham Birkenhead, July 14 2020

In my last post about Working from Home and the Office (WFOH), I mentioned that often people are more productive when working from home. So why is that and what can we do to help more people be more productive at home?  And could those same principles help people be more productive in the office

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Working from Home and the Office [WfHO]

Graham Birkenhead, July 7 2020

We are a mere 4 months into the new rapidly evolving world order, and it is nowhere near over. It will be many months (being optimistic) before the first vaccines are available, there are no effective treatments in sight, and as we learn more and more about this new disease, we realise that its physiological impact is a lot more complex than we...

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Onboarding the Remote Worker

Graham Birkenhead, June 23 2020

Continuing the discussion about remote workers – what do we need to do differently during the onboarding process to ensure success? Well, in general terms, we have exactly the same objectives: we need to welcome the new person to the team, ensure they quickly feel that they belong and are connected to their co-workers, give them the tools and...

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I See You - Leading in a time of crisis

Graham Birkenhead, April 7 2020

Learning to See.   Sawubona is a Zulu greeting which means “I see you”. The idea is that you don't merely acknowledge a person by saying “hi”, but you take a moment (or 5) to look just a little bit beyond what you see on the surface, or maybe a little beyond the assumptions you are making when they reply “good” to your standard “how are you”. In...

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Diverse Thinking - Your Team's Secret Weapon

Graham Birkenhead, June 25 2019

I’m a great fan of diversity in the work place – not just those more obvious visible aspects, or the broad range of cultural perspectives and experiential insights that people can bring, but also the way we are all wired differently. This is known as *neuro-diversity. Neuro-diversity can give a team strength by allowing it to ‘see different and...

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Meeting Mayhem and Magic

Graham Birkenhead, June 4 2019

I was invited to observe a meeting with a client last week. Ten of the invitees arrived on time but the meeting didn’t start on time because a couple of ‘key’ people were missing.  And then, when it finally got underway, I realized that most of the attendees weren’t sure what the meeting was all about. As the conversation progressed, one or two...

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