Paul's Provocations
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Thirteen 21st Century Career Megatrends – and What You Should Do About Them
Don’t wake up a dinosaur The rules of work, employment, and career are vastly different from those of a quarter century ago, and “players” (people managing their careers) have to learn the new rules. As a career-minded professional, you must stay on top of trends that could affect your employability, or income in a few […]
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Are All of Us Really Smarter Than One of Us?
Don’t confuse group wisdom with the madness of crowds “All of us is smarter than one of us” is a nice-sounding aphorism. It is the sort of platitude that gets thousands of retweets and shares, while making the proclaimer sound like a team player: immensely humble, and up-to-date with their management reading. But pithy feelgood phrases such as this get in […]
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Stop Treating Business Gurus as Prophets. Question Everything!
In no domain that I can think of, do writers get a “free pass”, that is that their words are taken as axiomatic (or gospel if you prefer). Even the most famous scientists of the 20th century, Einstein, Turing, Watson (DNA), lived with a torrent of criticism and debate through their lives. Certainly our time […]
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Time to Euthanize Change Management?
If we had leaders at every level… Imagine an organization filled with leaders at every level who excelled at aligning staff with change strategy. Key change programs become priorities for them, they work hard at understanding the big picture, handle conflict assertively, yet gracefully, motivate and align staff, communicate with affected stakeholders (say customers), skillfully […]
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Is pop psychology bad for business?
In my upcoming book, I present some ideas that risk being controversial. They relate to leading change, and whether the “pop psychology” that circulates in the change and leadership worlds is harmful, or helpful, to understanding and leading people. I also introduce the idea of “pop leadership”, soundbite style leadership wisdom, and ask whether that […]
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Do we need to redefine “change strategy”?
“Tactics teaches the use of armed forces in the engagement; strategy, the use of engagements for the object of the war.” (Von Clausewitz, On War) Are change strategy frameworks strategic enough? What is commonly called change strategy is not very strategic, because strategy properly focuses on goals, and tactics on how to deliver them. Many […]
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Top 20 Change Management Myths
Why does change fail? With change failure rates hovering around 50% (according to the most recent surveys from McKinsey and IBM), we must wonder why. In The Science of Successful Organizational Change, I try to challenge some of the orthodox beliefs about change – for example, that metaphors such as “freezing” and “unfreezing” are apt, […]
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Three Steps to Career Joy
Each of us will work 100,000 hours in our lifetimes. Either those hours will be fulfilling – doing work that makes us come alive, or dreary – doing work that kills part of our spirit each time we “suit up.” There are steps you have to take to become one of the “lucky ones.” (Excerpted […]
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The Career Mindset: Seven ways to get your head right
A career is a horrible thing to waste. Getting your head right (the career mindset) from the get-go is one of the keys to human flourishing. While the right mindset is no guarantee of short-term results, over the long term (your life in other words) “getting your head right” will produce lifelong career benefits. These […]
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My Story
My passions I’m passionate about science and philosophy, and how they can be used in service of human flourishing, well-run businesses, and a better world for all of us. I have 35 years’ experience in business as a consultant with one of the world’s leading professional services firms and founder of Future Considerations, one of […]
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