Recent Blogs

On Saturday I managed to persuade my wife to spend the evening watching rugby. I know, I'm an old romantic!

But this was no ordinary rugby game. It was about the 1995 rugby world cup played in South Africa and we went to see the exceptional film INVICTUS.

In post-apartheid South Africa, the Springboks symbolised the old racist, apartheid regime. The Boks were beloved in the Afrikaans heartlands and Mandela faced a dilemma - what should he do about the Boks?

Last week one of my clients asked me to tell them in one sentence what I thought change management is. Wow! How do I get all that stuff about change into one sentence?

How do we know we are doing the right things in our organisations? It is not an easy question to answer of course, but it is a question that has surfaced frequently in recent discussions I have held with a range of clients. 

Three themes have emerged from these discussions - which are echoed in an excellent article in today's FT about the work of Russ Ackoff, and which prompted me to write this blog.

I came across a lovely article by a guy called Jim Ylisela today which adds to my ongoing collection of consulting jargon. See if you have come across any of these gems:

Risk managers in organizations have long understood that, contrary to popular belief, they don’t control risk. Their challenge has always been striking the right balance between the risk an organization is exposed to and achieving its objectives. Risk management therefore cannot be divorced from the overall strategic orientation of an organization and risk management is the responsibility of everyone in the organization who makes key decisions that affect risk exposure.