Being You In Business
I am convinced that aeons ago the deities of the Kalahari and Antarctica came to a grudging agreement regarding Cape Town. The summer months would be time for the spirits of heat to dance through our streets. Some days it…
Tag Creative Leadership
Imagination Can Change The Life Of A People
A powerful way to shape strategy, personal or organizational, is to ‘visit the future’. By doing so we enrich our understanding of what we can do to generate the future that we want. That thought has been foremost in my…
A Pan-African Imagination
This Tuesday is Africa Day and so I have turned to a Pan African Pantheon to inspire our imagination, for in the Pan-African tradition an inspired imagination is the precursor to expanded freedom. / STRATEGY Marcus Garvey stated, “A people…
Skin: It Takes Blood And Guts
Good morning everyone I am in a celebratory mood today. If you aren’t, I hope that you will be by the time you’ve finished reading. Rémy Ngamije, the Rwandan-born Nambian author, whose debut novel I told you about in Behaviour Design,…
Build Your Life
Good morning everyone We’re in March. I had planned this week’s letter to focus on the tweaks we can make to our work-lives to alleviate stress and burnout. However, I think we’re all a little gatvol of feeling gatvol (my international readers, please ask…
Working With Soul
Last week Sihle Nontshokweni celebrated the fact that her children’s book, Wanda, which she had co-authored with Mathabo Tlali had received its first international review. They wrote the book to “encourage young children to love themselves for what they are born with, despite what society may…
Hello. Please Open Me. We’re Back.
Good morning friends I’ve missed you. I’ve missed the ritual of sitting down each week to write to you, to communicate with you. I’ve missed the conversations that follow. It is good to be back. Well, strictly speaking, we’re not…
Despite the backdrop of our pain, South Africa achieves.
Today’s introduction is longer than normal. It’s December, it feels right to reflect a little. Next week will be our last email for the year. I will resume our conversation on 10 January 2021. This week I shared a photograph of…
The Power of Listening
Last week’s email reflected on how psychologically unsafe environments destroy value by silencing people or, more insidiously, by creating conditions in which people do not feel safe to speak and so silence themselves. In the silence, value is hidden. Amy Edmondson, Professor…
Robert Iger’s 15 Years Leading Disney
At the end of last year my sunglasses were removed from my, often-forgotten-to-be-locked, car. The desire to avoid adding a summer squint to my Zoom stare led me to The Oculus. They have been pioneering a South African designed and manufactured…
Better Humans Make Better Leaders
Good morning friends Earlier in the week, LinkedIn told me that Dr Sarah Mosoetsa, CEO of the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, had said this about last week’s letter Be Gentle and Ambitious. As you can imagine, my week was made. Additional…
The Wisdom Of Elders
Good morning friends The focus of today’s note, came to me via Chip Conley’s Wisdom @ Work, in which he recounts this proverb, “When an elder dies, it’s like a library has burned down.” I was reminded of it this…