Louder isn't righter
A room full of very sure people, a client caught in the crossfire, and a line I'd once heard about opinionated people annoying each other. On working with strong opinions — without becoming another one.
Communication
Communication and meaning — how clarity moves between people, and where it fails. Essays in this layer explore listening, feedback, trust, language, and the habits that make communication reliable.
The Warm and Fluffy Test
On hard and soft communication, and why rigidity is the real problem.
The man who knew everyone
A friend who worked a conference like his own front room taught me the most underrated skill in any organisation. We don't build relationships with companies — we build them with people, and that's what work actually runs on.
The vending machine
An executive came back from active-listening training and turned, overnight, into something out of a horror film. On the ear, the brain and the heart — and the one part of listening no course on earth can install.
Compete with yourself
I love competition — in sport, on a go-kart track, against myself. But between people inside a team it does something quietly disastrous: it makes everyone go quiet. Why internal competition kills communication, and what to do instead.
Say when: the power of Time Speak
On Time Speak — the tiny habit of saying not just what you'll do, but when — and how it builds a reputation for trust.
The Power of Appearance: Simple Clothing Choices That Change How You Perform
We like to believe what we wear doesn't matter. It does — and not only in how others read us, but in how we perform ourselves. On the research into clothing, confidence and "enclothed cognition", and the small wardrobe of triggers I use to change gear.
What DISC really measures: performing the wrong personality
A leadership away day, a CEO who walked out — and why DISC is less a communication tool than an energy one. On style, flex, and working with your grain instead of against it.
Three sides to every story
There are always three sides to a story — one side, the other side, and the truth. The first two arrive on their own, loudly, for free. The third you have to go and find, and it's almost always the one worth having.
The space between the boxes
Ninety-nine percent of problems at work are really communication problems. Here's how to keep an idea intact on its way to becoming something real.
Beside, not opposite
A few years ago I sat in a meeting with a senior colleague whose team we'd let down and who was, quite reasonably, furious. On paper it looked like a confrontation. In practice it became something else — not because of charisma or luck, but because of a handful of specific, learnable behaviours.
Why watermelons are a problem
A project can be Green on the outside and Red underneath. Watermelon reporting isn't really a reporting problem — it's what happens when telling the truth becomes personally expensive.