Book Review – Oliver Burkeman’s “Four Thousand Weeks”

“Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman offers a refreshing perspective on time management, challenging the relentless pursuit of productivity that dominates modern life. Burkeman begins with a sobering reminder: if we live to about 80, we… Continue reading

When one corporate policy is at odds with another… and where it is also bad for the planet!

Francesca Steyn, writing for HR Review about the provision of fertility support for all employees, makes a very important point that is worth reiterating from the outset… Nobody should be discriminated against – in the workplace as much as anywhere… Continue reading

Where empowerment and micromanagement clash

A practical example of the challenge of empowering employees and yet protecting the image of your global brand.  Patisserie Valerie make great use of their customer email database.  Regular mailings with seasonal and speciality offers.  The quality of their produce… Continue reading

The trouble with Fish!

In 1998, Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen, two filmmakers and a motivational speaker published a book, Fish!, based on a film that they had made about the fish sellers in Seattle’s “Pike Place Fish Market”. It is a… Continue reading

Power dynamics in coaching, counselling, supervision, management, and teaching…

The relationship between counsellors and their clients, supervisors and their supervisees, tutors and their students, and managers and their ‘team’, are all determined by the projections of one onto the other and how the other responds. What’s important (in my… Continue reading