Staff performance reviews usually don’t suit the modern workplace. Running through targets and assigning a good/very good/needs improvement rating to them does get a tidy number at the end, which is useful for punitive purposes but doesn’t help staff develop as part of a dynamic system. How we interrelate with…

Most attempts to improve project management focus on the wrong thing. Making ProjectPlanTemplate-v7 better than ___v6 is of far less value than improving what actually delivers projects: people. All we can change is ourselves. And if we choose to change ourselves — how we speak, what we prioritise, how we…

(or, Hack your org’s rhythm part 2) I wrote previously about hacking your organisation’s rhythm. But here I want to talk about the biggest beat of all — the financial year. It holds such a grip on us. Just like we all believe specific pictures on round pieces of metal and oblong bits of plastic hold value…

I’ve just completed the Company Directors course; the 8kg of reading, the 5-day intensive and the various assessment tasks. The Australian Institute of Company Directors have vouchsafed that i have the basic skills and understanding to be a Company Director, and i get fancy letters after my name. But what…

What do best practice for Agile projects, Board governance and project management have in common, that no-one talks about? Managing through rhythm. Here are some tips and tricks for applying time as a lens for making work better. Your workplace has rhythms, whether you control them, are controlled by them…

I’ve just completed a 7-month contract as the Chief Operating Officer for the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (SMCT). What did i learn? And what would i say to anyone else considering pursuing an interim role? Context first. In March, I committed myself to career exploration. No wrong answers, no lofty…

[First posted to Museum 2.0, this ver has the links] There’s a lot of talk about people leaving their museums jobs — if you’re thinking that way, this might help. I did 20 years in museums, then left four years ago, and since then I’ve run a sustainability organisation, consulted…

Reflecting on my experience running an NFP after reading Philanthropy Australia’s Paying what it takes: Funding indirect costs to create long-term impact. It is an excellent report, I just have two things to add/build on and have one controversial opinion at the end… The report The summary reads, Not-for-profit indirect costs are…

Two years working with public advocacy experts gave me a better model for museum and gallery impact planning than I saw in 20 years in museums. Theory of Change is the model museums need. Problem Museums today describe their impact in overreaching isolationist terms. This exhibition will create science literacy. …