What is the best way to drive innovative work inside organizations? Important clues hide in the stories of world-renowned creators. It turns out that ordinary scientists, marketers, programmers, and other unsung knowledge workers, whose jobs require creative productivity every day, have more in common with famous innovators than most managers realize. The workday events that … Continue reading The Power of Small Wins
How to Collaborate Without Burning Out
According to research from Connected Commons, most managers now spend 85% or more of their work time on e-mail, in meetings, and on the phone, and the demand for such activities has jumped by 50% over the past decade. Companies benefit, of course: Faster innovation and more-seamless client service are two by-products of greater collaboration. … Continue reading How to Collaborate Without Burning Out
CASE-Ross Support of Education Survey 2021
The CASE-Ross report, released by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), shows new philanthropic funds secured by UK and Irish highereducation institutions was £1.09 billion during the 2019-2020 reporting year. The new funds secured from philanthropic sources has remained higher than £1 billion for the third year running though average new funds … Continue reading CASE-Ross Support of Education Survey 2021
10 Ways Your Brain Reacts to Uncertain Times
Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. These four words (shorthanded to “VUCA”) describe the type of high-stress, high-demand scenarios that can rapidly degrade one of our most powerful and influential brain systems: our attention. During uncertain times, we are all living in VUCA conditions. Compounding the constant health and economic concerns, we are facing unprecedented levels of … Continue reading 10 Ways Your Brain Reacts to Uncertain Times
A Mental Trick to Help with Challenging Conversations
Imagine the colleague with whom you have a very challenging relationship, the person who makes the most innocuous conversation tense and uncomfortable. Now imagine the following scenario: You’re sitting at your desk working away when a message from that person pops up on your screen. You open the message and it reads: “I got the … Continue reading A Mental Trick to Help with Challenging Conversations
Five For-Profit Practices That Philanthropy Should Avoid
Judy Park, Kavya Shankar and a group of Stanford MBA students interviewed millennial donors from the Silicon Valley startup world and these conservations showed a pattern of overreliance on certain for-profit principles in the nonprofit realm, despite potential flaws. One young tech executive in San Francisco said she wanted to maximize return on investment. The … Continue reading Five For-Profit Practices That Philanthropy Should Avoid
10 Ways to Reduce Interviewer Bias
Strangers often get a bad deal when it comes to being accurately assessed during interviews. While people who are known to the hiring manager are assessed on their past performance, strangers are judged on their motivation to get the job, a bunch of generic competencies, the depth of their technical knowledge and the quality of … Continue reading 10 Ways to Reduce Interviewer Bias
Fundraising in 2021 – what might we expect?
Back in June 2020, Mark Phillips wrote a study on what fundraising in 2021 might look like? As we head towards an easing of lockdown 3, now seems like a good time to reflect on Mark's wise words to help us through the rest of the year. When Mark was writing thus, there obviously was … Continue reading Fundraising in 2021 – what might we expect?
How to come up with more brilliant ideas
In this article, Richard Branson sits down and chats to Adam Grant, author of the book Originals. Originals is all about how we can become more successful in championing our best ideas. While a great idea is a great start, Adam says it’s what you do next that really counts. How can we all recognise … Continue reading How to come up with more brilliant ideas
Let me finish: how to stop interrupting… and change the world
According to the Gottman Institute in Seattle, three years ago the average listening time of even professional listeners was 20 seconds. Now it is 11. Eleven seconds! And so we interrupt. All of us. We move through our days and years interrupting others and failing to foil it when others interrupt us. Interruption diminishes us. … Continue reading Let me finish: how to stop interrupting… and change the world