The art of delegating decisions up the chain of command is well established! But it slows things down and makes the business less responsive, not to mention the increased email traffic to your in-box. You wouldn’t be alone if you wished you didn’t have to resolve everything by yourself sometimes. Two reasons why teams avoid taking responsibility Teams avoid owning and resolving problems by themselves, especially contentious ones, for two main reasons. The first is obvious: if

You wouldn’t be alone if you sometimes wondered how you’re going to deliver what’s expected of you in the next 12 months. In an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment, meeting your objectives can seem like a difficult thing to achieve. We're sorry to be the bearers of bad news but, if you let it, it could get worse. The self-fulfilling prophecy is alive and well! When you start from the premise that achieving something will be hard, you’l

You’ve just announced a change you thought your team would welcome. Yet the moment after you got to the crux of how it will affect them a silence descended. Some of your audience caught each other’s gaze as if to confirm your message is indeed a figurative bombshell. Others winced. A few just stared at the floor. They knew something you didn’t, but no one dared say a word. ‘What just happened?’ you privately asked yourself. Here’s the problem: what stops teams embracing chang

The problem with win-lose is that even if you win, it doesn’t take long for the loser to try to get even or move on. Whereas win-win collaboration offers sustainable joint returns. It delivers better results over the longer term. Why then do so many ignore it? Let’s explore two possible answers: collaboration is not fully understood and even when it is, mindsets get in the way of it happening. Understanding collaboration If you’re asked what does collaboration mean how do you

You wouldn’t be alone if you wished teams would communicate better at times. The upsides are significant: getting problems solved so they stay that way, halting disagreements before they escalate and delivering work to a higher quality at less cost to name just a few. For many businesses though poor communication is a persistent problem. And you only have to reflect on your own experience to understand why. You’ll have experienced critical moments in meetings when a difficult

When it comes to deciding what's the best thing to do you'll inevitably have differences with those who don’t see the world the same way as you. Differences can divide people - think what’s happening across the political spectrum in Europe and the US currently. They put at risk the know-how needed to discuss differences productively. In businesses, division costs. It limits what people are prepared to discuss and consider, so decisions get made based on only a small part of t