Category: Working and connecting with others
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What Really Changes When You Become a Manager?
Moving into management changes far more than a job title. Drawing on my experience of working with and coaching managers, this article explores what happens when responsibility, relationships and expectations shift after promotion, and why being ready for appointment is not the same as being fully prepared for the transition. It also […]
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Psychological Contracts at Work
The psychological contract refers to the unwritten, implicit set of mutual expectations between an employee and their organisation. Unlike the formal employment contract, the psychological contract encompasses beliefs about promises, obligations, and reciprocal commitments that are rarely articulated but profoundly shape behaviour. Not all contracts are written down Every organisation has two […]
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Could Better Questions Lead to Better Organisation Development?
Part 2 of 3 · A series by Brian Hunter Young What If Organisation Development Has Been Looking in the Wrong Place? Could Better Questions Lead to Better Organisation Development? (you are here) Who Decides What Organisational Values Really Mean? What if the greatest contribution organisation development can make is not designing […]
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The Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model
The Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model is a seven-stage framework developed by Allan Drexler and David Sibbet at The Grove Consultants International. It was designed as a visual map that tracks a team’s journey from initial orientation through to high performance and renewal, with each stage having both a resolved and an unresolved […]
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Freytag’s Pyramid: Story Structure for Leaders and Communicators
Gustav Freytag’s five-act dramatic structure, often visualised as a pyramid, shows how stories create and resolve tension. Every Time You Open Your Mouth, You Are Telling a Story Whether you are presenting quarterly results, explaining a restructure, or coaching someone through a career decision, you are engaged in an act of narrative […]
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Frank Luntz and Words That Work: The Power of Language
Frank Luntz’s central insight is that communication is defined not by what you intend to say, but by what your audience actually hears. His suggests ten principles of effective language as a practical toolkit for anyone who needs words to do work. As ever, we need to remember the difference between influence […]
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The Gunning Fog Index: Measuring Readability in Communication
The Gunning Fog Index is a readability formula developed in the 1950s that estimates how many years of formal education a reader needs to understand a piece of writing. It works by combining average sentence length with the percentage of complex words (those with three or more syllables), then multiplying by 0.4. […]
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Gratitude: The Psychology Behind Appreciation at Work
Gratitude is a multifaceted psychological construct involving both cognitive and affective dimensions, distinct from mere thankfulness or politeness. Research consistently links gratitude to improved wellbeing, prosocial behaviour, and stronger relationships, but its effects depend heavily on whether it arises authentically or is institutionally mandated. Gratitude is not what most people think it […]
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The Four Stages of Competence: From Unconscious Incompetence to Mastery
The Conscious Competence Model describes four stages that people move through when learning a new skill: unconscious incompetence (you do not know what you do not know), conscious incompetence (you become painfully aware of the gap), conscious competence (you can do it, but it requires deliberate effort), and unconscious competence (the skill […]
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Influence and Persuasion at Work – A Combined Consideration
Influence and persuasion are among the most practically important skills in working life, yet they are typically taught as disconnected theories rather than an integrated model. They’re also a bit nefarious, in some ways. You are already doing it… All of us are, pretty much all the time, influencing other people. The […]