Leadership from the Paddock: Learning to Hold Space

Leadership from the Paddock: Learning to Hold Space

This is Alex, he’s my harness turned riding horse. Personality wise, he’s the strong silent type. He has a quiet self-confidence and he doesn’t need validation from those around him (human or horse). He knows what he wants, he’ll put up with others around him, but he will also tell them politely and clearly when…

DIY Digital Transformation – Part 4: Employee Engagement

DIY Digital Transformation – Part 4: Employee Engagement

This is Part 4 of a series on DIY Digital Transformation. In this article, we explore a construction company’s goal of “going paperless” by moving from printed, handwritten timesheets to a cloud product where employees could track their activities in real time and allocate them to specific jobs. The planned benefit would be for head…

The Biggest Failure in Digital Transformation Is Human. Here Are Four Ways To Get It Right

The Biggest Failure in Digital Transformation Is Human. Here Are Four Ways To Get It Right

We’ll start with the truth: successful digital transformations are not about technology. You can have the fanciest gizmos and smartest AI, but your digital transformation will fail if you aren’t empowering the right people at the right time. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a Luddite or a technophobe – on the contrary, I’ve spent…

How to Create Cross-Silo Collaboration: Six Leadership Lessons

How to Create Cross-Silo Collaboration: Six Leadership Lessons

‘Breaking down silos.’ It’s a management term I try to avoid for two reasons: Firstly, it’s a little negative and can cause anxiety. Secondly, we need silos in business, ones that group specialist departments, teams and places. According to Gillian Tett in The Silo Effect, humans naturally group together to create some structure to handle…

DIY Digital Transformation – Part 3: Mapping Current & Future State

DIY Digital Transformation – Part 3: Mapping Current & Future State

Part 3 draws inspiration from the valuable insights of Prior & Leaney’s (2020) ethnographic study and inspired by the reflections of Star (1996) on the intricate relationship between infrastructure and work practice. If you enjoy this article, please ensure to check out the rest of the series: Have you encountered similar challenges? How did you…

DIY Digital Transformation — Part 2: Organisational Procedures and Work Practice

DIY Digital Transformation — Part 2: Organisational Procedures and Work Practice

In Part 2 of this ‘HOME Improvement’ series we’re now considering Organisational Procedures and Work Practice, using a real-world scenario from a Creative Design Agency. This agency, much like the architectural firm we discussed in Part 1, aimed to streamline their project management. They chose a new software system, only to hit a snag when…

Digital Transformation: A DIY Approach

Digital Transformation: A DIY Approach

As someone who has worked closely with over 100 SMEs in the past decade, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges these businesses face, particularly when it comes to organisational transformation. Want to see if this approach might work for your organisation? Let’s chat! A common hurdle is the cost and complexity of hiring consultants to delve into…

I lost my business and it made me a better consultant

I lost my business and it made me a better consultant

Yes, you read that correctly, and no, it’s not clickbait…. 5 years ago, I had a thriving Tagar#startup and I was a proud Tagar#smallbusiness owner, with staff in Sydney and Melbourne. I led a small, happy team of Tagar#cloud business software implementation consultants, and things were going pretty well. I had built my business up…

Beyond the Post-Lockdown Battleground: Harnessing UX for Strategic Organisational Change

As Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Australia are reemerge in the post-COVID socio-economic context, the narrative of a “battleground” between remote and collocated work is becoming common. However, I suggest we shift our perspective. In my research and consulting work, I’ve observed that these challenges offer an opportunity to revisit our organisational infrastructures and…