Articles | FirstHuman

Why Meditate?

A description of how a lockdown Skype meditation course changed my life.

Are you leading or interfering?

He almost completely lost his ability to speak and had to find a new way of leading without being able to solve people’s problems and directing the way they had become accustomed to. By transforming himself from a ‘speaker’ to a ‘listener’ he discovered that people actually knew what was needed, had solutions to the problems that arouse, knew how to drive efficiencies, optimise processes and even grow the business. In the space of 10 years focusing on listening and making sure people found meaning at work, the company thrived and quadrupled in size and profits.

Self-Managed Organisations Have a Lot to Teach Us

Viisi Hypotheken and Reddico are self-managed companies and are both extraordinary successes, both commercially and in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction. At our recent FirstHuman Executive Roundtables we discovered that even the most traditional companies have a lot to learn from Tom van der Lubbe from Viisi and Luke Kyte from Reddico

Net Zero – From Protest to Rapid Action

At our latest Executive Roundtable co-hosted by Andy Samuel, the Chief Executive at the UK Oil & Gas Authority, we explored how we best support the recovery whilst addressing issues such as the climate emergency, social injustice and loss of biodiversity. With a small group of leaders ranging from government and civil service to energy and private equity, we inquired into the leadership needed to effect a sustainable recovery.

Granular Leadership – Leadership for a New Era

Leadership is no longer what it used to be. Traditional leadership models emphasised a person’s ability to set out a clear vision and mission and then to mobilise an organisation guided by best practices and aligned action. Although still relevant, the current pandemic has offered new and compelling insights into what gives an organisation strength and agility.

It is going to take more than ‘team-building’

As restrictions ease, merely getting together to do activities, or what is often referred to as ‘team-building’, is a massive missed opportunity. The coming months present a unique opportunity to build from a period of uncertainty and turmoil, and create teams that become more deeply connected than ever before. Teams that have the ambition and capability to cause outstanding breakthroughs.

Intrapreneurs – Empower Your Corporate Insurgents

Meet the Intrapreneurs. They already work for you. They have ideas and insights that will elevate the company’s impact and are prepared to take on and lead this challenge. They are the source of ideas that could rejuvenate your company, get you back on top of your game in difficult times and be the attractor for extraordinary talent to seek your company out. But, how do you find them, retain them and partner with them to make this happen?

Aligning with Agility

Leicester was a 5,000-to-1 shot at the start of the season. They had just a fraction of the payroll of the financial mammoths at the top of the league. What emerged in Leicester’s 2016 team was an alignment of strengths so effective that it transcended the relative weakness of their individual players. This synthesis of strengths is what the most outstanding organisations achieve at their zenith. The question is, how can we achieve this consistently?

How the Danes won wind farming – a lesson for us all

Reflect first or plan first?

The case of one hospital's success in adopting a reflective approach to achieve lasting change.

The plan as gesture

Looking at the reality of plans in complex environments.

A cure for meetings madness?

An alternative take on the 'meetings problem' trope.

How we think: a metaphor for organisational change

How an understanding of neuroscience might help us think about organisational change.

A tale of two villages – a lesson for making sense of the workplace

A case study in using complexity concepts to understand human systems.

Use Lean Coffee for great meetings

Introducing a simple technique for keeping meetings energised and focussed.

Wardley Maps – a powerful new framework for a platform world

Introducing a powerful mapping technique for evaluating business opportunities: Wardley Maps.

6 Lessons Learnt from an Award-Winning Business Transformation

6 lessons learnt from our partner Richard Atherton when he led an award-winning transformation.

Business Agility – an inside job

Why Agile transformations must start from within.

Lean Change Management – A New Approach For Introducing Changes

Why Lean Change? Because it works better. We know that taking Lean and Agile approaches have proved to be significantly more effective in developing software. However, as change leaders and managers, we work at a level of complexity equalling if not exceeding that of software challenges. When we take a Lean/Agile approach, we markedly improve our effectiveness.

Managing in Complexity – interview with Dave Snowden

An interview with Prof. Dave Snowden, creator of the Cynefin Framework, founder and CSO of Cognitive Edge. An extremely interesting episode for people who want to learn more about managing complexities in their lives.

Introducing SenseMaker for Culture Change

FirstHuman is delighted to announce its partnership with Cognitive Edge for the deployment of SenseMaker for culture change.
SenseMaker is a ground-breaking platform that enables leaders and change makers to gain greater insight into what's really going on in their organisations. Executives and team leaders use it make better decisions when seeking to change their culture or when looking for innovation ideas that are likely to stick.

How 6 people designed and built a new global operation in 3 months

How 6 people and a coach designed and built a new global operation in 3 months

Breakthrough Leadership @ CEVA Logistics

"The programme guides you inwardly at the way that you are as a human being. It's teaching you to think about yourself and the way that you are, rather than filling you with loads of facts. This programme is more mentally challenging than any other training most people have been on. A lot of training has an afterglow which might last a month or two, but I want something that has a sustainable impact and we now have that."

Successful collaboration requires effort, persistence and leadership

When there is a commitment in place to go beyond incremental performance improvement and the 'wisdom of the crowd' is required, collaboration is the only way to go. However, any collaborative environment is highly complex, but in service of highlighting some important points it is worth considering that there are 6 Levels of Collaboration and the delivery of extraordinary results through collaboration is dependent on how far up this hierarchy one is willing and able to go.

“It takes courage to go into unchartered territory and look for really new solutions.”

“Creating this intergenerational cooperation is the essence of the on-going modernisation of this organisation. This is new and untested territory that we are going into. In my staff team we often say that we are flying a plane as we are building it – which is a deadly dangerous sport. It is a very interesting management experience, though!”

“I want to make a difference to peoples’ lives”

"I wanted to work in a company that makes a direct difference to people’s lives. If you’re driven that way, and an engineer, becoming the CEO of Network Rail must be the best job in the country! I have to rely on my engineering skills, technical judgement and experiences that I have had in my life, and the job affects the lives of 45 million people every day."

Empowerment: rocket fuel for organisations

Why Meditate?

Are you leading or interfering?

Self-Managed Organisations Have a Lot to Teach Us

Net Zero – From Protest to Rapid Action

Granular Leadership – Leadership for a New Era

It is going to take more than ‘team-building’

Intrapreneurs – Empower Your Corporate Insurgents

Aligning with Agility

How the Danes won wind farming – a lesson for us all

Reflect first or plan first?

The plan as gesture

A cure for meetings madness?

How we think: a metaphor for organisational change

A tale of two villages – a lesson for making sense of the workplace

Use Lean Coffee for great meetings

Wardley Maps – a powerful new framework for a platform world

6 Lessons Learnt from an Award-Winning Business Transformation

Business Agility – an inside job

Lean Change Management – A New Approach For Introducing Changes

Managing in Complexity – interview with Dave Snowden

Introducing SenseMaker for Culture Change

How 6 people designed and built a new global operation in 3 months

Breakthrough Leadership @ CEVA Logistics

Successful collaboration requires effort, persistence and leadership

“It takes courage to go into unchartered territory and look for really new solutions.”

“I want to make a difference to peoples’ lives”

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