Your blogs - Blair McPherson

Most organisations know how to monitor performance. Far fewer know how to manage the emotional conditions that determine whether performance improves. Targets, dashboards and action plans matter, but they only tell half the story. "These traffic lights seem very slow to change." The Chair is looking directly at the Chief Executive. It is the quarterly performance review meeting. Around the... See more

Ever sat in a meeting where everyone agrees—and nothing changes? If you work in HR, you’ll recognise the pattern. People listen, nod, smile… and then go away and do exactly what they were going to do anyway. Some parts of the organisation lean in. Others lean back. Same policies. Same messages. Very different levels of engagement. And there’s always a reason. “You see, we’re different.”... See more

The real meeting started in the corridor. The management meeting itself had gone well. The AI-generated workforce plan was impressive. It identified staffing gaps, predicted future demand, highlighted risks and suggested solutions. Decisions were made. Actions agreed. Deadlines set. Everyone nodded. The meeting finished on time. Then came the conversations in the corridor. "It'll never... See more

Repeatedly pressing the lift button does not make the lift arrive any faster. Yet some senior managers behave as though repeatedly asking for something will make it happen sooner. Ask for the report again. Ask whether the problem has been solved. Ask what is being done about it. Ask for an update. Then ask for another update. The intervention may not make anything happen faster. But it can... See more

It starts with an argument about money. How much was spent. What it was spent on. Why nobody seems capable of sticking to a budget. What happened to cutting back on clothes? What happened to saving for the holiday? The discussion becomes increasingly detailed. Numbers are quoted. Previous spending decisions are dragged into evidence. Neither can remember what started the argument, but both are... See more

The unofficial management handbook that middle managers are expected to discover for themselves   "HR won't let me do it." "Finance have blocked it." I have heard versions of these complaints throughout my management career. Usually from frustrated middle managers trying to get something done. Sometimes they were right. Sometimes they weren't. The interesting thing was how often... See more

The official investigation into the Columbia space shuttle disaster reached many conclusions. One phrase stood out. It described the disaster as "a failure of imagination." The failure was not technical. It was organisational. Leaders could no longer imagine that the mission might fail. Warning signs were explained away. Concerns were normalised. Optimism replaced curiosity. Most... See more

When organisational performance dips, leaders tend to reach for familiar solutions. More targets. More training. More monitoring. More restructuring. If performance does not improve, the diagnosis usually follows. People lack skills. Managers are not holding staff to account. Employees are not motivated enough. Sometimes that is true. But sometimes the problem is not capability or... See more

The plague doctor did not arrive when the first symptoms appeared. He arrived when the patient was already seriously ill. His strange mask and collection of remedies were reassuring, but they also revealed the problem. By the time he was called, there was usually a lot more wrong than a remedy could fix. Modern HR can sometimes be treated in much the same way. HR is called when morale has... See more

One of my favourite Bruce Springsteen songs is Glory Days. He sings about bumping into an old school friend in a bar. They have a drink and a catch up. But all his old friend wants to talk about is his time at school. Back then he was captain of the football team. The local hero. The one everyone admired. Those were his glory days. Later in the song, Springsteen meets a woman who was once the... See more

The problem with a Grey organisation is that there may be nothing obviously wrong with it. It is not toxic. It is not dysfunctional. It is not in crisis. The strategy is clear. The finances are under control. Performance is monitored. Managers pride themselves on being pragmatic. Yet something feels different. People comply rather than commit. They listen to announcements without necessarily... See more

We have spent years removing layers of management. The promise was simple: fewer managers, lower costs, faster decisions and less bureaucracy. But there was an assumption hidden in the calculation. If you removed a management layer, the management work would disappear too. It didn't. Some of it disappeared. Much of it did not. It was redistributed to the managers who remained. That may be one... See more

A failing organisation is not necessarily a bad place to work. A failing organisation in denial is. I have worked for a few failing organisations. Some knew they were failing and were doing something about it. Others did not. At a recent conference, senior local authority managers were asked what they would do if they found themselves working for a failing organisation. The answers were... See more

If an organisation were looking for a new Chief Executive, would it choose Captain Kirk or Mr Spock? And if the answer is Spock, why are we so anxious about AI? As Star Trek reaches its sixtieth anniversary, the relationship between Kirk and Spock offers an unlikely way of thinking about what AI leadership might look like. The Enterprise is an organisation. The Captain is its Chief Executive.... See more

In times of war, fishing boats could become warships. So, to build up the fishing fleet and, therefore, the navy, the Fish Laws were introduced. Everyone had to eat fish on Fridays. Fish was expensive, so some people decided they would rather eat something else. Unfortunately, refusing to eat fish was not encouraged. If someone reported you, you could face a horrible punishment. Your toenails... See more

One man could sail 3,600 miles in a tiny open boat and keep his men alive. The other had won battles against great odds and believed he knew how to win another. Neither is an obvious role model for today’s leaders. Welcome to the Horrible History of leadership. First up, Captain Bligh. Captain Bligh: brilliant sailor. Difficult boss. Bligh was an excellent sailor and navigator. He knew his... See more

In Tudor England, getting on the wrong side of the powerful could be dangerous. You could lose your job, your property and, in some cases, your head. If something went wrong, finding someone to blame was a useful activity. The king was unhappy. Someone had to pay. Perhaps they had made a mistake. Perhaps they had simply fallen out of favour. Either way, off with their heads! Thankfully, most... See more

The fact that it is a spaceship and not an office, the future and not the present, an alien world not our  own,  turns a rather dry review of leadership styles into an exciting and engaging examination of how leaders operate in challenging circumstances.    Academic books and articles about management and leadership styles have limited appeal even to ambitious managers.... See more

The Spanish Inquisition had a simple management model: ask questions until someone confessed. Modern organisations have improved it. We ask questions until someone agrees to take an action away — then invite them back next week to explain why it hasn't been done. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Everyone expects the meeting. There is an agenda. There are questions. There are updates.... See more

In medieval England, if you were accused of doing something wrong, you might have to prove your innocence by carrying a red-hot iron bar. Then you waited three days. If the wound was healing, God had apparently decided you were innocent. If it wasn't, well, you had your answer. No complicated evidence. No lengthy investigation. No appeals process. Just a red-hot piece of metal and a lot of... See more