Tips, tricks, and things to think about

I’ve been doing some work.

Just a little consulting, and I’m enjoying it. Not because I am chasing the work, but because it’s good to be helpful.  Good advice unfettered by the need to find the next job or grow a business.

It’s probably what I always really wanted to do but life and other obligations got in the way.

It has also been an eye-opening change of perspective.

I’ve found an almost insatiable appetite among middle level public servants to get better at what they do.  Almost every day someone asks: how can I write faster, with more clarity, present more impactfully, negotiate effectively, have better dealings with industry, and have those necessary difficult conversations…

The list seems endless. Tiring, and brilliant.

Large organisations seem to have an irresistible urge to centralise and control. Coordinate and allow only “approved” training, build detailed skills frameworks, centralise budgets, and demand compliance.

I’ve been part of that nonsense.

The contradiction is that we hire people because they are educated, experienced and capable. Then we spend an extraordinary effort telling them what they can, and mostly can’t, do.

We build boundaries, rules, and organisational constraints around them. Centralised expertise that begins as advice habitually becomes an approval hurdle. The original purpose of helping people get things done somehow becomes another mechanism for telling them how they must do it.

Yet, still, those middle managers are asking: “how can I do this better”.

I have no grand answer. What I can offer is a grab bag of tools that I have found useful over the years, and insights and observations from my successes, and a few failures.

It was pointed out to me recently that it’s not helpful to know things if you don’t share.

So, from time to time, I’m going to send out short pieces like this. I’ll put them on LinkedIn as well, but if you don’t want to trust your luck to the algorithm, you can join the JayG mailing list.

Here’s the first one

It comes from negotiation material I developed while running Kiah. It is a simple idea about the negotiations we all conduct every day: big and small, corporate and commercial, and sometimes with our kids.

Everyone has interests.

Discover theirs. Know yours. Then ask whether understanding those interests gives you another way to solve the problem.

Until next time,

John