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In 1996, librarian turned restaurateur Stephanie Alexander published a new type of recipe book.

Rather than simply a collection of recipes, The Cook’s Companion let you build a dish around an ingredient. It started with the constraint.

Have a turnip? Here’s what you can make with it.

Wilting broccoli? Here’s what to do.

Unremarkable now that we have internet search, but at its time a revelation because it was designed around the user. 

When it comes to your work,...

"You can't change an organisation by just talking about why change is necessary...You have to integrate people's desire for money, influence, and power..." Rishad Tobaccowala

These desires are usually unstated, but know that they’re there.

Here's the subtlety, though.

It’s not gaining money, influence and power that really motivates, although that’s nice.

It’s losing these things.

The main reason change initiatives fail is people’s fear of losing...

Your job will never be as easy as it is today.

I’m not talking about AI and other technologies.

I’m talking about hindsight.

You’ll look back and think life was easy.

Because things will only get more chaotic, more complex and more compressed.

If that thought exhausts you, there’s no better time than now to learn how humans are wired to make decisions, because that’s something that won’t change.

Here's how.

You know what I’m sick and tired of being told to do? Challenge the status quo!

It’s seen as a power move. Leaders do it. Heroes do it.

Enshrined in vision statements and implored from the keynote stage, challenging the status quo is what we need to do to succeed, right?

Easy to say, hard to do.

Pointing to what needs to change or setting a vision for what a changed state looks like is the easy part – it’s hypothetical.

Actually embedding change is a behavioural...

We employ people to make our lives easier.

So why doesn’t it always feel that way?

Because they either don’t do what we want or they don’t do it in the way we want.

Then, to change what they do, we assume what motivates us will motivate them.

Can you see the problem?

When we’re ‘me’ centric - seeing the world from only our point of view - we’re likely to find fault in how others behave if it doesn’t match our expectations.

It’s...

The easiest way to endure an ice bath is to stay still.

A thermal layer forms, protecting you from the cold.

But the lack of movement becomes a problem the longer you stay in because you aren’t circulating blood as well to your extremities.

In business we might feel fine in our thermal layer. Comfortable even.

  But this is a long game. You’ve got to keep moving.

To disrupt the status quo and keep your business moving, see how to influence action.

Change management isn’t really about behaviour.

Back when I worked in corporate, we'd have rounds of Change Management.

Yes, that's Change Management with a capital C and M.

Because Change Management was a program of work. A process to shepherd the workforce from one system to another. This could be new software, new policies or a new management methodology.

That means it's about changing behaviour, right?

We participated in hours of briefings and brain storms to ensure we were engaged,...