Fit For the Future

If you have a culture you’re proud of, workfluencers are powerful brand voices for you – sharing their experiences, amplifying your culture, and helping attract the right sort of talent, long before an interview. It’s time to support, nurture, and trust the people already championing your workplace.https://swiy.co/go-meet-the-workfluencerDo you have a workfluencer in your team? If you don’t, maybe you should!So what’s a workfluencer? (I hear you cry)In a nutshell, a workfluencer is an employee who talks about their work on social media and in other online communities.Of course, we’ve always been doing this, even before the online world – with friends and family at parties, with other parents at your children’s school events, and in your local community or church community.A workfluencer is the 2025 version of that. It expands and amplifies the concept because of the power and reach of online networks. They work in your team, and are also active on social media and other online networks, sharing the good, the bad, and the occasional ugly about work. Exactly as you do when talking to friends at a barbie, but on a much larger scale.So do you have somebody like that in your team? Typically, it’s a younger person – a Gen Z or maybe a younger Gen Y (Millennial). That’s good, because of the demographic shift that’s happening now. In the next few years – and it might already be happening in your industry and sector – one in three people on the planet will be Gen Z. That’s one third of your customers, one third of your employees, and one third of your future leaders.If you don’t have workfluencers in your team, maybe you should. Not by forcing it, but by creating a culture people feel proud to boast about.If you like the people in your team, you want them to talk to their friends and community, because you want to attract more people like them. And you want those people to know about you before they join – not through the traditional hierarchical interview and recruitment process, but by knowing somebody “on the inside”. Those people will be a good fit for your team, because they already know your values.So, are you tapping into their online influence?Now, if you’re NOT proud of your workplace culture, this advice isn’t for you. (I have some other advice for you, but that’s a topic for another day!)But if you have the sort of workplace culture and team you’re proud of, you have nothing to be afraid of. Encourage and nurture workfluencers to share their experiences online, far and wide.This becomes part of your employee value proposition (EVP), which is a key element of the future of work.I’m running an online presentation soon about the future of work, and this is one of the four key elements for all leaders to understand. It’s free, public, and open to all. So please register, and invite others in your team and organisation as well.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-meet-the-workfluencer

Adopting AI in your organisation can feel like a huge task, but it helps to keep your strategy simple. Start by understanding your assets so you know where you can apply AI. Then build and deploy AI tools to support your teams and improve how work gets done. Finally, connect those systems to the wider world, bringing in external data and insights to make smarter decisions.https://swiy.co/go-abc-of-ai-strategyI’m speaking soon at the Marinas26 conference, an international event that brings together professionals from the marinas and boatyard sector. My keynote session is about AI for this sector, and I’m then moderating a panel with four people who are using AI in different ways.As with any industry group, the level of AI use will vary. Some aren’t using it at all, others are just starting out, and others are embracing it.What’s your level of AI adoption?In my keynote, I’ll lay out a three-stage strategic roadmap for AI adoption. I’ll share it here because it applies to every organisation – small or large – and you can overlay it on your own strategy.Think of this as the ABC of AI strategy: Audit, Build, and Connect.First, AUDIT your assets: processes, data, physical assets, and your people assets (internally, your team and employees; externally, your customers and other stakeholders). Assess how much data you’re capturing, storing, and collecting from those assets, and how much you CAN capture. AI works on data, and the more data the better.Next, you BUILD, deploy, or buy AI system to work on that data. For employees, for example, you might use AI for HR, learning and development, career growth, shift management, and removing the boring, routine work. For physical assets, AI might use sensor data for predictive maintenance, sustainability, equipment performance, and return on investment. And so on.Third, to take this to the next level, you CONNECT AI systems to the external world. For exampe, in the marina sector, it means looking at climate data, sustainability data, regulatory requirements, and a range of other external data.This AUDIT-BUILD-CONNECT roadmap is a simple framework, but don’t be fooled by its simplicity. Review and assess your current AI adoption through these three stages, and ensure it fits within your overall “future of work” strategy.For more about the future of work – and how AI fits in it – register for my free, public online presentation coming soon. It’s open to everybody, so please invite others in your team and your network as well.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-abc-of-ai-strategy

As a leader, would you like the people in your team to take more initiative? You might say,“Of course I want them to take more initiative! That’s a no-brainer.”If that’s what you think, good – because I’ll show you how to start encouraging people to take more initiative.But I should warn you this isn’t always what you want. It’s not always a “no-brainer” that you want people to take more initiative.For example, I see this a lot with AI rollouts. Let’s say your organisation is rolling out some new AI system to improve efficiency, and your job as a leader is to get your team on board with this new system.Do you want your team members to take initiative? Well ... maybe. But probably not!You actually want the opposite: to be compliant. They must follow the rules and use the new software. Not keep using the old system, especially secretly behind your back.So, sometimes initiative is the last thing you want. But you want to move past that point as soon as possible, and start showing more initiative.This isn’t easy!David Marquet, commander of the US Navy’s nuclear submarine Santa Fe, discovered this in 1999.At the time, he was leading his crew through exercises In Pearl Harbor, taking them through a series of intense training exercises.In one such exercise, Marquet ordered the engineer to shut down the nuclear reactor, testing the crew’s ability to deal with the situation, and find and correct the fault. The submarine switched to its battery backup, and the trouble-shooters started working diligently through their checklist, trying to isolate the fault before the battery died.Marquet – by his own admission – became bored, and decided to raise the stakes by increasing the submarine’s speed. That would significantly increase the drain on the battery, adding extra pressure to the process.He nudged his Officer On Deck, Lieutenant Commander Bill Greene, and asked him to increase the speed from “ahead one third” to “ahead two thirds”. Greene immediately barked out the order to the helmsman, “Ahead two thirds!”And then … nothing. Nobody said anything, the helmsman didn’t respond, and Marquet noticed him squirming in his seat. He asked why, and the helmsman replied, “Captain, there is no such setting on this ship!”Marquet realised he had probably been told this during his training, but he had forgotten. He later took Greene aside to ask him why he ordered it. Greene admitted he, too, knew there was no “ahead two thirds”, but went ahead and ordered it “because you told me to”. He went on to say, “I thought you had learned something secret at Commanding Officer school that they only tell the Commanding Officers.”Marquet was stunned. This was his first role commanding this type of submarine, so he was one of its least experienced crew members. But, because he had the title, his crew would respond without question to his orders. He resolved to transform that culture from blind obedience to individual empowerment, and did that over the next twelve months.Marquet realised this crew, as good and as smart as they were, were still compliant. They would obey the hierarchy.He spent the next twelve months building a different culture and turning that around. He tells the story in his book, “Turn the Ship Around”.One of the key principles – and one I encourage you to use – is this simple idea: push authority to information.Push authority to information.If all people do is alert you to problems, that’s fine. But even better is when they have the authority to act on that information without always checking in with you.Of course, there are situations where they should check in – that’s a matter of judgement. But the first and most important thing you can do to encourage initiative is to push authority to information.If you want people to take more initiative, push authority to information.Download my worksheet here to use with your team to identify ways to put this principle into practice.https://swiy.co/go-push-authority-to-information

When you’re operating in a world where more and more things feel unpredictable, that uncertainty puts pressure on how your team functions. You can’t shut the door on that chaos and uncertainty, but there’s one surprisingly simple thing your team can do to reduce stress and anxiety.https://swiy.co/go-the-dependability-gapA few weeks ago, a Tesla driver driving across Australia got stranded half-way across the Nullarbor. He knew there were charging stations along the way, and had planned his trip carefully to use them along the journey. Unfortunately, three charging stations in a row – hundreds of kilometres apart – weren’t working. Usually, they are reliable, and he had even built in enough contingency for one to be broken, but not all three. Suddenly, he was stuck!This often happens in times of change and uncertainty (like right now!). Sometimes the biggest stress doesn’t come from new things, but from old things that just don’t work anymore.This is the dependability gap, and it causes a lot of stress and anxiety.You know this now, right?You go to your local servo and it’s out of petrol.You want to change a flight, but it’s double the price.You want to pump up your tyres, but there’s a massive line of people following the government’s advice.(OK, maybe that last one isn’t happening everywhere!)Your regular café is probably one that reliably makes your coffee the same way every time. It doesn’t have to be the best in the world, but it’s reliably good, and that’s good enough. You wouldn’t go there if it’s the best in the world today, but tomorrow it’s terrible, then the next day it’s just OK, then back to the best again.It’s not reliable, and you can’t depend on it.You don’t need 100% precision – just dependability. If the last train home at night could be 5 or 10 minutes late, OK – you can work around it. But if it sometimes doesn’t turn up at all, you can’t rely on it.We depend on dependability.You might call it reliability, but I’m using the word “dependability” because it’s the word Google used in its Project Aristotle research to identify the factors that high-performing team share. Google thought the best teams must logically have the smartest engineers, but in fact they discovered something five other – very different – things. I won’t share them all here (just look up Project Aristotle), but one was dependability.In other words, people in the team could depend on each other.This happens in the smallest everday things.You ask somebody to send you a report by 2pm, and you know they will do it – not at 2.15pm or 2.05pm (which means you can’t present it at the 2pm meeting).You ask people to do some pre-reading for a meeting, and you know they will do it, so you don’t have to waste time in the meeting waiting for them to catch up.You ask somebody to reply to a customer and you know they will do it – without you checking in on them every hour.Google found that teams with high dependability perform better. And when you think about it, it’s obvious. But would you have guessed it’s one of the TOP FIVE factors?Dependability matters even more when there’s a lot of external change and uncertainty. When you can depend less on what’s happening outside, building depending inside becomes even more important.So how do you build dependability in your team?It starts with small things – like in the examples above. It’s tempting to think they don’t matter. But they do.For more examples, download the worksheet here and use it as a starting point for building more dependability in your team.Download the worksheet:https://swiy.co/go-the-dependability-gap

Do you have people in your team pushing back on change? It might not be because they’re difficult, but they’re just exhausted by it. With constant, overlapping demands coming from every direction, it’s no surprise their motivation dips and their resistance grows. Instead of trying to force people to get on board, there’s a simple step you can take to get them started. It doesn’t instantly remove resistance, but it starts to change how people feel about what’s possible – and that’s where real momentum begins.https://swiy.co/go-small-wins-big-changeAs a leader, are you finding your people are resistant to change?In a recent online presentation, I was talking about building a culture of change agents, and one person said their team is going through constant change. And not just one change at a time, but multiple overlapping changes – and it’s creating uncertainty, instability, and change fatigue. His biggest challenge, not surprisingly, is sustaining motivation during this time.I’m hearing that a lot.Leaders tell me their teams are change fatigued, and often it’s from external change completely outside their control. Sometimes it’s even imposed from higher levels of the organisation, but it’s still outside their control.So what can you do?First, accept there’s a lot of change, and there will be a lot more in the future. This isn’t a temporary state that will eventually revert to normal; this IS normal.So, what can you do about it?Recognise that not everybody is going to be open to change at the same level or at the same time.So, one of the first things you can do is what Chip and Dan Heath, in their book “Switch”, call “finding the bright spots”:Find positive examples of change, share them, and amplify them.Ideally, find examples from within your own team. Even the smallest stories, anecdotes, and case studies can help.This doesn’t mean those people who are resistant to change will magically change. It probably takes more before they’re full open to change and embrace it. But at least they can see examples of successful change.So, invite people to think of success stories, give them a place to share them (such as the regular staff meeting or an online bulletin board), and celebrate their success.For practical ways to put this into action, download my worksheet, which is all about finding, sharing, and amplifying bright spots in your workplace. Use it with your team to help people move from resistance to starting to believe that change is possible — and even positive.Download the worksheet:https://swiy.co/go-small-wins-big-change

If you want real, lasting change in your team, understand what truly motivates each person. Everybody shows up to work for different reasons, so connect the change you’re asking for with what matters to them personally. When people see how change benefits them – not just the organisation – they’re far more likely to choose it, support it, and sustain it.https://swiy.co/go-this-time-its-personalI was speaking at a leadership conference recently, and somebody asked me for some advice afterwards. He said:“I’m a leader of a team and we’re going through a major change right now. If we don’t change, we’re going to lose our jobs – all of us! But some people in the team just don’t get it. How do I convince them it’s literally their job at stake?”It reminded me of something that happened to me in my first job, working for a small tech team (Nowadays, it would be called a startup). Because it was small, people tended to get promoted quickly, and I became a manager way before I was ready for it. I’ll admit I wasn’t a very good manager to begin with, but I like to think I learned quickly.At the time, our company was struggling. We had lost a couple of big contracts, and were finding it difficult to get more work because our biggest project (my project) was running late.In my first management role, at one of our weekly management meetings, one of the senior leaders told us we just needed to get people to work harder. Mind you, we couldn’t afford to pay them more, but we just expected them to work longer hours to get the project done.I asked him, “What do I tell my people? How do I motivate them?”He said, “Just tell them that if they don’t change, they’ll lose their jobs!”Even as a naive, wet-behind-the-years, 23-year-old, first-time manager, I knew this wasn’t going to motivate my team! Unfortunately, I had to pass on that message, but it reminded me this has been a constant problem. And many leaders still try to motivate their teams to change by offering only the stick, with no carrot.What’s a better solution?First, you can’t wave a magic wand and instantly get people to change. It doesn’t work that way, unless there’s a catastrophic event – like, say, a global pandemic.So, you need to build a CULTURE of change.And this starts by recognising not everybody is motivated by the same things. Everybody has their own reasons for being at work.For some, it’s just about earning money to look after their family and lifestyle. No problem with that – they feel fulfilled by what they do outside work hours.At the other extreme, some are passionate about their work, and put everything into it because they feel they are making a difference – the kind of difference THEY want to make – in the world.And then there’s everything in between.So, if you’re involved in any sort of change initiative and you want your people to change, my first question for you is this:Do you know WHY your people are there?If you don’t, find out! Because you can’t force them to change – or, rather, you can’t force them to change and keep the change.Motivation comes from them, not from you.This is part of building a culture of change agents, and it’s what makes change happen, makes it positive, and makes it stick.For more, join my free, public online presentation this week, “Keep The Change”. I’ll share how to build this culture of change, including some simple, practical things you can do right now.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-this-time-its-personal

You don’t always need big initiatives or expensive training to bring people along on a change journey. Sometimes the difference comes from a tiny adjustment in how you work. These tiny levers can have a big effect, especially if you foster a team culture that seeks them and embraces them.https://swiy.co/go-tiny-leversWhat small changes are you making that could make a big difference in your workplace?I was recently participating in a panel discussion about the future-ready skills we need for our workforce now and in the future. The discussion turned to the need to embrace diversity in our teams, especially generational diversity. Younger people often bring fresh perspectives and expertise, but we also don’t want to lose the experience, good judgement, and wisdom of more experienced team members.The moderator of the panel, Keith, asked the audience,“Can anybody in the room share an example of bridging the generational gap?”One participant, Isabella, shared a story from a previous workplace.As part of a digital transformation process, they introduced online dashboards to show performance of various technical processes. These dashboards improved the visibility of data, but two of the old, more experienced managers struggled to immediately grasp what a dashboard was showing. So, in a meeting, when they saw a series of dashboards, they missed the first few results, and thus lost important information. As a result, they couldn’t make well-informed comments and discussions about overall performance.So what could you do?Do you send those people off to digital training courses?Do you give them mentoring from younger people?Do you get them to do job shadowing?Do you give them some other form of professional development?Well, yes, all of those things are useful.But Isabella said they did something much simpler.In a meeting, when they switched to the new dashboard, they stopped ... just for a few seconds ... to give everybody the chance to see, understand, and absorb the information. And then they moved on.Those five seconds were enough. That’s all it took to get everybody on board.I love this story because it shows that sometimes, it only takes a few seconds to help somebody.Sometimes, to bring people along on any change journey, you do need to invest a lot of time, effort, resources, and money. There’s nothing wrong with that.But sometimes you don’t.Sometimes all it takes is a small change.So, look for the small changes — the quick wins — that can make a big difference.For more, join my free online presentation next week, called “Keep the Change”, which is all about building a culture of change in your team and your organisation. I’m sure you’ll get some really practical things you can take away and put into place immediately.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-tiny-levers

https://swiy.co/go-get-out-of-the-wayAre you getting in the way of your team being more open, flexible, and innovative?I was working with a group of about twenty senior leaders a few years ago, running my two-day “Future Scenarios” program. Everybody was fully immersed for the full two days, except for the CEO, who stepped in for a while at the start of day one and then returned partway through day two for another few hours.It was interesting for me to see the dynamics of the group when he was in the room and when he wasn’t (Some of you are way ahead of me!) ...When he was in the room, he was open, took part enthusiastically in the activities, didn’t talk over anybody else or try to push his opinion forcefully.But ... other people subtly changed their behaviour because he was there.If he said something, others made sure they didn’t contradict it, even in small ways.They didn’t say things that might contradict organisational policy.They didn’t criticise anything that had been imposed “from above”.I had said at the start of the session,“Think big, and even consider impossible things over these two days. It’s easier to think big now and walk it back later than to do it the other way around.”But when the CEO was in the room, they had already mentally “walked it back”.Like ducklings that stay close to their mother just after they’re born, they don’t want to stray too far from the CEO.Now this wasn’t really the CEO’s fault – and he would have been horrified if he had known.It was actually the fault of his title: “CEO”. Because of his status, others modified and tempered their behaviour. They changed what they said, what they did, and how they behaved – simply because somebody at that level was in the room.Jeffrey Pruitt, the CEO of Telus Internationa, called this the “Jeff said” game.He noticed that whenever he was in meetings, people would temper their conversations and their decisions. Even later, if someone questioned a decision, instead of explaining the reason for the decision, they would say things like:“Jeff said it’s a good idea.”“Jeff said we should do this.”“Jeff said we shouldn’t do that.”Even if he hadn’t exactly said those things, they abdicated their responsibility and decision-making to the CEO.Pruitt was smart enough to realise the best way to solve that problem was not to attend those meetings.He empowered his team and built their judgement so they could make good, well-informed decisions themselves. They would make a decision, and he would still accept accountability and responsibility for it.Does the same thing happen in your team? You might not even realise people are playing the “Jeff said” game, but they are!So what can you do?The answer is simple – but not easy.It’s simple because all you have to do is stay out of those meetings! Give others the space to discuss, debate, and decide without your influence. But you still take responsibility and accountability.As a bonus, you also get more time for your other work (and who wouldn’t like a bit less time in meetings!).But the reason it’s not easy is because you have to trust your people. And that means giving them the skills they need, and help them build good judgement so they can make well-informed decisions.But it’s worth it.This is just one of the things you can do to build a culture of change agents in your organisation. I’m talking about this in my next free, public online presentation “Keep The Change”. It’s for leaders and managers everywhere, at every level of the organisation. Register here, and please share it with others in your team and your network as well.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-get-out-of-the-way

You want your team to embrace change, but just telling them what to do rarely works. People move at different speeds, and many will wait to see whether something actually works before they commit. One of the best ways to build momentum is to share success stories. When people see colleagues trying new ideas and getting good results, it lowers the risk and makes change feel possible. Instead of pushing everybody at once, highlight “bright spots” to motivate others.https://swiy.co/go-change-is-contagiousHow are you creating a culture of change in your team?I spoke at a conference recently, and somebody came up to me after my presentation, and said:“You might not remember me, but you worked with our extended leadership team a few years ago, and gave us an idea about innovation and change that has worked really well for us.”Well, of course, the only thing better than hearing people say nice things about me is to tell you about it!So, I’ll do that here ...I do remember this client. They were going through a major change initiative, with a focus on innovation and being customer-centric. One of their ideas was to create an online “suggestion board”. Anybody in the organisation could post a suggestion about something they would like changed. Then somebody else who could tackle that, maybe even from a different department, would take that on board and put it into action to create the change.Good idea, but ... You might be able to guess the flaw.Many people were submitting ideas and requests, but very few people would take them. Not surprising, because everybody is already overloaded with their own work, and just don’t have time to do somebody else’s work as well!So this team was planning to ditch the suggestion board. But I told them to keep it, but change it.Instead of using it to make requests, I suggested they use it as a place for people to share their innovation success stories — things that they did, or tried, that went well. Even failures were OK if they shared the process.I checked in a few months later and asked how it was going, and it was ticking along. Then this conference attendee told me it’s working really well now. People are sharing ideas, they get lots of positive feedback on them, and everybody feels good about it.More importantly, sometimes other people say,“That’s a great idea. We can do that as well.”And that’s the point.Share your success stories, so others learn from them – and are inspired and motivated by them.When you’re creating a culture of change, you can’t expect to bring everybody on the journey at the same pace.A few people are keen. A few will hang back and wait to see what happens. And others won’t change unless you drag them kicking and screaming.But you can’t force people to change. And sometimes you can’t even gently cajole the nervous starters.What you CAN do is share the success stories of the keen, enthusiastic, early innovators.This is one of the nine ideas from the book “Switch”, by Chip and Dan Heath. They describe this as “finding the bright spots”.Instead of trying to force people to change, find examples, stories, anecdotes, and stories of people doing the right thing. Share them, highlight them, showcase, them, and celebrate them.For more practical ideas about creating a culture of change with your team, register for my next free, public, online presentation, “Keep The Change”. It’s open to everybody, so please invite others in your team and network as well.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-change-is-contagious