Read Our Blog On Culture Change

The origin of the phrase ‘Hire for attitude. Develop skills’ has been attributed to Sherry Phelps of Southwest Airlines. It’s been used repeatedly by many others since. And it certainly led to Southwest’s well-documented success story, due in large part to their employees having a ‘Warrior Spirit’. So their leaders and other employees all had to have the resilience to constantly fight the industry battles.

There are few jobs in the modern workplace that are not defined by Key Performance Indicators. Few business processes not defined by a Key Business Requirement. Or similar ways of setting performance expectations and the metrics. In the culture of modern management, these are seen as positive, and so they are. Without them, there would be no norms, no predictability in the business, and nothing for managers to manage.

Steven Covey tells a story of when he was on train and a father climbed on with three kids who were misbehaving. The other passengers were getting more and more irritated, so finally he went over to the man and said, “Your kids are irritating the other passengers. Can you do something to calm them down?” The man looked up, in a daze, and said, “Sorry, I didn't realise, we’ve just come from the hospital. Their mother has just died.”

How long does organisational culture change take? I am often asked that question, and I choose to answer empirically. After a decade of coaching this in companies, I have plenty of evidence. Jamaicans often say, ‘Dese tings take time.’ By which they mean that if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well. And culture transformation does take time. Lasting change requires the establishment of new behaviours.

Your brain is made up of 86 billion neurons, each with the processing capacity of a laptop. Psychologists describe the mind as an iceberg with three layers. At the top is the conscious mind. What you’re aware of right now. Below lies the pre-conscious mind, accessible if you give attention - to recall your mobile number for example. Below that is the unconscious mind. Information here is deeply held and includes instinctive...

If your brain is an average adult human brain, you have more potential than you have ever dreamed of. Your brain is made up of neurons: specialised cells that process electrochemical information. These neurons connect in structures called synapses, where they pass signals to one another. The synapses form neural nets. Neuroscience has revealed that the average adult brain has 86 billion neurons...