Lab Notes

Leading people

Building a team that owns its work: accountability, alignment, communication, and how people learn a new skill.

The IndiGo debacle

When things go wrong, some teams say "this isn't my responsibility" and some say "this is on me". What accountability looks like in a well-run organisation.

Understanding the Four Types of Competence

The four stages from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, and why they come in order.

Harnessing the power of the Ownership Pyramid

A four-level framework for building accountability and ownership in a team, from the foundation to leadership.

I don’t agree, but I am aligned: The Power of Co-Creation

What a copper company that debated calling itself a family teaches about the difference between agreement and alignment.

Instruction VS Co-Creation

Assembling a model aeroplane with an eight-year-old, and what it says about involving people in the solution.

A man in a pale shirt playing an acoustic guitar, lit warmly against a dark background

Leadership and the guitar

Why playing the guitar is a way to understand leadership: being one with the instrument, and pursuing a vision of excellence without watching yourself.

A man in a dark shirt speaking, with a slide behind him announcing a seminar on doctor-patient interaction

Communication is not what you speak

A session with young physiotherapists on what communication really is, and "recreation": creating back for a patient what they said.

A smiling man in glasses with his arm around a smiling young child

Being authentic

What authenticity is, why it matters, and a simple three-step practice for living it.

All Lab Notes