Career and Life Design

Career and Life Design

Action Inquiry at Work: Learning While We Act

Most organisations are good at action. They set goals, make decisions, implement plans and measure results. Many are also reasonably good at reflection. After an initiative, they conduct a review: What happened? What went well? …

Generative Action Inquiry: Bringing Inquiry, Meaning and Action Together

We live and work in a world in which the problems we face increasingly refuse to stay in neat categories. For example, higher education institutions face interconnected challenges with artificial intelligence, changing student expectations, professional …

Appreciative Inquiry at Work: From Fixing Problems to Building What Gives Life

When something goes wrong at work, our instinct is usually to ask: What is the problem? We analyse the gap, identify the causes, find the weaknesses and design an intervention to fix them. This problem-solving …

Humble Inquiry at Work: The Leadership Practice of Asking Before Telling

Leadership has traditionally been associated with knowing. A leader is expected to have the answers, provide direction, solve problems and make decisions. But in complex organisations, especially those where knowledge is distributed across professions, teams …

Motivational Inquiry: Connecting with One’s Internal Motivation

We often talk about motivating people at work as though motivation were something a leader could give another person. We motivate employees through incentives, recognition, targets, rewards, career opportunities, inspirational speeches and, sometimes, pressure. But …

MWe: From “Me” to “MWe” – Dan Siegel’s Integrated Self

What if the self is not simply “me”? Much of modern psychology, leadership development and even coaching language is organised around the individual: my identity, my goals, my values, my resilience, my wellbeing, my development. …

Leveraging Difference: Six Leadership Actions for Inclusive Leadership

In today’s interconnected and complex world, the most effective leaders are not those who surround themselves with people who think alike. Rather, they are those who know how to harness differences in perspectives, experiences, identities …

Resilient Leadership: Leading Through Complexity, Pressure, and Change

Leadership today is increasingly shaped by disruption, ambiguity, emotional strain, and accelerating complexity. Managers and executives are expected to navigate uncertainty while maintaining performance, sustaining teams, adapting to change, and making decisions amid incomplete information. …