News & Articles

For pretty much all of the 90s I worked for the Motorola Corporation. Those ten years of varied, challenging and global change leadership experience were pretty much the bedrock that my last 15 years have been grounded in. Motorola was not perfect, but it was innovative and humanely people-centric. If the business had not contracted as it did, I would probably still be there.

During the ritual winter clearing-out of my office, I came across some Motorola paraphernalia. One thing in particular made me think; “Individual Dignity Entitlement” (IDE) was a very controversial, global Motorola process. I am told there was even a Dilbert cartoon about it!

The Institute of Directors are hosting events throughout Scotland in support of the Publication of  "The Game Changer" by Alistair Gray. 

The next will be held at Cairn Energy’s offices at Lothian Road in Edinburgh on Tuesday 26 November at 1800h. Attendance is by registering via the IoD website. Here is the link to the event.

The Performance Collective has partnered with Alexander Dennis for five years now. We now deliver their management and leadership development programmes, provide one-to-one leadership coaching and development workshops for their Executive team.

The following is an article published in the Alexander Dennis internal communications. It is reproduced with their permission.

Lessons from a Three Legged Stool

I made a three-legged stool. I have never made anything from wood before and had pretty low expectations of the results that I could achieve. However, my stool is sturdy, functional and, if I say so myself, rather beautiful. More importantly, I had the time of my life doing it. I had a complete sense of flow state and timelessness in the process. In one day I split out a log, made tenons and mortices, shaped a seat and sculpted the legs on a shaving horse.

Our partners James Bowen and Brian MacNeice have published  Powerhouse. This book uncovers the performance secrets of some of the world’s most impressive institutions. Documenting James' and Brian's first-hand study of 12 diverse global exemplars, Powerhouse provides a provocative insight into how top organizations consistently lead their fields.

Looking across these different, seemingly contrasting institutions, Powerhouse goes further - identifying common components of their models for winning, and providing a valuable, practical framework for any organization to achieve enduring high performance.

The book tells the stories of organisations such as The Grameen Bank, The Mayo Clinic, Tata Group and Medecin Sans Frontier. It's a great leadership read whether you sit down and read it cover to cover, or  dive in and out for inspiration.

We are delighted support the ambitious purpose of Social Bite to eradicate homelessness in Scotland in 5 years. On 9th December we will be sleeping out in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh with 9000 other supporters. The aim is to raise £4M in total and we have set ourselves a target contribution of £5000.

If you would like to help us please visit our fundraising page.