Leadership & Management

Leadership & Management

Tuk R Bust - Time to Start Driving

Andrew Penny, August 18 2026

By the time this is in your inbox, I’ll be on my way to Sault Ste. Marie - the first stop on our expedition to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean. It’s a 14,000-kilometre round trip in my 1968 MGB convertible. And what blows most people’s minds is that Edmonton is only ½ way. And somewhere along the way, the expedition became a bit of a convoy: me,...

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Leadership & Management

Questions & Decisions

Graham Birkenhead, August 11 2026

We make hundreds of decision in a day - many are minor and take very little conscious thought, some are more weighty, both in terms of the thinking needed, and the outcome.  We tend to think of decision making as a process of choosing between options: A or B, yes or no, now or later, do nothing or do something.  And part of our process then...

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Leadership & Management

Tuk R Bust

Andrew Penny, July 21 2026

For me, Tuktoyaktuk  was one of those strange place names that sounds sort of familiar but I couldn’t place on a map. That changed recently. Let me back up a bit. Every year I try to do something that I really don’t know if I can do. One year I took singing lessons and performed in a recital (OK, it was me and three judgmental 10 year olds – but...

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Leadership & Management

The Yellow Beetle Effect

Graham Birkenhead, July 14 2026

The VW Beetle has a very distinctive shape - and even over 3 generations of design covering nearly 60 years of production, that distinctive shape has been retained, and nearly everyone can recognise a Beetle.  Some Beetles come in a very noticeable yellow. So, the thing is with these yellow Beetles, there are few-enough of them that you won't...

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Leadership & Management

Canada at 159

Andrew Penny, July 7 2026

Canada’s progress has been imperfect, uneven, and often slow — but slow steady progress compounded over 159 years becomes something wonderful. Canada’s quiet brilliance is not that it is perfect. It is that it has built a durable brand around trust, stability, resilience, humility, and usefulness. For a small country of just 41 million, and...

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Leadership & Management

The Agency Continuum

Graham Birkenhead, June 16 2026

Most companies say they want proactive people. People who spot problems before they become crises. People who take ownership, seek opportunities, and look for ways to improve things. And people who don’t simply wait to be told what to do before taking appropriate action. And yet, strangely, many of these same organisations unintentionally teach...

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Leadership & Management

What Are You Paying For?

Andrew Penny, June 9 2026

As a boy in Montréal, I delivered newspapers door-to-door (neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night, etc…)  It was seen as an essential service to keep the population informed and actively participating in our democracy. Getting real ’news’ is a bit harder now but no less essential – particularly for business leaders. To be effective, we need...

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Leadership & Management

Trapped by Success

Graham Birkenhead, June 2 2026

A few days ago, a hummingbird found its way into my garage and was flying around trying to get out.  The strange thing is that both garage doors were fully open, as was the side window, and there was plenty of daylight coming in. And yet the bird was 'trapped' in my garage.  For hours, it flew around in circles constantly tapping against the...

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Leadership & Management

What Gets Measured Gets Managed

Graham Birkenhead, May 19 2026

'What gets measured gets managed' is one of the most quoted phrases in management and leadership, and for good reason. Measurement matters, because organisations need visibility, leaders need feedback, and teams need clarity about what matters and whether progress is being made. Without some form of measurement, organisations tend to use a mix...

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Leadership & Management

The Hidden Cost of Small Irritations

Graham Birkenhead, April 22 2026

A surprisingly large proportion of what we do each day does not directly add value to the final product or outcome; estimations of the exact percentage varies depending on the type of work.  Some of this activity is actually necessary as it provides structure, control, and reliability and includes things like maintaining records, confirming...

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