If fair teamwork is the flame that keeps organisations alive, then burnout may be what happens when that flame is starved of oxygen. Fair teamwork gives an organisation energy, warmth, movement, and shared purpose....
It Takes Two To Tango
A tricky interaction is rarely shaped by one person alone. It is co-created. One person may try to respond well, but the other person may interrupt, dismiss, retaliate, deflect, or simply refuse to engage fairly. In that case, the more reflective person ends up carrying most of the burden, while the less disciplined person remains largely unconstrained....
The Conversation Conversation: What is Conversation For?
Some 40 years ago I asked a workmate what conversation was for. Her reply was that I was “fu*ked”. At the time we laughed, but the question never left me. It stayed with me for decades. After some 32 years, countless conversations about conversation, and hearing many different reasons for having them, I came up with a couple of answers that seemed to resonate.
The Future of Teamwork is Real-Time Fairness
“Real-time” doesn’t mean people aren’t already speaking live. Most teamwork already happens live. What’s missing is real-time governance and accountability. In most teams, the conversation is immediate, but accountability is delayed....
Clarity and Accountability
I think clarity in teams begins with accountability, rather than a better message. We cannot expect clear communication from people who avoid ownership. Clarity requires candour, and that requires responsibility for how we show up. My view is simple: in healthy teams, we need to put our hand up and put our foot down.
Culture Comes From the Base, Not the Boss
What if workplace culture was supposed to come from the base, not the boss? If one looks at all the posts on LinkedIn you would swear that the boss was responsible for creating the culture of the team. For me, this is close to the opposite of how culture works in societies, and I think it can be the same in workplace teams.
One Loose Cannon and Three Wood Ducks
In 2005, two co-founders and their advisor were preparing for a decisive investor meeting. The investors were well-capitalised, having launched a major Australian car rental company, while the advisor had previously built a widely used travel and tour platform...
The SpatzAI Self-Managed Accountability & Moderating System
SpatzAI is a self-managed accountability and moderating system for workplace teams. It works inside the SpatzChat app, when needed, staying lightweight and proportionate, while keeping a structured 3-step sequence in the background to address one-off behavioral breaches before they expand into larger disputes.
SpatzAI Changes Unwanted Feedback From Fight or Flight to Flag
Most theories of conversation assume feedback leads to learning. Sometimes it does, but mainly when the feedback is easy to hear. This also encourages overly careful, even obsequious, delivery that avoids saying what actually needs to be said. When feedback is liked, learning is frictionless. When feedback is disliked or unwanted, human systems default to biology. We either fight or flight.
The Missing “Roll” in Psychological Safety
Attention all systems thinkers. I’d love your take on all the talk about psychological safety, and just how scientific it really is, especially here on LinkedIn. Even from leading experts, I find plenty of claims but little verifiable science. Don’t get me wrong, achieving genuine psychological safety would be the holy grail of behavioral psychology. But when I search for “the system of achieving psychological safety,” I find a lot of rhetoric and almost no mechanics.
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