On Ambition

Before I went to high school, everyone in our year sat an aptitude test. We were eleven years old, and the assessment took place over three hours one morning early in summer. The goal was to identify each student’s potential and stream girls into year groups based on their IQ. The theory being that matching…

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Two Questions For Days Like These

Will we wake up in a few months and lament that we haven’t made more of this time in isolation? The direct impact of current events is largely beyond our control. And yet it affects us indirectly, often in imperceptible ways. There are many things going on in the world that we can’t influence, but…

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Effective Change

Even though nine of her children emigrated to England in the 1960s to find work, my grandmother never travelled outside Ireland. She refused to taste cucumber, even though my English aunt insisted on making cucumber sandwiches whenever she came to visit. Even after her doctor told her cigarettes were bad for her angina. Granny still…

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The Myth Of Significance

Lately, we have come to believe in the myth of significance. Put our faith in being chosen, becoming ‘the one’. Striving to be bigger, noticed or more than, while simultaneously recounting a narrative of never enough. In our minds, significance boasts a title, resides in a corner office, speaks from the centre stage, gaining recognition…

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Change Is A Human Act

We mistakenly believe that changemaking and persuasion are only about getting someone’s attention by creating awareness of an issue or option, and then presenting people with rational arguments that will convince them to make choices we find desirable. But both the science and what we witness in the world around us prove otherwise. Research in…

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Bridging The Change Gap

We know that attention is the first essential step on the path to influencing others. We also know it’s not possible to inspire people to act or to create change with attention alone. There’s always a gap between gaining awareness, enabling action and gaining traction. You can buy attention, but you can’t buy trust. Trust…

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Introducing The Story Compass

My new book, The Right Story publishes today. I can’t wait to hear how you’re using the new tools in the book to help you craft your messaging and engage more deeply with your customers. The Story Compass is one of those tools in the book. It’s designed to facilitate powerful, purposeful storytelling. It will…

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Be A Powerful And Purposeful Storyteller

*The following post is an extract from my new book The Right Story.* Throughout history, the technology of the day has always influenced how its users communicate and share ideas. How we think about spreading ideas is shaped by the resources available to us. How we connect and persuade is affected by the way we…

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The Stages Of Change

If you’ve ever tried to quit a bad habit or establish a new one, you know that change takes time. When it comes to creating change in our own lives, we cut ourselves some slack because we know that change is a process. And yet when it comes to our customers, we impatiently hurry them…

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Hearts Before Minds

People are creatures of habit. You only have to look at the rituals in your day-to-day to see how patterns permeate life. Think about the things you do on rinse and repeat. The brands you always buy. The supermarket aisles you choose to walk down. The ones you avoid. We have come to believe the…

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