Can you answer this question? (Careful, your mum is listening)

August 27, 2025 Janus Boye

Whenever you meet someone new, there’s one question you will almost certainly be asked.

‘What do you do?’

Richard Saul Wurman - the creator of TED talks - believes this is ‘the most profound question the business world will ever answer’. And that most businesses are ‘abysmal at answering it’.

At first, this sounds a little over the top. But I think he chose the words ‘profound’ and ‘abysmal’ with good reason.

Telling someone what you or your business does can deeply affect what your listener thinks or believes. Not because the words are fancy but because they have consequences.

A good answer can open doors to investment, sales, jobs, collaborations. A messy one can shut that door in your face.

Make change better and avoid change fatigue

September 30, 2023 Janus Boye

“Change is inevitable. Resistance to change is just as predictable.
How do you motivate teams to willingly get on board?”

This is the premise from the recently published book called Change Fatigue by Jenny Magic and Melissa Breker. Released in May, the book focuses on what the authors call ‘flipping teams from burnout to buy-in’ and it addresses the foundational psychological safety domains that drive willingness to change, alongside practical change facilitation techniques you can use today, regardless of where your team is starting from.

In a recent member’s call we were joined by the two authors who in an informal conversation took us through what’s in the change facilitation book, and they also shared a few insights on how your team can lead, plan, deliver, and sustain change.

If you want to manage resistance, your change has already failed

March 30, 2023 Janus Boye

You know it as a regular part of many frameworks on change management:

Managing the “resistance to change”.

It requires plans to deal with this resistance, it comes in various levels of resistance, and it seems to be taken for granted.

Well, here’s a novel idea: Stop talking about resistance.

Make The Group The Guru

July 16, 2005 Janus Boye

by Janus Boye

In a recent Harvard Business Review article called "Your Company's Secret Change Agents" , the authors suggest a bottom-up approach to creating lasting organizational change.

Of course, content management, intranet or really any digital project can change organizations dramatically.

Typically "champions" are educated and trained with the intention that they should be change agents for the rest of the organization.

The authors argue that

"too often, these individuals generate unconstructive dependency from their teams."

I would agree with this, having often seen a "them and us" mentality in projects.

Instead the authors suggest to make the group the guru.

As they say:

"Because the innovators are members of the community who are 'just like us,' disbelief and resistance are easier to overcome."