The Blogworld of Poppyfish People Development

Trust is one of those core values that we like to hold dear, both at home and at work. Having trust in someone is a liberating feeling, a feeling that we know we are in good hands, no matter what happens. A feeling of something shared. The phrase “Trust me” is the ultimate statement that we use when we have tried almost every other form of reassurance, when we just know everything will be alright. So trust then, is a good thing and most of us want to see more of it. Lose trust and you lose the relationship. Anyone with a failed marriage will tell you that relationships in which trust has been lost are doomed to a miserable future. The curious thing however is that trust, like common sense, isn’t actually all that common. Especially not, it seems, in the world of work. The UK CIPD have recently published the results of a workplace survey claiming that  just over a third (37%) of employees trust their organisation’s senior management. By inference therefore the other 63% do not...

Time. It's precious. We all know that and yet many of us manage to find a way to waste it. We manage to find things to do that cost us time but give little gain. And we don't have to travel far from home to find those timewasting opportunities. Indeed, many of them are in our own homes. The TV, the Xbox, the internet. You see, the attractions of modern life make it so easy for us to waste our time, to fill large chunks of our leisure time with nothing in particular but in a way that makes it seem like we're having fun. Now, I'm no time management angel. I have all the same time management issues as the next man, but the fact is that I know that how I spend my time is a choice. I can choose to relax and spend my time scratching my backside whilst watching old John Wayne films, or I can choose to do smoothing that might be more likely to improve my life, or to improve the live of others. Maybe that would include spending time on self development or learning a new ski...

  Yesterday , 21st October, saw the first Poppyfish Tweetfest . A tweetfest , we have decided, is a themed day of twitter and social media activities from Poppyfish, a time when we take a break out to celebrate specific days that may have a relevant link to people and organisational development. On this occasion we tweeted around 50 statements and quotes highlighting the leadership qualities of Horatio Nelson. You can follow this on twitter via our @Poppyfish_PD account. Our launch day couldn’t have been better chosen. 21st October this year marked the 207th anniversary of the tumultuous battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Trafalgar was a battle in which the organisational and leadership weaknesses of the navies of France and Spain were exposed decisively, cruelly and with awe inspiring capability by Britain’s Royal Navy led by it’s most inspirational and charismatic leader, Horatio Nelson. And so it was that we choise to focus this inaugural tweetfest on Nelson and leadership ...

Howzat for a problem? Sometimes managing larger than life characters is just not cricket. Just ask Andrew Strauss. Amongst the England cricket Captain's latest headaches is how to deal with one of his star players who appears to have taken things a step too far . The man causing Strauss problems is a cricketing superstar. Kevin Pietersen's performances on the pitch can be breathtaking, with an astonishing ability to turn on the style and take the game out of the reach of the opponent with some destructive hitting. As a cricketer he is simply awesome. But when it comes to team management Pietersen is a headache , especially over the past two weeks, when it is alleged he sent some less than flattering text messages to his opponents about Strauss, his own captain. That's just not cricket. Many organisations have their own Kevin Pietersen (or 'KP' as he is known to England fans). Managing difficult people is...well....difficult. Larger than life ...

We are coming towards the end of a memorable two weeks in London. From all over the country, people have been flocking to the Olympic venues to cheer on Team GB. The success of the home team, in jubilee year, has raised fervour of support across the Shires. Euphoria has a lot to answer for. The celebrations have been openly emotional.  The normally reserved British have suspended the stiff upper lip in preference to tears, hugs and emotional outbursts. Even the Queen let her hair down, kicking off the happiness by staging a parachute arrival at the Opening ceremony. The achievements of the competitors have been stunning. You can feel the passion swelling within the chests of athletes and medal winners alike. You can see the emotion in the tear filled eyes of commentators and coaches. You can see it in the faces of those Union Flag clad supporters making their way to London. And you can see it in other places too. Just look at your facebook  feeds and you’ll see how ...

I was lucky enough to be part of a conversation recently in which people from different organisations were sharing their personal views about their various workplaces. This is one of the real upsides to my job. This was a multinational group working across different sectors and the threads of the conversation were many and varied, yet what stood out for me against all the statements and opinions about how different our organisations were was one thing upon which everyone in the room seemed to be agreed - namely that it's a 'bad thing' to exhibit vulnerability in the workplace. A bad thing. No one appeared to be too bothered by this and the conversation soon moved on. But for me the apparent confirmation that we can simply accept that organisations create, allow or somehow foster these predatory moments hung heavily in the pit of my stomach with a nauseous pang. The frown and bad feeling that I was left wi...