Chris Harrison

Vanilla or strawberry? Resign or stay? Toyota or Nissan? We make some choices quickly, relying on mental shortcuts our brains have developed over the years. Other decisions take time and effort – we agonise, we procrastinate. Often those decisions are no better than the automatic choices we make. When we make a decision, we are… Continue reading Decisions, decisions

Projects, initiatives, programmes. These words are used to signal the intention to make changes in the business. To labour outside the bounds of the normal workday. To develop new products or services; to expand into new geographies. To level up with, or to outpace the competition. To improve customer experiences or staff engagement. They create… Continue reading Work backwards

I recently spent a weekend facilitating a Business Creativity workshop. It reminded me how difficult it is to get innovation going. Four teams of business leaders, drawn from nine different sectors, burned the midnight oil as they attempted to design a new product, a complementary customer experience and a marketing campaign to launch the whole… Continue reading Break the rules

It’s still unusual for successful business leaders to admit failure and reflect upon the learnings. Even rarer for them to share with peers and subordinates. Unfortunately, that holds back the next generation of Africa business leaders because they don’t learn much from tales of unbridled success. It’s not surprising that when you come across leaders… Continue reading Vulnerable leaders

In the depths of COVID, I reconnected with an old friend who runs a factory. Throughout the pandemic, he went to work in Nairobi’s Industrial Area every day. His partners, cautiously staying at home, were surprised. His managers, many of whom chose to work remotely, were unsettled. His staff, who had no option but to… Continue reading Visible Leadership

Wangui sat at her desk, shoulders slumped. This was the third time her boss had spoken to her about that report today. It was due in three days but she noticed her manager’s nagging getting worse. What was his problem? Couldn’t he give her a break so she could actually get it done? Is Wangui’s… Continue reading Rebuild Trust

I’m pleased to note that the phrase work-life balance is in almost constant use these days. But that doesn’t mean that many of us understand it any better than as a place we’d like to reach one day. The truth is that defining a healthy work-life balance is an individual matter. What works for Bob,… Continue reading Balancing act

Although I’m sceptical about how radical the ‘new normal’ will be, there’s no doubt that we are already seeing nuanced changes in the workplace. COVID accelerated the digital transformation of everything, and not because technology got better. Rather it was we, as human beings, who decided to lean into it. Here are some further developments… Continue reading Change has come

A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. By then, the number of Americans quitting work had already exceeded pre-pandemic highs for six straight months. One driver appears to have been that many workers were no longer willing to put up… Continue reading Workplace Woes

Back in 1961, the Scottish author Alastair Maclean wrote the thriller ‘Fear is the Key’. A gripping yarn in which the protagonist, Talbot, traps two guilty men and uses their fear of imminent death to extract a full confession of guilt. Fear of something unpleasant happening in the future is a powerful motivator. Psychologists suggest… Continue reading Fear is the key