Future different/10x your takeaways/Awaken perfectionist/Unfinished yet?/Skills future/Can't be Meh/New HR Ways

The perfectionist’s awakening

The sayings and clichés are many — about progress and good enough and done is better than perfect. But despite us kind of knowing this, we’ve still got some generational perfectionism biting at our heels.

When I reviewed Curran and Hill’s research on perfectionism a few years ago it rang bells and raised flags for me. Actually, it put a big freaking mirror in front of me and urged me to truly look at how I thought, worked, lived … dreamed, hoped and expected.

I knew perfectionism. Well. Yet I’d also been dodging, weaving and working around this perfectionism much of my life. I’d been finding hacks and short cuts and tools, methods and sneaky ways of outsmarting my perfectionist self … so I could get up each day and get things done that had to be done to … live.

I connected a number of other complementary angles and practices - about focus, creativity, imaginination and improvisation…And I wrote a book about it all — ‘ISH : The problem with our pursuit for perfection and the life changing practice of good enough’.

That was 2019-ish. Perfectionism is still on the rise. And there are different types of it. And sometimes I need to re-read my own book… to remind me there are ways around the different elements of perfectionism that can arrive at different times or show up with different tasks and situations.

Even if you think you’re not perfect, in my keynotes on the topic I’ll mention phrases like ‘dishwasher stacking’ or ‘laundry folding’; they always gain a knowing laugh that we all have standards, expectations and visions for how things should be done. Have to be done.

Get to know your flavour of perfect because it can be a life-changing moment when you realise the platitudes, memes and clichés about perfectionism only truly make sense when you’ve been through a kind of ‘perfectionist’s awakening’. And until then you’ll always think you have to go for perfect without knowing why you do.

Read more about perfectionism in my book ‘ish: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’ or in this article that spurred me to write this post.

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10x conference takeaways

I’m ready this morning to kick off a team learning event. These events are an opportunity to do a lot of things at once.

Learning days, weeks or months are a big investment for businesses.

In person events rake up the tech AV, travel, accommodation and catering costs.

Remote events still require the time commitments and organisation investments for design and hosting.

When you bring a team together to learn, naturally you want to give them everything you can. And often these events can be stuffed with content, presenters and topics.

But before you do bring people together … please prep them for all the goodness/information overload that lies ahead. And prep them right at the start of the event.

Help your people help themselves with information overload coping. We know we get overloaded.

It happens to all of us. It’s what you do in situations of overload that either:

✅ leads you to have a great experience with the event goals realized, or

❌🧟♂️it’s just another zombie get-together with too much information.

There are many modern day clever skills that we need. ‘Cognitive load coping’ or being able to save yourself from information overload is a key skill of today. And most of us don’t know how to save ourselves.

And the drowning metaphor — drowning in information, overwhelmed with … — is all too real.

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The great unfinished

In a cognitive workshop for teachers recently, we tackled how to handle information overload better. When teachers are better able to cope with information, they have more cognitive power for teaching.

Cognitive load coping asks ‘how do I save myself and cope with all the information, stimulus and insights flying about in life every day?’

When we understand how information impacts us and what our default or habitual responses are … then we can save ourselves from the overload of too much information, thinking, tasks and ideas.

If you’re not clear what overloads you, you’re at the mercy of it. You’ll notice that you can panic, check out, scroll or just deny it.

A common overloader is the unfinished stuff: incomplete tasks, jobs, projects and admin. Thanks to Dr Bluma Zeigarnik, there’s a name for it.

Read on and think about how you currently handle your unfinished stuff. It’s dragging you more than you know.

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Cognitive Load Coping is available as a workshop, keynote or masterclass. Develop your people, equip your teachers or support conference delegates with the modern skills, methods and tips to cope better with information.

➡️ Message me for enquiries and bookings.

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Facilitating a board strategic planning session recently in Sydney.

Lynne Cazaly - Speaker & Facilitator -

It’s such a pleasure to get to know the directors and their experiences.

Facilitating is a nuanced balance of many things, most obviously:

- making progress

- retaining engagement

- gathering contributions and yes,

- keeping an eye on the time.

In every group there are always:

- varied personalities and perspectives

- different styles of thinking and communicating

- evolving motivations and beliefs.

Balancing all of this is a rewarding — if not a step by step — achievement.

Some facilitators most certainly apply too much pressure and too many rules - it can hurt you. You feel like, ‘nope I’m not contributing. It’s easier to just sit here’.

Other facilitators are a little too hands off or distracted by games and activities.

If you focus cleanly and openly on the work the group needs to do, you don’t need games. It becomes a purposeful process, high on engagement and rewarding with outcomes.

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What skills will the future need

Of all the questions about AI and work, this is a good one :

“What steps can we take now to futureproof our workforces and equip them with the skills and know-how they’ll need …”

There are issues and questions businesses need to be thinking and responding to… now:

- job reconfiguration

- future skills shortages

- skilling up

- lack of education and training options

- new skill opportunities

- lifelong learning & continuous upskilling.

The realities of work are changing — and so must the development and training of workers.

New approaches are needed to rapidly and continuously upskill people. And greater collaboration and partnerships are going to be needed too.

No one business can do this alone, for all that their people might need in the future. The future will reveal new collaborations, new ways of learning and a changed attitude toward development.

Read more in this piece from the World Economic Forum.

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9 ways things will be different

The scale of change that’s coming to human lifestyles between 2000 and the 2060s will be as transformative as that experienced between 1900 and the 1960s … so says this insightful piece from Catherine Taylor.

Which of the 9 resonate for you? I love the intersection of clever human thought AND technology - so there are some telling ideas and predictions here for the 2060s.

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Can’t be … meh

Disengagement, disinterest and a drop in motivation — there’s plenty of this in the workforce today. To tackle your own version of ‘where did my motivation go?’, check out the range of great suggestions in this article from Harvard Business Review … if you can be bothered 😁

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New Ways in HR - Program with Lynne Cazaly

HR is too retro, and not in a cool way

Visiting a vintage store last weekend I saw bread bins, fashion, workshed tools, old signs, cupboards and crockery -- where everything old is new again.

But at work, aaaah no, many old ways are rusted on and need to be grinded off!

New ways are about more than return to work discussions and more than any legislation or policy changes, important though they are.

It’s a deeper issue that (and focusing here on HR) HR may not be leading or modeling new ways of working; the ways that have been moving through the work world over recent years.

Potentially distracted by helping others and overwhelmed with serving all the other people in the business, HR teams and their leaders are frequently overloaded.

Evolving their own work practices can seem too big a task or an ask.

Is HR so busy helping everyone else they’ve sacrificed themselves and their own practices?

As Lynda Gratton commented, these times are “forcing us to test long-held assumptions about how work should be done — and what it even is.”

Now THAT could be a tricky conversation: what work is and how should it be done.

Lucy Adams declared “HR is stuck in the 1980s.”

And that’s not the 80s in a cool or retro way.

HR remains a sector that can default to dated (vintage?) work practices … learnt from the old stalwarts; yes, as any field of practice can and does.

How do you shake those off and bring in fresher ways?

Could more HR teams benefit from working in new ways ... remembering that new ways aren’t about software, apps or AI/tech-based products. It’s the “ways" of ways of working that modern teams and businesses are learning and using.

I’ve worked with multiple HR teams over the past few years helping them evolve their knowledge, skills and practices in up to 9 specific areas of new ways of working. And I LOVE doing this work because it brings immediate, practical results to busy teams. The teams bring new ways to their individual, daily work. They don’t have to wait until they all agree on a new practice. It can begin with an individual.

David Ulrich suggested “2024 should be the year of opportunity for HR.”

And it is. It has to be. The organisation they support needs it to be. It’s time HR served itself some hearty and rapid evolution … to lead, model and advocate new ways of working across the businesses they support.

And yes, starting with themselves.

➡️➡️ I’ve put together a pack on how and why HR has to adopt new ways of working. Message me or get in contact and I’ll send you the pack.

Some Seasonal Readings from Lynne Cazaly

How office nostalgia keeps us stuck

Some businesses and leaders just aren’t letting go of their return to office mandates and attendance requirements.

And we might be understanding some further reasons why they’re holding on so strong.

Memories, nostalgia, legacy and a sentimental history could be part of what’s keeping organisations stuck from evolving towards more modern work.

How? When so many people grew through their career working in an office — or a business or organisation that had a head office — changing that deeply historical mindset towards the office is what’s tough to shift. Memories of the good old days and the great times working in the office pre-pandemic could be a deep reason why some people/leaders/cultures are battling to evolve to newer ways of working.

Remote, flexible, asynchronous, hybrid and non-linear work are all part of the new way of working. Yet nostalgia can be strong.

Memory biases like Rosy Recollection, Episodic Memory, Recall Bias and Selective Memories all contribute to how we perceive the past and the present. And the way we see the office is a big one of those perceptions.

What to do?

🟨 Bring creative thought to combine old ideas into new original ones; be willing to experiment more with different approaches, pilots and techniques about modern work.

🟨 Don’t assume you’ve got it perfect and right after your first attempt at a hybrid model. Increments and iterations are part of new ways of working.

🟨 Look beyond leadership perspectives. Get more ideas and input from across the organisation. Consult further. Be willing to ask for opinions. No one view is right.

Being stuck in old ways of working comes about because of old systems, structures, mindsets and fears — masquerading as leadership, compliance and control. There’s so much more to new ways of working than how many days you return to a nostalgic office.

Read more in this Work Design Magazine article by Cynthia Milota and Jinger Tapia

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Move think rest

New ways of working don’t just change businesses. They’re helping change people and the way they think, work and lead.

If you haven’t changed much about how you work since … well, since you learned how to work, it might be a good time to.

New ways go beyond the obvious stuff that’s changed work recently like technology or even increased remote work.

Look deeper and you can begin to redesign the way you think, the way you interact or collaborate and work with others and the way you lead a team.

The idea of ‘movement thought rest’ or MTR/motor framework shines a light on how the go go go push push push of work is an old old old way of working. Yes, ‘pushing through’ is very much an old way of working or thinking about the work we have to do.

Old metaphors, methods and models of work are breaking down in favour of more modern concepts that bring greater sustainability, wellbeing and enjoyment … to the whole of life.

Read more in this article in Fast Company and think about how you could be making the old ways of working a little more modern.

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The dreaded middle

You might wince when you see a boarding pass for a flight that has you in the middle seat or realise the discomfort that’s ahead as you walk down the aisle.

Memes, stories and experiences abound on the tricky situation being ‘stuck in the middle’ can have: complex armrest rules, violated leg space, no quiet privacy, and gymnastics for getting in and out over sleeping peoples.

That’s indicative of other middle locations — particularly in today’s workforce.

The challenges of middle managers trying to survive the sandwich pressures of above and below have led to more stress, conflict, burnout, less satisfaction, layoffs, pay cuts, inflexibility …

The middle may have become more of a crowded cliff as lower levels have been pushed up into the space and higher levels slash and burn that which is below.

Research quoted in Fortune by Chloe Berger makes me wonder if the uncomfortable middle people might be rethinking who and what they want to be, where they want to be it … and how soon they can start making that change. The messy middle has become an even more turbulent space to be in recent times.

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When one is not enough. Jobs that is

Many people may well be drowning under the weight of the responsibilities of one job role plus … you know… life.

And a good many people take on a second job to fill gaps in needs, meet their basic financial commitments or to build for their future.

But there’s a whole other world of the ‘over-employed’ who are working their work gigs to the max.

These eye opening accounts of how people take on, juggle and handle multiple job roles, reveal the hacks, tips, hints and tools used to put one over the employer … while you take two or three for yourself!

With recent years’ rise in remote work, stories of dual (or more) jobs held by one person were rumoured and reported on — but now there’s more insight into how it’s actually happening.

Before you get all “that’s so wrong” or “good for them” about it, read more to see the situations, skills, roles and reasons this is happening.

It’s another trend in response to the evolving nature of work.

While the underemployed people in our communities struggle to find suitable, flexible and reasonably paid work, there are many who are rising through the multiple job roles ranks.

And while there are tips here on how to do it… there are also some handy insights on how to spot it if it’s happening in your team or business.

Read more in the article by Aki Ito in Business Insider.

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The BIG work change hiding in plain sight

As newer ways of working have reached many sectors and businesses, there’s still much to do. Many leaders still aren’t quite sure though, how to change work to adapt to the recent pressures of stress, burnout, flexibility demands and global pressures.

Lynda Gratton always seems to know just what to say! In this great article you’ll see some key points and suggestions about adopting new ways of working and redesigning work.

BUT … what about the HUGE point that could be getting in the way of change?

It’s right there… hidden in plain sight - that we can’t and shouldn’t be adopting or following the CEO’s default preferences for ways of working!

Yep, that’s a big status role in the organisation to influence and challenge … but well-being, productivity, engagement and success depends on it.

So many organisations find a shift to new ways of working challenging and full of roadblocks because of C-level attitudes and dated ways of thinking about work.

They often ‘know what’s best’ from their ‘experience’ - but that experience is rapidly becoming out of date and gained in a different era of work. I see this so frequently when I speak to senior leadership teams about new ways of working. I spend time guiding them through the ideas, evidence, methods and shifts they need to adopt to change and redesign the way their organisation thinks about work. And sometimes that’s a tough gig.

Attitudes and beliefs run deep.

And they want to minimize the risk, know that it WILL work before they adopt new ways.

But new ways are very much a new way of

▫️Thinking

▫️Working and

▫️Leading.

And it’s tough when that thinking gets blocked at the top.

We can help break through the blockades of dated experience that could be hindering how your organisation thinks about redesigning work.

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Don't be the dull, ineffective one who leads

A meeting leader can often help find a path of progress through a meeting, is able to handle the agenda (or even no agenda!), the behaviours in the group, the barriers to progress, AND the obstacles to having a productive and successful team session.

That's a lot to juggle; no wonder meetings continue to be dull wastes of time. So it's possible .... that we could be leading dull, droning, ineffective meetings. Well, somebody sure is!

Lifting your leadership here -- where people get together to do work -- can make a huge shift in performance, engagement, morale and communication.

Join me live online, for this professional development session.

Build your facilitation skills session so your meeting leadership becomes more:

🌑professional

🌒collaborative

🌓effective

🌕productive.

Oh, and let's add creative to that too, as I'll include a range of creative ideas to boost any dull meeting or gathering.

More details here on dates, times and pricing.

And if this is something your team or organisation needs, let me know - I can deliver it inhouse, remotely too.

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Getting started

If you’ve got plenty of ambivalence/meh and not enough motivation, perhaps this way of thinking and working can help.

Notice the difference between

🔆 motivation : that longer term energy and drive that keeps you going

🔆 activation : the tactics that get you started on something, and headed toward motivation.

I’ll frequently hack my activation for work by:

🔆gathering ideas when they pop into my head

🔆brainstorming some possible content for a keynote as soon as the enquiry comes in

🔆following my curiosity when I’m thinking about a topic and

🔆choosing the nicest task possible from a list of things to do for a project (like playing around with the book cover design over researching a dry topic.)

Momentum is joyous when you’ve got it. Just ask a kid on a swing.

But if you haven’t got it, how do you get started?

Find the thing that will get you going. Once you get going — activated — you may feel some more interest or purpose and energy for the work — motivated.

As we learn more about how we think about work and how we work best, the difference between activation and motivation can become enlightening… and mighty empowering.

The ‘meh’ feeling is nothing to feel bad about. Look for the things, tasks, hacks and tips that activate you … towards finding some motivation.

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3 Mentoring spots available

As the end of year approaches I’ve got availability to work with 3 people 1:1 in mentoring over the next 6 months of 2024.

If you run your own business, run your own practice or are keen to build and grow, let’s talk about getting 6 x 1:1 sessions (+ other support, clever ideas and resources including my book writing program) locked in.

Message me about the first 6 months for 2024.

Warmer and more human please

Along with everything else they’re juggling, leaders are on notice to up their humanity and reality. 

With remote work and online meetings creating a wierd kind of ‘digital disconnect’ between many leaders and their teams, it’s a good time for some newer ways of connecting. 

Some recent data reported 32% of people said communications from their leadership team during these difficult times felt ‘cold and impersonal’. Ooooh the chill!

And 31% felt leadership showed a lack of empathy for people’s personal lives. Oh the burn! 

Some businesses are trying new ways of connecting. Rather than expecting everyone online at once for a synchronous ‘town hall’ or ‘all hands’ presentation, internal podcasts are being added to the comms list. 

And 39% of those researched said they want their leaders to ‘explore more personal means of communication, like video’. 

Explore. 

That’s a nice way of saying ‘have a go’, ‘try it out’, ‘see what might work for us here.’ 

The fear of failing, looking foolish or crashing and burning can be a big turnoff for leaders who have kept their game face on, stilted, straight and ... are they frozen? Is their camera frozen? 

No. They’re just cold, still, impersonal. 

Ouch! 

Warm up. Open up. More humanity please. 

Better engagement from the leader first... before expecting engagement from the team. 

Read more in this article by Jessica Davies at Digiday.

‘I love your posts and pictures!’, they said

‘Oh, thank you,’ I said. ‘Now theres a heap of them together ... in the one place.’ 

I’ve curated a collection of ideas, posts and imagery from the last year or so and published them in ‘Better Ways of Thinking and Working’. 

In this era of change, uncertainty and complexity, how are you adopting better ways of thinking and working? 

What are these better ways, anyway … and how do you get started?

In this 180 page full colour collection of practical and mind-shifting essays, you’ll find inspiration, insights and a path to better.

It also features the practical, creative and inspiring hand-drawn visuals that accompany many of my ideas. 

When you need a shot of insight, a change of perspective or a reframing about how you could do things, possibilities are on every page. 


‘Better Ways of Thinking and Working: How Changing The Way You Do Things, Changes What You Can Do’. 

Get it here

A mindset for success or burnout

The deep beliefs we hold about what we’re doing and why, may not be as noble or effective as we think. 

After all, why do we work longer hours? 

Why aspire for higher standards?


Here’s a quick check of 9 mindsets (this article says ‘lies’) we may believe, unconsciously, that don’t serve us well. 

1. If you stop what you’re doing you’ll be letting everyone down

2. If you don’t do it it won’t get done

3. You have to work long hours or you won’t get ahead in your career

4. If you sacrifice now you benefit later

5. It’s only costing you some ‘time’

6. You don’t have time to do what you enjoy

7. You have to isolate yourself to get the work done

8. You can do it all on your own

9. You have to be perfect all the time.


Ticked any of them? 

What if you reversed, flipped or edited them, all 9 mindsets? 

1. If you stop what you’re doing it gives others a chance to step in. 

2. If you don’t do it maybe it won’t even matter. 

3. You can work shorter hours and still get ahead in your career. 

4. If you sacrifice now, you may make things worse in the future. 

... keep going. You edit the rest and see how it challenges beliefs about work.