Insights
Field notes from leadership transformation work.
Essays and frameworks from our engagements with enterprise leaders. Written for people who design, fund, or lead leadership development inside organizations navigating transformation.
The reading room
Get the monthly field notes
Find the conversation you need.
Featured field note · Change leadership
What if resistance is information?
Before you answer the “no,” find out what it is telling you. Three sources of change resistance, and how to tell them apart.
Read the field note8 essays
Oct 1, 2026 · Change leadership · 6 min read
Change resistance is information: your leaders are usually mishearing it
Three sources of resistance, and how to understand the “no” before you respond.
Oct 1, 2026 · Leadership communication · 6 min read
The awkward conversation nobody trains you for
A clear opening, a respectful structure, and a follow-up for the most personal workplace conversations.
Oct 1, 2026 · Conflict · 5 min read
Your default conflict style is making decisions for you
The style you reach for automatically shapes which conversations happen, and which get avoided.
Jun 7, 2026 · Culture · 7 min read
Why your psychological safety initiative is not working
What happens when someone raises a risk? The leadership reflex that can quietly close the door.
May 27, 2026 · Leadership communication · 9 min read
Why difficult conversations fail before they begin
Why preparation, not just a script, determines whether a difficult conversation creates change.
May 15, 2026 · Feedback · 8 min read
Three tools for giving effective feedback that actually changes behaviour
Three practical tools to move from subjective judgements to feedback someone can act on.
Apr 10, 2026 · Transformation · 6 min read
The leadership conversations that distinguish a real transformation from theatre
The conversations behind the strategy decks, town halls, and visible artifacts of transformation.
Mar 22, 2026 · Measurement · 10 min read
If you cannot measure the behaviour, you did not change it
What to measure at 30, 90, and 365 days when satisfaction surveys are not enough.
The podcast
At the Whiteboard
Conversations about the leadership moments most organizations avoid. Our latest season, Return to Office, is about leading the return from remote work.
Co-hosted by Nicole North and Paula Manolakakis of Bridlewood Professional Development.
Want these essays in your inbox?
A monthly digest of new writing on leadership conversation systems, behaviour change, and transformation work. No marketing automation. No sales sequences.