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John Wenger

John Wenger
John Wenger is one of the Directors of Quantum Shift. He has a background in education, counselling and management of commercial and not-for-profit organisations. He brings a passion and understanding of learning and human behaviour to his current work in organisational learning and development. He has a particular interest in uncovering solutions which get people to be less stuck and more creative in their workplaces.

Vanguard Leadership (or The Importance of Being our own Best Friend)

Is there room in the world for a CEO who wears their heart on their sleeve? Absolutely, undoubtedly, unequivocally, yes! Such a leader is...

Stop de-motivating people

Fresh from running a workshop on responsible leadership, I'm feeling buoyant that the participants entered into the conversation with gusto and were open to...

New Models of Leadership?

"Many people live in the hallucination that they can truly lead other people without being able to lead themselves and this is pure fantasy....

Cooperation beats competition

I overheard a conversation recently where someone said in all seriousness, "In the new way of doing business, cooperation beats competition." I was...

In transition

The cosmos is a complex, and sometimes confusing, place. Every three or four months, the planet Mercury goes retrograde. What this means is that...

The Moral Business

In "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", Big Daddy bellows in exasperation, "Ain't nothing more powerful than the odour of mendacity." Recently diagnosed...

Don’t play games with people

One of the most satisfying contracts I've had involved working with a group of team leaders on a manufacturing line back in 2005. ...

Theory X? Why?

I speak with managers who describe their frustrations at dealing with people they call "stupid". They get angry at people who are clumsy...

Drive out fear

Business leaders: when I use the word "culture", do you screw up your face and say "Love and peace, man"? I'm no aging...

The system: the cause of and solution to a business’ problems

People do dumb things. Or rather, they fail to do smart things, even though it's obvious to everyone else what the right thing...

Values purpose and meaning

Bizarrely, if you went into most school classrooms in the industrialised world, you would still hear teachers say or imply, "Sit down, stop talking,...

Change and the mystery of systems

The last thing a fish notices is the water. I've said it before, and once again am reminded of it in my work...

Is mine a high-performing team?

Some time ago, a client of ours excitedly commented that she thought what we did felt like team-building with intellect. Even eight years...

What is going on in my team?

I have been inspired by Paul Slater's excellent article this week, Getting Teams Working, to reflect on some work I've been doing recently with...

What is the matrix of a leader?

Developing ourselves is not about filling in "gaps". If we are systems thinkers, we don't see gaps. A gap is an empty...

It’s the system

"It is poorly designed systems, not incompetent or unmotivated individuals that cause most organisational problems." Peter Senge So what do you do when you...

Leaders: get out of the way

"Empower" is a word that is coming into greater usage by many who manage people. I like to think this is a sign...

Leaderless = Leaderfull

I've devoted a number of my posts to the topic of leader development. In this post, I'd like to say more about what...

Manage from strength, not deficit

Carbon is intensely heated and pressurised beneath the surface of the Earth to create a diamond; essentially it's a lump of coal that has...

Stop training and start developing

I admire people who are good with words. A wordsmith such as Neil Hannon, one of my favourite song writers, deploys words to...

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