Writing
I write online articles about organisations, leadership, networks, partnerships, advocacy, coloniality, knowledge and decision systems. I now publish on Substack. I’ve previously published on On Think Tanks (OTT). I’ve also been invited to publish on Elephant in the lab, the World Bank, Research into Action, Apolitical, From Poverty to Power and the LSE impact blog. Find my articles organised around the three categories below.
Supporting leaders, teams, organisations and networks to learn and change
2023: Facilitating learning across research consortia: This article explains why it is helpful for large consortia to undertake collective learning, what this looks like in practice, what people might learn about and finally how learning might be facilitated.
2023: Consulting, leadership and diversity in the global development sector: This article reflects on an experience consulting in the international development sector highlighting how external pressures and dynamics within the client group impact on consulting teams and in particular People of Colour.
2023: Wrestling with difference: power, privilege and positionality in the global development sector: This article reflects on how my power, privilege and positionality in the UK’s international development sector is enabled and constrained by parts of my identity which are both visible and invisible.
2023: Social movements and advocacy groups: what lies beneath? Part 2: This article reflects on how the psychology of a social movement’s members and the social, economic and political context in which they work shape what goes on inside them and what they do.
2023: Social movements and advocacy groups: what lies beneath? Part 1: as above, this article reflects on how the psychology of a social movement’s members and the social, economic and political context in which they work shape what goes on inside them and what they do.
2023: Spirit and soul in organisations - This reflects on the 2023 Annual Meeting for the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations (ISPSO) whose theme was ‘Tsoseletso: Resurfacing Soul, Circularity and Spirituality in organisations’
2023: How to get stuff done more skilfully: This provides a critique of conventional management prescriptions, describes how things actually get done in organisations and provides some guidance for what managers and leaders might do to facilitate this.
2023: Where there was an organisation, now there is a network…I discuss the changes that have occurred in the context that organisations operate in and the profound effects this has had on how people go about their work
2023: What HBO’s Succession tells us about leaders, organisations and transitions
2023: From research to research mindedness: facilitating change through action research. This critiques conventional approaches to organisational change and makes the case for embracing action research
2023: What just happened?!? Seeking surprise in teams and organisations. This makes the case for taking one’s experience seriously and making sense of it in pursuit of organisational change
2023: What if we really cared for our colleagues? This discusses what would it mean if we were to care and be caring in our teams and organisations on an everyday basis?
2022: 5 lessons from consulting a business association to establish a research centre in Egypt
2021: How and how well do organisations learn? Based on my experience of consulting to funding organisations in Europe and North America, this article draws insights on 1) how staff understand learning and what opportunities they have to learn; 2) how well staff actually learn and 3) what senior managers can do to improve learning among their staff.
2021: How are funders supporting development organisations to be more effective? This article describes what funders are doing to improve organisational effectiveness among their grantees beyond providing funding.
2021: Devising, revising and evaluating strategies for funding organisations: 10 lessons from OTT’s work. This article highlights lessons from providing services to large funders to develop, revise and evaluate strategies in areas such as economic justice, scaling research impact and improving accountability.
2021: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s organisational effectiveness …This discusses the concept of organisational effectiveness focusing on mainstream discourse as well as more emergent and critical approaches.
2021: The merits and drawbacks of working in a networked organisation
2021: What shapes the authority and power of leaders and their followers? Drawing on open systems theory and unconscious group processes, this article highlights four factors that shape the authority and power of leaders and followers as they take up their role in an organisation
2021: Are you a troublemaker? This article argues that individuals labelled as troublemakers are selected unconsciously by their colleagues to express something on behalf of the organisation
2021: What do people really mean when they talk about organisational culture? This article critiques the concept of organisational culture and proposes something in its place.
2021: Racism in think tanks — how and why it manifests and what we might do to address it
2021: Rethinking organisational development: an introduction. This article critiques orthodox discourse on organisations
2021: In charge but not in control: Lessons from leading teams in a networked world. This article highlights learning from leading a virtual team located across the globe.
2020: Letting the light in: how think tanks can be more nourishing places to work. This article describes how think tanks can be difficult places to work and what they can do to address this.
2020: How public institutions can be more nourishing places to work. This article describes how public institutions can be difficult places to work and what they can do to address this.
2019: Helping emerging think tank managers to improve their practice with the OTT-TTI Fellowship. This describes the work of a year long programme of learning for mid-career think tank leaders and managers.
2018: Learning to live with one another: lessons from an interdisciplinary research project. This highlights learning from an interdisciplinary research project to support small island developing states to be more resilient to natural hazards.
2018: Ten lessons from facilitating strategy with think tanks and policy teams. This highlights lessons from work with teams in Zimbabwe, Kosovo and Moldova amongst others.
2016: Organisational Development: more of an art than a science? This article critiques some basic assumptions which underpin orthodox thinking about organisations and presents an alternative way of thinking.
2016: Strategic planning: it’s just as much about the present as the future. This article suggests there is just as much to be gained by reflecting on current challenges rather than looking into the future
2016: North-South Collaboration: Eight tips for working with local think tanks. This article provides some advice for improving inter-national partnerships
Influencing policy and practice
2023: Promoting impact through research and engagement. Based on work evaluating research impact, this article suggests funders ask themselves five key questions before fund research to bring about policy impact
2023: Accounting for advocacy. This describes some of the challenges funders and grantees face in accounting for the funds spent on advocacy work and suggests a focus on learning
2018: Getting better at influencing policy is a social process: lessons from work with an international agency. This reflects on work with the Food and Agricultural Organisation to improve the policy influencing capacity of policy officers.
2013: Supporting think tanks series: Developing capacities in complex environments -experiences from Vietnam. This article reflects on work to improve the capacity of the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (VASS)
2011: Lacking in ‘capacity’? Why workshopping isn’t always the (whole) answer! This explains the limitations of training workshops in developing capacity and suggests additional interventions
2011: Can developing country think tanks ever escape their US heritage? This article argues that think tanks, in their broadest sense have been around in different contexts longer for much longer than mainstream discourse would suggest.
Strengthening knowledge and decision systems
2021: Governance and service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa: Eight reflections from a recent landscape scan This article addresses the question of whether better governed states leads to improved service delivery and better social development indicators in Africa, drawing on research from five countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania
2020: Understanding think tank-social movement engagement. This article summarises work exploring think tank relationships with social movements in bringing about change
2019: Engaging the public: lessons from history. This article provides some historical context to the calls for experts to engage the public in light of the rise of Trump and vote to leave the European Union in the UK.
2018: What matters more in a disaster response – evidence or judgement? Lessons from the Nepal earthquake. This summarises work to make decisions amongst first responders in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake
2018: Complexity and paradox: lessons from Indonesia. this summarises work to understand the paradoxical policy dynamics in Indonesia and how decision makers might work with them.
2018: Supporting policymakers to use evidence: Five questions to understand the evidence context
2018: Supporting policymakers to use evidence: Thirteen tips to conduct a successful evidence context study
2018: Supporting policymakers to use evidence: Three ways to select policy issues to work on
2018: Supporting policymakers to use evidence: Twelve tips to set up a team and establish relationships
2018: Supporting policymakers to use evidence: Twelve ways to decide what actions to take
2018: People matter, not papers: Watching policymakers acquire knowledge in Indonesia.
2012: Linkages between researchers and legislators in developing countries
