Peter Grant's Insights

HR & Future of Work

Having an argument? What is the best approach - logic or emotion?

Ever had a debate (even an argument) that just isn’t going anywhere? You feel like you are taking a logical stance. You can prove it. There is evidence. And still, the other person just doesn’t buy it. If you want to know how to deal with this situation, then this paper is for you. Just a little “heads up” though. You were probably wrong. Or at least your approach. #Leadership #HR

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Innovation & IT

Budget Cuts IT HOT SPOTS - CHECKLIST

Agency budgets will be tight for the foreseeable future. This is reality, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. In this climate, agency business areas and IT teams will be asked to reduce costs and potentially cancel or delay transformational initiatives – all while maintaining service levels. At Public Sector Research, our authors have decades of experience as Chief Information Officers in government and the private sector. Based on that experience, this paper seeks to identify potential savings hot spots in your agency. We have classified savings hot spots as immediate and near-term. - Immediate savings can be …

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Digital Government & CX

Communication – Simple as 1. 2. 3.

Want to be a valued member of any conversation? Want to be better at building relationships? Want to be better at running meetings? This short paper introduces the three communication positions you should proactively manage in all conversations. Lingering in any communication position risks losing control of the conversation or boring the other participants. #leadership #communication #engagement

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Digital Government & CX

Creating a new digital asset - the pitfalls

Most executives recall when they asked for a particular digital capability and received something completely different. There are many land mines between an idea and an implementation. Even with the best intentions, well-meaning people can turn an idea for something simple into an outcome that delivers something completely different. This light-hearted (and tongue-in-cheek) paper looks at providing a goldfish for the chief executive’s office. A lot of things go wrong. While these examples may seem exaggerated, each represents a stage in the development and lifecycle of digital assets where these same issues can occur. This story was imagined long ago …

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Innovation & IT

Budget Cuts – Mistakes to avoid when budgets are reduced

October 2022 saw the first budget of the incoming Federal Labor government, and like most governments (at the beginning of their term), they made cuts to the public sector. Agencies have faced budget challenges in the past. Various tried (but generally not true) methods have been applied in each case. Most put pressure on service quality and make workplaces less desirable while delivering few sustainable cost reductions. This is the first paper in a series on ‘Managing in a Time of Scarcity. In this paper, we look at old methods for harvesting savings and identify the issues they create. At …

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Innovation & IT

Business Agility – the holy grail for agencies and vendors

Agency leaders are asking their teams to be more innovative and responsive to changing business needs. They are asking for higher levels of business agility. Business agility refers to the rapid, continuous, and systematic evolutionary adaptation and entrepreneurial innovation to gain and maintain competitive advantage. (Wikipedia). While agencies universally agree business agility is a desirable capability, they face several hurdles (some self-inflicted) on the road to their desired state. Vendors also have a crucial role in underpinning an agency’s business agility through innovative offerings and the reduction of legacy roadblocks. This paper identifies hurdles agencies and vendors face in pursuing …

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Innovation & IT

If composability is the future – why isn’t everyone doing it?

As long ago as 2015, Forbes magazine published a paper called ‘The Rise of the Composable Enterprise.’ The theme was simple – enterprises could use a Lego block approach to building and changing their systems. This approach saved time and money and increased business agility. Who wouldn’t want that? The answer, it seems, is the public sector. The private sector was quick to adopt the composable paradigm. After almost ten years, composability is absent from the government CIO agenda. And many government executives (outside of IT) remain unaware of the financial and business benefits composability offers. This paper explores why …

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant

Innovation & IT

How negative filters undermine trust between team members

Negative filtering occurs when a person expresses negative feelings about an absent third party. Negative filtering undermines trust between the person receiving the message and the third party. The impact of a negative filter is disproportionally powerful and potentially long-lasting. https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/common-cognitive-distortions-negative-filtering This paper shows how negative filtering undermines trust between team members – destroying team dynamics. #leadership #hr #culture #trust

14 November 2022 Whitepaper Premium

Peter Grant