Articles & Papers
Research-backed thinking on motivation science, leadership, and the human side of change. Each paper is free to download.
The Two-Circle Method
A way to help someone see their part in a problem they blame on others
You're coaching someone stuck on a problem they see as entirely someone else's doing — and they're partly right, but they can't see how their own reaction is feeding the very thing they object to. Telling them doesn't work; the insight has to be theirs. The two-circle method is a simple structure you draw and they fill in, so their own part becomes visible in their own handwriting — the page does the confronting, not the coach. A field-tested coaching note, free to use and pass on.
Beyond SMART: A Guide to Goal Setting
The question to ask before you format the goal
SMART tells you how to format a goal but never asks the question that decides whether the goal can work: is this yours to act on, or have you aimed at a result that was never fully in your hands? This guide gives you a model that asks that question first, adapted from Stephen Covey's circles of concern and influence into three zones of goal setting. Useful for setting your own goals, or for getting a team thinking clearly before they set theirs.
Psychosocial hazards and leadership teams: where the control actually sits
For leaders deciding where the psychosocial spend should go
Every Australian employer now carries an enforceable duty to manage psychosocial hazards. The standard response (audits, surveys, wellbeing programs and training) treats where the hazard shows up, not where it is produced. This paper argues the durable control sits with leadership teams, in rooms an organisation already has and already pays for.
Why Your Sites Run Differently When Your People Are Good
A diagnostic for the variance you keep blaming on the manager
Sites in the same network produce meaningfully different results — and the instinct is to replace the manager. More often, the variable isn't the person; it's the team architecture at two leadership layers — the site team and the divisional team — that most multi-site businesses have never deliberately designed. This paper applies the 6 Team Conditions framework to the multi-site variance problem and gives you a diagnostic for both layers.
Why AI Adoption Is a Motivation Problem
A diagnostic for leaders trying to make AI adoption work
Every barrier to AI adoption is a motivation problem in disguise. This paper backs that claim with two of the most rigorously validated frameworks in motivation science, applied to what AI adoption actually is: work redesign at scale.