What is a professional narrative? How do we know when we have one? And do we even need one? Louise Clifton explores how values, voice and purpose shape our individual and collective narratives, and how these reflect who we are and what we do. A career is what you do, not who you are. I saw this tweeted recently. The…
How confident are you to say that you don’t have the answer? Not knowing is powerful. It encourages us to question, rather than assume. It enables us to share expertise and promises collective enquiry. This is why it’s important, and it’s why we need to flip our mindset from seeing ‘not knowing’ as a deficit, to becoming intentionally more curious. ‘We’re at our best…
It’s natural for us to adopt the mannerisms of our work place; to become the decision maker, broker or peace-keeper. But what do we lose if we only bring just one part of ourselves to the office? Why we need to bring our whole selves to work, and three ways we can start do more of this. “What it really…
Does empathy need a business case? Why changing the structures, not the people, can help make more room for empathy in our working lives. And why, business case or not, we should care. Empathy. The irritating hurdle you must jump to convince people that you really do care, when you just want to get the job done. No, this isn’t…
Honest feedback is hard. Hard to listen to, and hard to give. So does feedback work best in the structured moments we’ve made for it? Or should we embrace it in all the moments in-between? Drawing on her own experience, Louise Clifton explores. Higher education is an intensely feedback-rich environment. We have a wealth of formal feedback processes in our…
How would you describe 2018? Drawn from meetings, programmes, conferences and the latest sector news, here’s what’s been talked about in the last 12 months. Narrative One overarching narrative is sorely needed. It’s a narrative that connects the value and societal impact of universities with how they are perceived by our communities and the wider public. Over the past year…
To kick off the festive season the Invisible Grail team put their heads together to bring you their top reads for your Christmas stocking. From what the future of organisations will look like to tapping into how you can write like Tolstoy, here are our nine recommended reads. Academic Director Paul Gentle kicks us off. Paul Gentle, Academic…
Louise Clifton examines why bringing humanity to your writing is essential to engage people online, and how you can get people to stick around to read what you’ve written. Carefully nuanced arguments are lost to time-poor readers and a scrolling thumb. Technology has changed our habits. We often talk about generation Z’s diminishing attention span, but few of us are…
Meetings are an essential part of working life. They often form the framework to our week and are the cornerstones to our days. So how do you balance getting work done with the myriads of meetings filling your diary? Here are five techniques to help make your meetings more productive. Meetings should be a chance to connect with…