

'Checking in' at meetings key to less 'checking out' on delivery?
I need to start with some confessional. Not only have I been to many, many, many meetings with too much on the agenda, I was for a long time the person trying to squeeze more on the agenda in my pursuit of "getting things done". In my history as a serial offender I have attempted to wring greater effectiveness out of meetings through everything from standing up, pre-meets with key players, pursuing the balance of 'interactive' with information giving and probably even wonder

Gender Representation in the Northern Powerhouse - By Design
The complete lack of women's representation, and lack of diversity more broadly, in the Northern Powerhouse has gained increasing attention over the last two years - from the 'stale, pale, male' images of devolution signings in Greater Manchester and Merseyside, to the manels (all male panels!) advertised at the Northern Powerhouse Conferences in 2016 and 2017, and most recently the appointment of two white men as our metro mayors. This lack of diversity is neither inevitabl


Our GM must shed it's grey overcoat!
Collectively we must throw off Greater Manchester’s grey overcoat so we can pay attention to and nurture the thriving eco-system within. In a recent ‘check-in’ with colleagues Nicola shared her feeling of wanting to shed her ‘grey overcoat’ it left me thinking … You can’t spend long in Greater Manchester without becoming aware of the grey blanket of cloud that regularly hangs over it. I’ve lived most of my life under Manchester skies and am acutely aware of both the comfort