Welcome to Provocations

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

- Simone Weil

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Looking closely, the act of careful, meticulous observation is a gift rarely afforded in the current age of rapidity. People grow further apart interpersonally while growing more interconnected at scale. This odd dialectic of closeness and separation has bred a variety of problems.

Like any good firm, Thinking Partners has walked the road of building the bridges of the modern industrial landscape. Creating our networks and building bridges. For the better part of a decade, we’ve been at work in the guts of various major organisations, alongside those who shepherd the vision of the company to develop competent leadership and systems.

This labour has gleaned valuable insight into the nature of human behaviour within a corporate context. Yes, we’ve been able to identify talent gaps, build resilient corporate cultures and foster organisational communities. Our impressive roster of clients speaks to a variety of things.

But we aren’t really concerned about that here. Thinking Partners’ new blog is a place for something entirely different. Not welcoming of the pristine exterior most companies might want to present. But rather, a messy, organic laboratory of ideas and intellectual proceeding.

Here, in Provocations we aim to marry leadership practice with academic theory. Every month, we’ll establish a theme (like, the ethics of relating, or systemic change) and will spend the following weeks exploring it. We will examine the work of eminent philosophers, psychologists and management theorists and investigate some of the harder questions we’ve received around our work. Questions that don’t usually have answers, but that invite only more questions and deeper introspection.

While our main audience is those we’ve worked closely with - CEOs, HR professionals, and coaches - we’d like to invite anyone interested in organisational human behaviour and systems work to join us as we interrogate the underlying dynamics of today’s work culture.

While the shape and nature of this blog may evolve as we do, our commitment to truth, clarity and nuance will remain. We hope that each piece and theme gets you and your teams thinking with might.

And so, with that, we’d like to introduce our theme for this edition - Complexity. A thrilling word! Filled with possibility, nuance, and, often, confusion. An exciting opportunity lies before us - an opportunity to seek and find something that surprises us.

See you in the weeds!

Warmly,

Thinking Partners