The Ko Lab
Welcome to the Ko Lab, my personal newsletter covering a variety of topics from leadership, business design, social impact, self-awareness, systems thinking, and philosophy. If that piques your curiosity, then please join the hundreds of other people on my monthly (ish) newsletter.
Ko Lab #22 – Why strategy implementation is hard (explained by Google Maps)
In this Ko Lab, I'm going to take off my philosophy hat (let's face it, I philosophise a lot) and put on my COO / strategy implementation hat. I've been responsible for several strategy implementations over my time, from rolling out the project management framework...
Ko Lab #21 – What if we stopped seeking leadership
Hey everyone, when I published my last Ko Lab, I was embarking on a round-the-world trip. Over the past couple of months, I travelled to London, Stockholm, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. I had a couple of goals on my trip. First, I wanted to see the world again; to...
Ko Lab #20 – New adventures and a True North addendum
Well the cat's out of the bag! If you follow me on LinkedIn, you may have seen that I have moved on from Leadership Victoria. It is without question one of the most formative experiences I've had, especially for someone whose career has admittedly been quite 'pivoty'....
Ko Lab #19 – A deep dive on finding our true north
Well it's been a hot minute since I last wrote some words! I'll go into why in later Ko Labs but suffice to say there's been 'a lot' on my plate, which perhaps makes this deep dive quite relevant. This year, life has pulled me in many different directions, some of...
Ko Lab #18 – 2022 Year In Review – Finding Limits
In the blink of an eye, 2022 is behind us and we're faced with the opportunity to consider the potential of a new year. As with last year, I like to use this transition period to reflect on the year that was and to consider what it is I want to take into 2023....
Fostering Culturally Diverse Leadership in Organisations – Book Review
I recently had the opportunity to sit down and absorb the book Fostering Culturally Diverse Leadership in Organisations by Karen Loon. As someone with an Asian background (I immigrated to Australia from China when I was 6), I'm always excited to see greater research...
Ko Lab #17 – Rethinking Theory of Change
I'm back! It's been 3 months since the last Ko Lab, which was written en route to Bali for a long overdue break. Though it was a short holiday, I deliberately kept the pause button on the Ko Lab because I wanted to give myself space to reflect on where next for this...
Ko Lab #16 – More lessons learned as Acting CEO
This is a continuation of the lessons I learned in my capacity as Acting CEO at Leadership Victoria. If you missed my previous newsletter, you can check it out here. On the importance of organisational hygiene On several occasions throughout my tenure, I was presented...
Ko Lab #15 – Lessons learned as Acting CEO
As of tomorrow, my tenure as Acting CEO of Leadership Victoria comes to an end and I will be formally stepping into the COO role. All in all, it's been about 7 months in a role that came completely out of the blue, presenting me with a unique opportunity to learn, to...
Ko Lab #14 – Politics and the paradoxes of leadership
With the Australian Federal election soon upon us, I've found myself involved in more and more conversations about one of my favourite topics: Politics. Not from a 'who you should vote for' perspective, but from a broader systems thinking perspective of how political...
Ko Lab #13 – Are we thinking too big?
Recently, a story in the startup world caught my eye: The rapid rise and just as rapid fall of fintech startup Fast. The TL;DR summary is this: Fast described itself as a service that allows e-commerce businesses to offer Amazon-style one-click checkout to their...
Ko Lab #12 – Re-framing the way we think about work (and hybrid work)
With the world now starting to adopt the mindset equivalent of 'walk it off' towards Covid, I've been thinking a lot about how the 'hybrid work' discussion is playing out, both online and in-person. There are several themes I frequently see: "I can work from anywhere,...