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The Whistle Blower’s Achilles Heel

The journey of a whistleblower is never an easy one. Many who make the noble decision to blow the whistle, do not fully recover once they have walked through the battleground. Landing on your feet should be a goal every whistleblower aims for as an ultimate end state. Following a set of principles may help the individual find their way to that desired end state. 

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When People Doing the Right Thing Stand Alone

9 September 2026

As we grow older, experience bends and reshapes the things we believe. Sometimes we see the reshaping and are consciously aware of where it takes us. Sometimes we only realise long after the fact that the bending happened. I have a long list of items that have been bent and reshaped in my consciousness. I am pretty sure that some of them are not yet in my conscious mind. I was recently reminded of one of my reshaped opinions when I was asked to speak at the University of Johannesburg’s annual Corruption Summit.
There was a time in my career when a younger version of me stood before professionals and told them that they must do the right thing—even when they had to stand alone. I said it with conviction, because it was the right thing to say. But, with more life experience under my belt, I now understand that I had a too narrow view back then.

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Culture Before Catastrophe

8 September 2026

Growth does not simply make an organisation bigger. It changes the social system through which work gets done.

Recent work with a client in a growth phase reminded me how important it is to be intentional about shaping the right culture for the organization as early as possible. To the credit of the founders of the organization, they did not wait until the culture had become toxic before they recognized that they needed to work on the culture of the organization. They saw the signs of a growing company reshaping itself as new people entered, and immediately reached out for assistance. That was a refreshing experience for me. Normally I get called in when the organization is already in trouble, and when it is far more challenging to turn a dysfunctional or toxic culture around.

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When Ethics and Compliance Cast a Shadow

5 August 2026

Some topics are not easy to write about. Not because we do not know what our views are about them, but because we know how easily the views may be misunderstood—especially by those who prefer a version of pristine ethics and compliance that does not allow for shadows.
I know. Ethics and compliance shadows? That is where you land when you take the liberty—perhaps a little audaciously—of borrowing a concept from one discipline and applying it to another. I have borrowed from psychology and found the result illuminating enough to risk a few furrowed brows.

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