olufunkeadio

“Shut the tap!” That was me shouting in the direction of a little girl whom I spotted at a sink as soon as I entered the premises of my daughter’s school. It wasn’t a junior school so most likely the little girl had come in company of a parent or so. That however isn’t the crux of this piece. The main thing was my shock at how my behavioral disposition for checking inefficiencies could kick in without warning; literally as though bossing me around! Oh my! Only when I issued the order did the security officer sitting close to her notice that the little girl was actually wasting water. My reflection on the incident really got me thinking about the power our natural tendencies hold over us – whether for good or for bad. I believe even the best of us can attest that with all the self knowledge & awareness plus our determination to choose behaviors, certain patterns still manage to seep through some stubborn cracks. For me, quickly observing inefficiencies in systems has remained an ong...

My voyage into consulting is actually an interesting one. One that lend credence to the title of this piece. As far as consulting is concerned, I started out joining forces with & helping friends & associates in the field execute their own projects. Some years ago, I recall assisting a friend on a certain HR consulting project she was working on. Though it seemed like a little part of the project, I did my bit & gave it my best shot. My friend did the interfacing with the client. Whilst on my regular training jobs, I stumbled on an opportunity to take on a HR/Culture Transformation project. The prospect was exciting & fearsome at the same time. Up until that time, I hadn’t single-handedly taken on a consulting job. (So this is the point where you wish you started out with one of the big 5’s right? Lol!) I knew for certain I would require some help. So I followed up with the lead, quickly got through to my friend, super pumped that she’d be glad to jump on the project – ...

Just last week I listened to @ivie-temitayo-ibitoye share on how she started her work as a Recruitment Consultant. The event was @bankolewilliams  New Employment Strategies for Africa  virtual event. In response to @gbengatotoyi mention of the need to imbibe writing skills in boosting employ-ability opportunities, Ivie spoke about how some years ago, by writing & sharing tips for effective recruitment on Instagram, (something she was truly deeply passionate about) she unexpectedly attracted the attention of an interested client. The client had gone ahead to ask about her services & charges. Shocked, she quickly conferred with her colleagues on a suitable response format & later went on to deliver her ‘consulting services’ to the satisfaction of her first client. Imagine? Today Ivie is a force to be reckoned with in her domain. Hearing her speak, you know she is the real deal. Her story immediately took me back some months ago where without warning I received a mess...

I did share in a previous article how my friend Bunmi Akano once referred to me as a ‘Learning Machine’. Hearing this, I confess not only did I think it had a nice ring to it, I actually felt my brain size grow slightly bigger. Lol. Quite frankly I believe that one of my purpose here is to help people and organizations  extend themselves and produce more simply by modifying mindsets and growing competences quickly.  Evidently, my penchant for learning and mastering even completely divergent skills cum being able to convey related knowledge have been the most salient premise for this line of work. So when last week and in a Personal Development session with a set of newly upgraded executives at the  Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN],  I said something that hit a note with Hadiza, one of the participants. I had been sharing about my Learning Agility and Growth Mindset hacks when I realized that she was frantically trying to speak. Observing her insistence, I allowed her ta...

Disclosure or non-disclosure? I believe this conversation around remuneration will remain with us for a long time. First off, different factors come to play where this subject is concerned namely; the kind of business ownership, number of years of operation, best fit practices etc. While in a #learning session & while we deliberated on the issue, a participant indicated needing guidance on how best to avoid the pitfall and/or consequences of #reward disparity in favor of a new set of tech inclined workers who would be hired to man new manufacturing equipment their company recently acquired. According to him, most of current operators are older with little or nil propensity to acquire new knowledge vis-a-vis the handling of new #technology. He’s already envisaging some form of showdown & hopes to take proactive steps for the sake of business continuity. To my mind, it’s hard to keep reward for new joiners (indeed for most staff) secret for long. In this regard, I believe the fol...

I got into leadership roles quite early in my work life. In one of such roles and whilst working with a team of creatives, it was a great struggle understanding why coordinating their activities was such an herculean challenge. For one, they were clearly not given to working under climates many of us ‘sane’ people term ‘Structured’. Plus they would choose to walk in late or even sleep (meaning work) in the office overnight! These patterns of behavior completely messed up my sense of what an office setting should look like. It was so frustrating and of cause we butted heads a lot on account of our misunderstandings. After a while, I decided to change my approach; to really understand why all of these creatives behaved alike. My discoveries was what allowed me to reframe my understanding of what productivity really means… So when again in another leading role [now as #HR] at another organization [this time in Media], And yet again I had to engage with a set of creatives, I already knew t...

There is so much change going on today. Major is disruptions with technology compelling a barrage of alterations and iterations with business strategies as well as modifications of business models etc. As a result, the Human Resources function is currently undergoing one of its most rapid evolutions yet.  Today, it is common therefore to attend a Human Resources Conference and come off with a list of a million recommendations of frameworks cum actions to be taken in order to shift and improve outcomes on the job! Making sense of and being able to navigate evolving issues is not often easy. However, by paying attention, it’s easy to see the multifaceted nature of the drivers for change. Having a firm grasp of these in itself would be vital for progress. Again it’s easy to see how most of the elements required to succeed is hinged largely on the adoption of new mindsets as against some superficial and ephemeral displays which do not and cannot guarantee lasting results. Case in point...