Opportunity-seeking Skills Archives

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Get a random reflection prompt, a quick action to try today, or a "this or that" dilemma to see how you compare to others. Each one takes 30 seconds and is based on the i2 skills framework.

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Future of Work

AI Brain Fry and Shadow AI: Why Human-AI Collaboration Is the Skill Set Nobody Is Training For

AI brain fry and shadow AI are two sides of the same problem: organisations have rolled out AI faster than they have built the human capability to use it well. The real work is not about better tools or tighter policies. It is about developing the meta skills that enable healthy, productive collaboration with AI.

13 Apr 2026 7 min read

Skills & Frameworks

Reflection Skills: The Quiet Capability That Makes Everything Else Work Better

Reflection is the skill most people overlook and the one that makes every other capability work better. It is the ability to step back, notice your own patterns, and learn from experience in a way that actually changes what you do next. Research shows it is the strongest predictor of growth across all innovation skills.

9 Apr 2026 7 min read

Try this today

Catch Your Default

Before making a decision, pause and ask: “Am I choosing this because it’s the best option, or because it’s the most familiar?” Write down one bias that might be at play.

Reflection Skills

Research & Evidence

What a Decade of Research Tells Us About How People Actually Learn to Innovate

A decade of academic research led by Dr Jeanne Liedtka reveals five specific skill clusters that drive innovation, and shows they are learnable, measurable, and developable in virtually anyone. The findings challenge common assumptions about talent, training, and what it really takes to build innovation capability.

9 Apr 2026 7 min read

Learning & Development

Why Most Training Does Not Change Behaviour (And What to Do Instead)

Most training programmes deliver knowledge but do not change behaviour. The programmes that actually work treat capability building as an ongoing journey, not a one off event, using assessment, micro learning, and real world practice to make development stick.

9 Apr 2026 8 min read

Try this today

Listen Like a Journalist

In your next one-on-one, pretend you’re interviewing the other person for a story. Focus only on understanding their experience. Don’t offer advice. Just ask follow-up questions.

Relationship Skills

Leadership & Teams

Why Your Team Agrees Too Quickly (And What It Is Costing You)

Quick agreement in meetings often looks like alignment, but it can mask a deeper problem: teams have stopped genuinely challenging each other. The cost shows up later in missed opportunities, weak decisions, and stalled innovation.

9 Apr 2026 6 min read

Higher Education

Why Teaching Content Is No Longer Enough: Building Adaptive Capability in Higher Education

Students need more than academic knowledge to thrive in a changing world. Universities that weave adaptive skills into existing curricula, rather than bolting them on, are producing graduates who can think, collaborate, and lead in any field.

9 Apr 2026 6 min read

One skill, one question

How Well Do You Handle “No”?

“When someone pushes back on your idea, what’s your first instinct — to defend, to deflect, or to get curious?”

— Relationship Skills