Johan Southey Articles

Some may know, most don't, My eldest son, Richard, is on the spectrum. He has the gift of Asperger’s, which has a multitude of challenges like being socially awkward, very high muscle tone, sensory integrative issues etc. He also does [...]

I work in a strange space — a no-man’s land between operations, leadership, and culture. Every organisation has two forces: the world of ideas, and the world of consequences. When these two drift apart, culture becomes noise and operations becomes [...]

In recent weeks, headlines have spotlighted major law firms walking back their commitments to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), often under mounting political pressure. These decisions—regardless of one's stance on the politics—expose a far deeper and more damaging issue: a [...]

In almost every business I engage with, one sentiment echoes louder than the rest: “You just can’t find good staff.” Leaders complain that their teams are disengaged, underperforming, and unreliable. Staff “don’t care,” they’re distracted, or simply not “cut out” [...]

Introduction: The Local Economy is a Shared Responsibility In small towns around the world, a familiar cycle unfolds daily: a customer expresses frustration over slow service, a limited product range, or a delayed quotation. Within minutes, a simple complaint turns [...]

Across every industry and geography, the data tells a consistent story: employee engagement is alarmingly low. Gallup reports that over 70% of employees are either disengaged or actively discontent at work. But beneath the statistics lies a deeper truth—most employees [...]

Why do so many promising young engineers faceplant when they become managers? Because they mistake management for “engineering, but with a better title.” It’s not. It’s a career change. And one of the most brutal you will ever face. 1. [...]

Many organizations cling to DEI like a talisman: Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. As if uttering the acronym guarantees transformation. But DEI has become a safe harbor, a branding gloss, a shield against critique. What if that harbor is a prison, not [...]

In a world increasingly dominated by individualism and competition, a radical reframe of what it means to lead and to succeed is needed. At the heart of this lies a paradox: We exist to serve the other. And in doing [...]

Many discussions on leadership concern themselves if leaders are born or if leadership can be taught.  An alternative to this is the possibility it is neither of the two. It could be claimed that leadership is a practice (like the [...]

In today’s corporate landscape, the concept of purpose has become ubiquitous. Nearly every organization has a vision statement prominently displayed on its website, yet not all purposes are created equal. Some companies genuinely embed purpose into their business model, while [...]

In the world of business, technology, and governance, risk is often framed as a structural or systemic issue. We talk about technology failures, environmental disasters, and corporate scandals as if they are independent phenomena. But when you peel back the [...]