Winter has been particularly grim for me this year. A combination of serious issues at work, my poor health, the poor health of my youngest three children, uncertainty about my eldest daughters post graduation plans and terrible weather has been quite overwhelming. From so many perspectives then I’m thankful that...
I’m writing this blog now mainly to practice my writing skills, which as readers of this blog will know need a lot of work. Each day as I sit down to write my daily post I struggle to decide what to write and worry whether any of it has any...
All too often at work I find that the right questions are not being asked. As an example I find it intensely annoying that when a particular idea catches the attention of a senior leader from that point on a bias is created within the organisation that prevents discussion. Key...
I took the idea for this manifesto from the Monad manifesto (soon to become PowerShell) written by the inspirational Jeffrey Snover. For most of my working life I’ve worked in some way or another on the productivity of knowledge workers, people who do the work that’s difficult to encapsulate in...
Over the years I’ve noticed that when people see me limp I get flooded with helpful advice along the lines of: My Aunt Mable had that and she used to swear by Cider Vinegar At first of course it’s lovely that people care enough to offer advice, but after the...
This excellent article by Forbes Magazine provides a good summary of the dire state of employee engagement in America. I’m not in America but I think the situation they describe is spreading across the globe. I’ve a little experience in this area and one perspective that I’ve never heard suggested...
Last week before my body and mind decided that enough was enough I was lucky enough to spend some time with Stu working on a periodic refresh of our Workplace Strategy. The focus so far has been on defining the scope of the strategy and working with our key partners...
My Dad used to love making, in his garage he had a collection of tools and materials that were acquired from decades of scavenging the industrial waste bins of the his crane making employer. He had racks of nut’s, bolts, screws, switches, lights, pipes, brackets and on and on. It...
I’m a big fan of the idea of reducing the work week. Long working hours give us the false impression of getting a lot of work done, but the evidence doesn’t support this. I’ve worked long hours, I think they make us lazy and causes a whole load of social...
For most of my 25 years in IT there’s been a yawning gulf between customers and users. Customers, the people who paid the bills, were rarely very passionate about the IT that they were buying for their users. They wanted low cost, standard solutions from reputable manufacturers, with predictable roadmaps. ...