Driving home from Cambridge Steph and I were discussing teams and so I got to explain my favourite tool for establishing effective collaboration, building ‘common ground’. It’s an incredibly simple concept, but that simplicity makes it powerful. The basic idea: The more complex a collaboration, the more areas of common...
This morning I woke up feeling great, full of the joys of spring and ready to walk and garden. Unfortunately by about 11am I had searing pain through my left leg and right arm. Luckily I’m used to this sort of complexity in my life, which I’ve designed to be...
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...