In my recent post on Common Ground I mentioned the critical role that a thorough understanding of scope has on establishing common ground for any project or service team. Given the criticality and the relatively low cost of defining scope you’d think that every project would do an exceptional job...
I don’t believe in a god but I do believe in the teachings of Jesus interpreted for the modern world. Fortunately, for me, Jesus holds no religious (or other form of) authority so I also get to draw on the teachings of other religions and philosophies for inspiration, but I...
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...
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...