I don’t blog as much as I used to do. It’s that Chris Weston’s fault. Since he and I set up WB-40 on a whim back in 2016, podcasting has become a pressure valve for some of my work and some of my thinking and, quite frankly, some of the things that really get on my nerves.
But there is one constant in my written activity. The Weeknote.
This week’s marks 400 of the buggers. Every week since May 14 2010, bar holidays and one week when I forgot, I’ve made a little bit of time to make a few reflections on the week that had just passed and what was coming up in the week ahead. It’s an opportunity to close down the week mentally. That alone has become increasingly important for me.
A lot has changed since then; I had a job back then, rather than this free-range lark I’ve been doing for the past 5 years. We had one child back then, and he was a babe in arms. Watford had just finished the season 14th in the second division (rather than being joint top of the Premier League – have I mentioned that recently?).
My mum has kept a diary for her entire adult life. I’ve often wondered how she did it. But it seems that maybe there’s something in the genes…
This week I have learned:
- It seems that alongside comedy flow charts, taking the piss out of pseudo-agile nonsense is another route to viral success.
https://twitter.com/ballantine70/status/1037357402134392833 - I’m taken with the idea that brainstorming questions might be much more valuable than brainstorming solutions.
- When companies talk about “first party” data that they “own” about their customers, they might be better to refer to it as “second party” if they don’t want to fall foul of data protection regulators.
- Hypothesis: the companies that are most successful in their use of customer data are those that create it organically through the transactions they have with their customers, and then use it to improve their product or services. Those that struggle are those that think collecting data about their customers is a distinct and valuable activity in its own right.
- CxO Priorities:
Co-creation session for the CHRO cards now booked for next month: https://www.thepeoplespace.com/practice/articles/how-become-more-commercial-hr-leader-re-tooling-hr-success-todays-digital-world - Tech for non-Techies:
Now working on plan for detailed content, with pilot delivery slated for end of November. - WB40 Live:
We might be doing this… - Continue to build the consulting business:
A few leads chased. A few new ones identified.
The week in pictures:
Next week:
A return to the ‘Dam, and a long-overdue boys weekend in Budapest.
mmitII 