Category: General

On Monday and Tuesday next week I have the great privilege to be chairing the Inside Housing Connected Futures Summit in Manchester. Over the past few months I've been involved in helping to shape the event, which is a chance for change-focused people from across the Housing industry to gather together and discuss some of … Continue reading Pitfalls of the future

Every so often I'll try to read something a bit leftfield as it's often the way I can unlock thinking in my own world. So it was with reading Simon Winchester's Exactly: How precision engineering created the modern world. There's something fascinating about how the history of technological development can help to shape our understanding … Continue reading Why invest?

Right at the beginning of the recent article I posted about experiences of going back into an office recently I noted that there are many people for whom an office is a regular need, not a occasional diversion. I'm in the hugely privileged position to have space enough to work from home comfortably and productively. … Continue reading Future office

Earlier in the week I got the chance to play with the PlayCards with a group of two-dozen technology leaders at this autumn’s IT Directors’ Forum. Whilst I’ve run a few games now online using virtual versions of the cards in Miro, this was the first time I was able to try out physical versions … Continue reading PlayCards Field notes: more games to play

This week I have learned: that that darn flowchart is back again (I love it really).many things about going into the office.that finding common ground is a way to change people's minds.that the podcast might be doing a retreat next year.that it's definitely autumn.that my ageing eyesight isn't so bad that I need bifocals. Yet.that … Continue reading Weeknote 555: viral repetition

Yesterday I made another trip into the office. Here's what I am learning... Unless you simply don't have adequate space to work at home, there is no point whatsoever in going into an open plan office to sit on conference calls all day. Sitting on a conference calls in an open plan office is a … Continue reading WFO (Working From Office)

"We need new systems. The old ones don't work. They're all fragmented and siloed. We need to work better together. We need to break the silos." That's a made up quote, but a recounting of a story that I have heard in many different organisations over many years now. And increasingly it feels like it's … Continue reading The Semiotics of Software

This week I have learned: to reflect on how hierarchy impacts on the way in which I think about things.that a quick response in the first instance doesn't help if then nothing happens.that Podcast Powered Projects are a thing again.the importance and significance of pronouns... I and my versus We and Our in particular.that there … Continue reading Weeknote 553: hierarchy

There's a lot of talk about "hybrid" working these days, but probably not a lot of clarity about what it actually might mean. For me there's one key question: how do you allow groups of people to effectively interact when some of them are sharing the same physical space and others are "dialling in". Traditionally … Continue reading Bridging the divide

This week I have learned: quite how much my eldest likes his new school blazer (how much? a lot)how the dynamics of a group can be shaped by so fewhow overwhelming complexity can becomethat the ethics project is right on trackthat I'm already missing Troythat petrol is really messythat I might have a publisherinevitably you … Continue reading Weeknote 549: Secondary School