I love simple questions that have complex and nuanced answers. In a conversation with my dad at the weekend, we came up with three that might for the starting point for a deep dialogue with a group of people about how they work together. The first one is one I've used a fair bit already, … Continue reading What three questions?
Category: Themes
This week I have learned: the magic of the cup the magic of an organisation that can pay an invoice within two days of it being submitted (well done BEIS) the magic of video calling on a global basis (even if the work eventually will be in the East Midlands) the magic of radio the … Continue reading Weeknote 429: FA Cup
Fungible is one of those words that sounds like it should be onomatopeiac but isn't. It does, though, represent a crucial element of what makes something a commodity: fungible means that you can swap in and out without concern. For example, I can buy Tate and Lyle white sugar or Silver Spoon white sugar, put … Continue reading What if “commodity” IT isn’t a commodity?
Semiotics is something in which I'm becoming increasingly obsessed. The study of signs and signals to understand underlying culture and beliefs, it's a method of interpreting the world around us at more than face value. In my work over many years now I have regularly heard the words Culture and Behaviour used interchangeably, and the … Continue reading What if your systems are the result of your culture?
I'm currently working with colleagues at the Leading Edge Forum to pull together some of the work that I've done with them on the concept of collaboration. Checklists of questions are often a useful tool, so here are 10 questions you can ask when thinking about improving collaboration in your organisation... 1. How well does … Continue reading 10 questions to ask about collaboration
Would Microsoft Teams be used more effectively if customers had to pay for it rather than it being bundled for "free" into Office 365 packages? Here's my logic... The successful adoption of any software depends on good change management around its introduction. The amount that is spent is directly proportional to the overall cost of … Continue reading The problem with “free”
About 15 years ago I found myself running a project management course for a local authority in Scotland. I was doing my usual pitch at the start of my career history, talking about how I'd been an architect, first solution then enterprise, at the BBC. A chap in the front row's face looked like thunder. … Continue reading The trouble with Enterprise Architecture
It's been a week of interviewing as part of research with a client. And for the first time I've been using Otter.ai to record the conversations. We've been playing around with Otter for a while to do transcriptions and help with editing on WB-40, but this is the first time I've used it to help with … Continue reading The Word Cloud Game
I'm running a session this afternoon with my CxO priority cards. It's online. So I have had to improvise... What should end up on screen should look like this: To achieve that my office currently looks like this: Starting on the left-hand side and going clockwise... Nikon D5600 sitting on an old Velbon tripod attached by … Continue reading Physical to digital
Look at the picture above. There are about 150 or so people in a room. But notice how they are interacting. There are many small groups, and a few loners. It's not 150 people in a room interacting, it's a series of groups of people who happen to be in the same room. (The room, … Continue reading Why interactions won’t scale.
