Social promiscuity

Of all of the social networks I use regularly, I think that Twitter is probably my favourite. It's the least constrained, most chaotic. It's the place where one can interact with friends, strangers, people, "brands". It's kind of lawless. And as a result, it's not to everyone's taste. My hunch is that, for the way … Continue reading Social promiscuity

Anti-innovative

Back in the early 00s, as a result of my work with Internet services at the commercial arm of the corporation, I was lucky to be able to spend some time at the BBC's Research and Development organisation. Nestled in the middle of a leafy Surrey estate, Kingswood Warren was a mansion house scarred with … Continue reading Anti-innovative

Weeknote 268: another year older

Things I have learned this week: when it comes down to it, one should never forget that people are people I'm fascinated by recording the world in 3D - Cardboard Camera merits some experimentation Oxford traffic really takes the biscuit My new strategy is "Paper Assisted Digital": A business banking account is like stepping back in … Continue reading Weeknote 268: another year older

Harnessing the Gig Economy

My Caribbean-based correspondent Nicole Antonio-Gadson (it's always important to have friends in hot places) drew my attention to an article from the CIPD this week that asked the question Is your talent strategy ready for the Gig Economy. As fellow free-range professionals it's a subject that we both have an interest in from personal professional and client professional perspectives … Continue reading Harnessing the Gig Economy

Talking about innovation

Yesterday I had the great privilege to be able to speak about the concept of innovation with the board of a major multinational company. Having spent the past few months exploring themes of collaboration with many different organisations about collaboration as part of my #sharingorg project, I've picked up many stories about how innovative things are happening … Continue reading Talking about innovation

Data, Information, Knowledge, Insight

Back in the last millennium when I was studying Information Systems at university, there was a hierarchy of value that went a little like this: data was the least valuable stuff - it was just numbers (sometimes just 0s and 1s); information was next up the stack - it had some sort of meaning, but there … Continue reading Data, Information, Knowledge, Insight

AirBnB isn’t a hotelier…

There's a meme about digital disruption doing the rounds of technology and digital presentations and social networks at the moment that goes along the lines of The world's biggest taxi company owns no taxis (Uber); The world's biggest hotelier owns no hotels (AirBnB)... I increasingly am starting to think that this particular train of thought … Continue reading AirBnB isn’t a hotelier…

Agile procurement

With news coming through of the Government's Spending Review this week, one particular piece caught my eye and got me thinking... Now maybe I'm reading this incorrectly, but that to me reads as a £1.3bn project to deliver a set of defined outputs by next year. Call me a cynic, but if that is the … Continue reading Agile procurement

Best Practice versus Good Ideas

Over the years I've always railed against the concept of "best" practice. It annoys me probably mainly because I'm a bit of an iconoclast. But less emotionally the concept jars for two reasons: first of all because "best" practice is something that a team achieves through learning, rather than something that can be simply adopted, and trying … Continue reading Best Practice versus Good Ideas

Sub-culture

One of the things I find myself saying a great deal at the moment is "I don't think you mean culture, I think you mean behaviour." Like a pedantic stuck record, the phrase usually comes about when people are talking about trying to get people to behave differently in organisations, and then describe that as … Continue reading Sub-culture