Today marks the 101st anniversary of my grandfather's birth. It also marks the end of the first year of my foray into the world of entreprenuerism. A year down, and it has to be said that it's been hard. I was utterly over optimistic about how and where clients would come from, and although I am … Continue reading Bertie Day
Category: Themes
I don't often get to listen to the "Thought for the Day" slot on Radio 4's Today Programme - and I tend to mentally switch off if I do because I'm irked by the idea that only the religious can display morality that seems to underpin the whole shebang. However one did catch my ear late … Continue reading Mixed virtues
News this morning that IBM and Apple have entered into a new partnership that "will see the two firms co-develop business-centric apps for iPhones and iPads." Given the history of the two brands, this is big news, but given Big Blue has been out of the devices market for some time since it divested its … Continue reading The Enterprise App
And so the Cabinet reshuffle happens. Farewell "voice of reason" Ken Clarke (although if your idea of "reason" is fag-smoking, Hush Puppy-wearing and jazz-listening, then you need to have a good hard look at yourself). And farewell, too (from the Department for Education) for Michael Gove, architect of some of the most significant changes … Continue reading Changing leaders
Last week I got into yet another spirited conversation on Facebook - this time about the barriers to success in Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs). Think Yammer, Huddl, Sharepoint and so on. Den Howlett has written a very thoughtful piece on the subject as a result here on Diginomica, and has created six hurdles that are … Continue reading Six hurdles
I've spoken to a few people in the last week who are in the financial services industry, and it is striking how regulation of the industry is acting as a massive inhibitor to innovation in that industry. Given the seismic impact of a very liberal approach to regulating banks over the past half decade, this … Continue reading Regulation and innovation
Back in April of 2013 I wrote this article about explaining my use of Twitter to a friend at dinner. I just sent a link to it to someone, and realised that actually my use has evolved somewhat - here's how: 2013: Serendipity is an important “feature” of Twitter for me; I don’t try to read … Continue reading The basics, reviewed…
Back in the middle of the last decade I spent a couple of years working in management training. It was a remarkable time for my learning, even though I was supposed to be there for the learning of others. Each month our performance would be assessed on the basis of the "happy sheets" - the … Continue reading Five ways to rig your speaker feedback scores
Another topic that was getting much coverage at last week's Spark the Change conference was that of failing, failure and the ability to learn from getting things wrong. As I wrote a few weeks ago I wonder if a substantial part of the problem which faces organisations in allowing people to do things that don't work … Continue reading Failure, disproof, and unholy f-ups
I spent a thoroughly thought-provoking couple of days last week at the first Spark the Change conference in the City of London. There were many varied takes on the way in which change is affecting organisations, and how to make it happen more effectively. The variety of thinking, from the bleeding edge of Holocracy … Continue reading Meetings – the continuity provider