This week I have learned: when you get to meet with people who are just amazing conversationalists, it's wonderful. There were two conversations like that this week. I successfully used ChatGPT for something this week. It helped me to design a game. It made me realise that up until now I might have been deliberately … Continue reading Weeknote 656: chat
Today's coffee companion is a people person. We talked about: working in social media organisations changing companies different national cultures and how they approach work US organisation structures the dysfunction of large organisations being able to put up with stuff moral boundaries at work the Protestant Work Ethic Adam Grant's Give and Take Alice Sherwood's … Continue reading 127th of 100
This week I have learned: I didn't have any 100 Coffees coffees this week. I had coffee (to drink). I actually had coffees with people. But none as part of the project. It feels odd. I'm tempted still by the idea of writing a book. It feels like my own personal Everest. But I don't … Continue reading Weeknote 655 – exciting
In the years before Covid I often found myself often people who worked in teams a simple question to open up a discussion about the maturity of hybrid working and collaboration practices: Where do you work? The answers could be enlightening. People working for traditional organisations with traditional mindsets would answer in terms of the … Continue reading Where do you work?
Today's coffee companion manages products. We talked about: how the tyranny of Outlook and Teams means that we are now talking about 2 minutes being "Fashionably Late" rude diarising the guilt of taking coffee 90 minute lunch breaks and them being expected to be taken my current Protestant Work Ethic obsession alternatives to Powerpoint, and … Continue reading 126th of 100
This week I have learned: a short break is as good as a rest, or something. Exmoor is very hilly It also seems to completely confuse Google Maps. There was a road closed in the middle of the National Park which seemed to put Google Maps into a complete tizzy. A 55 minute journey ended … Continue reading Weeknote 654 – Exmoor
I vividly remember one of my first lectures at university. Actually, that's not entirely true. I vividly remember one line in one of my first lectures at University: "There's no such thing as common sense". It's a perspective that has held me in good stead. Whilst what I see as common sense might not be … Continue reading Is this the real world?
The end of the month of October this year marks the end of my first 30 years of post-university working life. In October 1993 I popped into the Select Employment Agency on The Parade in Watford on the off chance to see if there was any temping work going. It happened that they were looking … Continue reading 30 Years of Work
Today's coffee companion helps clients deal with change and transformation. We talked about: a new game I've recently been working on to help consultants improve their consulting what we've both been up to recently whether extroverts actually exist or if they're just psychopaths hierarchies in organisations if it's possible to change culture, and if so … Continue reading 125th of 100
This week I have learned: sometimes you just get those days when meetings don't happen. "Hoorah!" say those people who don't think that meetings are real work as they get back to shifting pivot tables around in Excel or whatever it is that they do. I find it much more discombobulating because meetings are actually … Continue reading Weeknote 653 – stood up
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