Today's coffee companion is a former colleague who had just got involved in an exciting new venture. We compare notes on experiences since I started my new job, and how my new job is going (good, thanks for asking). We talked about the systemic challenges we have both seen in the housing sector. We talked … Continue reading 24th of 100
Ending the week with a coffee (actually tea) with one of my colleagues at EE. We talked about the ways in which teams working at a geographic distance need to make time and space for conversations that aren't about work, and those need to happen during working hours. We talked about making that sort of … Continue reading 23rd of 100
This week I have learned: there's a certain adrenaline that kicks in when you go from "this might be happening" to "this is happening". It's been reassuring to see that the averages for lead to proposal to actually doing the work in EE are about what they were when I was flying solo. But it's … Continue reading Weeknote 618: Closing
Today's first coffee companion is a business consultant who helps his clients to understand the need and shape of future products. We talked about the benefits of generalism and how we have both made it a bit of a USP. We tried to work out how we had first got in touch with one another … Continue reading 22nd of 100
My first coffee companion today is a former colleague. We talked about lots of the people and organisations with whom we have worked in the past. Most of it was positive, but little of it should be repeated. My second coffee companion today is a technology consultant. We talked about the difficult period as an … Continue reading 20th and 21st of 100
This afternoon's coffee companion is a project and change manager, and a former world-class hockey umpire (which only came to light in our conversation). We talked about the nightmare that is running more than one Microsoft 365 email account across a Mac, PC and phone. We talked about the way in which being compliant and … Continue reading 19th of 100
This morning's coffee companion is a social media consultant based in Tbilisi, Georgia. We talked about how remote working is much more accessible to people in all sorts of places, and how most of his clients are in the UK. We chatted about how university has become so much more an exercise in seeking a … Continue reading 18th of 100
This week I have learned: the delights of catching up with someone you haven't seen in a very long time. the importance of good planning when it comes to running workshops. Facilitation is one of my happy spaces, and it's particularly rewarding when a small amount of planned structure unlocks the conversations. how surprised you … Continue reading Weeknote 617 – facilitating
Today's coffee companion works in the sales team in the UK for a big Cloud SaaS provider. We talked about why I was doing this experiment, and her reflections on a similar experience she had but focusing on lunches rather than coffees, and inspired in turn by Kaley Chu. We talked about the mood of … Continue reading 17th of 100
Today's second coffee companion is a senior civil servant in one of the larger Whitehall departments. We walked as we talked. We talked about the legacy of the Government Digital Service, and the extend to which it did make a difference and also how it didn't. We talked about the necessary secrecy in some parts … Continue reading 16th of 100
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