This week I’ve been reminiscing about my time spent as a Corporate Planning and Performance Reporting Minion. They were happy days (I think?). Thankfully I’ve been ‘clean’ for 10 years, 5 months and 12 days, I’m not dropping my guard though. I know that all it takes is one email (cc’d to your boss) and […]
Quiet calm consideration will untangle every knot (not carnage)
At the end of this post I’m hoping that I will have convinced you to view a video of a song from the Gilbert and Sullivan, Comic Opera, ‘The Gondoliers’. Not generally my everyday listening, but please persevere. Recently I listened to Tony Quinlan from Narrate talk about how the patterns we have established in […]
Florence Nightingale; the mother of Infographics? (btw she was also a nurse…)j
Recently I’ve had a few interesting conversations around this exchange: Question, “What did Florence Nightingale do? ” Typical response, “She was a Nurse……(of course!)“. But….. “did you know she was also a mathematician? In the 1850’s produced a remarkable graphic showing the causes of death of hospitalised soldiers during the Crimean war. The graphic convinced Parliament to […]
Agile Project Management and a Naval Bombardment in Newport, South Wales
This is actually about the game Battleships and not some sinister plot (probably by Cardiffians) to obliterate Newport in a naval bombardment. Last week I went to Newport to learn about agile project management from James Scrimshire of hurricanefour.com and got involved in a game of Battleships. It was at a Port80 event organised by […]
Is Best Practice the Enemy of Innovation?
Here’s a confession. Before I go to bed I like to watch an episode of How It’s Made. There is something very soothing about manufacturing processes. The logical sequence, efficient systems, robotic arms, complete repeatability, high levels of certainty and quality products are like a comfort blanket before I go to sleep. Unfortunately the world […]
Negative Capability, John Keats and Half Man Half Biscuit.
Everybody sing along……. There is nothing better in life, Than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro. There is nothing better in life, Than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro. There is nothing better in life, Than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro, On […]
Will descending from Welsh Sheep Farmers prevent you collaborating?
Back in the mid 1800’s a group of Welsh emigrants were being rescued from an island where they been shipwrecked. Before they left, they modestly showed their rescuers what they had achieved during their years of isolation. “These are our houses, this is the school, this is the reading room, this is the rugby field, […]
The staff don’t understand, quick draw them a picture or something…
Suspend reality and imagine this strange situation… Boss: “The staff here are a huge problem. They just don’t get my latest initiative, what’s wrong with them?” Smithers: “Ah yes Sir. The words in your manifesto document are so beautifully crafted, truly inspirational, and it’s printed on the finest paper” Boss: “Well here’s something that might […]
Bikeshedding: Organisations spend too much time on trivial decisions. Parkinson’s Law of Triviality.
Decision making has always been a challenge . Way back in 1957, to describe his ‘Law of Triviality’, Cyril Northcote Parkinson created the word bikeshedding. Parkinson was hugely experienced in the workings of Government and Academia. He was also responsible for a number of other ‘rules’ you might be familiar with like: Parkinsons Law No.1 ‘work expands to […]
Can a Malcolm Gladwell ‘Tipping Point’ help our Movement?
Last week was about the difficulties of creating a movement, the mission impossible community of practice. Here is some hope in the form of Malcolm Gadwell’s book The Tipping Point. This has lots of useful information that could help our movement flourish. Malcolm Gladwell To get an idea of what I’m talking about have a look […]
What's the PONT 