Archive
what’s the connection between the Mona Lisa and an FM?
I had been looking at a copy of the Mona Lisa and then the next day a conversation with a facilities manager then started this train of thought off.
The Mona Lisa contains a number of visual gags and one of the joys of looking at it is to spot these details, but any good painting, or photograph, or view will have all sorts of details that make up the whole visual experience. Just as it is nice to stop and smell the roses from time to time it is also good to let the eyes wander over something and feast on the smaller elements that you’ll find. Even something familiar can yield new things when you stand back and look. Read more…
chuck out your KPIs and measure real performance
Something that crops up constantly in the line of business that I am in is measurement of performance; often it is as simple as “Did we get what we ordered?” not least in terms of my clients being satisfied with me, but it is also about service contracts where delivery can get harder to pin down. I am in the process of writing a short eBook on the subject, so let me share some of my thinking here. Read more…
technology should push us as well as pull us
If you’ve followed my Tweets over the last few days you’ll know that I have changed my mobile (cell) ‘phone last week. This was part of a long overdue strategic issue for me; overdue because I had been procrastinating about making the change from something that I used for calls, and the odd text, to something that made sense as an integrated office tool for the itinerant way of working that is my life. Read more…
Monday Musings holiday fun on travel to London
As it is a Holiday Monday I thought a little frivolity could surface and so, having been reading about the Mayoral campaign on a couple trips to London recently, it strikes me that I might make a suggestion.
One issue for both candidates seemed to be to do something about “the monolith that is Transport for London”. If so, then I ask that they axe the DffTCB; The Department for frustrating ThatConsultantBloke. I have a picture of something like this: Read more…
just how well do you communicate with modern technology?
In recent years we have begun to rely on emails, voicemail and text messages as primary methods of communication as we seek that immediacy of communication. Like me you probably know people who run more than one mobile ‘phone (maybe you do yourself?) and can’t bear to be out of touch. We seem to have developed an insatiable appetite for instant contact, but without any thought of the consequences. Read more…
when you need to, saying sorry is the only option
Reports down here in North Wiltshire of local footballers apologising for their behaviour got me thinking a bit about saying sorry. It isn’t an easy thing to do in private, let alone in public, but it is something that a leader has to face up to from time to time. And if apologising for something you said or did is hard enough, what about saying sorry for something that you didn’t say or do? Read more…
leadership lessons from Michael Schumacher
Taking a sporting theme for the second week in a row I’m going to refer to the aftermath of Michael Schumacher’s early exit from the Chinese Grand Prix after one of his wheels was not properly attached during the first round of pit stops; “I don’t have any hard feelings. I feel a bit sorry for one of my boys that I guess he feels responsible, but it’s part of the game”.
And this after he lost the chance of his best result since making his comeback and, possibly, a win on the circuit that he won his last race on. No tantrums, no ranting or raving, just a straightforward comment. Read more…
has Gary Neville got it right? more musings on ethics and standards
Continuing my recent theme on morals and ethics I read Gary Neville’s column in the Mail on Sunday sports section yesterday. My loss of interest in the professional game of soccer must have about coincided with his rise to prominence in the game (having checked, he did play in the last professional game that I watched; England v Georgia, 30/4/97, but that was the first game I had watched for about 8 years), and so I can’t comment on his abilities as a player, but his piece for the MoS got me thinking. Read more…
keep calm and carry on? it would be nice if we did
Seeing the lines of cars queuing for petrol got me thinking about how prepared we are for when things go wrong. You can’t foresee everything of course, but experience tends to help you come up with ideas as to how best to cope with things that you’ve not expected. The trick is often not to over react to a problem; why are all of these people queuing for petrol and creating an artificial shortage (and a lot of traffic chaos)? They have panicked on a wave of media hype when there was no real need to and some of the stupidity that has been reported is beyond belief. Read more…
the office of the future; midweek musings on how will we meet London’s needs?
For all that we talk about the new technologies and philosophies bringing us alternative ways of working, agile working, knowledge working and all of these buzz phrases the Transport for London plans show the Mayor’s Transport Strategy having a predicted growth in employment in London growing by 750,000 people between now and 2031 and looks at how the capital can handle that growth on its public transport networks and roads.
So where are all of these people going to work? Sure, not all of them will be office employees, but such numbers suggest that there is no real sign of mass decamping from the city’s offices does it? Read more…
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