Some years ago, I worked for a company who had developed a genuinely great product. Technologically better than the competition. More advanced. Reduced whole-life costs. The future made real. The only thing is, no one wanted to buy it. No matter how much we explained, in pitch after pitch, the significant benefits of this product against its peers. What every … Continue reading Are you trying to sell a Betamax?
I am definitely one of life's note-takers. Over time, keeping notes has become one of the most important practices in helping me to live an intentional life, seek purpose and work effectively. Whether I'm in a meeting, at church, in a cafe or whatever, I always have a notebook with me. I write things down … Continue reading The notebook: analogue in a digital world
Take your pick. Get off the fence. Choose a side. But I was made for balance. I'm equally at home in the country or the city. In the UK or abroad. In silence or with other people. I live in the space between the two and my life is the richer for it. Do we … Continue reading On balance
This week, I've been taking advantage of the lovely weather to get some outside DIY done. The front of our house was starting to show its age and so some serious TLC has long been in order. By far the biggest job has been leveling the front garden to widen our existing driveway. Older kids … Continue reading In praise of monotonous work
One of the benefits of being at home more these days is the time to do a lot of reading. I've always been an avid reader but in recent years, time with a book (or more often these days, my Kindle) has been squeezed into the margins of the day by the busy-ness of life. … Continue reading Purple Cow
That's what a lot of people in the UK and worldwide are wondering now. When will the lockdown end? When can we get back to normal after COVID-19? Despite numerous best estimates and rumours, the honest answer is that no one knows. Indeed it is such a complex situation that realistically, no one can be … Continue reading When will it end?
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm a little uneasy with the VE Day celebrations planned for next Friday. Something feels wrong to me about flag-waving and celebrating the "winning" of a war in which millions died. A war which sowed the seeds of the breaking up of the British Empire (which ironically, … Continue reading Looking backwards and moving forwards
A couple of months ago, I was chatting to a colleague who's about the same age as me. We were looking back on our twenty-odd year careers since university and how many different experiences we'd each had in that time. Some good, many hard and some a real drudge, but all of which had helped to … Continue reading Show up daily and do the work
I posted up this blog article on LinkedIn recently, wondering what the new normal might look like after COVID-19. Having read it, leadership coach Bob Gibbon challenged me to write a manifesto for work after this pandemic is over. Thinking about my own experience since the lockdown and what I've see in my own circle … Continue reading Working after COVID-19: A manifesto*
There are so many hackneyed phrases used to try and describe the time we are currently living though. Unprecedented. Troubled. Whatever your adjective of choice, there is no doubt that the world today is suddenly and radically different to the way things were even a month or two ago. We have switched to new ways … Continue reading The new normal?
