The grass isn’t greener on the other side.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be able to see Jerry Seinfeld perform a live set in a small theatre in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. He had so many wonderful stories, insights and anecdotes. Whilst I laughed loud at the time, and was blown away by his ability to observe and craft a story, I struggle to remember more than a couple of stories he mentioned. Cognitive Psychologist George A. Miller created what is known as Miller’s Law. Miller’s Law is commonly understood to mean that in our short term memory, on …
How are you viewing technology?
A recent insights podcast from McKinsey (In Conversation: The CEO’s new technology agenda) highlights the change in how organizations are or should be viewing IT right now. Technology enabled organizations to quickly shift gears as staff were sent home to work. A spotlight was shined on the adequacy, or inadequacy, of the business capability during this time. For some clients there was a mad scramble for funding to purchase laptops to enable desktop bound staff to work from home. For others it was a much easier transition, staff were already mobile with laptops or multipurpose devices such as Surface Pro’s. …
Technology Skill Gaps
In the past 12-15 months there has been massive change in how organizations work with and interact with technology. For many organizations it has bought to the fore the importance of building capability and closing skill gaps. A recent McKinsey survey reported organizations increased skill building during the pandemic. The need for basic digital skills was 16 points higher than McKinsey’s 2019 survey. Some industries might be viewed as more “advanced” in how they use technology, but the generic “level” is just that, generic and subjective. When I present Excel programs (by far my most in-demand virtual and in-person topic …
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know!
When I present, I tell audiences “You don’t know what you don’t know!” It’s one of my favourite things to say because it genuinely taps into technology’s true intent and purpose. I love how it creates “light bulb” moments when, after a presentation someone shares what they learnt and tells me they didn’t realise they don’t know what they don’t know. Our knowledge is limited to our experiences and is different to someone else’s. When you close yourself off to learning you miss the opportunity to grow and be challenged. To me, “You don’t know what you don’t know” is …
No communication IS communication.
My pet peeve is people, or organizations who say they are going to do something and then don’t deliver on the promise. Whilst ideally it would be great to have everyone deliver on their promise, there are times when it just doesn’t happen for whatever reason. When that happens, what I really want is communication, even if it isn’t the news I want to hear. I really don’t care if you aren’t going to meet a deadline we agreed on as much as I want to receive communication that the deadline isn’t going to be met and what is being …
The Snowball Effect
Technology was supposed to make it possible to achieve more, with increased productivity and less risk and stress. But instead, it has resulted in a “snowball effect,” and there is often an underlying sense that being overloaded or constantly struggling with your workload is normal. Learning how to produce a report more efficiently in Excel or automate a regular email helps making your day less stressful and also reduces the risk of errors. Sometimes making the investment of time, and sometimes money, upfront can end up saving you hours of stress and frustration. Don’t accept the “snowball effect!” A simple …
7 Reasons Why You Should Book Donna for your next event or conference
Donna is a professional and can extend or compress presentations to suit conference or event timelines. As an adult educator, Donna’s programs ALWAYS focus on content that delivers immediate return on investment. …
What business can do to make it easier, not harder for staff to be productive
The lightning speed at which organizations shifted to online during the COVID pandemic meant many workers had to learn new technology to access organizational data remotely and participate in workplace meetings online. In a recent Raconteur article, Five Priorities for CIO’s in 2021, CIO’s identified the importance of engaging and educating their workforce with system capability. Whilst to many this may seem obvious, every organization has workers with different skill levels, confidence and exposure to technology that impacts on their perception of their capability. As restrictions start to relax and staff are settling in to returning to work or a …
Productivity isn’t about deflecting, it is about supporting
I’ve been working with a client who is trying to shift the organization’s “culture” when it comes to support using programs such as Microsoft Excel or Word. The culture has been one of passing the buck. Responsibility for “fixing” things they didn’t know how to do, where to find files or documents resulted in constant calls to the IT “help desk”. The culture was, they were called the help desk for a reason…. “they’re there to help right??” In this organization, technology training was considered an expense with the help desk looked upon as the source of all answers as …
