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. …
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 …
Better Decisions
Does having access to more information mean we make better decisions? Not necessarily. Regardless of the amount of information we have access to, we can always get more. It may take more time or more resources to access. Sometimes we decide to hold off and gather more information. Other times there may be a sense of urgency, real or perceived, that requires us to make decisions and act based on the information we have at hand. I remember watching the movie “Sully” with Tom Hanks. It is the story of Chesley Sullenberger the pilot who landed his damaged plane on …
Review and refine
We often think, “if only I knew how to do X, it would make things so much easier.” Time is then spent exploring how to learn what we think we need. But how we work with technology is a bit like cooking. For example, adding more liquid to cake batter that is runny won’t make your cake better, it will just make it runnier. Sometimes, adding is NOT what you need. To continue the cake baking metaphor, to resolve it, you may be able to add more flour, or if it is too far gone, you may have to let …
Different Experiences
The past twelve months have forced us to be more present to life in general. Things we have taken for granted we now appreciate a bit more, time with family, friends, exploring your local area and realising how blessed we are to be safe. As we start to come out of hibernation, I’ve been noticing that the kindness and compassion we shared with our community doesn’t seem as strong as it once was. It may be fatigue, or people being keen to simply get on with life many people as back to the pre-COVID busyness. For some COVID has been …
Time Out
I often get my best ideas when I am out walking, exercising or just relaxing. Sometimes this irritates me, because I often want the idea when I need it and get frustrated when it doesn’t come to me straight away. I know that when I take time to step away from what I am doing to do something else, then come back, I often see it with fresh eyes. In 2012, Jason Fried, Co-Founder of what was then 37signals, but is now known as Basecamp Project Management & Team Communication software in an INC article, shared the idea of giving …
Quick and easy isn’t always quick and easy!
I recently received an email from someone who needed help with a drawing that had been done in Excel! I know, sounds strange doesn’t it? It was a floorplan. If I was creating this type of drawing, I would use software such as Visio, or even shapes and drawing tools in Word or PowerPoint, definitely NOT Excel. The floorplan had been created by “someone who was no longer with the business” and the client was not going to be best served by suggesting they recreate it in another program. What they needed was a simple solution to their challenge which …
