Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
-
Just because you can, it doesn’t mean that you should
I was first given the keys to an organisation’s IT infrastructure in early 1997 at the tender age of 24. In previous roles I’d been the person tinkering away with a PC, trying to find ways of using computers to help my “proper job” – but this was my first experience of IT being the…
-
Superhuman – the mutt’s nuts
I’ve been using email for over 25 years. I’ve tried most mail clients along the way, but the last time I was really impressed was early 2000s, when I switched to mutt. Mutt’s tagline is “All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.” Mutt is great because it’s fast – really fast. It is driven…
-
Glorious Britain?
I’m at Stansted Airport, on my way to Germany for the week. I’m flying to Berlin, taking a train to Potsdam, another to Hannover on Thursday morning, then flying back on Friday evening. It’s all perfectly easy. I arranged the dates of my visit a couple of months ago with my client. I bought…
-
Spotting stress and bottlenecks in your team with RACI
RACI is a well-established tool for clarifying roles across a set of tasks undertaken by a team. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. The idea is simple: create a table (in excel, on a whiteboard, on a piece of paper), with a row for each objective, and a column for each team-member. For each objective, identify…
-
The ethical challenges of big data personality profiling
A recent BBC News article (Personality tests: Are you average, self-centred, role-model or reserved?) came up for discussion in an online coaching forum recently. These moves are simultaneously exciting and terrifying! Let’s take the Facebook example. The insight from the data won’t be from the fact that you “like” kitten pictures or Liverpool Football Club…
-
How to avoid becoming a HiPPO
This isn’t diet advice. Not sure if I can talk with authority on that subject. No, this is some advice for you if you’ve become a HiPPO. You’re the founder, the CEO, the CTO, the General Manager, the Head of Sales. You’re a “senior decision-maker”, and the important decisions in your world are based on…
-
How to Survive the End of the World (When it’s in Your Own Head): An Anxiety Survival Guide
The sudden feeling you get when you think you’ve forgotten your keys when you leave the house, but all the time and for no reason. This is Aaron Gillies’ definition of anxiety, from “How to Survive the End of the World (When it’s in Your Own Head): An Anxiety Survival Guide”, published last month. Gillies…
-
Professor Stephen Hawking 1942-2018
I’ve photographed Stephen Hawking a few times over the years but this is the image which came to mind on Wednesday morning when I heard the new of his death. This is the wall opposite the lift, a few metres from his office door. Years and years and years of meeting obstacles caused by his…
-
Finding the time to be strategic
I frequently encounter leaders who struggle to find the time to “be strategic” – focussing on important but not urgent activities such as: Evolving their business model to find new revenue streams Understanding external technological trends, such as cloud computing, CRM and marketing automation Reviewing their organisation structures and processes, to ensure they’re fit for…
-
Have you tried asking them?
“I don’t know what the sales team leads are going to make of this marketing plan.” “I can’t figure out how this is going to go down with our German customers.” “We never get useful product feedback from our support team.” “He’s really disengaged. He just doesn’t contribute to our daily stand-up. I don’t know…
Got any book recommendations?