My Blog
This blog is for me, it’s my sketch pad where I think things through and work things out. Having worked ‘stuff’ out I think it’s good to declare it, so I am sending it to you. Hopefully you will also find it useful.
Latest Posts
What’s the point of this, why bother …. Oh, It’s going to be the hard way!
There is a hard way and there’s an easy way, though the easy way may take years to master. For example an eight stone black belt can easily throw someone twice as big. She knows the leverage point at which to push with modest force and once sixteen stone starts moving with gravity it moves…
Read MoreWorking with a coach (Part 2) – shifting your default future
I ‘get’ coaching. It’s an amazing privilege to stretch a person or a team to achieve what they would not have previously thought possible. “Coaching comes from the world of sports and the arts, where athletes and actors receive coaching so that their work will become extraordinary instead of just okay” Steve Chandler, Author and…
Read MoreHow do you feel about this?
It’s good to ask people how they feel about this or that: the work we are doing together or the conversation we are having or what it’s like around here, or the film or that experience or the new process or programme, our relationship or whatever. Often people start their reply by saying “I think…
Read MoreWorking with a coach (Part 1) – a challenge for managers and leaders
[The challenge is right at the bottom] Years ago when I was a manager my coach said to me “Dave your communication is the response you get”. At the time we were working on my communication skills. I explained to her that I’d spend ages drafting memos (this was before e mail) yet seemed to…
Read MoreNo, this needs to be done properly
(1993) Having just finished a project with a team of seventeen staff, my boss Jim said to me “Dave we haven’t got that much on so I want you to run this small job”. He went on to say there wasn’t much in the budget for staff so you need to do it ‘one man…
Read MoreDropped right in it
Sometimes I ask people to look back over their careers to a time when they were most fired up, exhilarated, excited about their work. The most common answer I get back is “when I was dropped right in it”. Looking back over my 40 years in the construction industry that certainly is the case for…
Read MoreThe Agent’s Report
When I was a young site engineer I worked for a project manager called Richard. He was very accomplished, one of the companies top project managers and went on to become a director. He was a superb manager, really good with people. He knew construction inside out and was never phased by any problem, so…
Read MoreHappy anniversary
Forty years ago today, fresh out of school and armed with one “O” level (art) I started work in the construction industry. Bill, the bloke who took me on called me trainee civil engineer. He was the Resident Engineer on The Whitley Bay Coastal Interceptor Sewer, part of a bigger scheme to clean up the…
Read MoreThis is me stepping up in response to a big shock.
The Brexit vote is a massive shock to me and from what I see and hear it’s a big shock to the ‘system’. No-one knows what is going to happen and there is huge uncertainty. Already I have spoken with executives who have had orders cancelled, downgraded their forecasts and are contemplating shedding staff. For…
Read MoreWhat would be exciting?
In his book The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris states asking people ‘What would make you happy?’ is the wrong question. And that people don’t really know what would make them happy. He says the opposite of happy is bored and the antidote to boredom is excitement. I can relate to this. For example when I…
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