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
Engineering, Art and Leadership ….. I’m trying to work it out ……
http://upandcomingart.co.uk/pages/time-exhibition Engineering is rational, logical, linear and governed by proven laws of physics. If I take the back off my watch I see an intricate combination of springs and cogs working in a precise predetermined way – engineering is complicated though it has been solved – it’s a “tame” problem. Art on the other…
Read MoreWhat coaching means to me
Firstly what it’s not: Telling someone what they should do. I think we should ban the word should. Giving advice or my opinion Judging – good or bad, right or wrong. Providing technical information Counselling – helping to ‘heal’ the past Shoulder to cry on A “course” of formal learning or training Definitely not ‘agony aunt’…
Read MoreConstruction – thirty years on and what’s going to be different this time round?
Last week I gate-crashed a G4C (Generation for Change) event in Newcastle; I was the oldest bloke in the room by at least 25 years. It felt weird and I found myself asking why am I here, though that’s another story. Anyway after a bit of an ice breaker Jackie the speaker asked the young…
Read MoreAndy is hacked off and now he knows why
Andy is a senior guy. He looks after a decent chunk of the company’s business and reports directly to the board. I’ve worked with him on and off since about 2001, though not for the last three years. Recently, we caught up. He opened by saying he felt the company had lost its way. It…
Read MoreMotivation – book review
Drive, The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. Daniel Pink I love this book, only wish it was available to me 20 years ago when I was a middle manager. I think it was written for me back then; a baby boomer brought up on command and control, carrot and stick. It is probably even…
Read MoreThe help dilemma
I see a bloke in the changing rooms at my gym. He suffers with an inflamed knee. One day we got talking and I asked if he was taking anything and he told me his doctor prescribed pain killers and rest. I asked if that was working and he said no. I suggested a natural…
Read MoreChess, engagement and a six year old coach
My six year old son, Greg, taught me how to play chess. At college my friend John tried though I just couldn’t get all the tactics and so I gave up. Seventeen years later Pete, another friend, taught Greg and the very same day Greg taught me the basic moves in simple terms and without…
Read Moreand the truth is
Listening to the radio, watching Question Time, I am noticing that members of one political party keep repeating “and the truth is”. It’s not the truth, it’s their opinion. What is the truth? It depends on your perspective. I’m not sure there is such a thing as the absolute truth. Maybe it’s true that we…
Read MoreLance Armstrong
‘The biggest cheat in sport’ according to some of the press. I don’t buy that from them, especially them. Have “we” ever cheated? Probably. Have we ever told a lie, several lies or even a big one? Probably. “I am a human being. Nothing that is human is foreign to me” Terence Afer. How many…
Read MoreBehaviour – management’s obsession
How come Thomas behaves this way at home and yet a different way at work? He is the same person, though behaving in a different way. What is driving his behaviour? “Management” try to drive, influence, manipulate behaviour with “consequences” – either positive or negative, incentives or punishment respectively. Daniel Pink, author of “Drive”, questions…
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