Unfolding plans 126 – play like amateurs

It must have been one of the most humiliating sporting events ever.  It was the semi-finals of the 2014 Football World Cup and the host country Brazil were playing Germany for a place, obviously, in the final of the world’s most prestigious sporting competition.  In case you can’t remember the result was not a defeat … Continue reading Unfolding plans 126 – play like amateurs

Unfolding plans 124 – Head space

I’m racking my brains.  I’m trying to do some work on our ICT Strategy and I just can’t get my head around what needs to be done.  It’s not even one year old.  It’s the third ICT strategy that I have written since I came to Durham but we made a commitment to review it … Continue reading Unfolding plans 124 – Head space

Unfolding plans 121 – never knowingly undersold

Perhaps I undersell myself.  If not me then perhaps I have undersold the effect of some of the changes that we are making.  I have never knowingly been undersold, until now.  I say this because twice I have had to stop and think about some of the things that we are doing and the good, … Continue reading Unfolding plans 121 – never knowingly undersold

Unfolding plans 120 – The internet of things

We’ve created a new collective noun. A parliament of crows.  A bank of things, a bunch of things, an internet of things.  The Internet used to be a proper noun and then became an ordinary noun only to mature into a collective noun.  Is this the evolutionary cycle of a word?  Is it its product … Continue reading Unfolding plans 120 – The internet of things

Unfolding plans 119 – a new era

Have we moved into a new era of ICT provision?  At least have we where I work?  I ask this because we had a problem the other day that affected a significant part of our business yet no calls were made to the Service Desk. I heard about it from a colleague of mine who … Continue reading Unfolding plans 119 – a new era

Unfolding plans 117 – paperless meeting

So there it was, our first Resources Management Team meeting without paper.  We’d all been issued with new tablet computers from a leading manufacturer (but not fruit related).  Actually we had only borrowed them as Bob was quick to remind me. We’d also been given some training on how to use our new devices along … Continue reading Unfolding plans 117 – paperless meeting

Unfolding plans 116 – A break through in bureaucracy

Having said that I’d made very little progress with reducing bureaucracy using digital technologies (see me mid-year scorecard Unfolding Plans 100) there has been a flurry of activity.  Thanks to Mark, we’ve finally made some sort of breakthrough.  I said that I’d been banging on about a couple of paper based processes that have really … Continue reading Unfolding plans 116 – A break through in bureaucracy

Unfolding plans 114- granularity

We used to play a game, my colleagues and I.  It was in a different place from where I am now and we were much younger then.  The nature of the game was to take a new piece of jargon and use it over and over again until it became part of the vernacular, until … Continue reading Unfolding plans 114- granularity

Unfolding plans 113 – happy workation

Wow, that was some workation.  For the month of July I’ve been trying something different.  While I was out and about I stopped and bought a postcard that showed the beautiful or unusual places that I happened to have visited.  Every work day I sent one to my youngest daughter as she was in the … Continue reading Unfolding plans 113 – happy workation

Unfolding plans 112 – a strange feeling

What a strange feeling.  I’d needed some time to get my head round some things and found a quiet space in which to do it.  Paul’s office was free and so I made my camp there for the day.  I’m one for open plan working as you know.  I am a Guerrilla Worker but there … Continue reading Unfolding plans 112 – a strange feeling