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 123 – Solutionsim

The hand dryer said fifteen.  The numerals flashed in blue and counted down to zero while the hot blasts of air desiccated my hands.  I moved them up and down as instructed to make the drying process more effective.  There was a handy pictorial guide.  Why was there a counter?  Can I not work it … Continue reading Unfolding plans 123 – Solutionsim

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 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

Unfolding plans 111 – work as a performance

I’ve been thinking a lot about work as a performance.  It’s something that Mike and I have been talking about.  The word covers such a wide range of meanings from entertainment, to carrying out an action and to how well something works.  In this case I am talking about something presented before an audience, potentially, … Continue reading Unfolding plans 111 – work as a performance

Unfolding plans 110 – John’s postcard challenge

We’ve got some exciting things going on with our self-service portal.  We created it to allow our customers to log their own issues into the system without having to call the Service Desk.  Since its implementation its use has grown to a point where it accounts for around twenty three per cent of incidents logged … Continue reading Unfolding plans 110 – John’s postcard challenge

Unfolding plans 107 – Which came first?

Now we all know that the egg came before the chicken.  The first chicken came from an egg that was laid by a chicken like creature.  That is how evolution works, with small changes in genetic material leading to enhancements brought about by natural selection through the reproductive process.  We can put that one to … Continue reading Unfolding plans 107 – Which came first?