Unfolding plans 147 – What have you planned for National Customer Service Week?

I covered this in Unfolding plans 106, some seventy five days ago, and here it is.  The first week in October has arrived already, the time we set aside to recognise and celebrate our customers.  Time is really flying.  National Customer Service Week has come around again.  It doesn’t seem like five minutes since the … Continue reading Unfolding plans 147 – What have you planned for National Customer Service Week?

Unfolding plans 146 – Simplicity

Life is complicated.  The more I think about it the more complicated it becomes.  It seems as if complexity is an inherent part of the way the world works.  It’s that second law of thermodynamics again. It states that (forgive me for I paraphrase) ‘In any closed system the amount of usable energy is always … Continue reading Unfolding plans 146 – Simplicity

Unfolding plans 144 – Scrum

Somebody has sent me a copy of ‘Scrum, The art of doing twice the work in half the time’ by Jeff Sutherland.  I don’t know who it was.  I had my suspects but one by one they are being crossed off my list.  It just turned up at work in a manila envelope (C5 in … Continue reading Unfolding plans 144 – Scrum

Unfolding plans 143 – Leading the way in Open Data

I’ve been at another conference.  This time it was presented by the Federation of Small Businesses in conjunction with Dynamo and Sunderland Software City.  It was titled ‘North East Leading The Way In Open Data’ and I was asked to speak.  You know that amongst my interests is helping to develop the region so that … Continue reading Unfolding plans 143 – Leading the way in Open Data

Unfolding plans 140 – be mindful of others

A couple of days ago I was telling you about Lee and his stories.  His tale of children and coasts tugged on a few strings.  It brought back memories of childhood, happiness, helplessness and an innocence lost.  It gets me every time I hear it (and I’ve heard it a few times now!). He has … Continue reading Unfolding plans 140 – be mindful of others

Unfolding plans 136 – change as a constant

At this round of presentations (I do go on about them a bit yet they take up a lot of my thinking time and so that is my excuse) we decided to split the Spectrum event into two.  Prior to this we had delivered the presentation in the main office, on the shop floor as … Continue reading Unfolding plans 136 – change as a constant

Unfolding plans 134 – Sonic coats

Lee told some great stories today.  It was at our latest round of presentations.  It was his turn to get involved.  I try to spread the love around.  The theme for this time was trust and no doubt I’ll come back to this in a later blog.  Lee went on to talk about how we … Continue reading Unfolding plans 134 – Sonic coats

Unfolding plans 133 – summit else

The motorcycle outriders held the traffic up at Thinford roundabout.  Their blue lights cut through the dank morning air. Helicopters hovered above as the threat level was set at high.  The limousines with their blacked out windows sped through the empty roads before screeching to a halt outside the Educational Development Centre.  The delegates hurried … Continue reading Unfolding plans 133 – summit else

Unfolding Plans 131 – A SOWE

I’ve been thinking about how we create a self-organising work environment.  A SOWE.  I’ve been thinking about it ever since I saw Sugata Mitra’s work at the first Dynamo conference and that was well over a year and a half ago.  How do you get your teams to come together and deliver what is required … Continue reading Unfolding Plans 131 – A SOWE

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