The public cause takes priority over individual needs according to Lieutenant D’Agosto of the New York Police Homicide Division. Okay, so he is a made up character from the Prendergast series by Preston and Child but is he really speaking the truth? Life is complicated, at one end lies totalitarianism and at the other liberalism. … Continue reading The public cause
Second hand sale
OK, so my first book was a bit rough. It still is, yet my second one will be a lot better, I hope. I wrote Guerrilla Working to get it out of my head and to create something I could call my very own. I had never written a book before and had not called … Continue reading Second hand sale
The Divided Self
What a fascinating book ‘The Divided Self’ by RD Laing is. It is perhaps not the kind of book I would normally pick up but it was lying around and it is quite thin. I would urge anyone who has any interest in the workings of humanity to give it a go. Why? Because the … Continue reading The Divided Self
Bring back my blog
At the last round of presentations, I was asked a question. ‘What has happened to my blog? Not this blog but rather the one I used to do religiously every Friday at work. I had it down as one of my weekly tasks. It was only a small piece describing what I was up to … Continue reading Bring back my blog
The writer’s craft
It was a very Morpeth affair at the Autumn Authors Evening at the Chantry. There we were, upstairs amongst the bagpipes, a group of grey haired, mostly white, mostly retired upright citizens of our small and I am afraid to say, provincial town. Provincial is a word I don’t like but in this case it … Continue reading The writer’s craft
Guerrilla Workers unite
‘You’re not the only Guerrilla Worker you know’ Ian said to me. I must admit I was a little taken aback by his tone. It was as if he was accusing me of claiming to be something that I wasn’t. When I stopped and thought about it however I felt better. Perhaps I am not … Continue reading Guerrilla Workers unite
North East Data Group part 1
Last night I had the pleasure of presenting to the North East Data group at Campus North on what Durham is up to with Open Data. There were twenty or so people in the room and it was interesting how many of them I already knew. It was a story of two halves, with my … Continue reading North East Data Group part 1
We talk about diversity
There is a lot of talk about diversity in the media these days. Only this morning when I put on the telly there was an article on assessing disabled people’s ability to work. The government has promised to overhaul the work capability process and has promised to make it more personal. Their hope is that … Continue reading We talk about diversity
The Limitations of Language
As humans we live in a relatively narrow band. Our dimensions are at a human scale. In relative and universal terms, we don’t travel that far, certainly not up or down, we don’t live very long and we mingle with a small group of associates. Our languages have been developed to describe our world in … Continue reading The Limitations of Language
Crazy systems implementation time
Day 4 of Customer Service Week and it is flying by. Today’s theme, as set by the Institute of Customer Services is Collaboration. On the back of this I thought it would be a great opportunity to go and sit amongst some of my customers. Now this is something I do quite often yet the … Continue reading Crazy systems implementation time
