Rain. It’s something that we think happens a lot here in the UK and perhaps it does, though it seems to depend on how you measure it. My experience is that it doesn’t rain that often we just have lots of days where it looks like it could rain, where we see little sun, and where you avoid planning to do something “because it looks like rain”.

Since we, well the British readers anyway, like to talk about the weather so much, it was on one rare rain-soaked run that my mind considered if RAIN could become something more positive…

In our always-on, always-connected world, the start of a new year remains a time when we are inclined to think about our plans for the future. Even though our school days are long behind us, the rhythm of terms as manageable blocks of times to establish and achieve goals persists. Humans are very much creatures of habit.

Even before the disruption causes by the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020, the words of Chris Yapp–“the more certain you are about the future the more likely you are to be wrong”–were a warning sound to anyone attempting to predict what…

There is one room in our house that has proven to be more versatile than any other. It has been a nursery, a bedroom, a dumping ground, playroom and then during the first lockdown it became the school for our two children. Today it has become a co-working space as one child enters a period of isolation along with the rest of her school class.

I recently published a blog about how the words we used to describe an activity can shape how we think about what it is we are doing, and perhaps the value we place on it…

One of my childhood memories of learning to swim is regularly standing at the side of the pool complaining to the swimming instructor with the refrain “I can’t do it”. Her considered and persistent response was that “can’t” is not a word. I’m not sure I ever had the courage (or cheekiness!) to respond with “no, but cannot is!”

Long before it was popular to think of having a fixed or a growth mindset, that swimming instructor was aware of the power of words. …

I’ve been digging deeper into the Lean Startup method and associated practices, including Lean Product Lifecycle and the Mission Model Canvas (an adaptation of the Business Model Canvas), over the last couple of weeks. This had all started with the question can you teach innovation?

There is plenty of material already available that can help you understand the Lean Startup approach and so I won’t repeat it here. One of the core concepts is the build, measure, learn cycle. …

A recent competition saw me win a copy of Alan Brown’s book Delivering Digital Transformation – A Manager’s Guide to the Digital Revolution. Since Alan had been kind enough to post the book to me even with the COVID-19 restrictions still in place, it seemed only fair that I did at least read it, and then having done so publish a review.

Having briefly met Alan in my previous job and discussed digitisation and what digitalisation might mean for a government, I had some expectations around the content. That the book itself is only around 200 pages long and yet…

There is a lot of discussion and debate about digital transformation, the emergence of the digital age and what this means for managers and leaders.

For a long time, we have been ‘doing’ digital. From the technology we use, the processes we have in place, and the services we provide to customers, the mindset is how do I take the old version and “put it online” or automate it.

The CIO and the IT department have been at the heart of this work. Growing and changing their skillset along the way to deliver these incremental changes.

Some non-technology teams have…

The last card in our hand of ACES is situational awareness. The three other cards — ambition, culture, and engagement — can be found here.

Knowing what’s going on is helpful. I know this is stating the obvious, but it’s surprising how rare it is for people to know what is going on, mostly we just think we know what’s happening but it doesn’t allow us to decide.

An example is when you’re in an unfamiliar location and you see signs showing a road is closed or there is a diversion in place. …