Articles

LinkedIn posts etc reproduced locally

A Problem-Solving Experience

Cycling quite fast down a narrow mountain road, I met a lorry coming up it. The result was eight broken ribs on one side, a broken shoulder on the other and a huge problem with getting out of bed. Problem-solving methodologies can be usefully classified as either...

Anna Karenina and Client Encounters

Anna Karenina and Client Encounters All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This, the first phrase of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, is remarkable for how it sticks in the memory. In complex relationships such as with families or...

Best practices Exchange for Engineering Team Leaders

I recently setup a Best Practices Exchange (BPXchange) as an experiment in learning through sharing for busy Engineering Team Leaders working in different companies. The challenge was to find a format that would allow added-value exchanges in a reasonable time, taking...

Will Things Get Done? How to work it out.

To the best of my knowledge, there are very few personal organization systems that can estimate when outstanding tasks will get done. I’ll explain why this is a troubling omission and how it can be removed using Google Calendar and Sheets (or similar technology). Over...

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Helping Customers Navigate

This month’s mobile bill was approximately €A_FORTUNE higher than expected, so I went to the “Help” pages on the web and tried to fix my plan. I followed links all over the place but eventually gave up, feeling powerless and in the dark. I wanted to understand my...

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An Unhelpful and False Image of Work Pressure

When setting up a Technical Sales Support training course, I ask the sales people and engineers that I’m working with about their biggest challenges. What would you think? The incredible complexity of multi-billion transistor chip? Software code written in 8 different...

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I Need Performance; I Get CRUD

Cynicism, Resistance, Uncertainty and Doubt (CRUD) are inevitable reactions to Learning Programmes set up to deal with performance challenges. Working out ways to avoid the CRUD is therefore essential to the success of such programmes, which are themselves critical to...

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