As I write this there are 15 business days until Christmas – the race is on. Whilst many are focussed on finally being able to crash and relax, others are already planning for a rapid start to 2024 in early January. Which camp are you in? At XEN, we’re in the unusual position of potentially working right through the holiday break (this hasn’t happened before), simply because a number of our...
We received this request a little while back: The email had a competitor’s brochure attached. Essentially the brief was: take the competitor’s brochure, switch out branding, spin the content. We declined (of course). I’m all for taking inspiration from others, but it’s concerning when a company has no differentiation and instead feels that copy and paste is a worthwhile...
Sometimes systems don’t seem to be connected – never miss a chance to promote when you own the platform and it costs you nothing:
Useful clarity from Chris Marr in his book Becoming an Authoritative Coach: Have been reflecting on this in terms of both clients and team members. For clients = we are consultants (may be different for your business though) For staff = I need to be more of a coach (as do the senior leadership team) The trap I often fall into is trying to solve the problem for a team member, instead of coaching...
I used to ridicule this kind of behaviour as well:
But now I’m like, if that makes you happy, saving and sharing a moment then more power to you.
As long as you aren’t impacting those around you (eg with bright flashes) then you be you.
I use a Chrome extension (called YouTube digest) for summarising YouTube videos so I don’t have to watch them. It saves me me hours. But here’s the thing: assume most other people are either already doing the same, or will be soon (or using Bard or other tools). They are essentially taste testing to decide if they’ll consume (some of) the full meal… Which is one of the reasons...
Two types of post on LinkedIn that I don’t think will age well. The hubris of these types of posts: Imagine thinking having a tall building marked a ‘new beginning’… But note how many likes and comments it got – obviously I’m not one to listen to for insights on what’s popular… The virtue signalling of these types of posts: (To be clear, I have no...
If you’ve ever suggested something to someone, only to have them excitedly announce that same thing to you a few weeks later, then you know the frustration of ‘planting seeds’. It’s especially annoying when they glowingly tell you about it being suggested to them by someone else… This is the difference between ‘planting seeds’ versus ‘watering...
I caught up with old workmates at a company ‘reunion’ a few weeks back. Some of them I hadn’t seen since 2007 (that’s 16 years ago as I write this). I was struck by a few things: many conversations picked up easily again, as if it were just days, not decades, since we last spoke so many things haven’t changed – we’re all the same old people we used to be...
The findings from the Robodebt royal commission have been accepted by the Government, and 16 public servants are now being investigated. Thus begins the start of justice, in this shameful scheme. As a reminder, the Robodebt scheme unlawfully – and in many cases erroneously – sent more than 160,000 debt notices to people on welfare and social services. The scheme resulted in suicides...