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...
Spend decades being a good person: “Not sure about that person…” Drink too much at the staff Christmas party and say some dumb things (could be racist or sexist or political or religious etc): “Now we see their true colours!” As the saying goes: Reputations take a lifetime to build and an instant to lose. On one hand: We all say dumb things at times On the other:...
Chatting with Mal last week and he reminded me of the ‘So What?’ test – a good habit to implement when preparing a presentation, article, meeting agenda, proposal, etc. Essentially, just ask yourself ‘So What?’ when you’ve prepared the slide, or paragraph or bullet point. Does it add value to the conversation? If not, why is it there? (Not a new concept, and...
I’m reminded of this quote from Chip and Dan Heath
Resistance is created through a lack of clarity
This is a good tonic to my musing last month.
Remember a few years ago when ranking on Google was easy, buying clicks on Google Ads was cheap, Facebook ads were a bargain, and getting followers on social was just a matter of using the right hashtag? It’s easy to look back on those times and think about what we should have done at the time. What we should have taken advantage of. What we could have achieved. Before it all became so hard...
A reminder to myself to continue to focus on profit growth (as opposed to revenue, headcount, toys, etc).
So many companies doing it tough this year.
Small and large.
For example, I wonder if Atlassian will ever make a profit…
A reasonably useful rule of thumb when starting new consulting projects with clients:
Understand big outcomes, solve micro problems
You must understand the overall context and expected outcomes – broad and wide ranging as they are.
But focus intensely on solving small pieces, bit by bit.
A note to myself really… So many books, videos and social post threads focus on the rare exceptions (in business, wealth, fitness, etc) and pull out takeaways to apply in general. Seems a sure path to failure – since if it were really just a few principles that made the difference, then they wouldn’t be the exceptions. So, don’t study the edge cases as your playbook for...
Sometimes I ask myself:
What should I be doing in this moment?
Why am I resisting it?
What is the discomfort I’m trying to avoid?
Can you relate?