LinkedIn Deleted My Posts

Basically, linkedin deleted a bunch of my posts. These are the ones I’ve been able to salvage.

Culure

What advice would you give to a child they or one of their friends was getting bullied?

We would encourage them to speak up for themselves, tell a teacher or confront the bully in a constructive manner.

What if the bully was a teacher or principle of the school? The bullying focussed on the child’s appearance, maybe a query as to why a female isn’t wearing heels or that the male wasn’t welcome and could find another school as he wasn’t outwardly passionate.

What if the bullying was public, belittling work or openly micro managing. It’s unlikely we’d tell them to keep their heads down, be more resilient, work a bit harder, stay late and not to be concerned about lost sleep. If they witnessed it, do we tell them to be glad they weren’t the focus of the bully?

Apply this to the workplace, do we take our own advice? What if we did? Unchecked bullying can often come from senior leaders and high achievers, many labels are created to soften the way these people behave. Cases often go unreported as the topic is taboo.

We all contribute to the culture, how we behave, what we accept and ignore. Each of us has a responsibility to address bullying in its many guises whether directed at us or not.

Digital & Culture

With an increasingly digital society will democracy be enhanced or become irrelevant?

Would we have digital transformations if not driven by capitalism? Perhaps these are two sides of the same coin.

Governments barely keep pace with digital, consider how long it took to catchup to social media and population influence through the use of data.

Projects & Culture

No matter the size, the root cause of project failure is people.

Consultants, Project Managers, Business Analysts, Subject Matter Experts, Stakeholders, Project Sponsor and the Steering Group, all people.

The solution? Have the right people, culture, tools and methods in place that will enable the team to be successful.

Hint to any Steering Group, if you have a high turn over rate in the project team, it’s the canary in the coal mine, look closer than the status report.

Transformation & Culture

Any transformation is effectively catching up on long standing debt.

Technical debt, the under investment in technology, years of constant compromise with limited funding.

Business debt, the hangover from conservative business leadership practices that originated 40 years ago.

Transformation is also changing the leadership mindset. Looking at opportunities instead of avoiding risk.

Culture

Culture isn’t measured in engagement surveys, nor is it dictated from the top.

It’s measured in day to day interactions. We are the barometer of the culture. The shit we put up with, what we feel comfortable in calling out in face to face conversations.

Changing a business unit to a tribe or a scrum team won’t embed a cultural shift. In this scenario, the only people who win are the consultants.

Professionals often feel constrained by an unspoken way of working that hints at an underlying issue.

Want a change in culture? Enable teams and people to have robust, honest and respectful conversations.
Most importantly, call bullshit.

Culture & Transformation

What’s next in Digital Transformation trends? Failure.

Case studies will emerge that outline issues in leadership, vision, technology/partner selection, methodology used & misalignment of benefit expectations. This isn’t the true failure.

Senior leadership teams are under pressure to keep the enterprise relevant & not become the next Blockbuster. Terms such as Do More With Less are becoming more widely used. Results are getting a higher priority than culture.

People are asked to deliver more in less time & often as cheap as possible. Operational teams are being asked to accept an increasing amount of change. The result?

People burn out & leave.

The solution? Think marathon, not sprint. Don’t consider transformation a synonym for restructure. Ensure change agents are leading the work, not process followers or corporate gunslingers. Assess the amount of change that can be delivered. When considering delivery methodology, right size. Data is the foundation. If consultants are needed, engage those willing to go further than just a vision & at best a strategy.

How the hell would I know? Experience in change.

Data, Transformation & Culture

Many enterprises still think in processes and systems. Data is an after thought.

The industrial revolution introduced process to the workforce. Companies who later thrived invented and adopted methods to re-engineer processes and reduce waste.

Digital transformations are a paradigm shift, processes collapse into data. Data becomes an asset and people become the focus.

The companies that will thrive through the coming years will be those who become data driven and people centric.

Culture

Fear plays a key role in hampering innovation.

Fear of failure.
Fear of consequences.

Decisions are clouded by fear and risks avoided. When this happens it’s easier to lean on NPV, IRR and ROI calculations than consider wider and potential market context.

Innovation may not have an immediate return, it may change brand perception or open new markets.

To be successful with innovation, failure and risk are managed, not avoided.

Projects

Scope Creep is an overused and outdated term.

Scope is managed, not set in stone. Simply put, scope can change while an initiative is in flight, the impact is cost and/or time which again can be adjusted.

Objective Drift has the potential to deem any project, programme, portfolio or transformation a failure.

When an initiative commences it aligns with business objectives, all facing in the same direction. North. Over time and potentially a change in sponsorship, environment or wider market, the business objectives can end up facing North West.

Left unchecked, the north facing initiative won’t provide expected benefits.

Like the Scope, Objectives can be managed. The key is for the leader of the initiative to maintain alignment between the business and initiative objectives.

If alignment is not possible, stop the initiative. An initiative being cancelled due to lack of alignment shouldn’t be considered a failure.

Leadersip & Culture

It’s hard to find the perfect leader.

Some leaders micro manage, this drives us crazy. Some leaders work with the big picture and give little guidance, this also drives us crazy. Some leaders know everything, this drives us crazy. Some leaders have no clue, this drives us crazy. The list can go on ad infinitum.

Leaders are often only seen as a representative of the company we work for. We complain to them and about them, we challenge the ideas they represent. This work relationship is the easiest to take for granted.

Leaders have feelings, thoughts, families and aspirations, just like us. We are all human, we all carry flaws. This is easy to forget. All relationships are a two way street.

============================