Effecutivity

Effectiveness Productivity Improvement

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  • Empathy in the time of Covid

    It seemed that initially in the first few weeks and months of the current pandemic people initially reacted by realising what they may have taken for granted over the years – bars, restaurants, holidays, last minute trips, drives, seeing family and friends, BBQs etc. We could understand and sympathise with others because it was something Read more

  • Reading List: Best Books – History

    Below is a list of some of my favourite history texts, in no particular order. Leave your thoughts or recommendations in the comments. I highly recommend all of the below 1.) Strategy – BH Liddell Hart 2.) History of the Peloponnesian War – Thucydides 3.) SPQR – Mary Beard 4.) The Lessons of History – Read more

  • 6 Things I Wish I Had Known at 18

    1.) Failure Isn’t Final When we’re young we tend to see every setback and failure as something permanent or as much more serious than it really is. We see todays difficulties as long term issues. We find it hard to see the bigger picture. I have failed at many things in my life for a Read more

  • The LAWS of …Writing for Business – Part 2

    LAW 2 – Simplify Simplify Simplify Let’s face it – people are busier than ever. Radicati Group estimates that employees on average receive around 78 business emails a day. That’s 390 on average in a working week and with basic maths – likely to be close to 20000 e-mails per year. That’s not taking in to Read more

  • The LAWS of…Writing for Business – Part 1

    It occurred to me some time ago that writing is different to writing in the workplace/writing for business. For a start, no one will ever compliment you on your character development or suspenseful cliff hangers when giving an update on a project. There are no awards for best piece of workplace fiction, although I’m sure Read more

  • Recipes

    What do we do with a recipe – it tells us the ingredients, the timings and the actions required to produce an end result. How often do we go full steam ahead without a recipe of our own before we act? We don’t think about the tools needed, the time it will take and what Read more

  • Stories

    It’s pretty easy to doubt other people’s outlandish stories. We’d ask for proof if it was something extreme. And yet – we listen to the stories we tell ourselves and believe it without any proof. This works both ways – in arrogance and when we undermine ourselves. “I’m not any good at a, b, c Read more

  • Flow – Which Way Now?

    Kanban is Japanese for sign or billboard. It’s success and popularity in manufacturing, logistics and project management circles has led to it being implemented across various industries. What does a sign do? It gives you information to advise or direct. I remember several years ago seeing someone complete a SWOT analysis on a department. The Read more

  • More – Never Enough

    There is always someone with more than us out there. Someone with more money, a bigger home, a nicer car, more talent, more fame. Often this is used to make us feel pretty shitty about ourselves (see most lifestyle magazines). We don’t feel grateful because look what we don’t have?! WAIT a second – compare Read more

  • Mr. Always Right and The Underrated Joy of Being Wrong

    I saw a fridge magnet several years ago. It was roughly along the lines of not knowing when you married Mr. Right that their first name was always. Fridge magnets marketed at women aside, it does have a point. We all like to be right or at least feel like we’re right most of the Read more