Curious Leadership

On my journey to the office there are six sets of traffic lights. I know because I counted them this morning to include in this blog. Before I mindfully counted each set today I would have struggled to tell you just how many traffic lights I have to pass through. It is not that I am ignoring them (I pride myself on being a safe motorcyclist) it is just that I have become so used to them that the traffic lights no longer register in my consciousness. Some things in life, like traffic lights, are so ubiquitous that we barely notice their existence any longer. Not everything we become blind to has a positive impact on our lives however, and in becoming blind to their existence we become blind to the resulting negative consequences. Take the humble form. The form plays a pervasive role in our lives and the lives of our customers. The form is dangerous. The form destroys Customer Experience (Cx). I recall, as a young boy, visiting my local Post Office in the 1970s. Ever...

Sprinting a marathon, gasping for breath. I’ve dedicated my life to a career in tech. An industry renowned for being extremely fast moving; demanding high levels of commitment with a constant striving to find ways to produce more and produce it faster.  I have dedicated this career to building websites, apps, software and hardware that allows others to do similar. To remove ‘friction’ for customers, to allow for companies and individuals to automate wherever possible and to reap the benefits of tasks done efficiently and effectively.  I have loved every moment of it. The intellectual challenge of complex engineering, the creativity required to succeed, the inspiring, authentic, super-talented and passionate people the industry attracts, the delight of bringing an ethereal concept into reality (the more crazy the concept the greater the delight).  Increasingly however, I am left reflecting on what we have inadvertently created. In driving for frictionle...

Steve Jobs famously shared his view that we shouldn't settle for anything less than work we love. This is a sentiment I share strongly and I have been fortunate enough (and stubborn enough) to have had the opportunities to follow my passions in life. Life is short and work is about far more than money. "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." Steve Jobs I am not alone in this pursuit. A YouGov survey found that 64% of people in the UK would accept lower pay for a job they loved. Disappointingly though, despite this lack of greed, only 17% of people have been successful in finding these fulfilling roles. That leaves, as a minimum, a staggering 47% of people who long for a job they love but have yet to find it! Lives of quiet desperation. Lives fil...

Economic growth over the last 250 years has been driven largely by developments in technology. Today's successful organisations know that innovation provides the promise of commercial growth for those who can harness it and oblivion for those who either delay too long or choose the wrong technology to invest in. While the complacent may bask in the illusion of stability, in most industries innovation is happening at an astonishing rate and the associated opportunities and risks have never been more stark. Of the companies who made up the FTSE 100 in the 1980s only 28 now remain. Today's IT Director/CIO has the demanding responsibility to ensure that their organisation thrives through this period of change. Determining which technology innovations have the potential to successfully disrupt the market and to setup their organisation to drive strategic advantage therein. The task of identifying genuine disruptive technology is made far more difficult by the sheer volume ...

One of the challenges facing any leader, especially in digital roles, is whether to optimise teams for efficiency or agility. The two aspects of team performance rarely being good bedfellows. Some recent research suggests that crows may have the solution to this tricky balance at the heart of operational effectiveness. My own experience has convinced me that small, stable teams are by far the most effective structure for efficient, fast delivery. Throw in highly capable people with direct responsibility for the outcomes (not blindly delivering what others say is needed) and you have the foundations for success in the majority of situations. I’m in good company, Jeff Bezos' "two pizza teams” has become a famous and highly memorable call for small team sizes. Furthermore a direct link between team stability and operational efficiency has been demonstrated in numerous academic studies and promoted by industry leaders such as Chris Fry. Small teams, that have been to...