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Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
ROLL UP! ROLL UP! Get your untested management assumptions here! People don’t like to think they’ve been made fools of. So they don’t think they’ve been made fools of, even when they have. And...
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Zen and the art of the Policy Officer
You don’t have to spend decades in a Buddhist monastery staring at a wall to get enlightenment. Become a Policy Officer in a Local Authority! Here are 3 Eastern concepts I have become fully conversant...
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13 reasons why
Here are 13 reasons why you should buy the latest IT solution you will grow a thick mane of glossy lustrous hair. Chestnut brown. if you are small, you’ll grow big. and if you’re thick, you’ll turn...
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How to write a plan
There’s loads of guff in the public sector around “having a plan”. Contrary to expectations, planning doesn’t produce plans. No, the need for plans gives birth to planning, like: leadership strategic...
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Value for money is the breakfast of champions!
Value for money. That’s what. The public sector and Council’s in particular are obsessed with “value for money”. Or rather obsessed with the phrase, and where they are on associated league tables that...
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The Policy Officer’s Creed
This my pen, there are many like it but this one is mine. My pen is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My pen, without me, is useless. Without … Continue reading →
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The day I became a Policy Officer
When/if I do get the chance to start doing something systemsy, I’ll come back here and type about it. Ideally that would be next week but I doubt it as it has been almost two years since I’ve had a …...
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Enter Kanban
Now scroll down. All the way down here please. Almost there. 5. 4 3 2 1 About here will do. Now, list as many of those objects as you can. After you’ve done that scroll down. More please. More than …...
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Arse about face
We are coming up with this years Council Plan right now. There are a different amount of groupings, 3 so far, last year there were 5. They might be called themes, last year they were called priorities....
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3 things you will never find on a lessons learned report
In Prince2 it is best practice to conduct a Lessons Learned Exercise for the Lessons Learned Log to go into the Lessons Learned Report. I find it is much more useful to conduct a Lessons Not Learned...
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A cheap notebook
This notebook could save your bacon Here’s why [link] Daniel Kahneman was asked how we can improve our performance. Kahneman, the author of Thinking: Fast and Slow, replied, almost without hesitation,...
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5 harsh truths you’ll wish you’d learnt earlier
Entirely understandable but…epic fail. No need to give up your own thoughts and copy everyone else’s! Inspired by this, and copying this virtually to the letter, here are “5 harsh truths you need to...
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How to start a library of dead ideas
A great big Nazi bomb couldn’t scare these gents off their knowledge. But you wouldn’t need a bomb in most organisations. Not because people don’t like knowledge, but because you need a memory to have...
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Goodbye ICT, you’re already dead
There was a ruckus earlier between me and ICT. There was an “engagement exercise” where they came to my floor on a specific day and time, for us to “see how they work” and for them to give us “tips …...
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Where’s the work?
Can you see how central purpose is? Over to the side and up a bit. I found this in a meeting room left over from some project planning session. I’m guessing it’s right at the beginning of a project as...
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One of these is unnecessary
The one on the left is an ice-cream Battenburg cake. The one on the right is an actual Battenburg cake. They both have pink and yellow bits, and are encased in sponge. Surely one of them is...
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6 things Local Government gets wrong about you
1: It thinks you care most about big projects Name several things you care about your Council doing right. It might be making sure the roads aren’t full of pot-holes. Or keeping your street free of...
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The Charlie Watts Paradigm
You walk into a pub and ask the barman… And he says… You’d be annoyed and amazed. And you’d remain thirsty. How likely is that? Well, remember when I decided to buy a bike? Remember this man? ‘Course...
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Lazy managers make hungry children
Managers working in the public sector are starving poor people because they are too lazy to bother picking up a book. Yes, I said that. The above graph shows the reasons why people are turning to food...
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