Category: Videos

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Creative Activities for Virtual Meetings, part 2

Today, April 30, 2020, was the last day for the mini-online workshops I’ve been hosting over the last 7 weeks.

The first two-weeks was an experiment to see if the ideas were useful/helpful for people, they were and so I continued.

Unfortunately, the attendance in the second series wasn’t what it was in the first 2-3 weeks, and most days no one showed up, although I continued to have people telling me they were watching the videos (which YouTube stats confirmed), finding the information helpful, and that they wanted to come but couldn’t make it work in their schedule.

For me, the series was a good learning experience, it confirmed that adding creative activities to work situations was useful and interesting for people, I got to meet some new people, and learn about things going on in other parts of the world. And, it helped me get through the first few weeks of lockdown and things being turned upside down. I’ve worked remotely for 20+ years, but having most of the rest of the world also working remotely was new, and chaotic.

I’m working with a couple of colleagues to create a new, bigger program of how to apply creativity to business, so watch this space and my social media accounts for details in the coming weeks, or get in touch directly for a sneak-peak.

Until then, the full set of videos is on my Youtube channel, here and if you would like the slide deck, feel free to get in touch with me.

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Creativity Activities for Virtual Work

From March 17, 2020 until March 27, 2020 I ran a small online experiment demonstrating creative activities that could be done in virtual meetings. The sessions were 30 minutes long and had the same format, except that the main activity each day was different. These mini-workshop experiments were well received by participants, and I enjoyed doing them, so they are continuing through April 2020.

I started them as a way to help and that will continue to be their main objective.

Online meetings get boring and repetitive, and are even worse when our regular routines are as completely disrupted as they are right now. Adding short, creative activities to the meetings, not only adds variety and a bit of fun, but it can help relieve some of the pressure and stress, at least for a few minutes.

The videos from the mini-workshops are in a playlist on my YouTube channel, here.

The slides from the sessions are here.

There’s a short video wrapping up the first series and introducing the April series, here.

If you’d like to join the sessions during April, they take place daily at 4pm (16:00) CET on Zoom. Details are:

https://zoom.us/j/136891675?pwd=eCtZK3IzKzQ3QktXamxxYzlXcytxZz09
Meeting ID: 136 891 675
Password: 022145

I hope you’ll join us!

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Sustainable Leadership

At the end of February 2020, I did two talks on Sustainable Leadership. The first was with Janus Boye from Boye Company, you can find his blog post and a link to the recording and slides here.

The second was with Glenn Behenna for him MBA class. In that video Glenn interviewed me about my thoughts and experience with sustainability and leadership. Glenn has graciously allowed me to share the recording of that interview with you. You can find it on my YouTube channel, here.

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Boxes I Fit Into

I have written/spoken a few times lately about how I don’t fit into a box, and that’s true, I fit into many boxes, based on my education, experiences, and areas of expertise. Here is a list*, in alphabetical order:

Abstract Expressionist
Accountant
Agile Implementer of Solutions
Analyst
Artist
Author
Big Picture Seer
Business Analyst
Business Process Analyst
Business-Technology Aligner
Catalyst
Challenger of assumptions
Change Manager
Chaos Organiser
Coach
Collaborator
Communicator
Community Builder
Connector
Consultant
Creative
Critical Thinker
Culture Changer
Decision Maker
Design Thinker
Digital Transformer
Executer
Facilitator
Financial Analyst
Follower
Gamification Consultant
Human’s First Advocate
Implementer
Influencer
Information Technology Process Consultant
Innovator
ITSM Master
Knowledge Management Expert
Knowledge Manager
Leader
Learner
Listener
Manager
Marketer
MBA
Mentor
Networker
Organiser
Painter
Planner
Problem Solver
Process Analyst
Process Designer
Process Thinker
Product Manager
Program Manager
Project Manager
Public Speaker
Questioner
Realiser of Potential
Sales Person
Solopreneur
Strategist
Strategy Developer/Creator/Implementer
Taxonomy Developer
Teacher
Team Builder
Technology Person
Technology Requirements Analyst


*I reserve the right to add to/edit this list

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What do I do?

What do I do?

What box do I fit in?

I find it hard to answer these questions because what I do, to me, is nothing special, except that it is, because for a lot of people what I do is magic.

To me what I do is nothing special because it’s just the way I am, but I am magic and my magic is that I listen.

I listen to people and I solve their business problems. Their problems with processes, technology, employee engagement.

I ask questions and listen until I understand.

I ask questions, challenge assumptions, until I have a clear picture of the situation.

I ask questions and discover the underlying issues.

I ask questions.

I listen.

I suggest practical, implementable solutions.

I am magic.

I enable you to be self-sufficient and not dependant on me for what I know: I will teach you what I have learned so that you can help yourself.

I am magic.

Note: this comes as a follow-on to the video, “Don’t put me in a box“.

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Brick Wall Chats

I have decided to start a new video series.

I’ve had nice/good/supportive feedback from the videos I’ve been doing with John Girard (the KM and Creativity series) and Paulina Larocca (the Creativity Chats series) but scheduling time to record them with John and Paulina has been come increasingly challenging because of our schedules and the timezone differences, so, I’m going it alone.

I’ve decided, at least for now, to call the new series: Brick Wall Chats because of the background I’m using in the videos. People seem to like the background because it’s colourful and different and interesting, which is why I liked it too.

Right now (June 3, 2019), I have recorded 15 videos and will release one per week. The topics range from the business to the personal: metrics and digital transformation to how I have come to be doing the work that I am doing.

If you have a topic suggestion, feel free to get in touch, the same goes if you have comments or feedback about any of the videos. You can subscribe to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCQHNT4UDtM4o-Dcqd9cLGw?view_as=subscriber.

Looking forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences with you.