A restless pursuit of a better tomorrow
King Charles III visited Germany this week—his first official foreign tour as reigning monarch. And in an address to the German parliament, he closed by saying, “In the long and remarkable story of our two countries, there are many chapters yet unwritten. Let us fill these with a restless pursuit of a better tomorrow.”
Choice words.
Leadership perspectives
Leadership in a volatile and uncertain world. What does this look like to you?
Earlier today, I visited the excellent Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) for a lively panel discussion. Hosted at the new Executive Education Centre, it was an opportunity to hear first hand how leading organisations are embracing leadership in a post-pandemic world.
(It was also the first time I’d visited AMBS since early 2020!)
Facilitated by Michael Taylor (The Business Desk), the panel included Lisa Shaftesley (Booking.com), Jo Ahmed (Deloitte) and Dr Courtney Owens (AMBS).
Key takeaways from the event.
We’re in a global market for global talent.
Hybrid working and flexibility is expected by new recruits.
The world has shifted—leaders need to trust people to do the right thing.
Building resilience, relationship building and communication skills are vital.
Gen Z are a very demanding and savvy bunch!
A big thanks to the team at AMBS for hosting the event. Always inspired.
Taste the Difference
Can you taste the difference between two different glasses of wine?
What about two bottles from the same estate?
These are just two questions we explore when it comes to measuring performance.
(Hic!)
Filming firsts
Really pleased with filming today. Getting slicker—first time. And that’s a first. Better at editing too. Videos make the content really come to life!
A Scholarly Bee
Love this image.
Taken a few summers ago—on the cover of our Twelve Scholars Journal (Module 1). A reminder to keep pollinating ideas, and pay attention to the small things.
Persist and resist
What do you need to persist with? And what do you need to resist?
We’re halfway through filming our leadership programme. Striving for perfection—often ending with poor. It’s been a journey with ups and downs. But filming is something we need to persist with. A commitment to ourselves and our community.
The resistance? Well, that’s what’s holding me back.
The muse tells me to follow every shiny idea and incorporate into each lesson. This can can happen at any moment—normally mid filming!
Which is strange. I’ve spent the past 12 months incorporating as many ideas into the course as possible. Filtering out weak ideas. Replacing with stronger ones. And yet—and yet, more ideas keep coming.
For now, I’ve followed my own advice and created a car park to store ideas for a later date. This is also the topic of our next lesson to film—Lesson 30: Create a car park.
Onwards.
Get there faster!
Here’s a frame from our latest film.
It’s a summary slide (white text on dark grey) taken from Lesson 9 — ‘Gather a trusted team’.
The visual language is really starting to shine through. The white icon in the top right hand corner represents the 'trusted team’. You’ll also find this icon in our Leadership Playbook and on the Learning Platform.
One of the great things about filming the Leadership Development Programme, has been the ability to expand our content by adding this interactive element.
And check out our EGSP Framework® A3 poster in the background. Really pleased with how the ‘YouTube studio’ brings each lesson to life.
9-9-90-9
How would you summarise your day?
Well, this was my frustrating day—in four numbers:
9 hours filming.
9 minutes content.
90 minutes to upload.
9 mistakes found—so far.
Yep, I spent the whole day working on just one tutorial video. So many areas for improvement. So many lessons learned. Perfectionism working overtime.
On days like these, you’ve gotta just embrace it. And smile.
Frustration will only make it worse. (Trust me!)
Learn to switch off. Disrupt your thinking. And go again tomorrow.
Late night Uploads
Some things just take time—and can’t be rushed.
Uploading video content to the cloud is one of those activities. No matter how hard you try to compress the files, clear the decks and ensure maximum upload speed. You are in many ways, in the lap of the internet gods. And today was one of those days.
One file has been uploading for 3 hours—time to call it a night and go again tomorrow. Onwards.
Lights camera mic action
Welcome to our YouTube studio.
A sneak peak at what’s involved with every tutorial we produce. And with our latest Leadership Development Programme—there’s 100+ lessons to film, edit, and upload.
In this photo, you’ll see our Digital SLR camera linked to computer with HD cable. The camera sits inside the Glide Gear mirrored box, with iPad used as a screen projector via Zoom and Screen Mirroring. Clever stuff.
There’s a Rode boom mic just visible (top centre), with two light boxes mounted on C-stands.
You’ll also see our latest EGSP A3 poster in the background!
Suffice, is satisfactory
‘That’ll suffice’ is one of those phrases we don’t use often enough. It’s another way of saying something is satisfactory, good enough to move on, or acceptable—as minimum.
We know we can do better. And others will know it too. But for now, that’ll suffice is a useful way to prevent perfection paralysis and actually get stuff done. Onwards.
A Collection of Books
Starting a product shoot today—to capture all books we reference in our Leadership Playbook. The final images will then be used in our video tutorials.
Productivity Hack of the Month
Who knew! The solution to cold feet at night is a hot water bottle.
Not only did I nod off much quicker than normal. I woke far fresher and more rested. If only I’d started this evening ritual 6 months ago.
In truth, I’ve been fighting freezing feet for far too long. Not willing to accept the inevitability of old age kicking in. Nor prepared to stop running in cold conditions.
And so, one night when I just couldn’t get to sleep (extra socks and blankets already deployed), I bit the bullet and ordered my first hot water bottle in 25 years!
Such a simple hack. I had the best night’s sleep. And the most productive day since last summer!
Creating a Visual Factory
What colours do you use to measure performance?
Most people use the traditional Red-Amber-Green (RAG). The typical default for project managers, corporate executives and statistical software.
Some prefer to use just two colours. Red and Green.
However, these examples are mediocre at best—they aren’t particularly helpful if you want to make Excellence your mission.
In our Leadership Development Programme, you will find an alternative method that makes it blindingly obvious what to expect, and where you’re going.
The colourful buckets above are just one slide from our online programme. And the little factory represents Lesson 49 — Create a visual factory.
So much more to say on this subject!
Civilised Discussion
How do you best engage with a community?
This is a question I’ve been asking since we launched Twelve Scholars. We’ve tried a few things: podcasts, printed publications, meet-ups, online events and a weekly newsletter. All have been a success at some level. (Who knows where we’d be without the pandemic). And each format will continue in its own way.
But as we launch our Leadership Development Programme, I’m reminded of the benefits of civilised discussion—aka our online learning platform.
We built the bones of our leaning platform last year. And we’re now in the final stages of curating content and uploading video tutorials.
We’re using Discourse to host the learning platform. It’s a powerful app that has reimagined what a modern Internet discussion forum should be today, in a world of ubiquitous smartphones, tablets, Facebook, and Twitter.
Can’t wait to start engaging with our scholar community on Discourse soon.
Focused Blocks of Time
The FBOT is your friend.
It gives you permission to stay focused.
It gives you permission to say “no thanks”.
It gives you permission to reset expectations.
It gives you permission to set limits.
It gives you permission to switch your phone off.
It gives you permission to ignore messages.
It gives you permission to structure your day.
It gives you permission to take breaks—then get back to work.
It gives you permission to break your tasks down.
It gives you permission to celebrate small wins.
It gives you permission to keep things simple.
It gives you permission to get things done.
Stay focused.
Results-Only Work Environment
How do you structure your working day?
The Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) is a concept I stumbled upon 12+ years ago.
I was contracting for a client. They were obsessed about being busy. And were proud of how much activity they would do.
I on the other hand—was there to do a job. And no matter how busy I was seen to be, I still had to get the work done. And this is where the Results-Only Work Environment came in.
Instead of focusing on activity, you focus on deliverables. You get measured by performance, results or output, not by presence in the office or the hours that you work.
At the time it was revolutionary—for my client. We reevaluated the structure of their working day, and typical week. And became obsessed about achieving results—not activity.
Whenever you find yourself caught in the busyness trap, it’s worth stepping back and questioning what you’re trying to achieve.
EGSP Framework® Posters Available soon
We are printing a limited number of EGSP Framework® A3 posters. Printed on 250gsm silk paper. These bold pictures will help inspire a growth mindset.
The typeface is Helvetica Now Text Extra Bold—offset at 12 degrees!
Find out more from our online store.
EGSP® Is Registered
Good news. We received confirmation today that ‘EGSP’ is now a registered trademark.
EGSP® is central to everything we do at Twelve Scholars. It stands for Excellent, Good, Satisfactory and Poor.
We introduce EGSP in our Journal as a framework for improving performance. EGSP is used throughout our leadership development programme. EGSP is also referenced in our podcasts. We’ve even created an ‘EGSP poster’ using the latest Helvetica typeface.
More importantly, the EGSP Wooden Block® is now better protected. And that’s something to celebrate!