Seeking inspiration
In preparation for a new YouTube video, I re-read Derek Sivers brilliant book, Hell Yeah or No. And tbh, I’d forgotten how good this book was. I’d scribbled blue ink on pretty much every other page!
Here’s three quotes that particularly resonated.
“How you do anything is how you do everything. It all matters.”
“Judge a goal by how well it changes your actions in the present moment.”
“Inspiration is not receiving information. Inspiration is applying what you’ve received.”
Wise words.
The age of AI has begun
Who do you listen to when predicting the future?
Should you listen to your mates down the pub (or gym), follow the latest LinkedIn post or turn to someone who’s actually got the T-shirt from the last revolution?
For me, I’ve been watching, reading and generally paying more attention to Bill Gates. And I like his style.
He’s dropped his computer-boffin-know-it-all status and adopted a more down-to-earth approach to solving the world’s biggest problems. As you’d expect, he’s still at the forefront of conversation.
In a recent article, he discusses artificial intelligence (AI). And he’s excited by the opportunities—to advance humankind and solve real world issues.
He concludes, “We should keep in mind that we’re only at the beginning of what AI can accomplish. Whatever limitations it has today will be gone before we know it.”
Interesting times ahead.
Dashboard turning green
How do you keep track of progress?
Here’s the dashboard we’ve used to keep track of our video tutorials for our Leadership Programme. It’s a simple spreadsheet in Google Docs.
The colour scheme is a simple one. Green and red represent complete and incomplete. Dark red is not yet started. Yellow are my next actions. Dark yellow is my priority.
It’s been great to see this course come together. It’s been quite a journey. And it feels like we’re finally approaching the home stretch.
Almost there. Everything above row 132 has turned green!
#LeadershipDevelopment
#BehindTheScenes
Excellence. [Period.]
What was the first ‘business book’ you ever read?
For me (and a million others), it was In Search of Excellence. Written by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman, ISOE was one of the first non-academic business books to hit the shelves. (This was 1982).
Since then, Tom Peters has made it his mission to pursue Excellence.
He’s travelled the world talking about his findings—2,500 speeches, 2,500,000 frequent-flier miles, 63 countries. And written 20 books on the subject.
But now he’s decided to hang up his clogs. (It was his 80th birthday last November).
In Tom’s words, here’s how it all started.
“In mid-1978, I was summoned to New York City to meet with the Managing Director of McKinsey & Co. When I did so, I was given an assignment. McKinsey developed genius strategies. But the clients by and large couldn’t implement them. What was going on? Answering that question, or trying to, has been my preoccupation ever since (45 years).”
My life (and a million others) has been shaped by Tom’s passionate plea to pursue Excellence.
Excellence. Now.
Excellence. Forever.
Thank you Tom, for everything.
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.