Nicholas Bate

That Was The Week That Was

A good week: thanks to the guys at Warwick Business School who despite wondering what the job market will be like in 10 months time, were up-beat and ready to work hard on the challenging topic of Self Management. Then to Paris via Eurostar and my first experience of the re-modelled St Pancras station; they've done a great job.
Paris is undoubtedly suffering in the down-turn. Diners are going down a price bracket or two, skipping starters and horror of horrors: sharing dessert. But on a sunny Friday, there were still queues for La Tour Eiffel.
Paris is Paris: always beautiful. And thanks to the international team for a great two-day work-shop.

PCWorld

Thanks to the team at PCWorld. You know what you need to do; turn those plans into action!

TW3: That Was The Week That Was

Thanks very much to the teams I worked with in Montreal and Toronto; thanks for your hard work. Thanks for your hospitality.

As anyone in the consulting business knows, especially if you run workshops, it's interesting how fresh in-sights can constantly hit you, especially with subjects which are seemingly familiar.

Thus it's a rare work-shop-whatever the subject-where time management does not come up. Here's what I tend to say: forget time management. You will never have enough time. Manage your attention.

For more on this, see Linda Stone who summarises:

We manage our time. We don't manage our attention.
Managing time is all about lists, optimization, efficiency, and it's TACTICAL. Managing attention is all about INTENTION, making choices as to what DOES and DOES NOT get done, and it's STRATEGIC. Managing time is an action journey. Managing attention is an emotional journey.

I was reminded of Linda Stone via the site of Deborah Schulz, who discusses more on the subject.

Much of the week was on presenting. With bright teams, the dangers of PowerPoint can be rapidly established in the sense of 'good' vs 'bad' powerpoint. However a deeper issue lurks, I think, which I refer to as the '3 into 1' problem. When you present you need three things for a great presentation. Firstly slides to help illustrate any points, secondly handouts to ensure the audience takes action when they leave you. And thirdly your own notes. These are separate pieces of work with only some over-lap. A significant mistake is to try and combine the three needs into one output: the powerpoint slide. The slide becomes a visual + your notes + a take-away. And no wonder it fails on at least 2 out 3, sometimes all three.

Catch up tomorrow: it'll be the subject of this week's tutorial; tomorrow at 0700.

TW3: That Was The Week That Was

Started the week working on a new book. At last it seems that I have a sensible deal for Unplugged a book I completed over a year ago. The delay has good news in that it means a likely two-book deal. More news when everything is finally confirmed, especially on the new book and likely publication dates. Many thanks for your patience, those who have been keen to read Unplugged.

Ended the week in Oslo, Norway. When not working with the great team at MSN (thank you for all your hard work!) I checked out the Nobel Peace Centre (story of all the laureates) and some great art museums. Weather was supurb, but just as I found in Sweden and Iceland on recent trips there was little snow this year which of course is concerning for the locals.

TW3: That Was The Week That Was

Thanks to great teams last week at Barclays and M&S. Working on developing advanced soft skills for The New World of Work.

TW3 (That Was The Week That Was)

Thanks to some great audiences this week. Started the week in Amsterdam with an international one (Netherlands/France/Turkey/Greece/Spain/Portugal/Austria/Finland/Norway) from MSN. And then later in the week back to the UK for Barclays. Both groups were a delight to work with. Thank you.

TW3: That Was The Week That Was

An 'on' week. A week of investment. In me, in relationships, in learning, in clients, in study, in process. A week to get out of the swamp and take the high ground for a while before returning to the fray. We all love the fray but only if we have the energy and balance to cope with it.

Towards the end of the week joined the excellent team at Warwick Business School to help them with the introductory week-end of their pioneering distance-learning MBA for IBM. IBM: there's a name. From type-writers to 'nobody ever got fired for buying IBM' to near-collapse to the new lean and mean IBM who realise (as must we all) that they will only contine to be successful if they never forget that they must regularly re-invent. Great cohort of students who are going to do really well. Huge thanks to Stuart and Debbie from Warwick and Adam, Sarah and Jacqui from the Strategic Edge team

TW3: That Was The Week That Was

A busy and enjoyable week. Mainly working with established clients which is always particularly pleasurable: an opportunity to see the improvements beginning to reveal themselves. For the students on the full-time MBA at WBS, the honey-moon is over and exams are kicking in. We worked hard on becoming excellent presenters. (Don’t forget PresentationZen, by the way). And it was great to be working along-side one of my colleagues from Strategic Edge, Zoe, who helped with ‘refinement’ of presentation style. As Zoe pointed out: there is of course no one style you are trying to copy: simply reveal your own style. As always, that is our definitive quest: to be the best version of you.

With Barclays I taught at one of their ‘Universities’. Those of you who have been on one of my seminars will know that one of my ‘rants’ is the New World of Work & 7 Drivers of Change. Barclays is of course in one of the markets where change needs to come rapidly if there is going to be more that just modest survival. Key idea we were working on: if you can’t change the market, change yourself.

On Friday, I was with Hudson the recruitment company. A tough environment at any time. At lunch had a salad at Prêt a Manger in High Holborn, London, UK. Having finished I went back to the counter to get a peppermint tea (highly recommended by the ancient science of Ayurveda, by the way) and handed over a £10 note. The assistant, on enquiring if I had anything smaller and me apologising and saying no, said the drink was on the house. That’s cool. So easy, no hassle. But I’m remarking on it: it’s remarkable. How much stuff do you and your team do for others which is truly remarkable?