The three pillars of empiricism and the minefield of intention…

February 7, 2024
Agile, Business, Development, Opinion
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Introduction:
Empiricism (scrum) identify the three pillars as ‘Transparency’, ‘Inspection’ and ‘Adaptation’. On the face of it, these seem quite open and honest pillars. Do they allow for organisational culture that is [perhaps] not quite so clear? Is there a failure to accept the complexity of the real working environment that we call the norm?

Context is a challenging aspect in a work environment and a lot of assumptions can be made.

Lets start with some simple definitions of these three pillars;

Transparency – means facts are presented and available as they are, everyone involved are open in their day to day transactions / communications and news / updates (good or bad) is made clear and available to all and with no hidden agendas. (It shouldn’t be difficult to find something out).

Inspection – refers to inspection by everyone in the team (scrum) and refers to the product, the processes, people, practices and continuous improvement and means a critical investigation with the idea to identify any improvements that can be made as soon as possible. Everyone is responsible.

Adaptation – The response to the transparency and Inspection and the changes needed to respond to the analysis.

Looking back will help to gain perspective on just how far you have come.

Seems quite straightforward seeing it written down however in my own experience, this is perhaps the first and biggest stumbling block any organisation can face. The reality is always far more complex in the real world. For example, in a scrum team where does the transparency end? Do the team need to have an in depth understanding of every project that is in progress in the organisation or just the project that they are working on? How are the team and the stakeholders supposed to be transparent enough? Does ‘everyone’ need to come together on a daily bases and have a group update on every small thing the business is doing? The truth is that all this may be a possibility, it really depends on the project and just how far reaching it is for the organisation as a whole. There are no simple answers and the only way to be as clear as you can is to provide the opportunity to allow discussion.

How many of us have worked in an organisation where getting answers to questions from the organisation was harder than finding hens teeth? Some people tend to hold on to information and manage it like their secret power. You’ve heard the phrase ”Knowledge is power!”? There really are people who don’t like to share knowledge and they can be adept at justifying why this is the case to both themselves and to the organisation. It can be easy to tell yourself that it does not matter, that little bit of information but the reality is that it could be and the only person who can honestly judge that is the one person who may or may not need it. Transparency is a culture and it is really really challenging. In my experience the key here is effective stakeholder management (the subject for another blog).

Inspection is the next subject and once again it seems simple enough. The onus is on the whole team to inspect the product, the processes, the team, the outcomes like this is simply the easiest request ever. How often does something happen that was not considered and or planned for? In software development it tends to happen a lot. The developers are more than likely working on technology (code) they had nothing to do with originally and technology is always improving and changing, so how the new code will interact with the original code can be quite surprising / frustrating. Thankfully agile and lean practice have techniques to tackle inspection. Most people understand the concept of the retrospective, in my opinion, the most valuable event in scrum for many reasons. Retrospectives can be good or bad, the challenge is to make them effective. This can take time building on Commitment, Courage, Openness, Focus and Respect (those good old scrum values). Effective retrospectives will enable conversation and challenge the team. The value is identifying strategies to learn and improve.

This brings us to the adaptation. Everything up to now has little value if the adaptation phase is actioned. Identifying opportunities to improve mean nothing if there is no follow up to deliver the change needed. The key considerations here are;

a. Do we know what we need to do to make the required change and can we measure the success?

b. Can we make the suggested change (do we have the autonomy and or the desire)

c. Is there agreement (consensus) that the change is worthwhile?

d. Are we trying to make too many changes at once?

Seeing an opportunity for change does not mean the team know how to achieve it, sometimes it will take research and investment. For example I was working with a team that wanted to adapt to feature releases to achieve more frequent and safer delivery to the customer, however there were a lot of aspects needed to make this a reality including input from the business to adapt a CAB (Change Advisory Board) process to suit. There were some technical changes to the branch technology that needed to be carried out too. Is there consensus in the team? You don’t need everyone to agree but if the team make a decision (majority), then the team should work together to experiment. If one of the team disagrees because they have experienced this kind of change in the past (with another team), then this is no guarantee that in the current team it cannot work this time. Their experience may offer some valuable insights into a certain approach for example. Finally making too many changes at once is a recipe for confusion as it becomes more challenging to identify what change is impacting what. I joined a team that often did not hold retrospectives and when they did the suggestions for adaptation were numerous and the team felt pressured to record as many changes as they could because they were unclear as to when the next opportunity to adapt would come. This is where the capture of ideas and suggestions is a good starting point and the identification of the highest value change is advantageous. Creating a board where suggestions and ideas were not lost is valuable and the continual evaluation of these against new suggestions are important because you will find that some change will improve the situation elsewhere.

One final point here is that not all change is a success, some ideas fail and it is important to accept the risk and avoid any kind of blame game. By keeping changes small and reversible, you have a team that can truly be courageous and experiment with ideas and by evaluating the success (with metrics), confidence in the change can be built on.

Empiricism exists in nature and although it can seem confusing, the evidence is survival.

One final note from me on metrics. Be careful with metrics, they can cause as much harm than good, especially if there is a lack of transparency on their purpose. Metrics should exist throughout the organisation to measure a variety of functions and an organisation has a responsibility to remain transparent about the what and the why. It is also important in my opinion to allow for conversation on metrics and their value because often small changes can give better results. I would also advocate the allowance for teams to work out and gather their own metrics to prove their own successes. All too often metrics in KPI’s or OKR’s can be lazily sought out to try and compare team value without the consultation of the teams involved. This can lead to a culture of mistrust if the team feel that they are being micro-managed. For example, I worked in an organisation that watched daily captured hours within a team like a hawk and clumsily used these stats to constantly question the value being provided. If a team did not capture all their hours in a day then it was an indicator that they were not doing enough work, but the reality was that they were often being pulled from their planned work to rework old code which was not being captured on a task. The team refused to create tasks for every little bit of work done to justify their existence, which I understood and that was a battle I had with management continuously.

Being agile is about staying light on your feet

January 31, 2024
Agile, Business, Opinion
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I’ve been working with agile now for a few years and I do find that often it is misunderstood massively within organisations. This is mostly the reason businesses just never get the benefits from an agile approach to delivery of projects. In many ways it just seems too simple but the reality is that positive adaptation of agile is really challenging because it takes engagement. How can I put this clearly?

Agile is not a thing you take out of a box and just let go and be free. It is like a new puppy, it needs training and nurturing and in many ways loving. It takes consistency and effort and establishment of some solid ground rules.

Any excuse to put in a photo of the puppy, when he was a puppy…

It takes responsibility to wield agile with purpose and it takes the involvement of the whole organisation, not just the poor development team. After all the benefits of agile that is working will be realised by everyone.

All too often I hear simple statements of the purpose of agile and yet the foundations of agile are covered by the manifesto and principles. For those unsure about them they are here;

There is a lot here to digest and if you do not come up with questions and searches for clarity then you need to read them again. I don’t believe they were ever intended as a complete answer and there is a lot to dig into. Each principle for example will need careful consideration and unpicking. I will start to go through the principals one at a time in later editions.

The fact remains that using the word ‘agile’, is in my humble opinion the laziest starting point and having read ‘Make work more fun’, by the corporate rebels gave me an insight that the businesses that seem to be excelling in agile practices are the ones who don’t call themselves ‘agile’.

“Don’t do agile, be agile…”

So what do I mean about staying light on your feet? Simply, although there is a lot of complexity around making agile work, the fundamentals are that the purpose of an agile approach to project delivery is that you don’t continue to invest in projects where the cost of implementation cannot realistically be realised by the work being carried out. Understanding and being clear about the value objectives and also being realistic about the benefits are one thing. The other main element of agile is that more is unknown at the beginning of the project and as more details come to light the greater the understanding is to identify the realities of the value. As the team learn more and share their knowledge, the better they set to be honest about the benefits to the customer and the users. Why waste precious time doing work that will not pay the dividends?

Of course this puts a very simplistic perspective on the problem because not all effort can be measured in financial rewards directly as there are often works that must be completed from a strategic perspective. Moving products to the cloud for example, although there should be an element of value, there could also be a stability or benefits from cloud support elements that are a factor too and the longer term impact needs to be taken into consideration.

This is why it is so important (more so), that organisations are fully transparent about its objectives and strategy. I do love simple goals and objectives, so that they can remain in the forefront of peoples memory but this has to be enhanced by deeper and more complex understanding of the complexity. Life is never simple, but having a heading that is simple to understand and backed up by greater knowledge will enhance the teams ability to ask those difficult questions when value is This is why it is so important (more so), that organisations are fully transparent about its objectives and strategy. I do love simple goals and objectives, so that they can remain in the forefront of peoples memory but this has to be enhanced by deeper and more complex understanding of the complexity. Life is never simple, but having a heading that is simple to understand and backed up by greater knowledge will enhance the teams ability to ask those difficult questions when value is getting close to being unrealised.

Do I miss my old life? And change is constant.

April 22, 2021
From the Archive, Portraits
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Heck, I am not sure, is the simple answer, I’ve not really thought about it all that much if I am being honest. Life is certainly different but not all that much different I suppose.

Prince Charles visits junior recruits at Harrogate College HRH.

I am still in a position to stick to my own values and maintain a life balance that I had struggled a lot with in the old life.

Prince Charles braves the Yorkshire weather that disrespects umbrellas.

I have been going through old photographs, I have not looked at for years and, sure they bring back memories, not all good but mostly, I would say. It’s natural to reflect though, you know, through those rose tinted glasses.

Prince Charles is introduced to recruits in the gymnasium. Nothing quite like traditional military presentations.

As a photographer, I had some amazing experiences, some (not) so great experiences, but it was always interesting to witness things and try to remain neutral, which is not always possible. Doing this does help you in your approach to a job though.

A young recruit demonstrates his learned skills in navigation using a model.

One thing I always tried to be with my photography was honest. Honest with myself, my observation and although true impartiality is challenging, if not impossible, I always wanted to tell a story without prejudice and I know I failed more often than I passed. I don’t berate myself too much because, I believe most photographers do. We are human, we are naturally affected by what we witness and that experience molds us.

Army recruits in their boxing training gear meet the future King.

To be fair, most of my stories would not change the world, or change a perception, but that does not mean that my intention was, where possible to challenge. Some days I would be better than others, some days I outright failed, but most of us do.

Prince Charles will most likely become the next King, we all hope, not for a long time but the reality is he is likely to, one day and recent events highlight this.

So, do I miss my old life? Not really. I had outgrown it some time ago, if I am being honest with myself. It was time to move on a few years ago, but that is all water under the bridge now. Change is constant and often happens at a snails pace so you don’t even recognise it. I try not to regret too much though, life is just too short. I always try to be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday. I don’t always manage that either, but I do try with honesty and I hope integrity.

Prince Charles tries to talk with young recruits going through one of the most dramatic periods of change they will ever experience.

A newbie in the land of confusion

April 6, 2021
Advice, Business, Development, Support
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I am not a rocket scientist, I really am not. This I know very well by now. I am very unlikely to ever be a rocket scientist, just to be clear here, but I am also not that stupid…

Visibility is never 100%, our own limitations are one thing but then there is the shadows caused by moving clouds that mean the sun does not shine everywhere.

As I embark on a new career in the wonderful world of Agile, I have a few hurdles that probably look like hurdles in a great many places of work. Being a newbie is always a challenge, always. It’s kind of like jumping into an epic book but starting half way through.

It really is like this and it doesn’t help that the organisation just doesn’t seem to care all that much. Is it too much to ask to be able to access the information I need to help me gain the required understanding? Probably as these days of employee empowerment, and digital channels being a free for all (it seems). Governance or rules have gone the way of the Dodo, it seems. Everyone is busy busy busy creating content that often it feels like it has no connection to the quagmire elsewhere in the organisation. What is wrong with having some simple rules to follow so that everyone’s content remains relevant, contextual and meaningful? Or maybe the rules do exist but are just too hard to find in a swamp full of opinion and perspectives.

I like empowerment, I love it in fact, it is a really huge and beneficial step forward although I think many organisations are confused by the concept. Empowerment is not about a lack of accountability or responsibility. it’s about allowing and authorising people to make decisions in your organisations where their expertise allows. After all you wouldn’t expect the receptionist to decide to spend a billion of the organisations funds to implement a new process of recruitment. Of course not, I’m clearly being daft. It is just an exaggeration to make a point although it seems that with communication means, this is exactly the kind of error being made.

Confluence pages are made with ease, they feel disposable and irrelevant, but they are visible, accessible and may be believed as representative the organisations values, but do they? Finding accurate and comprehensive information is becoming increasingly difficult when organisations seem reluctant or unwilling to control and maintain any more.

Shifts have been quick, digital content is powerful and really useful, but only when it all connects. Are we in a vacuum of uncertainty, where organisations don’t feel confident to pull back the reigns of empowerment in order to get it working right? Just setting the approved layout of information with a universal understanding of what is required with a process of either peer review or line manager checks might help but it does feel like this goes against the empowerment movement, but checks are not a negative thing, they are a learning and confidence aid. What is wrong with a more experienced member of staff, sharing their knowledge?

So I will continue to wade through the fragmented information to try to gain the insights needed to add value.

Agile can be great if it’s treated with respect

March 29, 2021
Advice, Development, Landscapes, Opinion
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As a practitioner in AgilePM, a professional Scrum Master and working in the role of an Agile delivery manager, I don’t consider myself an expert. If I did I would probably remain lost in the sea of Agile experts. There are a lot. Although I’m unsure exactly what an expert is. Feel free to let me know if you have any insight.

The idea that ‘Agile’ is order is not respecting the environment where it operates.

I have mentioned before the belief that many people who consider themselves ‘Agilists’ do so to fit into the crowd without really getting the point. Another misconception about ‘Agile’, is its simplicity! It’s a piece of cake… Go away for a couple of days or a week on a course and the little bit of knowledge starts to open up the possibility of what it can produce. It it’s no secret that it can be an incredibly valuable method / mentality / idea / thing / whatever… It certainly seems to work well in a development / software environment, but it is far from simple when it comes to implementing it.

When you look at it as a Scrum team or other small team working towards a valuable product, it looks pretty simple, and those diagrams do a good job of making it appear simple, but that is their job.

The problem is though, ‘Agile’ does not operate in a sterile bubble, where communications are controlled on rails and everyone knows exactly what they and their whole team are doing down to the minuscule detail and management sit in their offices comfortable that the scrum team is producing immense value every iteration.

If only it was that simple…

Now, I don’t have the solutions for you, I told you I’m not an expert, all I do know is that I have looked at an organisation in. the past and said to myself, “Agile would really work well there!”, and then the real work begins. You don’t have to have a vision as to how it will ultimately look, because, the point is that true ‘Agile’ adapts to and around the team, as long as it’s understood and respected enough. I mean, have you ever truly thought about exactly what an empowered team looks like? It’s about the loss of control and ultimate trust, mountains of trust and that subject is a blog post in itself.

How many times have you managed a team that was a carbon copy of the team before?

Thats right and the primary reason a lazy, formulaic approach to ‘Agile’ will be doomed to fail, it will never get to perfection for more than a moment and some dynamic or other messes with it.

It will always and constantly need attention and love to succeed. It’s just not simple to organise a group of human beings into a performing team by just reading a few pages in a text book. It’s a challenge, a rewarding challenge at times, but a challenge all the same..

But, you know what? It might just be worth that effort…

Trying to focus within the noise

March 22, 2021
Advice, Development, Opinion
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I have always been easily distracted, I know this about myself, even if it’s not something I ever really wanted to admit publicly. There, it’s out there now and I am not ashamed one little bit…

You have to find your own peace in the noise to really plan your next moves.

My life is certainly not a failure, both my personal and professional lives have regrets, as all our ours do, but I am positive about where I am today. I have made mistakes and people have made mistakes around me and even with me. Thats life I am afraid and we learn from our mistakes only if we let ourselves.

Now I certainly hope I am not preaching, but I’ve been guilty of failing to plan properly and cliché’s about planning to fail do not really help. I’ve pretty much always gone through my days reacting and making decisions as I went. I guess I make pretty good decisions as I cannot look at myself as a failure. I have done pretty well. Now let’s not get carried away here, I’m not saying I couldn’t have done better or achieved more, possibly, but who really knows and who really cares? The past is back there, where it belongs and I have no desire to go back. Mostly because it would be pointless and impossible. We tease ourselves with notions of time machines and making different choices.

So, what’s the point of this blog?

Well far from being completed, I started making some changes in the way I work some time ago that was conscious and considered. I started to give myself time to plan. A regular time to reflect on today and then look forward to tomorrow. I close myself off, a set time every day. I check I’ve done my work for today and if not I establish why not. I then make sure my email inbox is empty (every day), I will write about that another day. I look at what I need to achieve tomorrow and see what is possible in my diary. It’s clear that I cannot get everything done every day, no-one can manage than, but I can control my own intent and make my own decisions about my objectives and make sure I am prepared to work on them.

I won’t lie, it’s a work in progress and one that has it’s pitfalls and hurdles but I am able to better control my own time and less inclined to suffer other peoples poor control.

So it’s time for me to sign off now to prepare for tomorrow…

See you soon.

P.S. The touch typing is coming on now…

Communication is hard and if you don’t think so, you’re doing it wrong.

March 18, 2021
Advice, Opinion
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I’ve spent a lot of my career around communications specialists, even considered myself to be there too. Although I know a lot about communications, the more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know half as much as I think.

we are often not as clear in our communications as we believe.

People are complex, really complex and that is the real issue for me. We can easily get sucked into patterns of communication based on assumptions. How often have you spent ages working on that email, to inform your team of important changes and felt that great sense of relief when you hit send?

Just how important was that information?

Communication is a minefield, effective communication is the never ending story…

Instant messaging, email, texts, presentations, calls, face to face, the list goes on and with remote working, the challengers are getting harder. You can be having a conversation with a colleague and never be sure that they are really paying attention. Are you getting eye contact? Do they even have their cameras on?

People are also so diverse that we often make assumptions that we have been clear in our direction only discover later that we were not understood, a word was taken in a different manner changing context resulting in that work nit getting completed.

I guess that the starting point to improvement is the acknowledgement that you don’t know it all and show some bloody humility, learn to relate better and try to empathise with whoever your audience is.

I am starting to understand that communication, like a lot of things, is like a sandy beach, you can make a path that people can follow easily enough but sometimes the sea or the wind can obscure it easily, the path can get lost in other foot prints, your path can also be obscured by others on the beach on purpose…

Constantly question yourself, learn a bit more each time and will will improve but you will never get it right every time.

The power of ‘No’ and the authority to use it.

March 15, 2021
Advice, Opinion
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‘No’ is one of the first words we learn, certainly it’s one of the first words we hear. Could this be the reason we don’t like to use it very often?

It can feel intimidating when being given more work but you can say ‘no’.

When it comes to our own productivity, it’s a word that we must get used to in order to reach anywhere near our own potential. When you don’t use ‘no’, you are actually giving up your own control of your time. Not using ‘no’, means ‘yes’. Well thats what people hear when they don’t hear ‘no’.

It’s actually a really hard word to use, it feels negative in an age where positivity and a ‘can do’ attitude is what we are constantly told is the only way to be. If you don’t say ‘no’, but a silent ‘yes’, you will never control your own time, and if you don’t control your own time, you can never be the best you can be.

The only person who can give you the authority to use the damn word is you.

Take a brief moment to think about it. You have been given another load of work by your boss, the fact it’s your boss makes it hard, right? Your boss is the reason you have a job in the first place, so it will feel hard. It’s a comfort zone and the only way to beat a comfort zone is to push through it. The more you say ‘no’, the easier it will become.

Of course, saying ‘no’, is usually a little more subtle than that, it’s probably not wise to just say it for the sake of it, that’s a path to unemployment… By controlling your own time, and making sure you are able to prioritise your work, you will be better prepared to say ‘no’ by telling your boss (or whoever is requesting your efforts), the reasons why you cannot. After all, by correctly managing your time, you will have prioritised your effort to the benefit of the business. What boss would not appreciate that?

So, saying ‘no’ on its own is clearly enough. It’s a piece of the larger puzzle, but the truth remains, you have to consider how you can say ‘no’, maintain your own credibility and be the leader of your own destiny.

Take your time, take a deep breath, consider your situation and be honest and bold.

“Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie”

March 4, 2021
Advice
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Readers of this may well recognise this title. It is one of the rules for life that Jordan Peterson wrote about in his popular book “12 rules for life”.

Water always takes the path of least resistance but even so, it’s persistence slowly but surely wears its path down.

I won’t presume to go into more detail as he does in the book, he is far more adept at doing this than I am.

I was thinking about this today though when I had another blog post make me think. All too often we are tempted to take the path of least resistance

As human beings can we ever really know ‘the truth’? I am of an opinion these days that the answer is a resounding ‘No’! Human beings live in a landscape lacking clarity and uncertainty and we tend to continuously make judgements based on our own perspectives. Perspective is the key word here. Everyone has one. So perhaps we should stop looking for truth as a definitive, but rather understand that there is likely more than one truth, after all is a truth from the perspective of a person wrong, just because it differs from someone else’s? ‘The’ truth exists, although in most cases, we are truly unable to see it in its entirety. Perhaps we should accept ‘the’ truth is just ‘our’ truth.

It’s a pretty divisive issue these days, especially around the whole issue of ‘Fake News”, and I don’t think that it’s an easy answer. It does, in fact, open up a whole can of worms, for the unscrupulous to exploit this confusion and label it as ‘their’ truth.

Many people deal with this confusion daily, be it from a cheating partner, a domineering boss, overly competitive colleagues, Politics and Religion or many other sources. This remains an issue that has been around from the beginning of time.

What I personally believe is that Human beings have the capacity (in most cases), for empathy with others. Being able to accept another perspective is not an agreement of their perspective but possibly the start of creating understanding as a basis for development. It’s something that is born of emotional intelligence and demonstrates flexibility, honesty and a willingness to understand from a wider point of view.

One thing I do know about honesty, is that it is not often an easy option. In fact I would say that it is often fraught with danger and this is where I agree with Jordan 100%.

It is with this in mind that I will leave you. Please take a little time to ponder this, and be mindful and empathetic of other points of view rather than blatantly disregarding them. It may just make you a better you, wether you agree or not…

Until next time…

My consistency is inconsistency

August 27, 2020
Landscapes, Opinion
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We all have bad days, weeks… Don’t we? [pleading].

I’ve had better days, I’ve also had worse days, although it’s easy sometimes to forget that little nugget.

What is different these days, is that I have methods to help me get through the tough times, that I didn’t a few years ago.

It’s nearly time for me to get up (at 0445 hrs) even though I’ve been awake since 0130 hrs. On a plus point I’ve done some reading so thats a tick on my to do list. I’m ahead of my game today already… Every cloud.

I’ve journaled, another tick.

I will go for a run once there is some light outside (another tick).

I need to find a photograph from my archive to put on this post too. What shall I use? What seems appropriate?

I have fight now, I won’t let this grind me down. However I feel at this moment, I’m a day closer to my goals.

Mission for today…. stay positive.

Thankyou.

The lake district in the UK is a really special place.

Only here for a second

August 12, 2020
Promotion
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I’ve found myself contemplating a lot of things recently. Better than I have still not come up with answers. Who am I? What am I about? Where am I going?

Still one of my favorite portraits from a shoot a couple of years ago.

Everything I know is from my past and the past is full of things I would rather not think about. Who has never made mistakes? We all have and the kicker is, we will all continue to make them in the future.

I like keeping my lighting simple…

I am learning that you can’t keep living in the past. You have to move on. After all, we only have one life and regrets are not real. Regrets hold you back and stop you from being true to yourself.

All we can do is pick ourselves up, learn as best we can and move on.

Sometimes a bit of colour can be refreshing, especially by mixing lighting.

I have found that I tend to fight ghosts from my past. These ghosts are all imagined, they don’t exist and they are my own brain holding me back. I now believe that some people are more a-tuned to this self sabotage.

Still like simplicity though…

All we can do is be honest with ourselves, leave the past behind us and grab today by trying to be a better version of ourselves than we were yesterday. Sounds easy right?

Did I say I like colour too?

No, it’s bloody difficult and it takes determination and not punishing yourself for falling over every now and again. We are a biggest critic and it can sometimes cripple us.

Getting mood in a picture is the real challenge.

All of these photos in this post are old images, some have never seen the light of day and they represent my past. My history, but they are a spring board my tomorrow. All of these shoots were learning points, lessons in the craft.

Double trouble…

Until next time peeps.

Exit strategy, or is it entrance strategy?

June 15, 2020
Advice, Development, From the Archive, Opinion, Support
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I’m out of here!

Twenty five years! Twenty five years where work has been more than just a job. It’s been an experience, that is for damn sure. There have been laughs, tears, a lot of tears, great times, the worst of times. I will leave with memories, some I wish I didn’t many more that I’m glad of. You know, on reflection, it’s been pretty good overall. More than pretty good to be fair.

Life does not stand still for any of us. It constantly shifts, evolves more than we realise. It’s like when I go for a slow jog, I don’t feel like I’m moving very fast (we have got so used to moving quickly), but every once in a while, look back. You move quicker and farther than you realise.

I guess it all comes down to perspectives after all. You should always remember that your own is just your own. Everybody in your life has their own too. Don’t take it for granted that everyone sees yours.

So the exit ramp is coming up and I can’t see what is around the corner. Most people manage to survive the journey though so the odds are pretty good, hey?

One of the most important things I have ever learnt is not to live in fear of the future, it’s a pointless exercise. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow any more than anybody else. Opportunities come and go, people come and go. I guess all you can try to do is be a person that is positive, always trying to better than yesterday and you will have good people around you most of the time. If someone decides they can’t stay, remember that they have their own shit going on.

I write this during a break where I am preparing a big presentation, an ambitious project that I will be sad not to be able to see through to the end, but I stand resolute that it is the right way forward. Sometimes that is all you can do.

I smile now and remember that happiness is always within your grasp, it’s a choice (most of the time). Choose it for yourself…

Thanks for listening.

The search for positive feedback from meetings

June 10, 2020
Advice, Development, Opinion, Support
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Nature around the garden demonstrates efficient symbiosis. The importance of this connection is not visible or understood by everyone, but ignorance has no relation on it’s importance. Photographer: Mark Nesbit

Nature over time has created an effective and efficient interoperability. Without insects, flowers would not be pollinated, fruit would not grow and the future of these species would be in doubt.

In the business world, we need this level of connectivity, or expect it and more often than not assume it. We build teams, plan meetings and activities and pretty much assume that this is all automatically universally understood and absorbed.

Under the Covid19 restrictions, I see people sitting in more and more meetings, all from home, where we are surrounded by distractions (family issues, bored kids, noise, the broken dishwasher, the list never ends), however all those meetings (I had five yesterday) we are expected to maintain 100% focus. The formats are dull, unimaginative and often pointless or even worse, aimless! Then we are expected to act on them. It’s insanity at times.

Connections must be efficient and effective, otherwise they should be cut. This sounds easy, but often not. I have meetings on in the background as I continue to work now as they track the telephone numbers of those dialling in.

At the start of this Covid journey, I got it. A strange situation, people working from home, we needed to keep an eye on each others mental health, make sure everyone was engaged. The perils of isolation were identified early on.

You need an element of trust towards your work force. The flower doesn’t complain or sulk when a bee passes by without stopping. Another bee from the hive has or will pick up the nectar…

I mean that meetings are not the only way to communicate, there are more effective methods for certain things.

If any of your have your own Covid meeting stories, I’d love to hear them.

Do we take teams and teamwork for granted?

June 5, 2020
Development, Macro, Opinion, Support
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Around the garden feel alone and isolated. Photographer: Mark Nesbit, LIMEfotographic / Marking Time Photography

Today I want to talk briefly about teams, their importance and how, often they are taken for granted.

What is a team? Well, put simply it is a group of individuals working to a common goal or objective with synergy. Of course there are many different types of teams, from sports teams to software developing teams, to Infantry sections and Government teams. They all have different objectives and structures but the fundamentals of good team skills are similar.

Well I know we all understand that there are always effective team and some that are, not so much. We have probably all worked on a team that wasn’t working effectively? There can be many reasons for this but most can be addressed. Clearly this article can’t cover the whole subject.

There are some important considerations at a base level though.

  1. What is the common goal / objective and it it really understood by everyone and are they aware of what their part is in achieving it?

It seems so straightforward, but in my experience, this is one of the most common errors. Confusion and lack of clarity will make team members fill in the gaps which often ends up in team members pulling in different directions or simple standing still, not knowing which way to go.

2. Does each member feel part of the team?

Teams should be organic, they grow and evolve, but some times this can be in a negative way. Dysfunction is a form of function that can come from even one team member that feels isolated. Be aware of the team, the unity takes constant effort and attention that can easily be missed in a busy department.

3. Are there consistent and effective methods of communication adopted?

Seeing this written down, it’s a no brainer, however most team leaders believe that their teams have this down. The reality though is much different. As a team leader, can you categorically say that each member of your team has a voice (that is heard), feels safe (to bring up their ideas), feels respected (given credit for their efforts)? The right methods of communication carried out effectively will certainly be a starting point to building a better team.

There are many ways to fix a team and in most cases there are improvements to be made. Teams can go through constant transitions or change and new members can often be expected to find their own way in. Find their own fit. I saw this happen all the time in the military. In my experience this can work but it certainly is not efficient.

Like always, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

If you like this blog post or any of the others, please click like and share.

George Floyd.

June 2, 2020
Macro, Opinion, Support
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Tears of the grassland. Sometimes the green green grass of home just does not feel so green.

I find myself (as just another white privileged male) thinking about what is going on in the United States of America. With over 60,000 people having died of #Covid19 so far, the riots seem at odds to my United Kingdom. We are told to socially distance and yet there are thousands of people coming together to fight for their beliefs in spite of the risk.

It makes me think. I don’t know how I feel. I am sad that Mr Floyd’s life has ended, of course. I’m sad that it is at the hand of another ‘white’ policeman. I’m partially bemused by the repetitious nature of this incident. It feels like I’ve seen all this before.

The fact is, I have… we all have.

It’s got me thinking about racism, what it actually is. I don’t think we understand it at all. We seem to have this perception that racism is some kind of violent attack (physical or verbal) on someone who ‘looks’ different to ourselves. It’s not. I think it is much more nuanced than that. In most cases it’s much gentler than that. Yes, you heard me, I said that racism can be gentle, passive. Here lies the problem. We make it out to be so easy to remove the scourge of racism from our society, but the fact remains, it remains. It is there, it is not often violent or even identifiable, but it is there.

I don’t think that most people think they are racist, in fact they will often stand up against racism because it’s wrong, right? Of course it is. We can rationalise it and it’s very wrong yet it survives.

I don’t think it’s truly possible to understand racism unless you have been subject to it. I don’t mean being beaten or spat on or verbally abused. I mean simply being treated differently, being looked at in a certain way, being labelled, being pre judged.

Racism isn’t about the violence, that is just a disturbing consequence perpetrated by a minority. It is cultural, it is systemic and it is self perpetuating and lives in a strange situation where our denial to accept that it is more prevalent than we wish to believe, keeps a society from actually dealing with it.

It’s uncomfortable. My knee-jerk reaction is to deny it, even to myself… but am I then simply allowing it to continue?

I offer no solutions. I really don’t know what the solution is, if indeed there really is one to be had. Clearly something has to change but human nature and its insecurities will always get in the way.

By all means comment and give your point of view, I would love to hear from you. In the mean time my thoughts go to the family of George Floyd and those close to him left behind and I say that with the utmost sincerity.

The importance of goals and breaking them…

June 1, 2020
Advice, Development, Macro, Opinion
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The humble bee knows what it needs to do. It doesn’t need to think about it at all.

At the grand old age of… (nearly 50), I am quite late to the party. I’ve always been pretty ambitious. Probably more ambitious than many people who know me realise. My ambition has been fortunate though. I never seemed to reach my full potential. I always felt I could achieve more. Don’t we all feel like this at times?

I never used to really set goals, I never really had a plan or strategy to get to where I wanted to go. I had a vague idea on the destination but lacked the visualisation. You see a vague idea is fine, I guess. I suppose that is a goal, but it’s not going to drive you.

There are times for a bee when it seems there is plenty, it’s all right there for the taking.

A dream or a goal is fine, but just having that is not going to get you there. I don’t even mean you have to have a super dream or goal. It might just be ‘to be happy’. That seems simple enough? Is it?

Write it down!

Now be it!

Easy right?

Didn’t think so. So what have I learned on my [nearly] fifty year journey? It’s taken a while, but I’ve learned that to achieve any goal, you need to analyse it, find out more about it. Break it down into bite size chunks and tackle each chunk one at a time. Make a strategy and a time line that you can work towards. Be realistic and have honesty with yourself. Don’t just pick a goal because, well, someone else has it or you think it’s what is expected. Have your own goals, set them, really analyse them. How can you achieve them?

Breaking them down into chunks, is the first step. Now comes the really hard part…

Do them.

As Lao Tzu said, “the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”, and it’s true. Also some goals will feel more like a thousand mile journey too.

There is nothing quite as exciting as reaching a goal that has taken you time to achieve.

The importance of finding time when there is none.

May 29, 2020
Advice, Macro, Opinion
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Life is so full of distractions that it can be difficult to see what is truly important.

At almost 50, you might think I would have a better idea about life. Certainly I can say I have experience. I have a whole heap of experiences. Some good, in fact lots good, some bad and some just…meh!

In this I am no different to anyone, in this we are all united. I used to be comforted by being so busy. It used to make me feel like I was becoming better at things, at life, at work. I was progressing for sure, but was I getting better?

One of the most important things I have learnt in recent months is that we owe ourselves some time for us. We need to be able to look at our situation in the silence and contemplate what really is important to us. Prioritisation is perhaps one of the most important things we should do for us and it must be honest. Making these decisions in and around the busy day at work or the frantic home life is very difficult, almost impossible.

You need to find your own method, but the first step is to make the time. I try to meditate for 10 mins a day in the morning. I don’t make it every day though. I try to exercise for 30 mins every day, but not always. I write down what I’m thinking about. I am better now at planning my following day and better at sticking to it (I will cover this in a later blog). I’m not perfect though. I still make mistakes and think I always will.

I am better when I find the time to evaluate what has gone on, put it into perspective and decide where things sit on the importance scale, the REAL importance scale, because I find we tend to put too much at the top of this scale that leads to distraction, confusion and ultimately failure.

What is important to you? Well my friend, only YOU can answer that and only YOU can give yourself the time to answer that. If I have one piece of advice though. Don’t always expect an easy answer. It can take time to get to the truth…

If only our lives allowed us the single mindedness of the bee.

Covid19 and the work continues…

May 28, 2020
Advice, Landscapes, Macro, Opinion
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Covid has not affected everyones productivity.

Like pretty much everyone else, Covid19 has affected their work lives, the ‘work from home’ scenario should be in full swing now. For most, it has been a change, some for the better and others… well you know?

I must admit, that for me it started pretty well. I could see better communication within the department although the down side was more meetings I did not ‘need’ to be at.

I think that when changes in the work place occur, either by design or necessity, it is very important to keep checking. What starts off as progress can soon lead to complacency and turmoil if not unchecked.

In particular, in these circumstances, when there is such massive change in an organisation, it is important to be heard. Your opinion counts and if you are having issues with a process (they are not working for you), it is better to address them directly and positively than just letting them go on. The chances are, others are feeling the same but possibly don’t have the courage to bring up the problem.

Stay strong, stay polite (although you may not always feel like it), and remember that a team is only as strong as its weakest member.

We all have our imperfections but it does not mean we are useless.

#COVID19 lockdown and ‘gettin off yer arse’

May 27, 2020
Promotion
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Life just does not stop. It keeps coming. There is always so much to do and sadly this blog suffers. I should do more, I have so much to show. I know I’m not all that bad though. I am always very busy and I have been focussed on changing some personal habits.

I will try to up my game on here. I will try to post a picture every day and say something about what I am up to.

Nature has always been there but it seems more and more people are seeing it.

I do love getting out and about with my macro lens from time to time, and having just moved house, there are many opportunities to capture. A change in scenery can do that, don’t you think? You find these opportunities to see with fresh eyes what was probably always there.

Nature seems delicate at times and so robust at others.

What is there around your garden?

More tomorrow…

A reflective look back at the last year.

January 7, 2020
From the Archive, Military work, Opinion, travel
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2019 seems like such a long time ago now. It’s history and by looking, I’m looking back. I find that I don’t do that as much as I used to. Possibly because I now prefer to look forward. What was quite nice though was to look back and see what I had experienced throughout the year. It was certainly very busy and to look back at some of the imagery brought the pace home.

We do quite a lot of portraits here, although I use the term portrait quite loosely. Many of them a little more than passport photos, we get the chance to be a little more interesting. Working in both the studio and on location a big part of the job as a photographer is dealing with and portraying people… or pigeons.

Sometimes you see a character that just draws you in. Often at the most surprising times, like the man who came dressed as a poppy on Remembrance Sunday in Banjul, Gambia.

I do love a good expression. In this image, the situation is not obvious at all, but the look on the young mans face tells a story, especially with his right hand lightly touching the bar, I can feel the tension.

Photographers get the chance to experience life outside of your normal boundaries. The annual Gurkha Dashain festival, is, by all accounts very different to the event back in Nepal, but when held here in the UK, they are vibrant colourful and great fun to experience.

It’s not all about bullets and bangs, there is often a subtlety in play when you have to try to tell a story in a visual way.