Tag: work

Posted on

Fruit flies like a banana

So the punchline to the joke goes.

There is no setup here, though.

I realise that a whole month has gone past where I’ve not posted anything. Not a single word. And there is no excuse for this, although if anyone does read this blog they might be happy that I didn’t just throw out some words into the LLM machines of this world for no reason other than I could.

Instead, I have news of a project that stalled and then got sidelined. A big project that was exciting and led by brilliant people. It may come back to life, but for now ai is disrupting things and there’s no way to ignore this any longer for this organisation. Shame, as I feel like there’s a brief there I could help with.

However, I’ve wrapped up three projects. A simple piece of branding that was as painful as being constipated for a year. I’m sort of glad to be shot of it, although the work is solid. And the client is already getting a lot of hot leads based on it. Then there was a piece of work around employee benefits that’s half done. Another interesting area to consider and an attempt by me to make something less complex for its audience and also flexible enough that it can grow and change as the organisation does. Lots of good stuff in there, they just need to make some decisions.

Tomorrow I’m with clients for the day to help them with strategic planning for some comms around a huge organisational milestone, as well as interview senior leaders in the business about the previous 25 years and what that means for the next 25 years.

After that, I don’t know. A social housing brief has shown a little ‘leg’ and caught my attention. Nothing doing as yet, but I think trying to find a way to do some interesting comms around their new proposition would be exciting. There’s a decent strategic thought sitting there but just blandly saying it over and over again will not only make it meaningless, it’ll also weaken the kernel that sits at its core. My fear is it’ll be a strapline that’s repeated ad(vert) infinitum and nothing more. Such a shame when that happens, but it’s also seen as the inevitable end of a piece of brand work. I want to make it more of a systemic proposition for the organisation, because that’s what it, and the organisation, deserves.

So, that’s been the last month.

Oh, no, of course, I did some work on a vinyl release for the Dan Arborise album, Of Tide & Trail. It came out on 9 October and so far has received some fantastic feedback from customers. Long may that continue.

Posted on

What is this gap in your employment?

Also, let’s add posting to your blog.

Time has, it seems, gotten away from me. Two weeks of quite weird times for me have culminated in a lot of missed opportunities to post up some news. So I’ll do a quick run down of what’s been happening, with some details where I think they are relevant.

Sick again. This time for five days. Over a weekend, too. Sucked. No idea what it was, but having travelling on the tube and been in a hospital waiting room with lots of other people and I suspect I caught something. It was also a new school year and, well, I’m married to a teacher. Perfect storm.

I have a CT scan next week because I apparently have a shadow on my lung. Considering I have one lung, this has been quite stressful news. I try not to think about it, but it’s hard not to. Especially since…

… There’s been a death in the family. My family. Not that I was particularly bothered by it, and was even banned from attending a funeral I had no intention of attending. Family politics are not all that weird, when you think about it. I gave up playing that games and 18 years on I still refused to play it.
Related to this is the fact that it’s 19 years since my Mum passed away. I had a brief chat with Rob Campbell about it over email. His Mum passed on a similar date to mine, and also his Dad passed away many years before. He always writes about it in a way that I never have been able to. It’s a comfort to me to read what he writes about his parents and how he misses them but also how he keeps them ‘alive’ in his own world. It’s rather lovely. This is the most recent one he posted about his Dad.

I have a fair chunk of new work coming in, but it’s a few days here and there. The deadlines are a long way off (relatively) so I’ve been doing a few hours here and there and trying not to overwork myself. It’s interesting stuff, around organisation development, but it’s also tiring because most of the clients are in the US. I’ll get the first lot finished next week and then I start the next two short pieces.

In October I am free to do work for anyone who might need me. I had a call this week about something and the person asked me about a gap in my employment. I explained it and they seemed to understand. And yet, they felt that it was significant enough that I couldn’t take on the three-week project they were offering. It’s totally unconnected to my time away, so I can’t say why. I did ask. They said they felt like I might not be committed. Three weeks. It’s off behaviour but if that’s how they feel then so be it.

The next release is upcoming and there is a lot of bits and bobs being delivered to my house. I have 100 A2 posters to fold to A4 and stickers to stick on things and inserts to, er, insert. Mostly, I’m trying not to panic that the actual vinyl will be late arriving. It was due this week but I’ve heard nothing back from my emails. I’m sure it’ll be fine, or someone will be in touch to tell me why it’s taken 12 weeks instead of eight.

And that’s the lot. You’re all caught up.

Posted on

Let down

Total aside before I start: every time I open up this page to write a post it tells me there is a error and I am not allowed to access this endpoint. No idea what it is or how to stop it, and now that Google makes shit up for its search results – sorry, I mean provides an ai summary – it’s of no help whatsoever. I still appear to be able to post, so this aside is pointless. Like the error.

Another week is at mid-point and I’ve been thinking about comms plans and messaging frameworks, as well as looking deeply into the void that is employee benefits and rewards (or perks, as they’re referred to thanks to wanting to sound ‘human’ and ‘approachable’ in that HR way that is totally bullshit – they work for the company).

My phone keeps crashing and my computer did an update and then wouldn’t allow me to close several apps or open several others and despite an hour of constant restarts and opening in safe mode it didn’t resolve. Overnight, I left it off and today it’s playing ball.

Oh, the use of the word ‘revert’ when you mean getting back to someone is weird. I’m informed it’s used in the US a lot. Revert does mean to return to a topic, but it sounds odd. I always think of the definition that says revert means returning to a previous, often worse, state. Then again, when someone in business says it perhaps they do mean that?

I have a new Unspun Heroes release coming out for preorders this Friday. I’m terrible about writing press releases or informing people it’s happening. Not sure writing this sentence changes that. For the ‘lulz’ (as the boomers say) I posted the private link on LinkedIn and it goes to an error 404, which I knew. It really fucks with the marketing community doing these things. So, that’s a plus.

Over on social media the music community is doing its hashtag humblebrag by telling followers a list of ten bands they’ve seen live. Really it just dates people, like carbon rings – “oh, you saw The Beatles, do you have a funeral plan?”

How’s your week going? Has the bank holiday messed you up? (If you’re not in the UK, imagine starting the working week a day later than usual, that’s the extent of it.) My work got canned because someone was able to collate some info and send it to me. This is productivity in the business world of 2026.

Is it Friday yet? Christmas?

Posted on

A long week

This week feels like it’s been going on forever.

There’s a lot going on work-wise, which is great. But I think I’ve not slept well and the compounding of that on my brain and body is about to come to a head. First up, a big presentation, which follows another big presentation yesterday.

I’ve been practising the art of not responding for the sake of it, which has proven to be a very powerful tool in meetings. It opens up a void that the person who is saying things that make no sense or are aggressive tries to fill. They usually undo themselves. An example of this, and how it undermines the person, or accenuates their stupidity, is the El*n interview with the Economist. Search it up, I’m not putting that muppet on my site.

I then undid all the good I’ve been learning by getting excited about cymatics in a meeting and trying to explain it to people. Afterwards they all went off to look at it and totally got why I brought it up, but I made a complete idiot of myself. At least I acknowledged it. I was tired and excited and my brain fired off a connection to something from 18 years ago.

Lesson learned: don’t reference 19th century physicists in a meeting at 5pm.

I’ve got one big presentation to do next Monday and a meeting in London on the Wednesday that I’ll need to smarten up for (no Godzilla t-shirts for this one) and then I’m done for a week or two. Judging by my faux pas in the meeting, I need the break as much as my current colleagues do.

It’s been a long week for them, too.

Posted on

Titles

Today, I got to thinking about titles.

In my current role I’ve been switched (by others) from ‘strategist’ (my label) to ‘Strategy Director’ (others’ label – and, I note, with the “title” case). When I’ve been positioned as the ‘director’ I’ve had a more positive experience with a difficult client. Like they are happier they’re dealing with someone who is at a ‘director’ level even though I’m doing the same work I had previously been doing under the guide of being a simple ‘strategist.

Do titles make a difference? Really?

I think they probably do. For me, I just think about the work I’m doing – strategy. My lined and tired face should alone let someone know that I have experience. Maybe it’s just me and that there is an expectation when someone introduces themselves as a senior level person.

Or perhaps I’ve just read more into a situation than is actually there. The client is still difficult, so aside from how they speak to me and act on my work being different they’re still harder work than they should be.

The good thing that comes from pushing myself up the hierarchy is I can say what needs to be said and it’s generally accepted.

Posted on

More Mundane Than Monday

I never really got the Sunday scaries, and I still don’t. I’ve got quite adept at switching off these days, or rather better at compartmentalising work and home. Some of this is because I’m less invested in the politics of a situation. I do the work to a high level and work with others to ensure their own work is the best it can be. Or rather, that *our* work can be the best it can be.

Today I’m doing the work that no one sees. The research and thinking that enables the best work to happen. It’s not boring but it is mundane in that the inputs are not something that people appear to care about, they only see the output and put all the value on that. The use of ai is only making that worse – the inputs are ‘ask an ai bot’ and the outputs are just a copy&paste transaction.

Tomorrow I will sit down with some humans and chat through what I’ve learned, what I think it means, and gather their inputs. I’ll use these to shift my own thinking. I’ll write it out in words and share that with everyone again and have them feedback. Finally, I’ll create some slides to show the client so that we have an agreed and shared starting point for the actual work.

That’s the process.

Now, I say that the thinking bit is mundane. It’s obviously not. What I mean is that telling people where you looked, how you put it together with a bunch of other inputs (some decades old) and how reading a blog post about sheep farmers helped you think about how to frame a question for a large, global financial institution… well, they’re not interested in that at all. Which is their loss.

To me, this part is the most interesting thing about thinking. Gathering a set of data and information and turning it into knowledge and insight. That data and information is there for everyone and anyone to gather up. The bit that cannot be replicated is the transformation of that into something novel or an angle that swiftly turns everyone’s perspective on its head and allows new paths to be opened up and explored. Or an answer that seems obvious when you see it but was hidden from view becomes crystal clear.

That’s the process.

I love the process. No way I’m outsourcing that to a prediction machine.

Posted on

Bookends

Again, I’ve failed to post every day, but I have managed to post more than once so that’s an improvement on that metric. Quality-wise, it remains as terrible as ever.

This week has been wrestling with something that I really shouldn’t be wrestling with: project management. This has come about because of a skills boundary and so I’ve been brought in to fill gaps and expand the skills on offer. This is what happens when you spend 30+ years doing a thing and applying it across different media and roles.

However, it did demonstrate to me, again, that brand exists across everything. That it’s an innate part of the modern world, and the talking about it is the PR bit. Two sides of the same coin. If you do brand well people will talk about it, or you’ll want to tell people; if you do it badly, people will talk about it but you may want to do some crisis communications or, what might be best called propaganda.

I managed to be politely rude to someone. What I would say was I put someone in their place as they were attempting to suggest that they were the expert and everyone else was an idiot when actually they aren’t the expert and the reason we’re where we are is because they’ve been unclear in their own mind what it is they want to buy. And then been unable to articulate it correctly. Oh, and they wanted a lot of things for free and there was no way I was going to do that.

I also did my ‘say nothing’ routine when faced with someone trying to be all mansplainer and macho (what I mean is go on dick-swinging duty during a call to attempt to assert authority where they have none). I find it says more to say nothing in these situations and the subsequent clutching at straws, backtracking and bluster normally settles things down. It’s something I wish I’d learned 20 years ago.

I spent a lot of time on calls this week. It’ll be the same next week. At least I can do these from home, I suppose. Imagine having to go into an office simply to spend your entire day holding meetings via Teams? One of a modern-day Dante’s Seven Circles of Hell, no doubt.

Posted on

Everything is brand

I’ve been thinking a lot about business models in the creative industries recently. Particularly in agencies where time and resource type had a fixed cost applied and you were billed for how many hours were used of each different skill. Work was determined by ‘days’ needed for each skill.

The reason I’ve been thinking about this is I’ve been back in that world and, well, day rates still hold sway. It’s a poor way to cost things and everyone loses. Do I have an answer? Yes, and no. I think it’s context-specific and nuanced.

A bit like media.

Although some years back, Faris Yakob posited that everything was becoming PR. And perhaps it was. PR, though, is the shiny way to communicate brand.

Surely, therefore, everything is brand?

Posted on

The Seven Circles (or Days) of Hell

It’s been warm in the UK.

It’s also been over 50 years since we were warned about this by Sir James Lovelock. Since then we’ve mostly sat on our hands. Some anti-science politicians are saying more oil and gas drilling will help.

This is also the week I learned that Paul Eddington, the actor known for Yes, Minister, and The Good Life, had the same lymphoma that I have. Sadly I also learned it killed him.
I suspect it’ll kill me, one day.

I’ve also been working. And getting the release of an album readied. It’s being manufactured at the moment and the last pieces of print are being designed. There’s a lot of proofreading to be done. And triple-checking of design choices. Soon it’ll all be off to print and any mistakes will have to remain.

Other than that I’ve been wearing a UX hat this week, and also fiddling about on some strategic work. Oh, and having to finally get a blue passport sorted. Bye bye maroon EU passport, I will miss you.

Posted on

Week End

It’s been more than a week since I posted. Work things keep me busy.

I’ve been in London a few times this week, in an office. The temperature was still quite warm but not heat dome temperatures. Which was better. I’m more of a 21ºC kind of person.

I facilitated a workshop this week. I’m getting better at recovering from eight hours of being the focus of the room. It’s still tiring but I am able to cope with it.

I caught up with an old friend. We talked about everything from ai to 2014 conferences and some confidential things I’d love to share but I’m not allowed to. Suffice to say that some people that are considered the ‘good guys’ are actually complete and utter c*nts. Perhaps it’s no surprise?

I managed to send some invoices. Highlight of my week.

I thought a little bit about the announcement that the NHS will ‘reward’ people for walking 30 minutes a day. It’s not hard to do, but for some people it’ll be impossible. Also, what about disabled people? Do they just not get rewarded? And as with all targets, there will be those who look for easy ways to reach it without actually putting in the effort. It might be better to make it safer to walk places without fear of being run over by a car or Lime bike user, or people who are glued to their f*cking screens and crash into you when you’re simply standing waiting to cross a road (while Lime bikes stream past a red light).

I’m really not a fan of Lime bikes, or anyone who isn’t obeying the rules of the road and therefore endangering pedestrians. Yes, I get that it’s an inconvenience to stop, but at least slow down!

Other than that I’ve been going back and forth on design changes for the next Unspun Heroes release, and being gobsmacked at the stupidity of people who have, somehow, managed to make a lot of money doing a business.

It’s been exhausting but also, on occasion, a lot of fun.

Oh, and finding people on LinkedIn who completely miss the point you’re making continues.

See you next week.