Author: Graham Jones

Looking into the future
Future

How far into the future can you see with clarity?

Last night I was driving home from work when I became rather annoyed by the driver of the car behind me. He (it must have been a bloke) was right up my rear end, clearly wanting to get past. I was in the outside lane of the dual carriageway, passing

Future

Could you learn to trust artificial intelligence?

Last night, along with half the adults in the UK, I was glued to my TV set to devour the last episode of “The Traitors”. If you haven’t watched this series, you won’t understand the gripping nature of watching 22 people try to work out who to trust. Spoiler alert

Size matters
Online Business

Are men right after all when they say that size matters?

Much of this week in the UK has been dominated by the unedifying display of men talking about how big things are. Male politician, after male politician, was lining up on TV and radio to predict the size of the majority of votes their side was likely to get. They

Should you turn a crisis into a drama?
Online Business

Should you turn a crisis into a drama?

It’s been a dramatic week, hasn’t it? It all started with the shock announcement that after 27 years together, Tiger Woods was parting company with Nike. Then a Boeing 737 lost a fuselage panel mid-air, causing a rather obvious need for an emergency landing. I’m predicting that will become a

Self-checkout at supermarket
Online Business

Are you as bad as a supermarket self-checkout?

There’s a good chance you are properly fed up with hearing “something unexpected in the bagging area” when you go shopping. Then you have to wait for an assistant so you can prove that you are over 25 just to buy alcohol-free beer. Self-checkouts save supermarkets loads of money on

Man looing forward
Psychology

Do you look to the future too much?

It has been a strange week in the UK world of politics. A blast from the past – the former Prime Minister, David Cameron – was brought back into government as, apparently, he represents the future. If you caught the news, you could have been forgiven for thinking that they

Decision making
Psychology

Do you make really good decisions quickly and easily?

Over the past few days, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has had to make a decision. Should he dismiss his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, for straying outside her Government role? Or should he keep her in her post? Over several days, he was given “advice” from various politicians and

brick wall showing limitations
Psychology

Do you really know your own limitations?

The UK Covid Enquiry is a serious matter, but this week it has been grabbing the headlines with some fun facts. It turns out that the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, thought you could get rid of the virus by blowing air from a hairdryer up your nose. Meanwhile, his

Brain waves
Psychology

Are you always on the same wavelength as other people?

The seemingly never-ending depressing news from Israel and Gaza reveals a simple fact. The Israelis and the terrorists of Hamas do not think in the same way. Calls for a ceasefire and then for talks to take place miss out on one important factor. Neither side is willing to talk.

loyalty concept
Online Business

Are you doing the right things to foster true loyalty?

The political nerds who read this newsletter can’t have missed the fact that in the UK the governing Conservative party got a “bloody nose” this week. There were two by-elections for new members of parliament, both of which were lost in dramatic fashion by the Conservatives. Their voters either stayed at home,

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Productivity

Are you really in charge?

Yesterday I was in an “Exam Board” which is the decision-making meeting that confirms the degree award that students will receive. It’s my job to check all their marks and present the results to external examiners who scrutinise our work. At the point of the meeting where I had to

Reading book
Productivity

How good are you at reading?

Earlier this week I was in a meeting where someone questioned a document. The item had been approved for distribution, yet there was a clear and rather glaring error in it. Oops…! Worse still, the “approved” item had been read by a group of people who had all “checked it”

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Productivity

Have you done anything of note this week?

Earlier this week, I was giving a presentation to business leaders about artificial intelligence in the workplace. After my talk, there was a period of discussion when one man said that he was a bit of an ostrich in terms of new technology. He said that he had his head

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Online Business

Should you have a daily siesta?

All the best guides to writing articles say “never start with an apology”. But I fear I need to do just that this week. That’s because after receiving my article last Saturday, several people got in touch saying they I had scared them. Last week I was talking about the

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Future

What will you do when the Internet ends?

I know, you think I’ve gone bonkers. “When the internet ends?” What is he talking about, you are asking yourself. It’s a question I posed to students who have only ever known the Internet. I explained that if the Internet ended, I still have a typewriter in the loft, so

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Online Business

What is getting you under the collar this week?

British holidaymakers who had been to the Greek island of Rhodes came back to the UK last week full of tales of woe about their disturbed holidays. Almost 20% of the island had been ablaze and the “news” was that British people on their hols had to find alternative accommodation

Exit door
Online Business

How should you get rid of customers?

Every business has customers they do not want. Just ask the 331-year-old private bank in London’s Strand, Coutts and Co. They didn’t want to have Donald Trump’s friend, Nigel Farage as a customer any longer. So, they told him they were closing his account and that he would need to

Mental Health Concept
Psychology

Is your company really getting to grips with mental health?

In the UK, Huw Edwards, the BBC News anchor, has been at the centre of flabbergasting accusations dominating the news this week. For my American readers, he’s the equivalent of Peter Jennings or Walter Cronkite – someone who the viewers trust. Huw is currently in hospital suffering from a mental