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 …

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Reading book

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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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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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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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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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 …

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Exit door

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 …

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Mental Health Concept

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 …

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man searching

Can you find what you are looking for?

If you want to increase your sales, your business needs to make it easy to find everything. That means reviewing how your web search works. It suggests you might need to reconsider the navigation structure of your website. It might even mean you need to distribute your content away from your site and have it on a variety of different platforms.

Empty football stadium with no supporters

How well supported are you at work?

Yesterday I was transported back in time. I haven’t discovered time travel. Instead, my mind quickly flipped back to a meeting about three years ago that involved the same group of people. I noticed how dramatically different they were in yesterday’s meeting compared with the one in 2018. Back then, …

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Man using digital technology

Are you obsessed with digital?

Being obsessed with digital could take you away from old-school technologies that do the job better. Yet, avoiding technological change can cost your business dearly. How can you get the balance right?

Racist abuse condemned online

Why do people post racist abuse online?

Racist abuse online is not new. It has been happening for decades. In the past couple of days, racist abuse has hit the headlines following vile online attacks against three England footballers, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. On Sunday, these three black players did not score penalties in …

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