Fotorally – photographs of the week, Week 1 | Inside the M60

Fotorally – photographs of the week, Week 1 | Inside the M60

Quite pleased with this... one of my photographs in this piece.

So, who trained you to use Facebook then?

I'm doing some interesting work with a couple of customers at the moment who are thinking about how their organisations can cope with the demands of Generation Y, both as customers and potential employees.

Twenty years ago, one of the reasons people liked to work for big companies was because they had access to better tech than they had at home. These days, people routinely access more powerful and sophisticated devices and web-services at home than they are able to use at work.

We're thinking about how to create open policies which enable them to use their own devices, apps and social tools whilst at work, without adding unnecessary risk to the organisation. There's a lot to think about.

I was chatting to a colleague about the project and showed him the slide above. He's in the midst of delivering a major enterprise social software implementation and a big chunk of his budget is dedicated to user training. So, you can imagine that his instant take on the picture above was...

... "so who trained everyone in Facebook, Twitter, PS3, iPlayer, eh?"

I thought that was a very good question.

How about you?

Hey Project Manager, How Does Your Garden Grow?

About five years ago we had our garden landscaped. I know that sounds poncy, especially as we've only got a small garden, but we had some 'high-level business requirements': clearly defined areas, colour throughout the year, nice fragrances, low-maintenance, etc.

We gave these requirements to a designer who drew up a plan for us to review and approve. We then passed the work to a landscaping firm who, working to the plan, sourced the plants and project-managed the levelling, turfing, planting etc. Great. We've been very pleased.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, the project manager from the landscaping firm called me up out of the blue. He wanted to call around to see how the plants were maturing and have a look how the garden was developing as a whole.

Don't forget, this project ended five years ago!

Now, there was certainly a commercial angle to his visit... there may have been some rework to do, restocking of certain plants, rethinking of certain schemes, but in this case, other than one or two early plant deaths and the odd leggy herb, the garden has matured as originally envisaged.

But here was a project manager interested in learning more about his craft, both from his successes and his mistakes. He wanted to learn what happens to plants in our climate, at our altitude, in our location.

Now a post-implementation review is best practice for project managers in all walks of life. However, such is the pace of change, that even the best of us forget to go back and do this even when we are working to timescales of five weeks, never mind five years!

So, this attention to detail impressed me, especially as there was no immediate commercial benefit to the landscaper straight after his visit. But guess who I'm going to recommend to friends? Guess who will be the first person I call when I do need some more work doing in my garden?

Just a thought, but maybe we should all make sure that we carve out enough time to go back and ask our customers how things are growing?

Keeping Your ID in Your Mobile Phone - Safely

Many people leave their ID documentation at home, including their driving license, passport, etc.

I now carry a photograph of all of these important assets around with me in my iPhone.  Normally I'd recommend @evernote as a good place to store this stuff, but as the app isn't password protected, I feel better keeping it in one of the many photo apps which requires a password before access is granted.  The photographs are encrypted and, once transferred to the app and deleted from the standard iPhone photo library only accessible to you.

If it's something like a library, gym or swimming card, featuring a barcode, the receptionist may even be able to scan the card directly from your phone... carry your card with you the first few times just in case.

pic: Laika-chan

Toy Division

I love this: