I’m sitting typing this on my laptop while sitting in my car at an EV charging point. I’m knackered.
The above photo was taken a few hours ago in Northumberland National Park during a walk I did with Aaron Hirtenstein, who lives on the other side of it to me. We had a great conversation over the few hours together, including idly wondering whether taking people up to see these amazing sights we almost take for granted would be something people would be interested in doing. It’s the perfect place for the kind of conversations you can’t really have anywhere else.
I haven’t felt great this week, either mentally or physically. I wrote about the former in a post entitled All aboard the U-shaped curve, and I’ve done daily Covid tests for the latter, all of which have been negative. I may just have a lingering cold, but my Garmin smartwatch keeps telling me I’m stressed, so I suspect my body is fighting off something.
Laura’s back next week, which I’m pleased about as three weeks without the person with whom you work most closely is a long time. I’ve enjoyed working with Anne and John, of course, but I’m looking forward to Laura bringing some energy back from her time off.
I’ve been setting up new client work (more on that soon) and working on existing client stuff. I’ve had a few very pleasant virtual coffees with people. You can book a slot here.
The ‘body battery’ on my smartwatch currently stands at 11% which is well below the 66% my car is on. I’m going to publish this, have a little snooze, unplug the car, and head home for bed.
Time horizons are funny things. Although we can zoom out and see the bigger picture to do long-term planning, in my experience, most of our lives are spent with time horizons of just a few weeks. Mine is currently the end of this month.
By ‘time horizon’, I mean the span of time beyond which it’s difficult to focus on with a level of clarity or granularity that can spur immediate action. This time next month we will have moved out of our house and living in rented accommodation. It’s temporary, and will put us in a better position in the current housing market, but it’s still a bit of a leap into the unknown.
Some people are better at dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity than others. I’d put myself in that category, as I expect the world to be somewhat random, disordered, and chaotic. Which is why I’m not a Tory: the world is not as depicted in a Richard Scarry picturebook.
This week, I succumbed to the cold that the rest of my immediate family have had. It’s annoying, because I think I could have avoided it had I not gone for a run on Tuesday when I felt on the verge of being ill, and should have known better. Tuesday, in fact, ended up being a bit of a self-induced day of failure in which I managed to drive around in a futile manner looking EV charging points and plan a running route that crossed the A1 during rush hour.
So I haven’t felt physically on top form this week, which has a knock-on effect on my work and outlook on the world. What has cheered me up is having a virtual coffee with a few people after I shared my calendar for them to book a slot. If you’re reading this and would like to do likewise (my Weds/Fri afternoons) please do so. I’m a good listener.
A ‘good listener’, as I point out in this post on mapping Open Recognition against skills taxonomies can be conceptualised as ‘active listening’. This is something I’ve really enjoyed working on recently, as it seems to be getting back to the original revolutionary vision for Open Badges. I’m working on a second part to that post, and you can preview the workflow I’m suggesting in this discussion thread.
Talking of blog posts, I also published one wrapping up Season 7 of The Tao of WAO podcast which I co-host with Laura. She’s got one more week of holiday left, sailing around Greek islands with her husband and sharing photos of beautiful secluded beaches. I’m definitely not jealous or counting down the days until she’s back.
I’m back in my routine of posting daily to Thought Shrapnel, and have moved the weekly newsletter to Substack. It’s amazing the difference a platform can make: new people are actually subscribing rather than existing people unsubscribing!
I got confirmation earlier this week from The Open University that my registration is complete for my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. My first module is TB872: Managing change with systems thinking in practice:
This module is about effecting systemic and systematic change in uncertain and complex situations, change that can transform situations for the better. It views change as inescapable in managing everyday situations ranging from personal to workplace to society in general. Rather than passively accepting change, this module will equip you with skills to shape the nature and direction of change. It will develop your abilities to manage change with others to avoid systemic failures and improve joined-up actions amongst stakeholders along supply chains, in projects, or even in social activism. It’s about learning to use systems thinking in practice to help you engage with and make change, and act accordingly in recognising the interconnected nature of organisations and environments.
Although this will be my fourth postgraduate qualification (I’ve already got an MA in Modern History, PGCE, and Ed.D.) I don’t take anything for granted. It’s been 12 years since I completed my doctoral thesis, and the world has moved on.
So, although I don’t start until November, I wanted to get myself sorted. This included getting my university email sorted out (ugh, Microsoft 365) and getting a grip on document and reference management. Although I didn’t do a bad job of this with my other courses, I always felt like I could do better.
After some research and feedback, I wrote this post outlining why I’ve chosen to go with one platform/app. (Spoiler: it’s mainly so I can use my awesome e-ink tablet.)
I’m up early today (Saturday) so just getting this weeknote out of the way. The rest of the weekend is the usual kids sporting activities. Hannah’s aunt and her husband are visiting the region so we’ll be going out for Sunday lunch with them.
Next week, Hannah is in London and then Leeds for work, and then it’s her birthday. I’m a little concerned about her travel, as we don’t get our Covid vaccinations until the week after, and I’ve heard of plenty of people getting sick after going to gatherings recently. Being ‘feak and weeble’ (as someone I knew used to say) while we move house would be… sub-optimal.
Also, Long Covid would destroy what little semblance of ‘career’ I have left 😅
I’m composing this while sitting in my Polestar 2, an electric vehicle (EV) which was delivered as a business lease on Thursday. Right now, it’s early on Saturday morning and it’s charging at the EV charging point in the centre of Morpeth.
In my thesis, I talked about ‘literate behaviours’ and how these change over time. Some of these constitute tiny shifts, while others are huge. Our sense of self and how we understand the world can be impacted by small changes in our digital world. So figuring out how and when to ‘charge’ a car, as opposed to fill it with combustible fuel, moves a vehicle that only had to be mentally tabulated as ‘physical object’ into the digital realm.
Last year, we bought a battery-powered Nest doorbell. Just like our new car, it requires charging. This was novel and something to think about when we first got it. Now, we just get a notification that it needs charging, and then we take it off the wall and plug it in a time when we’re not expecting visitors or deliveries.
I should imagine something similar will happen with our car. Even though I’ve only had it a couple of days, partly to get used to the process, I’ve charged it a couple of times. The first time, I left it, went for a run, came back and it was charged. This time, I’m taking the opportunity to sit and write this while it does it’s thing. We have to learn how to build a life that includes both digital and non-digital behaviours.
Anyway, enough about EVs. I’ve also recorded a microcast about it, for goodness sake: like vegans, it’s easy to spot an EV owner because they’ll tell you. 😉
Let’s talk about this week. Work continues to be a bit slower than usual, Laura is away sailing in the Greek islands, and Anne‘s back (and finished her degree!)
While I enjoy earning money and feeding my children, one of the good things is that I’ve had more time to read and write than usual; I haven’t had to cram it in around other stuff.
In terms of reading, I read, and then transferred my annotations to separate notes, when I re-read something recommended to me called Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors.This is a short, very direct book which gives extremely good advice about being a consultant (or ‘trusted advisor’ as the author prefers). I particularly liked the suggested mantra that you’re in the expertise business, not the service business. Lots to dwell upon.
And then in terms of writing, I’ve kept up with my daily practice at Thought Shrapnel of commenting on three articles. One of these was the very sad news this week that, in a mindless act of vandalism, the iconic 200 year-old tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall was felled. The whole area is in shock.
I tend to comment on what ever articles interest me with Thought Shrapnel, and comment on them however I see fit. If you’re new it, though, perhaps sign up to my newsletter to get a weekly overview so you can dip in to posts that interest you. I’ve moved to Substack as of this Sunday, and you can subscribe here.
In other news, and for those following the house drama, we’ve decided on the house we’re going to rent. It’s got enough rooms which are large enough for us to operate in as a family, which includes Hannah and I both working from home. The main concerns are that there’s only one bathroom for four adult-sized people, and that the parking situation for two cars isn’t ideal.
That being said, it is a Grade II listed building, and Oliver Cromwell did stay there once. I think you want a little bit of pain in a rental property that you stay in between house purchases. Otherwise you get a bit too comfortable. We’ll see.
Next week, some of the business development John, Laura, and I have done should start to pay off and I should have a bit more to do. I do want to work a bit more on our positioning and value proposition, though.
Autumn has very much arrived in Northumberland which, as I get older, I’m learning to enjoy a bit more by turning outwards rather than inwards. The colours of the leaves on the trees are verging on spectacular.
