Monday, August 31, 2009

Bank holidays, portfolio careers and winter cold cures


I was interviewed by someone from the Economist the other day about 'portfolio careers'. It was a weird conversation as she clearly hadn't got a clue what I was talking about. She had a reason why almost every strand of my work wasn't a 'real' career, the only bit she could relate to was writing and, obviously, I am "only an amateur at that". In the end, she (clearly disappointed) drew the interview to a close and asked what I would be doing over the Bank Holiday... She still didn't get it when I said that like many 'portfolio careerists', I'd be working!

I hope you get some time off - me, I'm about to make the winter's supply of Elderberry 'cordial' which has nothing to do with work other than (hopefully) keeping me at it when the germs start circulating later in the year!

Best wishes

Working behind the scenes, helping leaders achieve things they never dreamt they could
t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org - corporate-alumni.info

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

How PowerPoint contributed to the Columbia re-entry disaster


There are only a handful of authors whose books have been pivotal to my career. Perhaps one day I'll write a definitive list. Some that I can think of right now are;
  • John Rhodes' "Badgers Bend - Animal Hotel"
  • D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's "On Growth and Form"
  • Tom Peters "A Passion for Excellence"
  • Richard Feynman's "Lectures on Physics" and...
  • Edward Tufte's "The visual display of quantitative information"

  • Strange mix, but there we are! It's been a long time since I've read any of them, and, to be honest, hadn't expected to come across any new work by any of the authors (at least two of them are dead, after all!). So it was a delight to come across Edward Tufte's blog, and to see that he is still very much involved in his field - in a very substantial and dramatic way.

    Edward Tufte is younger than I had assumed him to be, from my early encounter with his work. He is an American statistician and Professor Emeritus of statistics, information design, interface design and political economy at Yale University. He has been described by The New York Times as "the da Vinci of Data", and by Business Week as "the Galileo of graphics". He is an expert in the presentation of informational graphics such as charts and diagrams, and is a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

    When I was completing my PhD, I was lent a copy of his seminal book, The visual display of quantitative information, I can very honestly say (and I doubt if anyone would take issue with this) that I have never been enthralled by a statistics book - and I can't really say I was by Tufte's book, but no-one could dispute that this one made you realise how important it was going to be to you from the very first few pages.

    If you would like to understand a little of the importance of Tufte's work and, if you EVER use PowerPoint to do presentations, then I strongly recommend visiting his blog and looking at this excerpt from one of his books: PowerPoint does Rocket Science. Be prepared to feel a little angry as the story unfolds!

    If Prof Tufte should ever read this little tribute, I should like to say thank you. Your work influenced me profoundly and, especially in the earlier part of my own career, it was frequently in my mind and undoubtedly led to some of my own minor successes.

    Best wishes

    Working behind the scenes, helping leaders achieve things they never dreamt they could
    t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org - corporate-alumni.info

    Speed networking - not all it is cracked up to be


    This evening, I received an invitation to attend a speed networking event in Berkshire. Now, I'm not particular keen on these kind of events, because I do feel that relationships are important in business, but the chance to have an afternoon building my business seemed appealing - especially as it involves an expenditure of only £25.

    I may still go, as much out of curiosity, as having high expectations of the event. But, why should I have such limited expectations? Well, the organisers PROUDLY tell me:
    "Our first event in Chelmsford attracted some 24 businesses and we had very positive feedback from all attendees, including two companies who received three orders, and a quality consultant who won a new contract."

    Now their English is a little unclear: do they mean that there were SEVEN new bits of work that came from this event or only FOUR? Well, either way, my old schoolboy statistics A-level comes out and I do the obvious calculation. On the basis that any pair of companies present could have done business either way, with that number of businesses there were actually 552 potential combinations (ie initial bits of work). This means, at best a conversion rate of 1.3% and at worst a conversion rate of 0.7%.

    Now, I don't know what kind of result you would expect, but those don't really seem that impressive to me. What do you think?

    If you're interested nontheless, you'll find the organisers website here: www.speednetworkingberkshire.co.uk

    Best wishes

    Working behind the scenes, helping leaders achieve things they never dreamt they could
    t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org - corporate-alumni.info