Category: Leadership & Management

Knowing when to speak up, and when to stay silent…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Learning, Training

People attend meetings in their work environment on a daily basis. Moans about the time meetings take up and their encroachment on an individual’s productive work activity were commonplace during the Badger’s career, and they still are today. That’s hardly a surprise because meetings are a key element of the operational rhythm at every level of an organisation. Meetings are crucial for decision making, sharing important information, problem solving, innovating, building and maintaining relationships, aligning people with expectations, and holding people accountable for achieving goals. That’s why training in meeting-related skills is usually a prominent feature within enterprise training programmes.

Meetings can be gatherings of people in the same room, video or telephone conferences, or hybrid setups involving all of these at the same time. The Badger’s attended a huge number over the years, so what’s the most important thing he’s learned from doing so? This very question was, in fact, recently asked by a family member while bemoaning ‘interminable meetings’ in their own workplace! The Badger’s answer was simply this – know when to speak up, and when to stay silent. It’s something he learned early in his career from participating in a difficult meeting about a failing project.

The meeting had client and supplier representatives in the same room to decide on the future of the project. The Badger was present because he was part of the supplier’s team trying to fix the project and its commercial difficulties. The client and supplier leads, both experienced in dealing with troublesome situations, engaged in a direct but business-like manner. One of the client’s team, however, frequently interjected with vitriolic and negative comments which rankled with some of the Badger’s colleagues, one of whom responded in kind every time. That is until a senior colleague prodded them and whispered, ‘shut up, keep quiet, listen and watch’. The meeting eventually ended with an agreed way forward. In the debrief afterwards, the supplier’s leader pointedly told the team that ‘We all have two ears, two eyes, and one mouth. Use them in meetings to listen, watch and speak in that proportion’. They are wise words.

Knowing when to speak up and when to stay silent is an important skill, particularly in difficult and important meetings. Being a good listener, a good observer of participant  body language, and having good control of the urge to speak for the sake of it are important competences for face-to-face meetings, video and teleconferences, or hybrid meetings alike. Knowing when to stay quiet and when to speak is a good discipline and a trait of good managers and leaders. Remember, while every meeting has a mix of different personalities, the smartest and most influential person present isn’t necessarily the one doing all the talking. It’s often the one doing the watching, listening, and being careful about when they speak and what they say…

Gamesmanship and getting an invoice for a milestone paid…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Learning, Processes and Practices, Project Management

Important lessons arose early in the Badger’s career from experiencing the stress, effort, and time taken to get an invoice for a contractual milestone paid in full. The Badger learned about the importance of rigour when invoicing, and the need for detailed, verifiable, proof that all deliverables were delivered and contractually compliant. He also learned that clients may play games to delay payment if it suited them or provided useful leverage over their supplier.

This stemmed from particular dynamics encountered after completing software Acceptance Testing on a client’s site. It was an important contractual milestone with a sizeable payment attached. Its achievement also marked the point whereby a) control of the software transferred to the client to roll it out to their users, and b) the contract’s warranty and support phase started. Testing had been successful and on its completion the client agreed the milestone had been met, they took control of the software, and they agreed the start of warranty and support. Relationships were good and the invoice for the milestone payment was submitted. Then things became difficult!

The client claimed the invoice format was wrong, that all contractual deliverables hadn’t been provided, and that relevant documentation and certifications were not contractually compliant. They continually demanded more and more material to support the invoice. Relationships soured. The Badger’s line management, fearful of jeopardising future work for the client, simply said ‘do what they want and get the payment in pronto’. The Badger did as he was told! Eventually the client said everything was in order and that payment would arrive in line with contracted terms. The money, however, did not arrive!

It emerged that the client’s user rollout programme was suffering delays and so they had decided to withhold payment to ‘keep the supplier on the hook’ until it was back on track. A frustrated Badger wrote to the client pointing out that contractually there was no transfer of software to the client without payment for the milestone, which meant their user rollout activities constituted a breach of contract. It was not a popular move, but a contract is, after all, never an irrelevance! Payment happened a few days later.

The young Badger learned lessons about the real dynamics of business from this experience. Sometimes clients don’t pay because they choose to preserve their cash flow at the expense of suppliers, they don’t have the funds, or they really have lost an invoice. Sometimes, however, they simply engage in gamesmanship and choose not to pay. Today the proportion of invoices not paid on time by large UK businesses can be checked here, but business fundamentally revolves around people who have diverse characters and behaviours. Gamesmanship will thus always have a part in business dynamics, so it’s worth remembering that, as the Badger learned then and over the years since, suppliers need to be just as good at playing games as their clients…

‘The Magic Roundabout’ and the tech industry…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Diversity, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Life, Online Services, Technology

The  Magic Roundabout was a beloved children’s programme on UK television between 1965 and 1977. It was produced using stop-motion animation, and it achieved cult status with children and adults alike. Its human characters were Florence, a young girl, and Mr Rusty, the elderly operator of the roundabout. The other main characters were Zebedee the talking jack-in-the box with magical powers, Brian the snail, Ermintrude the cow, and Dylan the hippy-like, guitar-playing, dopey rabbit! It was essential tea-time viewing at the time, and it’s use of stop-motion animation was groundbreaking.

Children’s television programmes, and the technology creating them, have changed vastly since the last episode aired in 1977, and the Badger recently found himself unexpectedly engaged in a conversation comparing ‘The Magic Roundabout’ with today’s tech/IT industry! The conversation happened while visiting a local shop that buys and sells vintage vinyl music records. It’s a lively, friendly establishment, where browsing is encouraged while the owner plays vintage records on turntables behind the till. The Badger’s visit was ostensibly to enquire if any of the vinyl he still has from his youth is of interest to collectors. Before asking, the Badger browsed the shops offerings and a disc from 1975, ‘Funky Moped’ by Jasper Carrot with ‘Magic Roundabout’ on the B-side, caught his eye. It was hard to supress a grin!

Enquiring about the Badger’s own vintage records ultimately led to two things. Firstly, a realisation that some of them are rare and have notable value. One, for example, is his mono Rolling Stones ‘Let it Bleed’ LP in pristine original condition with its original poster. Secondly, it started a discussion with the shop’s owner that ended up not only comparing ‘The Magic Roundabout’ with the tech industry, but also agreeing that Jasper Carrot’s irreverent ‘Magic Roundabout’ routine was, let’s say, of its time!   

It felt surreal comparing ‘The Magic Roundabout’ with the tech industry in a vintage record shop, especially when more similarities emerged than expected. The television programme, for example, featured diverse characters with unique traits and perspectives, and it’s whimsical scripts led to surprising outcomes. The tech industry also features diverse characters with unique traits, skills, and perspectives, and the industry produces surprising outcomes. Both employ advanced techniques embodying creativity, innovation, adaptability, and cross-generation interconnectedness. Both also evoke nostalgia. Who, for example, doesn’t fondly recall their early tech devices and their first forays accessing the internet?

The Badger eventually left the shop reminded that a face-to-face conversation with another person is always an interesting and thought-provoking experience, regardless of what you talk about. Face-to-face conversations are something we should all do more of in today’s world. Walking home, the Badger had the phrase ‘Boing, said Zebedee’ rattling in his head. Hmm, perhaps ‘Boing, said Elon’ might be more apt for today’s world…

Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience. You need experience to gain wisdom…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Delivery, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Learning, Technology

It’s not unusual when having met a senior leader or company executive for the first time to come away feeling either impressed and respectful, or underwhelmed and sceptical. Of his many such encounters, the Badger always remembers one because it involved ‘age’ and ‘wisdom’ !  

The CEO of a niche tech company approached the Badger’s CEO to ask if they could talk informally to ‘someone with experience and wisdom’ about IT delivery. The two CEOs knew each other through being on the same committee of a trade body. Out of good will, the Badger’s CEO asked him to meet with the individual to share some wisdom gleaned from his IT delivery experience. The Badger duly met the tech CEO, and after a few opening pleasantries, was told by the latter that he was probably too old to provide the kind of wisdom they were looking for! The 35-year-old CEO believed that wisdom provided by anyone older than themselves was outdated and irrelevant. The Badger, a decade or more older with some grey hairs, managed to suppress his irritation!

The CEO was polite but dismissive of the Badger’s experience and guidance. They believed that someone younger and focused on every facet of the latest hot trends would provide more valuable input. This rankled, but the Badger simply pointed out that if they didn’t want his advice, then that was, of course, their prerogative. The meeting soon ended. The Badger’s parting shot was to say that he was proud to have reached an age, maturity, and independence that’s so neatly expressed in Einstein’s quote, ‘I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to’. The Badger reported back to his boss that he was unimpressed. His boss wasn’t surprised, admitted to disliking the individual, and expressed an opinion that the tech CEO wouldn’t last long in their job. They were right!

The US Presidential Election has put age in the spotlight. Both candidates are much older than the averages for Fortune 500 company chiefs, FTSE 100 CEOs, and 2024 UK Members of Parliament (59.2, 55, and 50 years old, respectively).  The average age of workers  in tech and IT is much closer to that of the 35-year-old tech CEO, and so for those working in these dynamic sectors, it’s worth remembering that we aren’t born with wisdom, age alone doesn’t imply wisdom, and that those who have it acquire it over time through work, personal, educational and social experiences, and exposure to the behaviour of others. That’s why for a long career and to acquire wisdom  you must continually expand your real experience and real skills rather than academically fixate on the latest hot trend. Einstein, after all, said that ‘Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience. You need experience to gain wisdom’, and he was right…

People – they are always a challenge…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Education, Human Resources, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Recruitment

How would you answer if someone at the start of their IT-sector career asked you ‘What’s the most challenging thing you’ve encountered throughout your career?’  Your answer might be something personal like, for example, a family, financial, or health matter, or it might be something purely professional like a task that proved especially testing, getting the right people into the right roles to deliver project or business objectives, or coping with change during rapid organisational transformation or growth. You will have your own answer, but what’s the Badger’s? Well, it’s one word, and that word is ‘people’.

In the Badger’s experience, people are crucial for success, but they are a never-ending challenge! Why? Because people have unique backgrounds, experiences, thought processes, perspectives, fallibilities, strengths and motivations that make them a melting pot of unpredictability and surprises! An illustration from the Badger’s first role as a project manager is pertinent. A graduate programmer, a lady two years out of University, had been recruited by the Badger’s employer. Her CV looked good, and she’d done well during the recruitment process. The Badger’s line manager charged him with using her to fill a vacant programming role on his project team. She seemed like a good fit, and she appeared to have settled in well by the end of her first week with the team. Within a month, however, the project team were mutinous! Her work was poor, she had not completed any task, her attitude was surly and self-centred, and her timekeeping was appalling.

Chats with the Badger to encourage improvement and explore whether there were any hidden underlying personal problems proved fruitless. Formal HR processes came into play, during which it became clear that this person wasn’t interested in programming, being part of a team, or a career with the company. Employment with any company, she ultimately admitted, was simply her way of obtaining money for expensive holidays! She was exited from the company. The Badger learned that there’s more to people than is visible, that they are complex, have values that might differ from your own, and that they can take up lots of valuable management time!

The fact that people were the Badger’s most challenging thing throughout his career is not surprising when life is dynamic, circumstances change, and individuals are always adapting to new personal and professional situations. The Badger always rose to the challenge, because people from the most junior to the most senior matter if you want to succeed. With the relentless progress of automation and AI, it’s easy to think that dealing with people is becoming less relevant. Not so! AI may change everything, but it’s people who are crucial to harnessing its potential to making a difference. People will always be a challenge, but knowing more about what makes them tick will be essential for handling the challenges of the foreseeable future…

Work-life balance and an unexpected call from the CEO…

Posted on by The Information Badger in IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Life, Project Management, Wellbeing

Summer beckons and many will be looking forward to a break from work to enjoy a holiday. Modern technology, however, means that it takes an iron will not to occasionally check work email when relaxing on the beach or quaffing beer in a bar in the evening. Completely detaching from work while on holiday is really important because it benefits your mental and physical wellbeing, and it makes you more focused, creative, and productive on returning to work. A refreshed mind, for example, generates better ideas, is more objective and productive, and is more creative when problem-solving.

The Badger normally took a two-week summer vacation throughout his career. One year, however, after leading a major fixed-price, IT system delivery to completion, his employer approved a three-week break to enable his batteries to fully recharge! The project had been challenging for the whole team from the outset. Everyone had done a magnificent job and were exhausted. The Badger’s three-week break proved to be seminal. It was the first time that he truly detached from every aspect of work while on holiday. The break fully revived his mental sharpness, physical energy, and motivation, and it produced much greater awareness that work-life balance is important no matter what role you fulfil at work.

The Badger returned to work afterwards refreshed, focused, and determined to establish a better work-life balance. On his first day back, while liberally applying the delete key to his email backlog, the company Chief Executive called unexpectedly. Caught off-guard, the Badger’s initial surprise and immediate pang of anxiety quickly dissipated. The CEO wanted the Badger, a delivery practitioner, to join the company’s overall leadership team to oversee all projects across the company. The CEO sensed the Badger’s hesitation and made three points. Firstly, that it was a good career move and also what the company needed. Secondly, that the role would broaden the Badger’s leadership skills, his perspective of how the company operated, and that it would  sharpen the overall leadership team and improve decision-making with company-wide impact. The third was that delivery actually produced the company’s profits, and so home-grown delivery leadership talent was preferable for the role rather than  recruiting externally.

The Badger mentioned his greater appreciation of work-life balance. The CEO chuckled and noted that while every person is different, the reality was that intelligent, focused individuals who want job satisfaction and success find a balance that enables them to achieve these objectives. The Badger took on the role, never looked back, and learned over the years that the CEO was right. Successful careers are built primarily on hard work and getting the job done, and finding the right work-life dynamic that works for the individual and their personal circumstances…

Contracted working hours, and achieving your potential…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Education, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Science & Engineering, Wellbeing

The UK’s A-Level exam period is underway and runs until the end of June.  Students sitting these exams receive their results in the middle of August. It’s an intense time, especially for those who’ve applied for University and need to achieve certain grades to confirm a place on their preferred course. According to UCAS, the proportion of UK 18-year-olds applying for University this year stands at 41.3%. That’s up from 38.2% in 2019, but marginally down on 41.5% for 2023. Since last year, however, applications for engineering/technology courses, and mathematical sciences/computing courses, have increased by 10% and 7%, respectively. The Badger thinks that’s a good thing. These subjects are, after all, at the heart of our lives on this planet. Whether we like it or not, it’s science, engineering, maths, and computing  that make everything possible.

While chatting to a teacher recently, their passionate focus on their pupils and desire for good exam results was strongly evident. In particular, they mentioned that seeing their students attain or exceed expectations in their exams was a source of great personal reward for their teaching over the school year. The teacher had strong opinions, one being that people don’t really appreciate that the hours worked by teachers far outweigh those stipulated in their employment contract. ‘That’s actually no different to people working in commercial enterprises; at least you have a long break over the summer’, the Badger commented without thinking. If looks could kill, the Badger would be dead!

The teacher, who’s never worked in a commercial enterprise, was adamant that no one works as hard, or as far beyond the hours stipulated in their employment contract, as teachers. This rankled with the Badger, because it’s not true! An incoming call to the teacher’s smartphone, however, fortuitously stopped the conversation from taking a potentially disagreeable turn. Health professionals in the NHS often convey a view similar to the teacher’s too, but the reality is that many in technical, management, and leadership positions at project, business, and executive levels in commercial operations often work beyond the hours in their employment contract without tangible reward irrespective of greater work-life balance awareness. The performance of their companies would suffer if they didn’t. In fact, research shows it’s the setting and profile of how additional hours are worked that differs greatly between teachers, doctors and their commercial enterprise counterparts, not the actual number of additional hours worked which do not differ vastly.

Well, good luck to those sitting their exams and striving for a place at University. Whatever the outcome, remember one thing. To be successful and have the job satisfaction and the type of rewards you want in your chosen field, an intelligent, hard-working, flexible and can-do ethos will always be a necessary imperative. Working only the hours in an employment contract will rarely help you achieve your full potential…

When is a service not a service?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Health & Social Care, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Processes and Practices, Public Institutions, Service, Transformation

As companies grow, they reorganise and establish different business units to serve their needs. Often, a number of units must cooperate to deliver contracted services to clients. This cooperation can sometimes prove difficult causing disjoint service delivery and strained relationships with the client. The Badger took many calls during his IT career from frustrated clients who experienced, and were frustrated by, poor cooperation between different units within his company. One call from a client he knew well, however, has long stuck in his memory.

Their call was to complain about constant bickering at service review meetings between two units, one delivering helpdesk, hosting, and support services and the other developing a new business application. They demanded that cooperation between the units improved to provide ‘joined-up’ service coherency, as required by the contract. Action was taken, but what became cemented in the Badger’s memory were the client’s general words about service, namely ‘Service is not a service when it fails to fulfil its intended purpose or meet the needs of users. A service should provide value, convenience, and satisfaction, but if a service provider’s internal problems become visible and are a hinderance then the service has turned into a disservice. The essence of service is not its existence, but its ability to deliver coherently.’

These words, and the context that triggered this client’s call, came to mind when two friends described their recent experiences with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). One received an outpatient appointment letter from Audiology when they were expecting one from Cardiology! Enquiring revealed that the appointment was indeed with a cardiologist, but the wrong letter template had somehow been used to notify the appointment! The other attended a CT scan appointment arranged months ago only to be told when on the scanner with a canular in their arm that the scan could not proceed because they hadn’t had a prior blood test! The radiologist apologised but said it was common for scans to be aborted for this reason, because departments rarely tell each other – or the patient – that a prior blood test is needed! Having travelled some distance for the scan, the patient was understandably livid at having their time wasted and at having to await notification of a new appointment.

Irrespective of strikes, waiting lists, money, and political posturing, all of which are the mainstay of media reporting about the NHS, it’s no wonder that public satisfaction is at a record low (see here and here) when patients routinely experience interactions similar to these! The words of the Badger’s client resonate. The essence of service is not its existence, but it’s ability to deliver. It’s thus frankly shameful that ‘when it’s the NHS’ has become a valid answer to the question ‘when is a service not a service?’  Without redressing this, oblivion beckons for the NHS and its end-users…

A first-time Project Manager and scrutiny…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Processes and Practices, Project Management, Risk, Training

In times or yore, a young Badger was appointed to lead a new project developing software for an important client. It was his first time as a Project Manager! After six months, however, the Badger seriously doubted his suitability for the role. The initial enthusiasm, excitement, personal glow and motivation from knowing that your boss believes you have what it takes to be a Project Manager had been replaced by gloomy self-doubt. The project was on track, the team members was working well, and the client was happy, so what was the problem? Put simply, the Badger felt bogged-down with – in his view – unnecessary company bureaucracy and intrusion that encroached more and more on the time to lead the project.

In those days, all company employees had ‘a counsellor’, an experienced person outside the employee’s immediate chain of command, who acted as both a mentor and an independent performance appraiser. Employees met their counsellor formally twice a year, and one such meeting happened to be around six months after the start of the Badger’s project. At this meeting, the Badger shared his bureaucracy and intrusion misgivings and whether he was suited to a Project Management career path. His counsellor chuckled and said ‘Everyone initially struggles with scrutiny in their first leadership role because no one likes to be scrutinised. First-time project managers often underestimate the scrutiny that goes with the job!’ The counsellor was right. What the Badger labelled as unnecessary company bureaucracy and intrusion was largely the scrutiny that‘s part of good corporate governance and operational control.

The counsellor emphasised that embracing scrutiny was important because it builds trust and provides assurance that nothing is being hidden, whereas resisting it creates suspicion, distrust, and even more scrutiny! As an aside, they observed that the level of company scrutiny experienced can be a qualitative indicator of a company’s health, because the absence of it implies anarchy and ultimately company failure. Overbearing scrutiny of everything all of the time, on the other hand, suggests organisational constipation, risk aversion, stifled creativity, and likely underperformance compared with rivals in the market. The counsellor concluded with ‘As a Project Manager, you are actively managing your client and your team, but you must also actively manage your company scrutineers and their agendas’. Over subsequent years as a Project Manager that is exactly what the Badger did!

The Badger’s IT delivery career eventually took him into a senior, company-wide, delivery and business role that included being a scrutineer! Most of the first-time Project Managers he encountered as a scrutineer were better trained and supported and embraced scrutiny positively. Experiencing them trying to influence and manage the Badger was always fun, because when you’ve been in delivery for decades you know all the Project Manager’s angles and how not to be defected from your agenda!

It takes more than a job title to be good in a crisis…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business Continuity, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Risk

Crises can take many forms and happen quickly. They are inevitable at some stage for any organisation. They can be triggered by internal or external factors. Examples of the former are delivery difficulties on a crucial major project, bad decisions by corporate, subsidiary, or business unit leaders, and merger or acquisition integrations that go off the rails. Examples of external factors include a key client organisation collapsing, international turmoil, military conflicts, and disasters involving wind, fire, flood, earthquake, or pestilence. The Badger had some responsibility for crisis management during his IT industry career, which meant he learned a lot about the behaviour of senior people in emergency and crisis situations. In particular, he learned that some in senior leadership positions with impressive job titles, who one would assume are used to high-pressure situations, in fact struggle to be good in a crisis!

The recent volcanic eruption in Iceland reminded the Badger of dealing with the response to the ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in April 2010.  The ash created havoc by closing European airspace for five days. Many of his organisation’s key leaders, managers, and technical staff were stranded outside the UK unable to return to work after business trips or Easter breaks with their family. Clients, unsurprisingly,  clamoured for reassurance that the delivery of contracted  IT services and projects would continue normally. The first crisis management meeting was memorable due to the behaviour and attitude of one particular business unit leader. They had their head buried in their hands throughout in full-blown panic mode! They were negative about everything, blamed others for inconsequential things, and functioned in self-preservation mode rather than being collaborative and focused on finding solutions in the best interests of the whole organisation. Their behaviour exposed the fact to all present that they were irrational and unreliable under pressure!

Being good in a crisis takes more than just having a leadership job title! It requires a blend of skills, experience, and mindset. Training helps, but experience and mindset are crucial attributes. Leaders with hands-on crisis management experience handle emergencies better because they instinctively apply their learning from previous situations. They listen, think clearly, analyse information objectively, communicate clearly, adapt to circumstances, make sensible rational decisions, and inspire confidence. They remain calm under pressure, resilient to setbacks, and compartmentalise their feelings and emotions to stay focused on the job in hand. They acknowledge the feelings and emotions of others but keep everyone grounded in reality. Their job title alone is never a good indicator that they are good in a crisis!

Crises tend to reveal latent strengths within individuals, so don’t be fearful if you are asked to manage one. You’ll learn a lot about yourself, and you might even do a much better job of it than someone with a more senior job title than your own!