Weeknote 6

This week i've been doing/pondering:

• Deming is often quoted as saying "what gets measured gets done". I've been pondering a slightly different aphorism recently that i'll try and nail down succinctly as "what is cared about gets cared for". What i mean by that is, in a work-context you can see what people care about by looking for the things that receive care, it doesn't matter what people say, what the organisational values are, what we might think the culture is, the things people really care about will receive the attention, and the things people really don't care about will not. Its like a little heuristic i'm carrying around with me at the moment, i've found it most useful to use it on myself.
• The first (of this new 'season') HowtoITStrategy.com Newsletter went out on Wednesday, with the next one already written and scheduled for this coming Wednesday. I've already got a little pipeline of newsletters either scheduled or in draft, its been nice to get some new subscribers, which hopefully means the content is useful. My plan is, in parrallel with the regular newsletter is to dust off the unfinished How to IT Strategy course that i shelved a few years back, and get a 'beta' version out before the end of March.
• Clarity is important when clarity can be achieved, but trying to provide clarity when in the midst of ambiguity is a fools errand, in that scenario enabling comfort with ambiguity should be the primary goal.
• I like cars, I like driving cars, but i have no knowledge or interest in how they work, so whenever i have to do something maintenance-wise with a car, no matter how trivial, it comes with certain amount of anxiety, fear, and annoyance, so i invariably avoid it. I can't help but think that this tells me something about me.
• I did my 3rd ParkRun on Saturday, at Holkham Hall, as part of my ongoing mission to try and run all 22 of the Norfolk ParkRuns this year. The course had a series of long inclines, so my initial intention was just to get round and enjoy it, however after the first 2k i decided to make the best of the downhill parts and see if i could break the elusive 25 minute mark (something i've only done a handful of times, and haven't done since I knackered both achilles around 4 years ago). with the last 3kish predominantly downhill i managed to do progressively faster Ks and came in at 24:33 (by my watch) or 24:43 (by ParkRun timing). Very pleased with that :)