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Ensure your message not only reaches but deeply engages your audience. Drive transformative change efficiently with these five practical storytelling tips.As a leader, the ability to communicate effectively is crucial particularly when it comes to engaging stakeholders and driving transformative change within your organization. Making your key message tell a story and rise above the details of change to engage the hearts and minds of your audiences is a learned …

I did an excellent course on Strategy for Directors. On Monday, I shared some models we learned about and in this post I pull those together. Whether you are in leadership or not, you can use this process and the models to help your strategic thinking. If you prefer to watch rather than read, I covered a lot of this in my talk Analysing, Deciding, Doing: How to develop and …

So I’ve been trying out this app called Structured for planning my day more productively. It’s pretty cool — it basically combines your calendar and to-do lists into one place. But the way I’ve mainly used it is to block my time for different things I need to do each day. That way I can actually see my daily schedule laid out visually as a timeline, which really helps me …

Back when I started this, the Internet was a lot more promising. You could assume that your words would be indelibly etched forever into the conciousness of humanity. I’ve seen the future, I can’t afford it Turns out, that’s not quite the truth. Corporate greed has overtaken the thirst for knowledge, one could write up a detailed passage of a certain Rock Group’s album developments or release dates, but for …

Interference patterns from LED street lighting creates pixelated shadows.

Hello everyone, this is a short housekeeping update episode. I wanted to point your attention to a new podcast project I've started. It's called CREATIVE JOURNEYS, and it's not so dissimilar to Travel Writing World. However, instead of focusing on travel literature, I'll be talking about creativity more broadly and interviewing different types of creative individuals from historians to photographers to artists and authors. We'll talk about process and practice …

for students | for scholars | for pleasure This blog is no longer being updated regularly with fresh content. Here are some self-study resources (including text and video) for those who would like to improve their academic skills, whether they are students or scholars (or dilletantes like me). For Students I have written a short paper that explains my approach here: “How to Write at University” (PDF). It is also …

I seem to have accidentally come up with a method for duplicating a centuries-old terrain representation technique. From a 30m DEM of Churfirsten, Switzerland. If you’ve looked at old maps, you’ve probably seen hachures: lines that run up and down along the slope of terrain features. There were a wide variety of approaches to doing hachuring, with different rules. But, in all cases, they attempted to give a reader a …

The PIGUM (which is an acronym for Porth I’r Gymru Ultra Marathon) is a 30 mile race with around 1700m (5500ft) elevation gain/loss, starting in the market town of Abergavenny, Wales. Porth I’r Gymru translates to “Gateway to Wales”. The PIGUM, 2024 route profile Last year I deferred this race due to scheduling issues, and this year I wasn’t originally going to do it either, as I had booked the …

Back to weeknoting after the election period. I write these notes for my own benefit, to reflect on what went on in my working week. I share my weeknotes online because I reflect more deeply, and write more thoughtfully when anyone could be reading. Monday A meeting of the new NHS England’s Product & Platforms leadership team, of which I’m a member, with the senior leadership of the Primary Care …

Recently, I’ve been looking back at a collaborative project with John Becker of WROT Studio. The “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis” (2014) was a fictional design project we originally set in the vast limestone province of Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. [Image: A rock-acid drip-irrigation hub for the “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis,” a collaboration between BLDGBLOG and WROT Studio; all images in this post are by John Becker of WROT Studio.] The Nullarbor …

Reflections on two years of working at Elicit and why it's time to leave

A personal philosophy In order to be a modeller of railways there needs to be a model railway. It doesn't matter if it is a loft or an Ikea box, there has to be a railway, otherwise we are mere collectors of things in boxes.Occasionally, a thought begins to become a concern, why build a model railway and why choose a particular subject? My obsession, for it is an obsession, …

Hello all, Status updateSo.Mid-June saw me catch Covid again, which was a distinct lack of fun. I was wiped out for a good 10 days and am still feeling the its effect on my energy levels and mood three weeks later. As I approach the second anniversary of my Long-Covid it's put a bit of a damper on any sense of recovery I was feeling recently. Interestingly when Fiona inevitably …

Inforrm reported on a large number of defamation cases from around the world in 2023. Following a now established tradition, with my widely read posts on 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 defamation cases, I present my personal selection of the most legally and factually interesting cases from England, Australia, Canada and New Zealand from the past year – with three “bonus” cases from the US. After a haitus …