The shape of the letter ‘T’ in teams

The museum sector I orbit is facing a short-term period of uncertainly. More than ever we’re all looking at what are our teams need to be in order to adapt to a rewritten rule book. Getting things done at scale is why people come together. We form teams because “Annie” has particular specialist skills that “Jerry” doesn’t and vice versa. In my experience this has a tendency for us to focus too very heavily on 1-2 easily identifiable areas and recruit according to a deep skill.

As an example on paper my specialist skill would be computing related. Yet what I bring to the team is a broader set of systems thinking skills in addition to other skills at various degrees of sharpeness. Therefore if I left the team it would be tempting to say “we need to replace Zak with another person with computing background” which is a reductive way of solving the team gap.

A much better way to consider what a team needs as a whole is to think in terms of T-shaped skills. In this concept we acknowledge that specialist skills are important and these form the long part (or stem) of the T shape but that all the other skills are the cross bar and equally critical. With limited people and budgets it is unlikely we can recruit our way out alone. I was reminded of all the cross bar skills in Seth Godin’s piece on real skills. What if we focused on protecting our stem by strenthening the cross bar instead? could this lead to progression based on your cross bar rather your stem alone? could we focus on the stress points and scale up or down accordingly? can we value consent-based decision making? problem solving?

What real skills can I focus on in 2023 towards enduring the uncertainty?

Reading list 2023

Every year I like to make a record of books I’ve read. I managed 14 in 2022 and have at least that many already sitting ready for this year.

  1. A Brief History of Black British Art by Rianna Jade Parker fnished 1st January 2023. Paperback ISBN 9781849767569
  2. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler finished 18th January 2023 on Kindle.
  3. Jerry Saltz Art is Life hardback finished 20 February
  4. Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History by Frank Close finished 13th March paperback ISBN 9780141986449.
  5. Atlas of Prejudice: The Complete Stereotype Map Collection by Yanko Tsvetkov finished 13th March paperback ISBN 97884617956666
  6. Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke on Kindle
  7. Stolen focus Johann Hari on Kindle finished 23rd May 2023
  8. The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia on kidle finished 31 July 2023. A short but inspiring read by the founder of Gumroad. No meetings, part time and transparency ties in nicely with my thinking. I’ve been talking asynchronous for years so good to see a real example.
  9. Surviving to Drive – a year inside Formula 1 by Guenther Steiner finished 24th September 2023. Hardbook ISBN 978 1787636279

Got a desk?

I propose that “we” make available our internal hotdesk spaces for others within the sector. We advertise where/when/how and make every effort to reduce the friction to make mi casa es su casa. The results could be to foster new connections, reduce isolation, help each other out and start to make the future of work a reality.

I want to… book a temporary space to work at for a few hours or a whole day at a time at a relateable organisation such as a museum.

So that… I don’t have to work alone at home all the time or because I happen to be out of town.

As a… regular traveler across the UK

When… i happen to be in another town or city with the need to work

Because… I can’t afford to hire a private co-working space or hover in a noisy high street cafe (at least not most of the time).

A boiler plate set of terms and conditions to cover fire evac, desktop workstation assessment and shared values to abide by would keep everyone happy. Oh and let’s have an agreed wifi host name and password.

The “we” above can be any organsiation so that we scale up a network that could be anywhere in the world.

I am part of an action research project with Culture24 looking to how we use the opportunities of hybrid for good purposes. Birmingham will be the first flag of hopefully many.

See you in Birmingham?

A full bag is a full bag

I was recently packing for a few days holiday. I use a North Face Backpack. When I filled it but had more kit I had to prioritise and repack. In parallel I was worried about having lots on at work. A lightbulb moment occured as I realised that just like my bag I needed to prioritise and leave some stuff for another time. Just like that the anxiety disappeared and I remembered my good habits from Getting Things Done.

Reading time

I like to read. Reading let’s me drift off to alternative worldviews. I sometimes get asked how I find the time. One page at a time i guess. Yet for ages i found all sorts of excuses not to read. I’m too busy to read raising kids, working, being a husband blah blah. Instead of spending less time with family I worked around the problem. I played around with different reading times until I landed on reading when I wake up. In the gap between my wife waking and being disturbed by the kids. Some days it’s 5mins or 30mins.

I also purposely read in front of the kids when given the chance to show them reading can be for passing the time.

I can call my reading a positive habit that I’ve fostered.

This week I had the pleasure of taking the kids to the library to choose their own books. An activity that reminds me of my own childhood. I wonder if they’ll remember in 30 years time too.

Just enough milk

At home we get our milk delivered every Saturday by a local farm. To make it last we freeze two of the three 4ltr bottles. In theory that means we have the current bottle, one fresh bottle To ensure we have enough milk we have to estimate the best time to take the milk out of the freezer and allow 24hrs to defrost. Get it wrong and we have to try to speed defrost the milk with the kettle. Although this works sometimes, it usually makes a mess and tastes weak. The urgency of poor planning leads to a poor outcome.

Finding the balance took a bit of effort but pays off. The same applies to our use of resources in the workplace.

The trust battery for a CEO

In my career to date I have always had a slight (common?) distrust of those higher up in the organisation. Trust on a personal level is gained through interactions, Rarely do most people in a workforce get to know the boss. I have heard all sorts of rumours of things that I am alleged to have said that I didn’t. Or someone will have second-guessed something I did and assumed a different thing. Our worldviews may be different and the sum of “assuming or guessing” can make gaining high levels of trust a problem.

Knowing this has made me really think how I can reduce this problem. When I started 16 months ago I regularly shared a slide which showed a graphic of a battery that was half charged with 2 of 4 bars. Enter the Trust battery. Tobi Lütke who is Shopify CEO has talked about the concept that when you start a new role people probably trust you about 50%. With each interaction you either charge or discharge the trust battery.

So over a year into my role I recently had a moment where someone really took a leap to trust me. Yah. But that being said mostly people I feel are at 50%. One of my objectives this year is to see if I can get more people in the higher side of the battery than the lower side.

How?

By doing what I say i’ll do and showing through actions and transparency. Doing but then not sharing is def one piece of the puzzle as unless folk see/hear actions they can be left unsure and that battery fails just a drop more.

Reading list 2022

Every year I document each book I read. You can find previous year in the archive. I try to find 30mins a day to read. I support my local bookshop and read things in the kindle when I’m at a loose end on my phone or in the dead of night when I should be counting sheep.

  1. Rebel ideas by Matthew Syed. Finished 10 January 2022. Ebook.
  2. Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint by Russell Davies. Finished 6th Jan 2022. Hardback ISBN 9781788167376. I do loooots of talks and this book is packed with short helpful tips to help beginners or seasoned folk like me. Sometimes my talks go went and other times not so much. I’ll be recommending this to others. Thanks to Matt Jukes for the reading choice.
  3. How To Live by Derek Sivers. Finished 30 January 2022. Hardback ISBN 9781991152305. As ever I love. How Derek makes me look at things differently. Whatever you choose to do in life is all good.
  4. BRIT(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch. It’s about what it says on the title. I really enjoyed it, especially as we are similar in age, both have a Ghanaian parent and young kids.
  5. Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest by Keith Ferrazzi, Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich. Finished 10th April 2022. Audio book. I’m really interested in how the forced experiments of hybrid and remote working during the pandemic may play out. Keith and Co do a great job of highlighting the challenges and opportunities.
  6. The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger. Finished 23 April 2022. Kindle format. A leadership book by the CEO of Disney.
  7. Re-read The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias finished 24 April 2022.
  8. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey finished 14 June 2022. One of the most recommended books in the field of personal development. I really enjoyed it as it was all about you and how consistent habits can improve home and work.
  9. Polar Bear Pirates: and their quest to engage the sleepwalkers by Adrian Webster finished 24 June 2022. Paperback isbn 9780857081278. Recommended by Rob HR and is a fun short read on reawakening dormant talent.
  10. Alibaba: The House Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark finished 25th July 2022 kindle.
  11. The Golden Flea by Michael Rips finished 23rd September 2022. Paperback 9781911547761
  12. Second City: Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain by Richard Viven finished 22 November 2022 hardback 9780241454534
  13. the New Age of Empire by Kehinde Andrews Finished 17 December 2022 kindle
  14. kindred by Octavia E.Butler finished 30th December on Kindle