Reading List 2020

Last year I managed to read 11 books. I’d like to get 12-15 this year

  1. Grit by Angela Duckworth finished 13 Feb 2020. Paperback ISBN 9781785040207. In short people can do well in life by practicing and not giving up and this can beat “talent”.
  2. The only Investment Guide you’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias finished 21 Feb 2020. Paperback ISBN 9780544781931. A witty read that basically suggests you should come back when you have £10,000 or more in savings ha! The section on how to save money is very useful and my aim this year is to try to save 20% of my earnings…..
  3. Sprint: Solve big problems and test new ideas in just Five Days by Jake Knapp finished 27 Feb 2020 Paperback ISBN 9780593076118. A short guide with case studies on how to tackle a problem and produce a prototype in five days. Lots of useful tips I’ll be trying out this year.
  4. Red Notice by Bill Browder finished 19 April 2020 kindle isbn 9781448170937
  5. Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond finished 3rd May 2020 Paperback 9780099302780. Huge thanks to my local bookshop for delivering during the pandemic!
  6. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein paperback ISBN 978014104001 finished 14th June 2020. A highly readable look at how using “nudges” we can help ourselves and others make better decisions – useful for home and work.
  7. The Spook Who Sat by The Door by Sam Greenlee finished 26 June 2020. Paperback ISBN 9781943138173. A really good read that is about one black man’s vision set his people free.
  8. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi finished 10 July 2020. Paperback ISBN 9780575088894. My first SF novel in ages and it was good to be lost in other worlds!
  9. How to Stop Worrying & Start Living by Dale Carnegie finished 29th July 2020. Kindle. A short run through of things we worry about and letters from people who came out the other side – a good read during the pandemic
  10. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala finished 13 August 2020. Kindle. We’re both born the same year and so much of his descriptions of his teens and 20’s match mine (London / Bristol) – from literally countless stop and search*, school folks murdered, shots fired, and the mix of Ghanaian/UK/USA influences. Akala is a gifted writer and I really enjoyed this book. I have seen him rapping live in the past too so it is nice to reconnect too. Highly recommended. *Ive been stopped walking, cycling, driving/passenger and motorcycle.
  11. How To Be An Antiracist by Dr Ibram X. Kendi finished 27 August 2020. Kindle ISBN 9781473570979. Just read it!
  12. Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers finished 29th August 2020. Kindle. A book about making things happen. Each chapter is 1-2min read and concisely gives you food for thought and more importantly action…or not. Many of the chapters are also available via his podcast if you prefer to listen. Derek donated all $250,000 raised from the books sold to the Against Malaria Foundation.
  13. Your Music and People by Derek Sivers finished 6th September 2020. Kindle. I respect music enough not to play any instruments and I def can’t sing or rap ha. This book is aimed at helping “musicians” to get their work out in the World BUT you can replace “musician” with any other role and find Derek’s suggestions useful. I really like that creativity isn’t limited to the actual songs but is just as true for marketing/business/connection. I’m looking forward to my print copy later this year.
  14. The Art of Possibility by Ros Zander and Ben Zander finished 13 September 2020. Kindle. A good format book that asks us to transform how we can open up our world view and from I to We.
  15. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple finished 6 October 2020. Kindle ISBN: 9781408864401. The book details how a company grew into an “empire within an empire” and is as much a business book as a tale of the horrors of war, greed, betrayal and loot. Recommended.
  16. Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World by Jacqueline Novogratz finished 21 October 2020. Paperback ISBN 9781250798770. Such a great book. Jacqueline has been around the globe countless times helping people to make sustainable businesses that have a real social impact. I think it is an important book for anybody in business but certainly those of us in the non-profit sector. In a time of needing revenue more than ever Jacqueline shows that patient capital is where we can really add value.
  17. It Doesn’t have to Crazy at work byJason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson finished 17th November 2020. Paperback ISBN 9780008323448. As Sara and I start to lead BMT this week and England is in national lockdown I wanted to re-read this book which is packed full of 1-2 page suggestions for working remotely and having a calm company. With most staff having to remain at home until at least 3rd December now seems like a good time to help us all remain calm digitally at least. I see no reason that we as a cultural sector can’t remain calm and use digital tools with intent from now. I don’t want being in the office to be a sign of “doing the work”. It isn’t physical vs remote, it is taking the time in 2020 to see if there is another way to leap from how things were to fixing some of our old habits that may be comfy but not as effective as the tools and processes of 2020 could let us be. Plenty of good reasons for human contact too!
  18. The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins finished 17th November 2020. Kindle. As I embark on my first CEO role this week I wanted to sense check with Sara how we’ll get momentum. Although we have all of the parts in our heads, this book brings everything together so was worth the read. Working as a job-share it is good to have reference material to align. I like how the guide is aimed at all job levels too. If I had to choose one highlight it is “build credibility early” as nobody knows you from your old success. Otherwise known as a trust battery.
  19. Range – Why Generalists Triumph in a specialized World by David Epstein finished 30th November 2020. Kindle. A really good book that uses lots of examples across fields to show that generalists do well not just specialists. A chapter towards the end describes me well and uses the term Polymath which seems pretty fitting for me – someone who covers lots of areas inside and outside my current domain, without any-longer being a specialist (in my case computing/digital). I’ve previously read some of the research examples such as Grit (see book 1 above). I have talked a lot about “T-shaped” skills being ever more important in the culture sector and this good is a handy nod to this being one of the possible futures you could choose.
  20. The Whole Picture: The colonial story of the art in our museums & why we need to talk about it by Alice Procter finished 4th December 2020. Hardback ISBN 9781788401555. I was really looking forward to this book and it didn’t disappoint. I often like to ask “why” and Alice doe’s a really good good of answering the “why” regarding types of museum, objects and stories that are shown and not shown to the public with an eye on colonial history. Each chapter gives you helpful context with an easy to understand rationale, making the book an easy read for a big subject. The conclusion chapter is something i’ll be dipping back to regularly as my role means that i’m part of the problem but can also be helping lead on readdressing. How can we get over ourselves as people who want to stay employed but yet have a duty to evolve, unlock the stories and relinquish control to who have been directly affected?, Alice says it best right at the end “We have to keep rethinking, keep reframing who we remember and how”. Personally I find it interesting that my journey from working class kid who has taken an unusual path to being a CEO of “the museum establishment” now affords me an opportunity to collaborate on a future path that can choose unlock with intent. Thank you Alice for such an important reminder.
  21. The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin finished 28th December 2020. Paperback ISBN 9780241470046. You should read everything by Seth and I also recommend his podcast Akimbo. Seth makes the point that the only work worth doing seeks to make change happen and you need to be on the hook and stop hiding. The book uses 219 examples to help you remember that you can get better and ship work daily by having a process. I am a fan.

Honda nuts anticipate user need

Photo showing close up of two nuts on Honda CBF motorcycle used to adjust chain tension
Close-up photo to show two nuts that are used to adjust the chain tension of my Honda

My motorcycle chain had become too loose and needed adjusting over the weekend. A friend came over to show me how to do it. The process was loosen the wheel nut (large nut in the above photo to right) , then first loosen the outer nut and then turn the second nut until the correct tension was found. What I found very interesting was the consideration Honda clearly had for us home fixers. Normally the two nuts would be the same size but most people own one spanner set with each tool being the next size down/up thus making it impossible to adjust the nuts at the same time. Honda have obviously considered this and to my surprise the second nut is the next size up thus allowing me to use the next spanner in the set and make the adjustment without having to borrow another spanner from a neighbour.

This small detail to me demonstrates how Honda have carefully considered the “real” world and met my user need before I even knew it. They could have used identical nuts knowing that would likely result in the user having to stop the job and seek out the same size spanner but instead they did the difficult work (two different nuts on the same sized thread and adding one more different part ). Thanks Honda!

10 years on Twitter

According to Twitter, today marks 10 years on the platform for me @zakmensah. I remember resisting for over a year having grown tired of signing up for platforms that never gained traction beyond the early adopters. I’ve never been that interested in being first to the party. I was at Jisc at the time and traveling the UK for events and conferences was a big part of my role. I started to notice that the various unconference/meet-ups were being organised on twitter and I felt left out. I wanted to know which pub was the pub folks were gathering at. As with all new platforms I didn’t get the point for awhile but once I started to discover groups in the pub I was set ha. Fast forward 10 years and I’m  glad I jumped on twitter and its evolution has been interesting to watch. From nerds to the mainstream. In the same period of time many other social platforms have risen and fallen including Google Wave, myspace, snapchat and many others I’ve long forgotten.
I have met great people on twitter, some I have yet to meet in person and others I have hollered at when in their country. I have had wonderful work opportunities, learned a bunch and its often the first port of call when I’m stuck and need advice for work. I like the little tribes such as museumhour and musetech  and following the boxing or F1 for the wit and live emotion.
I like to share on twitter and also keep lots of things private. I can pick and choose as I please which is the whole point. For example I never post family photos and try to avoid tweeting much when at the pub for obvious reasons. Tweets wash over the timeline so I don’t pay too much attention to crafting messages or take myself too seriously. But I do want to live my life a bit on the web as a dry serious me online would be a dull shame.
Happy birthday to the 10 year @zakmensah version of me. Oh and the oldest tweet I can find is me saying hello to someone’s mum.

Good enough

I was just publishing my annual blog post for my reading list and my wife asked “How many people actually read your blog?”. I responded with “I dunno let’s see”. Except I can’t actually show her as it turns out my analytics stopped recording a long time ago. My bad. I decided ages ago not to bother looking at the analytics as I didn’t want to be fixated on growing per se. I write very niche posts here and at the Culture team labs blog for people like me. And there must only be a few hundred people like me across the planet. I know that the right people stumble across here as I regularly get email to ask me questions, jump on a skype call with folks across the world or to invite me to speak at a conference.

The aim for me is to share my experiences for people like me and it appears to work. That is good enough for me.

Reading list 2019

Last year I started quite a few books but only managed to read 7. Let’s hope I find more time this year.

  1. This is Marketing by Seth Godin finished 11 Jan 2019. Paperback ISBN 9780241370148. I always enjoy how Seth Godin manages to make compelling stories to explain how to level up regardless of your resources. I particularly enjoyed the section on direct and brand marketing.
  2. Creativity: Why it Matters by Darren Henley, finished 25 March 2019. Hardback ISBN 9781783963782.
  3. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink finished 25 April 2019. Kindle format. A look at how we should move to a new form of motivate that suits the non-industrial work we now largely do. Dan frames motivation around autonomy , mastery  and purpose.
  4. Retail Therapy: Why the Retail Industry is Broken by Mark Pilkington finished 12 May 2019. Hardback 9781472965103. A good summary of the issues facing UK/USA retail industry. The book is easy to read and challenges the industry to make a ruckus. One great a-ha moment for me was that we typically mark products up by 2.4 but with online it should fundamentally be a cheaper as we have less overheads. Also the supply chain should be shorter so yet more reason to reduce the cost for your bespoke range. The last 1/4 alone is worth the book cost.
  5. First Man In by Ant Middleton finished 16th May 2019. Paperback ISBN 9780008245733
  6. The everything store by Brad Stone finished 25 May 2019 paperback ISBN 9780552167833
  7. Good to Great by Jim Collins finished 14 July 2019 Hardback ISBN 9780712676090. The focus is on firstly having the right people,  level 5 leadership and using your Hedgehog Concept.
  8. The Great Reframing: How Technology Will––and Won’t––Change the Gallery System Forever 23 September 2019  Kindle ASIN B0734P4NHV. I found learning about the contemporary art market super interesting and that the digital challenges in the sector are the same as public sector. Interesting too that the market has lots of checks and balances to prevent the usual “disruption” from tech as much of the high end/sought after works are about scarcity and don’t scale. Can/will artists find ways though to break into the art market using tech regardless. Friction is built into every step as part of the game.
  9. Change for Good – using behavioural economics for a better world by Bernard Ross and Omar Mahmoud finished 6 November 2019 paperback ISBN 978-0692064368. The book was a good introduction into the subject of behavioural economics with easy to follow themes and examples. I had lots of aha! moments about how often we’re in autopilot. The idea of System 1 / System 2 for decision making has given me lots to think about.
  10. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell finished 18 November 2019 hardback ISBN: 9780241351567. The book focuses on how little we know about ourselves when dealing with strangers and how this can lead to deadly consequences. Furthermore that “place” is often a key element and that “coupling* of place and context is a fascinating topic.
  11. Hostile Environment How Immigrants Became Scapegoats by Maya Goodfellow finished 22 December 2019 paperback ISBN: 9781788733366. A really insightful look at how past history and current policies have led to a “us” and “them” mentally in the UK. Highly recommended.

So…five years at Bristol City Council

1st July 2018 is a significant personal milestone for me as I turn five as an employee of Bristol City Council’s Culture team. Most importantly I’m happy. I absolutely love what I do and where I work. As a Bristolian, I feel immensely proud of helping the Council run such a great cultural service.

If you’ve ever heard me give a talk there is a good chance you have heard my tongue in cheek remark that “I originally came on a 18 month fixed term contract and by the time they work out how to get rid of me I’d be out the door anyway”.

In reality I set about using that first 12 months to show that digital was a key ingredient to the museum’s current and future success. I got to build a digital team from the ground up and since those early days my role has grown from one team to ten as well as shedding two job titles through promotion.

“We” have delivered lots of pieces of work in the past five years. I say “we” as no project is shipped without the effort from some of the most talented people I’ve had the delight to work with. We do so much that it is literally impossible to keep track 100% of what is delivered even though I try my best. Across the team’s there is at least 1-2 people working 7am to 2am most days of the week which is mind-blowing.

We are a team of teams and these five years have taught me a great deal about other people’s passions within the Culture team. I really love that both digital and transformation get to weave around all the corners of the Culture service so I get a glimpse behind the curtain of a much bigger picture.

I have met hundreds if not thousands of people across the globe who care deeply about using Culture as a force of good in the world. I have spoken at dozens of events and had the privilege of learning from lots of people who care enough to share time with me and the sector.

Do. Try. Deliver. Learn. Repeat.

I just wanted to pause to take the time to say thank you to anyone I’ve come into contact with, worked with, agreed with or “respectively disagreed” with. Transformation is a process not a project. Looking ahead, I continue to work on growing as a leader and helping the greatest city on Earth to deliver the best cultural offer. Getting better means regularly asking my colleagues what can I do more of, less of or what is good enough that should be kept as it is. Seth Godin says be “defenseless” in order to grow …also helps to keep the old ego in check.

I remember reading a guidance document that said a museum professional is somebody with “five” years or more experience. Totally incorrect way to foster good relations eh. I guess my tenture means I need to drop my joke that I’m a professional unprofessional…. and go make a ruckus.

Embrace constraints

There is always more work than the time you’ll ever be able to commit to making that perfect outcome/project/painting. Thus you find all the reasons you can’t ship/finish your workload. ‘I don’t have enough time’ is a common cry in the workplace. But instead of procrastinating use constraints to your advantage.

Pssst “constraints are essential for being somebody who wants to ship their project”.

If you know the edges, limitations of resource and/or time [constraints] you can ensure your project doesn’t become a never-ending saga. Too many projects seek perfection. Nothing good comes from chasing perfect. I used to push lines of code around trying to “improve” the code base and make it “perfect”. Or that’s what I was kidding myself thinking. I was wasting time. I didn’t know about constraints. You should be embracing the constraints as these prevent you from chasing perfect and will help you ship. If you needed 100 days for that perfect project execution but only have 20? great that will focus the mind and deliver “good enough”.

We all wish we had more time but the people who ship work have accepted that their work will never be perfect enough no matter how long they are given. So they ship. They get known for delivering and they ship some more. Embrace the constraints.

Its hard to Zag when you already Zig

Once I learn a particular way of doing something it’s hard to see any other path. The other evening for example I was messing around with Shopify and found a handy feature that was right before my very own eyes. Until today if I wanted to know how well a product has sold I exported the month or year to date (YTD) sales and then searched. However Shopify has a handy “Orders” feature that lets you search sales history. Bingo a super quick way to get the same result in a fraction of the time. I has previously written that feature off. I find it difficult to override this urge to follow the path well known. I know this applies to most tasks including driving routes. I’m trying to force myself to ask “is there another way?”.

My first website domain

I purchased my first website domain tribehut.com in a basement in Wolverhampton in 2002. A family friend, Tony, let me use his card.

The computer screen was glowing in the dark space which had a shoebox sized window with natural light. It felt like magic. Little ole me joining the online space.

I went on to design, build and consult on over 100 web projects with that website domain. Today it sits gathering dust. I fire it up every now and again to remind myself of previous goals met, mistakes I made and to remind me that there is plenty more to be done.

That small action and guidance from Tony was a huge step towards who I am today. Open bracket, HTML, close bracket.