What The Trophy Kids Need Most From Their Place Of Work
Last month I wrote an article entitled ‘The Trophy Kids Have Arrived For Work’, which talked about some of the characteristics of Generation Y in the workplace. In that article I also gave some tips on how employers could manage Generation Y most effectively so as to...
The Missing Soul of Leadership: Our Story
"Instead of telling our valuable stories, we seek safety in abstractions, speaking to each other aboutour opinions, ideas, and beliefs rather than about our lives” wrote Parker Palmer. He went on to say that, “academic culture blesses this practice by insisting that...
The Factory in Your Garage: A review of 3d printing options and implications
A few weeks ago, I bought a 3d printer for use in my home. On the day I installed it, I recorded a video for our team's Signpost's YouTube channel (it's available here or at the bottom of this post). Since then, many people have asked me a lot of questions about it,...
Generation Y – Driving the need for Mobile Maturity
In a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), titled "PwC's NextGen: A Global Generational Study", they highlighted a number of learnings that organisations can take from the study. Among a number of useful and interesting insights, one of the key learnin gs was...
Bitcoin has the power to disrupt the most powerful institutions
"It is clear that policymakers and those who advise them do not have a satisfactory conceptual framework for dealing with [this] disruptive impact" says Alec Ross the former senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and; Jonathan Luff a former...
All that’s wrong with the media today: A ridiculous example
It sounds like something out of one of those cringeworthy, self-written high school plays. But in reality it is a genuine news report from a Fox affiliate TV station in the United States. And although it is a single anecdote, it does shine a spotlight on the mess that...
All that’s wrong with the media today: A ridiculous example
It sounds like something out of one of those cringeworthy, self-written high school plays. But in reality it is a genuine news report from a Fox affiliate TV station in the United States. And although it is a single anecdote, it does shine a spotlight on the mess that...
Why Leadership Development needs to grow a pair!
Developing leaders is big business. Developing leaders has become a victim of its own success in that there is little willingness to change the model that for years has delivered the success. This is incongruent with the message that business needs to overhaul and...
Will you still have a job in 2025? The alarming rate at which jobs are being disrupted
A recent MIT Technology Review reveals an alarming trend. Since the early 2000's and increasingly since the financial crisis of 2008, the levels of employment have decreased even though productivity has increased over the same period. Erik Brynjolfsson And Andrew...
Learning is changing – and businesses will need to change too
There is a pattern to the disruption of industries – change happens slowly, with a few early-adopters taking a technology and innovating, but not always in the optimum way. Then it happens quickly - and a whole industry can come tumbling down. Take digital music,...
Why do UK retailers continue to report Internet sales separately?
Apologies to regular readers of this blog. This is a repeat of a short rant I had when last year's UK Christmas retail report came out. Now the half year retail results have been released, and we're stuck with the same problem. Marks & Spencer released their retail...
When will they Revolt?
In 1968 it seemed that the whole world was in dispute or turmoil. Many of the disputes were student led; there were student protests in Poland against the oppressive Communist Government, there were protests and riots in France that ending up involving workers that...
Limited social media at work is a deal breaker for younger generations
The biggest issue that HR is facing today is IT policies. In most companies, IT does not see itself as a service to the HR function, and don't recognise how much their policies affect the morale of the staff - especially younger, 'digital native' generations. This...
The Future is China; The Future is Now.
China is like a large building site. Well in truth, China is a large building site. Any visit to a Chinese city (and sometimes not even a city) there is evidence of building activity. From my hotel window in Guangzhou I counted 38 cranes and a building that was still...
Digital Trends 2013
I was alerted to the Digital Trends 2013 website a few days ago. It's a collaboration between Microsoft, IPG Mediabrands and The Future Laboratory (although the domain name indicates that MS is the dominant partner). It looks like this might be updated on an ongoing...
Three Reasons Why You Should Mentor Someone In Your Organisation
Mentorship is not a new concept. The word Mentor comes from the Ancient Greek writer Homer's epic story called The Odyssey. The story is of a hero, called Odysseus, who takes ten years to return home from the Trojan War. During that time Odysseus needs an older man to...
Is Google the perfect example of a future focus business?
Google is winning and you don’t have to search very far to find out why, says Fast Company writer Frahad Manjoo. In a world of the tech giants - battling against the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Apple - Google has the edge, not because it is winning on every front,...
What is a Disruptive Force?
A disruptive forces is not a force that results in incremental changes, improving products or services one step at a time. Rather disruptive forces result in a breakthrough or a step change that transforms society forever. Sometimes the disruption is complete and...
Signposts video: What’s IT doing?
In the latest of our new series of "TomorrowToday Signpost videos" on YouTube, Graeme Codrington asks what IT are doing at the moment? It's a bit of a rant, as Graeme feels that most IT departments have stopped being service units to their organisations, and are now...
25 Things You Need to Know About the Future
I was recently browsing through a bookshop's recommended books, and saw "25 Things You Need to Know About the Future" by Christopher Barnatt (Constable, 2012 - buy it at Amazon or Kalahari.com). It's a great primer, and I like the issues he has picked out. Here's his...