WWIII started, Fascism is rampant and unchallenged, history effectively dead. AI Bros are buying and selling morality and the same guys get the contracts while the Epstein Files are disqualifying humanity. UCLA calls it a lack of narrative coherence. We can't see ahead. Not really. Not anymore.
That doesn’t mean everyone is ready or willing to embrace the change. For evident reasons I write and speak about a lot, accepting change…
If I had a dollar for every time that a tech leader with their heart in the right place, stopped their efforts to better the developer’s lives -and ultimately productivity- because they were told off by HR, I’d afford to donate our software forever.
2025 Is it the year where we sort out this death of Agile debate?
"Looking at the frontrunners in Agilty - Google, Spotify, GM or Amazon - none of the Big 4 consultancies can say "yes, that's me, I wrote this magical 50M- strategy-deck" Duena Blomstrom 2018
A classic enterprise phrase hides a deeper truth: decisions made to avoid blame quietly accumulate Human Debt. This essay revisits why “nobody gets fired for buying IBM” was never about safety - and why courage, not risk aversion, is the real competitive advantage.
Putting devs back at the helmet will be hard - let me spell it out to the techies -at the risk they hate me for it: when it comes to this pivotal moment in the life of your craft, you can do better than this outrage and help build the next era of tech
Forget AI in the computer industry (where indeed the discourse is complex as its appearance shakes the very foundation of software crafting, engineering, product and design alike), what about it everywhere else? How does it affect every other employee in every other industry and what’s first...
Navigating multiple views of neurodiversity whilst designing ways to maintain high levels of empathy for all has been exceptionally difficult in the ever more divisive -and divided- fractured organisational landscape of today. Speaking to smart people-leaders has helped me see new facets of...
We may have killed Psychological Safety y’all and it may not return until the “new guard” takes over completely. This sadly, is not an overstatement or click-bait, but...
Let's be clear once more: this whole "return to the office" (RTO) charade is absolute insanity. In this (exceptionally indignant and mercifully short) episode of our Secret Society for Human Work Advocates and Human Debt Fighters Podcast, Dr. Allessandria Pollizzi and I break it down in much...
I’m very lucky. I get to speak to incredible people who tirelessly think and feel all day. Some of these conversations are recorded and you can find them in our podcasts. Here’s what you may have missed on there of late: Karen Ferris and I spoke about her new “Be Remarkable” book on resilience...
FinTech / Emotional Banking 1.0
I've been trying to avoid joining the "Is Agile dead?" conversation that pops up repeatedly, as it has once again on LinkedIn in recent months. It's tempting to get caught up in this debate, but it happens so frequently. Let's be honest—whenever there's a major change or new initiative in a...
(Cross posted to both newsletters if you're both in Technology and HR Leadership) Can you believe it? They have a name for it all. The unfitting. The eternal hardship. The awkwardness. The uncertainty that we ever do the exact right thing or worse, the inability to do but the exact right thing....
Isn’t life quieter when I’m not "in your ear" moaning about the lack of Agile and the lack of care about the roaring HumanDebt like I used to do THREE times a week a few months ago but barely once every few weeks nowadays? You’re welcome :) Is this blessed (semi) silence from my part caused by...
Hey y’all - long time no talk, loads happened so grab a cuppa so we have a heart-to-heart - (if you subscribe to both newsletters you'll see this in two copies, apologies, but I assure you that it will be back to different (and hopefully less personal and dramatic!) content next week. Let me...
A detailed public account of one of the most severe incidents we experienced is temporarily withheld due to ongoing legal proceedings. The case involves documented misconduct, institutional failures, and harm inflicted during a period of targeted harassment and extreme trauma, all of which...
“Leadership Skills! Come buy your leadership skills here! AI-proof/ML-enabled/McK-sanctioned/visionary-du-jour-inspired packaged for insta-leadership right here!” Let’s face it, you can’t walk the corridors of Canary Wharf or the trendy Barbados new ad-hoc WeWorks without being lured by some...
If anyone missed me, I apologise for the silence. We launched not one, not two, but seven different podcasts at TechLedCulture, and invitations have gone out for three more extraordinary hosts to join us. We can not wait to unveil all we’ve been to. If you haven’t subscribed to them, please do...
Human Debt™
If anyone missed me, I apologise for the silence. We launched not one, not two, but seven different podcasts at TechLedCulture, and invitations have gone out for three more extraordinary hosts to join us. We can not wait to unveil all we’ve been to. If you haven’t subscribed to them, please do...
Sigh - here we go. (Cross-posted BTW, please bare with the duplicates) Read this, please, because we all need to do something
Execution Debt
(Cross-posted between all my channels, full version and bonus content on substack ) and an author’s read-through available for a one-time recording purchase here One word for my (undoubtedly startled) Medium followers who may not have followed me as part of the 122.000 subscribers on LinkedIn,...
Human Debt™
Hi Team - This is the first time in my career that I obey a rule of old-school marketing in placing this big clear BUY NOW right here at the start but feel free to ignore it until you manage to read all this, then return and do it (or click the one I'll try and recall to slap at the...