As I write this, I’m still in pain from having a pair of teeth removed a week ago. I’m recovering well from the surgery itself but it seems to have left me with the most painful mouth ulcer I’ve ever had. I cannot wait for it to be healed and to get back to my normal routine!
This month has been another interesting transitional month with loads of little excitements.
My contract at Alzheimer’s Society is now in full-on handover mode as the person taking on the management permanently has started. I love this part of the job: explaining my rationale for the prior six months and also listening and adapting, knowing that what I put in place is a baseline and will inevitably be moulded to fit the preferences and expertise of the permanent team that follows. Setting teams up for long-term success is my favourite thing to do: nothing grates with me more than contractors and agencies who take a “fire and forget” mentality, so I try to be the exact opposite of this.
I’ve also had chance to do some serious development on my mystery new product Shufflehorse. It’s now got most of the functionality I want to launch a closed beta, and it’s also almost ready to get a designer looking at making it look “less shit”.
Want to be part of the closed beta?
I’ve got three new posts for you this month and I think you’ll like all of them!
Feels like a lifetime ago but earlier this month I spoke at Queer In Tech Leeds. Thanks so much to Loz and the other organisers for having me - it was such a great crowd and a great experience!
The theme of my talk was “Fun is mandatory” - an intentionally provocative title, but my point is that leaders can’t ignore fun at work if they want their teams to be productive.
I’ve written a blog post version of my talk that I’d love for you to share around, especially if your team is not having as much fun as it could be.
Speaking in public always gets me thinking about slide decks. How do you create visual aids that are friendly and engaging without drowning the audience in text?
In this post I share my tips - and my tech - for creating really great slide decks to accompany any kind of presentation.
This was another post that “did numbers” on LinkedIn, so I’ve evidently touched on a subject that’s really important to people. Are there other related subjects you’d like me to cover? Get in touch!
My recent surgery experience quickly changed from being about dental health to being about mental health, and it occurred to me that I’d never written about this important topic on the blog.
In this blog post, I share my recent mental health story as well as my tips for leaders and team members who are experiencing mental health challenges at work. I hope it helps, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject if you have them!
I have played so many board games recently! I went to the first Leeds Board Game Convention at the weekend and when I came back I was greeted by my own copy of the brand new Wingspan Pocket.
Wingspan Pocket is a new game in the very popular Wingspan series by Elizabeth Hargrave, but what sets this edition apart is that it’s got a drastically reduced ruleset and play time, so you can learn to play in a few minutes even if you’re not a regular gamer. The whole game plays in less than an hour and it packs away into a box small enough to put in a tote bag or your hand luggage (“pocket” is pushing it). And it still has all the beautiful bird art and bird facts.
If you’re a serious gamer you’ll find as much strategy as (and very different strategy from) the original game, but it’s also simple enough that you can teach it to your work colleagues or other casual gamers.
I love it and I believe you’ll love it too. If you don’t, I’ll give you your money back for this newsletter.
Thank you for reading! Please forward my newsletter to anyone who will find it interesting. Every new subscriber makes a massive difference to my business and I treasure every single one of you.
Have an amazing August and I’ll see you here around the bank holiday for more newsletter fun!
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