Where’s the fun gone?

I’m going to be pretty quick this week. I’m recording from a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia, where I’ve just spent an awesome couple of days running workshops with a client.

Two days in Atlanta

The brief from the CEO was a digital product they’ve made really good progress on, but were stalling in terms of where to take it and how to align it to the business.

After the first morning, 4 hours in, he said to me:

I’m not sure we’re going to get out of these two days what we’re expecting to, are we?

It was becoming really clear there was a lot of other work, or connecting work, that needed to be done. It’s that classic pyramid I always talk about. When you go at it from the bottom up, it’s quite hard to work out how the product ultimately connects to the customer and has value...

Create, don’t react

My honest advice was, if you want to do this properly, you’ve got to do those connecting dots. His response was that he totally agreed. But his business is moving quickly, and he wants tangible things he can be getting on with as well.

I’m not going to lie, in a moment like that there’s always a slight sense of "where to go from here". So we took a reset break. 20 minutes, I worked through it in my head, scribbled on my notepad, and redesigned the rest of the day and a half to do a bit of both.

Now, fast forward to the end of the second day, the CEO and team are really excited, they’ve got a clear set of actions, and they can get on with stuff from Monday. And we've got some building blocks to work from, and a few gaps to fill. So I'm feeling good about it too.

For me, it’s a perfect example of the phrase I always use from my coach Bruce O'Brien CPCC, PCC, create, don’t react. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a step back, take a moment, and you can make good things happen.

We ended the day going for a run to debrief and talk about all the exciting things that come next... and just to have a normal conversation about everything else in the world.

Human amplified

The theme that’s come up time and time again over the last two days is human amplified. The power of the people in the organisation, the culture, and then how technology sits alongside that and amplifies it.

There’s so much negative news at the moment. The Barclays story broke yesterday, and the headline was that AI’s got rid of 5,000 jobs. Reading between the lines, it sounds like automation and efficiency drives, and I suspect this would have happened anyway. Big corporates lay people off in cycles, and then hire them all again as they grow.

I also went to a TEDx talk in Kingston last week on the topic of human amplified, absolutely phenomenal. One speaker talked about his daughter, who was born profoundly deaf, had implants and learned to hear. For me, that’s technology doing a brilliant thing and helping amplify human beings.

A virtual pet called Dot

Last Sunday I was prepping for this trip, using technology to do some of the legwork. It can be really soulless. I sat there and thought, where’s the fun in this gone?

So I went back to the very first thing I built, in Microsoft Basic, after my friend Edward Chilvers (thank you Ed) helped me learn some basics of Basic. It was a virtual pet, a blue ball that moved around a black screen. It didn’t serve any purpose other than a bit of fun.

With the power of technology now, I could build one so much superior in a matter of hours. So I did.

I called it Dot, which is probably a terrible name given OpenAI just launched Dots. It’s a little orange pixel thing, with its own personality and mood swings. It sits on top of the window I’m working on, and sometimes runs away from me when I try and catch it. You have to feed and water it, and it occasionally leaves litter in places. It’s just silly, but it’s so good.

In fact, I notice how much I’m smiling now talking about it. I might release it at some point for a bit of fun (with a better name).

The Friday Takeaway

My Friday Takeaway is really combining those two things. The importance of amplifying humans, and the importance of technology being a bit of fun along the way.

Don’t get caught up in the constant drive for efficiency, results and outcomes. Yes, they’re important in business, of course, and I’m the worst for that.

But step back, enjoy the moment, and always remember it's about humans amplified.

Before you go

Next week I’ll be back with a guest, possibly the CEO I’ve been with for the last two days.

And Mark Kennedy is making progress. No jobs yet, so we’re going to try something different next week. Thank you to everyone who’s been in touch with Mark or with me. You’re amazing people.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Until next week...

And please do leave a comment and tell me what you think, or simply like / follow if any of this is interesting.