Writers call it "blank page syndrome" or "writers block". Teams can experience this too. There's either confusion and conflict, or people are "paralysed" and don't do anything. In this article I present the idea of a "runway" - that is, a structure set up merely for the sake of getting the team moving.

Runway

A series of podcasts, targeted towards people working with software, design and digital systems, that presents ideas I have gleaned from a decade spent working with many clients on a variety of challenging projects and products.

About

How do you organise your personal information? Today, storage has become complex. We store many kinds of information in many kinds of formats. We also use various mediums - from old-school USB drives to cloud services such as Google Drive. In this episode, I offer a technique for keeping information organised while benefiting from using the best medium for the job.

Storage

Recruiters, agents, head-hunters - what do they mean to you and how do you feel about them? I talk about my relationship with recruiters over time, some things recruiters have done for me and a mental attitude I adopt when dealing with recruiters and hiring managers.

Recruiters

We're familiar with the Delete button on our keyboards, and the warnings that pop up when we press it. But there can be advantages as well - it can free up space, and I mean cognitive space.

Delete

Lately, I have been taking a step back and asking: who and what are your influences? Observing and actively shaping influences can lead to interesting results!

Influences

Revisiting the past, including your career history, may give you valuable insights, increase your comfort/confidence and help you to steer your future.

Revisit

Often, “don’t repeat yourself” is good advice. But might “copy-and-paste” sometimes be a better way of solving the problem?

Paste

Does your schedule work for you? Here I present the "modular schedule" – a way of introducing flexibility and adaptability while preserving consistency and regularity.

Schedule

Is your employer only a consumer? Is your barista only a producer? What happens when we flip these two categories?

Consumer

How do you manage work-place stress? One technique I have found helpful is 'expanding the problem'. That is, you focus on the process – the actions and tasks needed to solve the problem – rather than the solution itself.

Expand

How can developing trust between team members help to foster critique and critical thinking?

Critique

Organisational charts aren't always up-to-date, or most useful to you. So why not draw your own?

Orgchart

Life doesn't always go to plan. How might we think about plans in a way that keeps us motivated and moving forward?

Ship

Your job sucks. Or does it? "Transfiguring" your work can make it more fun, comfortable and enjoyable.

Transfigure

Connecting new information to old can help you to learn, understand, recall and apply your knowledge.

Integrate

Spaces can be chosen carefully, to better match the kind of activity you're doing, and make you more effective.

Spaces

All manner of physical and virtual assets exist around us, and are ripe for being repurposed to serve new ends.

Repurpose

Work and life comes to us in ebbs and flows. The "ebbs", or "downtime", can be a great opportunity for "slow thinking".

Downtime

What kind of company would you want to run, if you had to choose? Now, imagine your life as that company.

Company

Combining multiple small forces, all pushing you in a similar direction, you can move closer to your goals with less effort.

Forces

Slowing down can actually help you speed up! How? By enabling you to focus and unlocking the foundations of your knowledge domain.

Slow

A series targeted toward people working with software, design and digital systems. I present ideas gleaned from various projects I have worked on. You might find some of them applicable to your projects or to life in general.

Jonathan Conway

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