The Idea Trampoline
on Feb 13 in Blog, Strategy, Understanding tagged Action, Analysis, Future by Keith
The what?
The Idea Trampoline. You know, where you can bounce your good ideas and your perplexing challenges back and forth, up and down, tumbling them around. Boing one way then another to see if the idea comes back looking any different, any better, still viable.
Sound interesting? Read More
Reboots, Puppies and Business Continuity
on Dec 15 in Blog, Strategy, Taking Action tagged Action, Planning by Keith
Time for DR?
Today’s lesson is that when you are using bootable media in the drive of a host, and attaching it to one of the guest VMs, remember to remove the media (or change the boot settings) when you remote reboot the host after updates… :) This led to thinking about disaster recovery and business continuity. Read More
Making Improvements: Can Simple Really Work?
on Dec 01 in Priority, Understanding tagged Action, Analysis, Prioritisation, Strategy by Keith
Simple Tools...
One of our mantras is “keep it simple“, because we work in an area that is complicated enough to begin with!
When we look at how businesses can improve, it inevitably means having to maintain the big picture (where are we heading?) together with digging into the details (as they can often be the blockers). To drive simplicity through what we do, we evolved a very simple set of tools & reports, which we use to run projects.
Why simple, when we’re trying to analyse and solve complex problems? Read More
National ProBono Week
on Nov 10 in Blog tagged Community by Keith
Critical Action is part of Business In The Community’s ProHelp scheme.
As this is National Pro Bono week, read a little bit more of what sort of things we do at Peterborough Today (Evening Telegraph - opens in new window).
Project “P”s - Three or Five
on Aug 05 in Planning, Priority, Understanding tagged Objectives, Planning, Prioritisation by KeithIn a recent Twitter exchange with one of my friends (@eileenb), we were discussing productivity and planning. We covered things like the “5 Ps” (perfect planning prevents poor performance). As you might imagine, with a project manager’s hat on, things like the 5 Ps are stocks-in-trade for delivering the results clients need. My standpoint was slightly different though.
I suggested “3 new Ps” - Productivity, Priority and Purpose. Read More
Managing Elephants in Rooms
on May 17 in Blog, Priority, Understanding tagged Analysis, Planning, Prioritisation by KeithRisk For The Rest Of Us - Managing Elephants in Rooms
Risk Management is a huge area with lots of specialist people, companies, books, qualifications and so on. So should we even go there if we’re not black belts…? And what’s this about elephants? Read More
The Headline Test
on Feb 03 in Taking Action, Understanding tagged Analysis by KeithWhat might Concorde crashing on take-off, and the Iraq War Inquiry tell us about making business decisions?
I often end up in situations where I am helping businesses make tricky decisions, some of which may have been put off for some time. They usually involve big, important things that affect people, profit, livelihoods, even lives. Read More
Microsoft SCCM at Essex Police - Project Management
on Jan 25 in Case Studies tagged Action, Microsoft, Planning by KeithCritical Action Limited was chosen as Project Management partner by EACS Limited, for their project to roll out Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 to Essex Police’s 4000 PCs. Read More
Microsoft Online Services
on Nov 19 in Blog, Strategy tagged Microsoft, Streamlining by KeithCritical Action has today qualified to sell Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services.
The award of this accreditation is part of a project we have to develop a new product for our SME customers, aimed at streamlining the management of lots of the basic, fundamental information that our businesses rely upon. Read More
Future History
on Sep 25 in Blog, Strategy tagged Strategy, Workshops by KeithSetting your strategy for the future is always tricky, as of course, none of us really knows what’s going to happen.
Just look back 5, 10 or 20 years to see how far we’ve come. Who hasn’t said to themselves “if you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d be [insert amazing thing we take for granted now], I’d have laughed at you!” Read More