John Potter
Quality
LinkedInMore years than I care to remember in the IT industry working for multi-year periods with Logica, the NHS, ICL in the UK and Portugal, Software One/One Meaning, Oracle in the UK and USA, and latterly Footdown/Tensense. During these decades I tried many disciplines – analyst programming, systems programming, design, project management, product management and quality assurance – and was highly productive in most. Now extremely fortunate, due to the generosity of Tensense leaders, to be involved in a very part-time way working in an area that I find fascinating and which I view as crucial for all organisations.
Improving the sales culture
We are in an inflationary period and it’s not surprising to see the economy heading for a recession. Higher prices and more cautious customers, coupled with an increasingly competitive market, makes the job of selling much more challenging. And as the world continues to change at a fast pace, it is critical for any business […]
Leaders don’t need to be likeable
Most of us will know people who are likeable and often will view them more favourably than the people we know who are less easy to get along with. This human tendency to favour people who are likeable extends to workplace situations such as recruitment. As Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, CIO at ManpowerGroup, points out in his […]
How sensemaking can help avoid an exodus of your best people
If you already suffered from the Great Resignation and lost key employees, this may be too late for you. According to a survey conducted by Zety in the USA, 49% of the respondents to the survey quit in 2021! But, if you still have people in your company that you really want to retain (hopefully […]
All Change for Breakfast
Americans love eating breakfast out, as evidenced by the plentiful breakfast restaurants. Whether chains or independents, there are over 9,000 businesses and 180,000 employees in total. Transforming the relatively intimate experience of breaking fast into a shared transactional experience is an American phenomenon. There is even a market segment for breakfast restaurants – the A.M. […]
Is Quiet Quitting OK in your Company?
The last few difficult years have seen a number of new concepts or traits impacting organisations. After Working From Home to slow the pace of the pandemic, we saw the Great Resignation. People had more quiet time to evaluate their careers and decided to move on. Now we have the concept of ‘quiet quitting’ where […]
Disruption – friend or foe?
It is self-evident that this is one of the most disruptive times for businesses since what has become known as the Great Recession of 2007-09. Unlike that period, which was chiefly caused by unsustainable debt, the current crisis has a broader set of causes which impact businesses in multiple ways. Even before the invasion of […]
Don’t let the downturn grind you down
Change and transformation in an economic downturn can be a lifeline. Faced with an economic downturn and possible stagflation, companies may decide to batten down the hatches by cutting costs and protecting cash. Given the uncertainty of the current period, notably the availability and escalating prices of gas and oil, such a strategy is understandable. […]
‘Winging it’ or Sensemaking?
In a provocative and thought-provoking article, Emma Beddington contrasts leaders who wing it, perhaps because they love the adrenaline of taking a gamble or perhaps because they are averse to research and study, with leaders who appear to wing it in their decisions, but really have a solid well-researched understanding of the potential risks and […]
Don’t let facts get in the way of the right story
In Justin Bariso’s article about the right and wrong way to conduct a discussion, he points to the role that emotions play in persuading people to accept or reject your ideas. If, like a prosecutor looking for a win in a high-profile trial, you bombard people with facts and evidence, then there is a significant […]