I’ve been writing the Working Principles posts for a little while now and really enjoyed the process.

Different ones have received different levels of engagement, with most of them provoking a response from someone. Thank you for the time you spend reading and responding.

If you’ve not seen all of them here’s a little bit of a Top Ten on the basis of the number of views for each post:

Repeat after me: “Meetings are work” | Working Principles

In which I wrestle a bit with an inner tension to regard work as the things that happen outside of meetings and a tendency to regard meetings as somehow not work.

We are wired for story | Working principles

We live in a world of data, but it’s not data that moves us it’s story that does that.

Optimise the System | Working Principles

There are many point-solutions to make individual parts of our working life more productive that result in little or no impact overall. We only get true change when we look at the whole system.

Complain to the Empowered, Complain with your Power | Working Principles

Few people complain effectively because people tend to complain to the wrong person. We should spend more time working out who has the power to change a situation.

“Expensive” is a definition of value not cost | Working Principles

When someone says something is expensive our tendency is to try to work out how to make it cheaper when we should really be trying to communicate the value.

Watch out for the autonomy thieves | Working Principles

People who take the initiative are highly valuable and yet much of what we do strips away peoples ability to take the next step.

Resist the urge for action | Working Principles

The need for action is a strong force and often takes us nowhere. By taking some time to consider we can often get to a better conclusion in less time.

We need to feel the urgency | Working Principles

Without a stimulus things don’t get done. In a busy world we need to feel an urgency.

You can hear a smile (and a frown) | Working Principles

Even if people can’t see you, they can hear your demeanour. People who smile project that smile in their voice, people who frown likewise.

“Just” can be an extremely expensive word | Working Principles

“Just” is a bit of a trigger word for me. Rarely is something “just” anything, behind the four letters lurk all sorts of trapdoors.

Notable Favourites

This list is missing some posts that I expected to be in the Top 10 viewed and as this is my blog I’m going to add them in here as my recommendation of ones you should look at:

• Be a Good Customer | Working Principles
• Deployment is just the first step – Adoption takes longer | Working Principles
• Questions are Powerful | Working Principles

I’ve still got plenty of Working Principles idea, some of which will be coming soon.

Header Image: The bracken is brown and the wind is chill. This is the view from above Watendlath looking down onto the hamlet and tarn from the Dock Tarn path on an early autumnal day. To the right is High Seat, in the distance is Skiddaw.