February 8, 2010 by rondon

Can you imagine how pleased I was to find this little beauty. Had to travel half way across France but there it was lying in the corner of a lovely little bar cafe. We always said that hexagonal beer mats would be much better than business cards and this little thing and its friends (is it la beermat or le beermat) immediately made me want to start analysing archetypes. So thank you Hoegaarden, the (newly) preferred biere of complex facilitators.
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February 7, 2010 by rondon

Rabbit tracks in the snow
Last Saturday morning we managed to get down to Gibralter Point Nature Reserve before anyone else and were very surprised at the number of animal tracks left in the light covering of snow that had fallen overnight. Every year this is our ritual outing as an antidote to the Rock and Blues up the road. My friend David makes every visit a fantastic wildlife adventure spotting and hearing birds that you would never notice otherwise. Highlight this visit was a short eared owl visiting us from Scandinavia and casually swooping across the snow covered sand dunes at 10am in the morning.
See below for full species list:
Continue Reading »
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February 2, 2010 by rondon
On Sunday morning I went for a walk along the beach at Chapel St Leonards on the Lincolnshire Coast (just above Skegness) with my friend David primarily for him to revisit and photograph a childhood holiday location. Walking along the beach watching birds, observing and discussing sand dune erosion we came upon what looked at first like exposures of a rocky wave cut platform which on closer inspection turned out to be heavy blue-grey clay. I presumed ( think rightly) this to be post-glacial boulder clay and it contained a lot of woody vegitative material.

Remembering a recent program on the coastal revealing of human footprints on a similar clay exposure I started to scour the strangely moonlike beds until I found this, and no before you even suggest it, I didn’t make it with a bit of stick.

Am I a committing typical business consultancy behaviour in finding exactly what I am looking for and first fit pattern matching, did someone draw this in the clay the previous day or is this evidence of some large clawed beast that prowled the area 20,000 years ago?
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February 2, 2010 by rondon
Just got back from an exceptionally good Rock and Blues festival at Butlins Skegness.
This is my sixth time at the Festival held annually in Skegness. This year, with so many of the bands of the early seventies on the bill, I decided to try my hand at a bit of Rock photography. As I stood at the front of the stage I recalled on several occasions that the remaining band members and myself had been in exactly this alignment more than 35 years before. This had an eerie feeling of a rock and roll conjunction:

Oliver Dawson’s Saxon who we used to see regularly at Sunderland Boilermakers then named Son of a Bitch.
Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash who I was once hit in the chest by a drumstick in the middle of Blowing Free.

Nazareth with the great Dan McCafferty and bassist Pete Agnew still rocking with the best of them.
Surprises of the weekend had to be:
- Chantel McGreggor whose guitar work is second to none as she glides gracefully and effortlessly around the stage while outdoing Eddie Van Halen, Hendrix and Robin Trower with such grace and ease – Utterly amazing.

- Skinny Molly doing roof raising versions of Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird.
- Young singer Gav Conder with Mick Moody Band who reminded me sometimes of Paolo Nutini and sometimes of a young Elvis. Definitely one to watch.
We had a great Saturday Afternoon session where it was good to see Maggie Bell still singing her heart out (with Dave Kelly) who I last saw with Stone the Crows back in 1972. followed by The Animals with a singalong to all their greatest hits and more.
Last but not least were great performances of the Tygers of Pan Tang, Preying Mantis and Deborah Bonham Band.
More pictures on my Flickr:
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January 21, 2010 by rondon
Just had confirmation that I have a slot at this years KM UK 2010. Organised as usual by ARK Group and running over two days 15th and 16th June. I am hoping to consolidate a tight and concise session on Storytelling in all its guises. My draft brief is as follows, please come along and enjoy the fun:
Effective storytelling techniques for business leadership, to bring about positive business change
- How using storytelling will make your organisation improve knowledge sharing.
- Develop a greater sense of belonging in your communities.
- Improve creativity and innovation
- Inspire action by maximising engagement.
- Make sense of the patterns in and around stories so that you can become better prepared for the uncertainty of the future.
- Group Exercise: Take the first steps towards building a storytelling toolkit for your organisation.
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January 20, 2010 by rondon
I have just returned from a superb training day entitled ‘Planning for Growth’ aimed at small businesses like myself and delivered completely free by Business Link.
The day was very well structured and delivered admirably by the guys from Hard Hat who certainly know their stuff, and add some great personal anecdotes to the proceedings.
During the day we
- developed our Elevator pitch
- worked out our Gross Value Added
- assessed our Critical Resource Limitation
- and developed our Break-even and Target Value Added
At the beginning I kept feeling that my approach to business so far has been a bit of a paddle but by the end fully appreciated the great nuggets of advice on Market, Media and Message analysis and I drew up an impressive two year strategy with 90 day action plan and gained some incredibly useful tips advice and new contacts.
I really think this course is an absolute necessity to anyone in a business, small or large and as it is completely free does not impinge on your overheads.
Most memorable example of a business that diversifies during times when it cannot deliver its prime business was West Ham United which is itself a very TRIZ example of something that is sometimes one thing and at others another. The hospitality boxes can be booked away from match days as hotel rooms, pull in a double bed and instantly a room with an amazing view – brilliant. (No jokes about not being able to score from me)

executive box - hotel room with a view
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