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  • Battle of the design tools – Canva vs Microsoft Designer

    ℹ️ NOTE: Read this updated post for changes, exactly 31 months after the first post below: Battle of the design tools – Canva vs Microsoft – round two. I’ve been using Canva for many years now and pay for the Pro version. £9.99 per month is not that cheap but I have definitely received value from my…

  • Microsoft and the employee experience journey matrix

    This is a continuation of some work I started in this post: The Employee Experience Journey Matrix. In that post I started out mapping the employee experience journey in a matrix and I plotted some of the key factors or considerations within that. Now, because of the work I do at Microsoft (disclosure), I wanted…

  • SenseMaking from the Web

    Rethinking Hierarchy Posted on January 27. For all the hype and promise swirling around the idea of eliminating management to create agile, flat organizations, bosses and corporate hierarchies … Creativity training: How to develop creative skills in employees Posted on January 27. By developing skills like divergent thinking and collaboration in the workforce, creativity training…

  • Could blogging get a new lease of life with generative AI tools

    I’ve been blogging on and off for the last 20 years and have seen its fortunes come and go. All kinds of things have been thrown at it, none more powerful than social media with its short form. Longer form pieces though, as long as well written, still endure and add value. Now with generative…

  • SenseMaking from the Web

    Artificial Intelligence Is Coming for Human Creativity Posted on January 19. Animal behaviorists have already disputed the uniqueness of human cognitive ability. Another blow to our hubris is now posed by the digital … Zoom Doesn’t Cut It as Corporate Travelers Seek More Conference Networking Posted on January 17. Skift Take A new report from…

  • Digital Transformation and the human wall of resistance

    This DanelDoodle is a play on an original Tom Gauld cartoon and I create it with the utmost respect for a master doodler and sense maker. His cartoon, which I cannot find on his site that I linked to, was around (social) revolution – part in brackets mine. Mine focuses on an area of work…

  • Sense Making with ChatGPT – Office vs Remote Work

    A sense making session I recorded focused on the trade-offs between office and remote work for employer and employee. It makes use of good old fashioned human thinking (that’s moi I’m referring to 😉) but sense checked with ChatGPT (as a way to test ChatGPT). I think this summary says it all but watch the…

  • SenseMaking from the Web – bumper holiday edition

    Communicating with chatbots Posted on January 6. The old saying “work smarter not harder” takes on a new meaning for communicators in 2023, thanks to A.I. text generators. Why it matters: Advanced … What trends will define the world of work in 2023? Posted on January 5. Business leaders could be forgiven for hoping that…

  • SenseMaking from the Web

    The Bezos Blueprint: The Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman Posted on December 15. Carmine Gallo is a columnist, keynote speaker, Harvard instructor and CEO communication coach. Gallo is also a former anchor and correspondent for … Boost Your Customers’ Experience With This Operating Model Posted on December 15. Adopting this model will help…

  • Collaboration doesn’t happen in a vacuum – be intentional and contribute

    One thing comes up repeatedly from customers in my business (which is to make them successful with productivity software) – they blame the tools before themselves. That stands to reason, who wants to look to themselves for blame. But I am astounded sometimes by the naivety and logic. And its not as if virtual collaboration…

  • The Employee Experience Journey Matrix

    As I am trying to conclude my work on the Employee Customer Experience Connection trend report, I felt an important yet lagging part of not just my work, but generally, was a comprehensive view of the employee journey. Not just the journey but what contributes to making it successful. The result of that is this…

  • SenseMaking from the Web

    How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively Posted on November 30. For too long, communicating strategy has been an afterthought. Executives have shared long, bombastic documents or withheld critical information and expected people to just “get it.” And it hasn’t worked. Greater external uncertainty, collaboration, employee anxiety, and organizational openness … Three Pillars of User…

  • Suite or best of breed strategies for customer success when enterprise software budgets are squeezed

    It is in economic hardship that many offerings are put to the test and not least, the enterprise software offering. I’m reminded of this every day since I work supporting one of the most well-known suites out there, Microsoft 365 (disclosure). It was brought back to my attention by this post in The Information: Zoom…

  • Microsoft 365 customer questions – Teams top tips

    The question (that I am answering in this post) is actually part of a broader set of questions which I will be answering in a virtual session with over 100 executives and users that a customer of mine is hosting and has asked me to speak at. It is a deceptively tricky question because there…