December 2018 - Howard Gray

December 28, 2018

Undertaking an Annual Life Review (a Guide & Template)

This Medium post by Steve Schlafman hit my Twitter feed earlier this week.

I’ve tried reviews like this before but the process always felt either overly complicated and heavy, or too ethereal.

Steve’s method strikes a really good balance.

As I was working through it, I realised I was straddling two Google docs (one Sheet and one Doc), so I merged them into one and added some formatting to clean it up a bit and make it easier to navigate.

I was tempted to dive in on adding some more functionality but I think this time less is more.

Steve kindly agreed to share this template in the original post – hopefully it’ll help you undertake your own annual life review.

I’m happy to offer feedback if you’d like to share your own review – just drop me a line.

Original post:

https://medium.com/@schlaf/how-to-conduct-an-annual-life-review-that-will-catapult-you-into-the-new-year-d5aaffebac1f

Template:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ais6wP0HxoFfvHR9JVkf2sw2ft_EUBtb42JYOr6ObGo/edit?usp=sharing

December 27, 2018January 19, 2019

Welcome! Start here…

I started writing here in 2015, and there are now over 100,000 words on these pages, as well as various videos, slide decks, mixtapes, diagrams and other ideas.

The main themes I write about include careers, entrepreneurship, the future of education, and the media & entertainment industry.

I’m particularly interested in the overlaps between these areas, and other themes and trends that are starting to connect and collide with them.

Listed below are a few of my most popular posts.

I really value getting feedback, comments and questions on my writing – please don’t be shy to leave a comment or contact me directly here.

Careers & The Future of Work

Coaching

Innovation

Media & Entertainment

Workshops/Teaching

Resources

December 27, 2018

Diving Deep as a Coach

Moving towards something transformational beneath the surface.

The time between 15 and 17 years old were not my finest.

I got suspended from school 3 times, dyed my hair some terrible colours, got in (minor) trouble with the police, probably aged my parents by 10 years and was generally pretty difficult.

Then something happened. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I suddenly got it together and became a decent, if not spectacular, student.

Although I kept brushing with the law (this time via organising illegal parties in the woods), at least this time my parents were in the loop.

My Dad even helped us pull our sound system’s petrol generator up a hill early one Sunday morning.

my brother and I in Barcelona, circa 2000. Thankfully my hair hasn’t been as short since.

A few months after pulling myself out of this teenage trough of my own making, we went on a family holiday to Malta.

I still had an element of that self-centred air of wanting to be somewhere else, but for the most part I opted in.

One day my Dad, my brother and I went down to the bay to try out scuba diving. My Dad has spent his entire career around the ocean – in the merchant navy, working on oil tankers, auditing mega-yachts, and acting as an expert witness in shipping-related court cases. But somehow he’d never found the time to go diving.

We kitted up and headed out a couple of dozen yards into the water with our instructor.

December 27, 2018

What kind of artist are you?

Finding out with three lines, a few dots, and a long-sleeved shirt

Note: I found this post in my drafts today as I was looking for the shirt diagram. This post originates from May 2015. Even though some of my thinking has evolved since then I’ve decided to publish it in its original form.

Storage Solutions

When I moved into my current flat, clothes storage became a hot topic of conversation (I’m of that age now…).

The bedroom’s long and fairly narrow shape meant we needed to utilise height. We didn’t want to default to Ikea, and a lovely hand-crafted wardrobe was a little out of budget.

After much deliberation, a shopfitters’ storage rack was purchased; floor to ceiling on castors, with three shelves and two rails for jackets, trousers and of course shirts.

Once assembly was complete (slightly quicker than an Ikea nightmare build, but only just), I loaded everything on board only to find I had a surplus.

We’d vowed to keep the new place bereft of clutter, so I started working through everything, culling anything that had been on the substitute’s bench for more than 6 months.

When it came to the pile of shirts I’d rapidly thrown into a bag on moving day, I was shocked to discover that nearly half were either too long, some too wide (the ‘tent’ look), or with sleeves too short.

The Shirt Dilemma

Months later, long after the ill-advised purchases had been given to a better home, I saw this going around on Twitter;

Continue reading “What kind of artist are you?”

December 24, 2018January 10, 2019

Tickets Podcast: Rob Fitzpatrick on how to create compelling workshops, programs and products

In a world that’s now full of influencers, thought leaders and keynote speakers, how do you know who’s worth paying your attention, or your money, to?

What sets the best education experiences apart from the rest?

And how do you know if your new business idea is worth pursuing?

Today on Tickets we delve into the answers to these questions and much more with Rob Fitzpatrick.

Rob has been working in entrepreneurship and education for over 10 years as a founder, author and educator.

His first book ‘The Mom Test’ has become a staple of the startup world, and next up is ‘The Workshop Survival Guide’ – debunking many of the myths about experiential learning, and giving a helping hand to those wanting to deliver workshops that…work.

In this episode we also talk about Silicon Valley accelerator programs, the importance of design in education, and the hidden reasons behind getting hired.

December 21, 2018

2018 List: Podcasts

Like a lot of people, I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts this year.

It’s too distracting for me to listen to them while I’m working, but I’m lucky enough to live in a central area of a very walkable city so there are plenty of excuses for me to listen to the spoken word whilst in the space between.

Subway commute, walking commute, or scenic route, plus going to the gym, airports or train stations.

Last week someone said to me they’d love to see inside other people’s Netflix history as it would tell them so much about that person.

Perhaps podcasts are even more personal, and telling.

As you can probably deduce from this list, my listening themes this year have revolved around entrepreneurship, dealing with transitions, and understanding the self.

I’ve struggled with fiction podcasts (definitely still prefer books, and the paper kind at that), although I’d like to dive into these more in 2019

In no particular order here are my favourite podcast episodes I’ve listened to this year – and one that I skipped.

December 21, 2018

Build, Buy, Borrow, or…

A few weeks ago I was teaching a course at the HQ of one of the biggest and well-storied companies in the US.

During the lunch break I started chatting to one of their senior HR execs. Within a few minutes we’d got into everything from Chinese innovation to the EU working directive and NYC’s freelance scene.

All these subjects touched on the 3 key components he considered when building and extending the organization’s talent capabilities:

Build: Level up the existing workforce.

Buy: Hire more full time employees. Resource reliability, but top talent will keep getting more expensive.

Borrow: Bring in freelancers, consultants, agencies, or other service providers. There’s expertise ready to be put to work, and lower overheads to go with it, but when they’re done a big chunk of knowledge leaves with them.

But while before there were 3, now there are 4. And this fourth element has created a new whole new set of questions, considerations, and conversations, and affects the existing 3 pillars as well.

You probably know what it is.

Bot.

Automate. Use machine learning. Remove humans.

The question he is now asked most often about talent development is how machines can be used.

A question asked far less often: Why?

And more specifically, why they should be used at all.

There’s plenty we can do, but far less we should do.

Whenever the conversation shifts to Build, Buy, Borrow or Bot – it’s better to go back and start with Why.

December 20, 2018

4 Podcast Trends for 2019

A few hunches I have for the world of podcasting in the coming 12 months.

Awards Shows: Podcasting categories will appear more regularly within vertical-specific awards shows (i.e. Music, Gaming, Law etc.
Specialist Creative Agencies: There’s still a pretty big opportunity to provide creative and/or technical agency services to businesses and individuals looking to break into podcasting. A few offerings like this already exist – expect it to become more formalised and sophisticated in 2019. This shift has happened with all kinds of other content creation on the internet – from building Dreamweaver websites to SEO advice. It’ll keep happening in podcasting too.
IMDB for podcasts: We have still yet to see the killer database of people making interesting things happen in the world of podcasting, especially those behind the scenes. A few companies getting into this but no one’s quite nailed it yet and things are still very fragmented. Feels like 2019 could be the year for a couple of these to break out
Long-tail sponsorship: Sponsorship of the top-end podcasts by growth startups has become so ubiquitous that it’s moved into meme territory (and this has been the case for a while – see this from the Atlantic back in 2015). The long tail is starting to open up but it’s not easy, especially with listener data insights still being pretty limited/opaque/variable (depending on your viewpoint). Anchor recently launched their sponsorship marketplace offering – it’ll be interesting to see how it takes with both advertisers and producers.

December 17, 2018

The Microscope & The Telescope

Sometimes we need to look at things through the microscope: the detail, the hidden particles, the connective tissue, the grit, and the friction. It can be surprising just how much is happening in a tiny surface area.

Other times we have to look through the telescope: the bigger picture, the vision we’re working towards. That huge expanse of unknown. We can look on it with wonder, and maybe a little fear.

Switching between these views can be tough.

The same happens when our eyes switch focus between objects that are near and far, or between environments that are dark and light: changing the view quickly causes strange discomfort in our eyes, like a straining muscle trying to realign.

Switch view too much and you’ll lose focus.

Don’t do it enough and you’ll miss what’s out there.

In tomorrow’s world we’ll all need to be able to deftly utilize the microscope and the telescope. One probably won’t be enough.

December 17, 2018

Two quick tips on Trend Spotting

This quote from Beth Comstock is a nice heuristic for spotting emerging trends.

Another way of looking at this is through writing.

If you notice something and find yourself writing it down three times in a short space of time, you may have just spotted a trend.

Go back to those notebooks and look for the patterns.

Who knows what you may find.

PS. I’m putting together a recorded version of a class I did on Trend Spotting (including the above Beth Comstock quote plus a bunch of other tactics and exercises) – that’ll be going live next week.