First published as a KLAS blog in June 2017. Do you remember being a kid at Christmas time, toys came wrapped and in boxes and by Christmas evening so many of us had reverted to playing with the boxes that all the new toys had come in! Imagine your parent’s frustrations… Imagine if the hospital… Read More
First published in CIO Magazine in August 2016. A collaboration with Elaine Naughton in the writing and development of this idea, a huge thanks to Elaine for this. In the excellent Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, he describes a discussion between Jobs and Steve Wozniak where Jobs is explaining to Woz that the role… Read More
In February 2015, our new CIO Richard Corbridge asked me if I would take on the challenge of leading our drive to build Projects, Programme & Portfolio Management (PPPM) division, within what would become the new Operating Model for the freshly renamed Office of the CIO. After our conversation, it took me all of 5 minutes… Read More
So there we were, three lads at the back of Mr. Carter’s British History class, Richard H, Richard C (me) and Gary. This was going to be a two year support friendship to ensure we passed a GCSE that to me was important as at that stage in my life I thought I was going… Read More
For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed fixing things. From a young age I had a wealth of opportunity bringing bikes in various stages of disrepair back into use. As I grew so did the scope and scale of my tinkering. I had more curiosity than capability and occasionally courted catastrophe. I ranged… Read More
The journey to work for so many people across the globe is a miserable experience. Heavy traffic, an alarm call just a little too early, and a squashed train or worse still a missing train. At least once a week I see friends on social media upset by the commute to work, wishing they didn’t… Read More
Cpt. Nixon: What do you think I should write these parents, Dick? Because I don’t know how to tell them their kids never made it out of the goddamn plane.Richard Winters: You tell them what you always tell them: their sons died as heroes.Cpt. Nixon: [cynically] You really still believe that?Richard Winters: [pauses, considering] Yeah.… Read More
Was it an insult I thought, being congratulated for not being technical? It felt like an insult! Of course it wasn’t but it got me thinking about what it means to be leading a technology team in a large organisation where the best way to get engagement is to take away all references to technology,… Read More
The 1st of April meant so much to our organisation this year! A complete change in how we manage the delivery of clinical research in the NHS goes ‘live’. No fuss, no trumpets, it simply comes into being: a change from over 100 contracts across the NHS to just 15, a change that sees a… Read More
Some of my favourite songs last year were when a band had a special guest artist that they ‘featured’. This oddity launched a quite a few careers that I think will be big names in 2014, John Newman and Sam Smith to drop just two of those names, not to mention the number one song… Read More