Untypical by name. Untypical by nature. Join our Managing Director, Neil Butler, as he presents short and sharp episodes about business. Every episode takes less time to listen to than your barista takes to make your morning brew. If your barista can make coffee quicker ... change your coffee shop. They're not taking enough time with your order. Series 1: General thoughts plus Transformagination Series 2: The Untypical Alphabet Don't forget that you can subscribe to Untypical Thoughts in you ...
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During the past three decades, we have seen significant progress in diversity and inclusion within corporate organisations. While there is still a long way to go, most have embraced diversity and inclusion, albeit to varying degrees. But how about diversity of thinking?By Untypical Thoughts
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Have you stopped and considered your communications approach or have you just gone back to what may or may not have worked before COVID-19 hit?By Untypical Thoughts
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By Neil Butler
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As you may know, one of my great passions is presenting a retro music program on community radio here in Geelong. It seems like a good time to bring together that passion for great music and untypical thinking in this Untypical Thought.By Neil Butler
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Going through some photos yesterday, I found one that I took earlier this year in my home town, Geelong. It shows the sun rising over our waterfront, with the Geelong to Melbourne ferry in the left foreground and the silhouette of the waterfront Carousel building on the right. I don’t take many photos and so I was pretty pleased to create one this …
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For several episodes now, I have been presenting Untypical Thoughts about what I think the business world will look like in the second half of the 2020 calendar year and beyond. One thing we can be certain of is that we can never go back to the way things worked before the unavoidable disruption of the global pandemic. If you haven’t already done s…
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Well, maybe not as SIMPLE as A,B,C and D but I am certain that these letters stand for four key skills and attributes in the reset, re-establish and re-generation activities we spoke of a few episodes ago. Let’s step through them one at a time …By Neil Butler
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In the last episode, we introduced the concept of Transformagination and I am glad to say that we have had a number of inquiries about how businesses can work with us to transformaginate their world. The first step is accept the fact that there is a new normal. We don’t know what that looks like for your business specifically but we do know that th…
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If you are a regular Untypical Thoughts reader (or podcast listener), you will have discovered that one of my all-time heroes is Albert Einstein. For many, he was seen as being the ultimate 20th Century physicist with his famous equation E = mc2. For others, he was a philosopher like no other. For me, having been fortunate enough to have studied Ph…
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Last time, I provided my thoughts on the reset / re-establish / regeneration activities that businesses will need to go through to prepare themselves for life after the COVID-19 crisis passes. I also suggested that there is a massive opportunity to reshape the future for your organisation. You might have noticed that there has been a bit of a theme…
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Last time, we talked about how there can be no turning back. So, given that we are where we are, we should consider the options for going forward. One option is to keep going as your business currently operates – the meticulously planned or cobbled together business continuity model that has been employed for the past month or two. Having said that…
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As I record this episode in April 2020, the world is in the middle of the most significant global health event that any of us can remember. Apart from the obvious impact on individual people and their families, COVID-19 has created a major crisis in businesses of all shapes and sizes. Literally, no business is exempt or unaffected. Even those that …
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… by clinging to the side of the pool. At some point, if you want to learn to swim, you are going to have to leave the side of the pool and remove the safety net of being able to reach out and grab the ladder. Sure, there are steps you need to take and knowledge you need to learn before letting go but if you are ever going to learn to swim, you’ll …
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The other day, I bought a new football supporter’s scarf which had the following written on the label – one size fits most. It is certainly the first time I have seen that used on a garment but sadly, one size fits most – or worse, one size fits all – seems to be an over-used philosophy in many organisations and on many projects. One thing I have l…
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Imagine. Give yourself the time and space to imagine.By Neil Butler
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There is an old saying opportunity knocks but once – but does it even knock once? I go back to a time in the late 1980s when I had decided to leave teaching to try something different. I had done all of the “normal things” to find something – responded to job ads, spoken to members of my network, etc but, try as I might, I simply couldn’t find a ne…
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I recently read about someone who had just completed 50 years of service for their company. 50 years! Wow! Well done, her. But, upon reflection, I wondered whether I should be impressed or concerned for her and the company she works for.By Neil Butler
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Many people use the words “change” and “transformation” interchangeably – as though they mean exactly the same thing. But they don’t mean the same thing … whilst certainly related, there is so much more to transformation than there is to change, even big change.By Neil Butler
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Pet hate, right there. One of the great statements of change resistance is “yes, but the problem is…”. Every time someone puts up an idea for change, out come the hurdles, typically led by one of two phrases – either “yes, but the problem is …” or the other old chestnut “but that’s not the way we do things around here”. I am all for people challeng…
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What proportion of your working week is consumed by creating reports, updates, responses to KPIs and other tasks of that kind? More importantly, what proportion of your working week is spent creating reports, updates and responses to KPIs that actually add value? Yes, we need to keep track of progress – but seriously, how many weekly, fortnightly a…
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Most large corporate organisations have a Chief Risk Officer (CRO) – either someone with that title or someone who takes on responsibility for risk across the business. But I have a theory that we should rename them the Chief “No-Risk” Officer …By Neil Butler
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Tell Me About It - I'm Not Actually Listening Though
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Closely related to the previous “really busy”, is the “tell me about it” movement. Colleague: How are you? You: Really busy Colleague: Tell me about it So, two things fall out of this.By Neil Butler
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In the last episode, I called out what I think is a growing trend of people being asked / expected / pressured into working on their weekends and after hours. Whilst it may not be necessarily written into their job descriptions, it seems that many, many people are heading home after a day’s work and getting their laptop out. Others are firing up th…
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It was Loverboy who, in 1982, had a hit with the song “Working For The Weekend” but, 38 years later, it seems that their sentiment has been replaced for many people. It seems that for many, there is an expectation that “everybody’s working ON the weekend” … and in many cases, after hours during the week as well.…
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