Hey lovely people

I'm deep in a round of audience interviews with senior people and culture leaders right now, and that's where most of my headspace is going at the minute.

But rather than skip the week entirely, I thought this was actually a good moment to share something I built a few months back that's been sitting quietly in the background.

Todays focus

What I’m hearing

I am still only early doors into the audience interviews with senior people and culture leaders. I have done around 20 so far and a few things coming up are interesting and a little sad at the same time

Exhaustion: The dominant emotional experience right now is exhaustion which is very different to what I was expecting… again it still to soon to say if this trend continue to show up in future interviews but the general feel is Exhaustion is happening as everyone is kind of running hard in a direction that doesn’t make sense

Grieving: A lot of senior P&C leaders are quietly grieving a version of work that no longer exists one where the function had momentum and meaning. Where the strategy felt connected to something real, this version seems like it has gone for a lot of people and they don’t feel safe to say it out loud

Measurement: The business is measuring the wrong things, and most of the people I'm speaking to know that. They can see exactly where the metrics stop telling the truth. But they're going along with it anyway, because the alternative is a conversation nobody in the room is ready to have and feels one that puts a career at risk

All of it is starting to feel a little like informed compliance.

If any of this sounds like your world and you want to be part of the interviews, completely anonymously you can book a quick call here.

SPIES Principles

Which brings me to something I built a few months back that feels more relevant now than when I made it

Ten principles I actually use when I'm designing a strategy, product, interaction, experience, or a service for people and culture.

This isn’t the usual polished consultant version… its the Danny in the pub explaining the principle

Its a daily email for ten days, around 300 words each. Readable in under two minutes. A bit of storytelling, a bit of swearing, and ideas you can actually do something with.

A test group went through it before I opened it up. The feedback was that the principles were easy to understand and the stories made them land. A few people came back to certain ones more than once.

Sign up here.

Please sign up to the SPIES principles, and please do share your thoughts and feelings based on the tone of voice and the application of emails. Like I say, they're all readable within one and a half to two minutes max.

Get signed up here