Mrs S was at a conference yesterday and Ben Hunt-Davis was the guest speaker. Will It Make The Boat Go Faster is the name of his book and his theme. What I understand is that the Olympic 8 that won gold in 2000 applied a very simple filter to all of their activities; Will it make the boat go faster? It was a great way to dodge all the tedium that other people can suck you into.

When one looks at ways to effectively manage a commercial relationship, whether it be 1:1 or 1: many,then it is a pretty good test of an idea. So many “initiatives” put in place utterly miss this fundamental concept. I’d tweak it to, “will we sell more?” and then apply the test to everything.

Personally, I am job hunting. “Will this help me get a job?” is the test I have already started applying to my activities. I can see somethings going by the wayside already. And before you ask this blog is about increasing my digital footprint which is part of rebuilding credibility after a nearly 4y gap.

As a counterpoint; I am also a human being with the pretty standard desires as defined by Maslo in his famous hierarchy of needs. Regarding esteem and self-actualisation I am really enjoying getting back into my trombone playing so am doing c. 30 min a day of practise. Will it make me play better? is a parallel test I will need to apply.

In fact, I guess this means that there can be more than one test running in your head regarding each activity you do. The skill is recognising the priority to give to each question.

Off to brush up on The Entertainer now. One day I might be this good.