October has been one of those months where you can feel things shifting into place.
Not in a neat and everything’s sorted kind of way as that’s never how life actually works…but in the sense that multiple threads of work, thinking and doing started to align in ways that matter. Looking back through my calendar, Todoist and Goodnotes, there’s a coherence to the month that wasn’t always visible day-to-day.
I’ve been getting properly stuck into a new fractional COO engagement. What makes this particularly interesting is the challenge this client is facing: securing the foundations of their business while building for a future that effectively skips a generation of business maturity. We’re not just shoring up what exists but addressing fundamental questions – what’s the proposition, what does the operational model look like, how do teams actually work – designing all of it to be fit for 2026 and being as fit as we can for the AI era (whatever that really means).
The fascinating bit is doing this whilst the business is still running, still delivering client work and still dealing with all the normal pressures of agency life. You can’t just stop and rebuild. It’s more like renovating a house whilst living in it – except you’re also redesigning the layout for a world where some of the rooms might not need to exist anymore (the choice of metaphor is deliberate – as one of the other things we did this month was decide to move house and take on another “project” house which I’m sure will feature increasingly in future monthnotes).
In another COO consultancy project this month I’ve been finalising leadership team design for a 50 person business. This started as a relatively straightforward org design project but has evolved into something more interesting: collaboratively building out governance structures: who decides what? How do decisions get made? What needs to be escalated and what doesn’t?
These questions sound simple but they’re where so many organisations get stuck. We’ve been doing this collaboratively, which takes longer but creates much better buy-in. The senior team has been actively involved in designing how they want to work together, what good looks like and where the boundaries are.
I also onboarded another new impact-focussed client this month. They’re at a pivotal moment as they transition from one operating model to something that works at a much greater scale. This is early-stage work as we explore what this might mean for organisational structure and the change process that might entail. I’m excited as the project is highly collaborative which is the way I love to deliver my consultancy work.
In my role as founding partner at Extra Brain, Jess Gregson and I spent a day at the Festival of Entrepreneurs at the NEC. It’s the first time that event has been run and for me it was a mixed bag. Useful for understanding the landscape of consultants, coaches and advisors supporting SMEs and some valuable talks, but attendance was a bit low overall and some of the panels were a bit too bland and full of start-up truisms for my liking.
Talking of panels I spoke on a panel this month at a Connectd event in London this month, focused on aligning culture with organisational goals. There was a really engaged audience and the kind of conversation where you can go beyond the surface-level platitudes. The event was a good reminder that I genuinely enjoy public speaking and I should probably do more of it.
Away from work, October has been dominated by training for my 100k ultra run in Snowdonia next month. This means a lot of miles – long runs on weekends and shorter runs during the week. The long runs have also meant lots of podcasts and the Dub Pistols have been a consistent soundtrack when running energy sagged a bit.
I managed to get five full days away with my wife in our motorhome in Suffolk too which was a real highlight. Terrible mobile reception was absolutely perfect as I could actually switch off for most of the time away. There’s something about being in the motorhome that creates a different quality of time with simpler rhythms, fewer distractions, more space for conversation, reading and just being together. Suffolk was lovely – quiet beaches, big North Sea skies and some good walks between the showers. It was also lovely for Jo and I to spend an evening over dinner with Jess and Dan Gregson at their beautiful Southwold home.
Music this month…
It’s all about the Dub Pistols this month. A new discovery for me via Mucky Weekender. Am loving the breakbeat and the variety weaved into many of their sets.
Podcasts this month…
Long runs have meant a lot of Acquired. Enjoyed their Google/AI show this month which filled a lot of tired miles.
Reading this month…
Lots of fiction this month as we were away. No specific highlights stand out though.
Cycling this month…
121.8 miles. A lot more time indoors on the Wattbike.
Running this month
86.6 slow miles.
