INSIGHTS

A little thinking space.
A useful next step.

Practical perspectives on business operations, change and leadership—the challenges you face and the decisions that help you move forward.

Catherine Searle
Space to think. Ideas to try.

A PRACTICAL EXERCISE

From ambition
to a next action.

When a goal feels too big or priorities are unclear, choose one improvement, identify what is getting in the way and work out an action you can review.

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A VISION BECOMES A WAY FORWARD

VISIONA team with room to act
NEXT MOVEMake decision ownership clear

↻ Review what still needs escalation

Build from this example ↗Illustrative example. Make it your own.

PERSPECTIVES & PRACTICAL IDEAS

Ideas worth exploring.

Original publication dates are retained for archived material.

LEADERSHIP · 19 January 2021

Using interim appointments

When a major project or period of change stretches your team, consider where experienced, temporary support could help.

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LEADERSHIP · 13 January 2021

Setting your vision

When ambition feels difficult to act on, connect the improvement you want with one obstacle and a practical next step.

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what's next for youLEADERSHIP · 18 August 2020

What’s next for you?

With the news this week that the UK is officially in an economic recession for the first time in 11 years, what does this mean for you, your business or your employers?

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The certainty of uncertaintyLEADERSHIP · 22 July 2020

The Certainty of Uncertainty

As the country continues to do battle with what is the safest way to deal with COVID-19, there are still many unanswered questions with respect to the return to work.

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A Time to ShineLEADERSHIP · 1 June 2020

A Time to Shine?

The following is an article I had recently published in local business and community publication “The CM17 Connection”.

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Daryl Searle - Business CoachLEADERSHIP · 11 May 2020

“The morning after the night before”

From the vlog series “One man and his dog”, Daryl Searle provides a view on the “Stay Alert” message from the Prime Minister (Sunday, 10th May 2020), which covers:

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Daryl Searle - Business CoachLEADERSHIP · 9 May 2020

“Setting your vision and behaviour”

From the vlog series “One man and his dog”, Daryl Searle provides a view on creating certainty for your business, removing doubt, and allowing the chance to grow.

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Daryl Searle - Business CoachLEADERSHIP · 4 May 2020

“We Adapt and Evolve”

In the first of the vlog series “One man and his dog”, Daryl Searle provides an honest view of the current challenges in society and the business world.

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LEADERSHIP · 7 March 2020

Where are you on your start-up journey?

Howard Love, the serial entrepreneur who has written books of the same name, introduced the concept of the J-Curve (reference: The Start-Up J Curve: The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial…

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LEADERSHIP · 27 February 2020

Build it and they will come – Tips for positioning your business

If you are starting out on your product or service development path, then we are here to help you prosper. Book a FREE consultation today to explore how our coaching and strategy…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 24 February 2020

Bridging the gap…

How do you bridge the gap between using SMEs or ‘Jack of all trades’?

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 23 February 2020

Is your business ready for post transition Brexit?

Unless you have been cryogenically frozen and have only recently been successfully thawed you will know that the UK has now completed Brexit and as of 31st January 2020 is no longer…

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LEADERSHIP · 22 February 2020

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome

https://www.calmmoment.com/wellbeing/how-to-cope-with-imposter-syndrome-and-silence-your-inner-critic/

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Bruce McLarenLEADERSHIP · 21 February 2020

Bruce McLaren – Visionary and Leader

I attended the London Classic car show at Olympia today, as an annual pilgrimage to geek out at the engineering and power of the cars of yesteryear through to the current day. I…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 7 November 2019

Why Emotional Intelligence will drive your business forward

Some call it a fad, others call it the future way of work. Emotional Intelligence is one of those labels in the office where used inappropriately causes offence. “Obviously you have…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 23 March 2018

CIO: a game of two halves?

Is normally an analogy synonymous with football. Manager’s are seen as the master tacticians, responsible for the team’s blueprint for success. How will they engineer a cup run or…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 19 March 2018

Is your portfolio becoming hard to manage?

As organisations look to transform their business; through initiatives such as cloud adoption, customer centric delivery and commitment to aligning the IT and business worlds to a…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 5 March 2018

Transformation: Forget the tools…focus on the people

Traditionally, the business have called the shots and IT have been servants to the cause. Though there were many successful projects delivered in this way the change in the…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 1 February 2018

Continuous (Process) Improvement – How Often & How Much?

[First Published, July 7, 2010, https://dsearle.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/continuous-process-improvement-how-often-how-much/ ]

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 13 December 2017

What cost a lack of acceptance?

Having worked over many years on various sized projects, similarities can be drawn irrespective of who runs the project, what the business priority is and how much budget is…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 17 October 2017

Project Risks: Error Handling and Estimation

Having worked on numerous high profile projects, it is still surprising to find push back from stakeholders and delivery teams not to include dedicated story points and capacity for…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 4 August 2017

Project Risks: Governance – Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

Travelling around different clients, with different objectives; different risk appetites; the one question that always comes up is related to Governance.

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 23 May 2017

When 2 + 2 doesn’t Equal 4

Sprint Planning in a SCRUM team is an essential piece of the jigsaw. Allowing teams to collectively understand, detail and size stories provides (or at least aims to add)…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 20 April 2017

Without challenges; how can you change and succeed?

Wherever you go, whatever blog post you read, whatever company you do business with; there is likely to be a general journey theme when it comes to implementing agile; especially…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 8 March 2017

Mobility and technology – Can testers keep up?

Having spoken to various clients across various industries; there seems to be a general shift away from offshore test centres of excellence towards a more proximate solution. This…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 16 February 2017

The Manual Tester is dead! Long live the Manual Tester

Having worked in and around the testing industry for over 15 years, I have seen many changes in the World of testing. The importance of the tester over these years has gone through…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 26 January 2017

Test Management Forum – 25th January 2017

Yesterday I attended my first TMF in a number of years and was delighted to be asked to facilitate a session.

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Image accompanying The value of Exit GatesPROGRAMME DELIVERY · 16 October 2016

The value of Exit Gates

The value of QA and Test teams has always been an interesting topic, especially when project timelines are under threat. More often than not the criteria for exit is relaxed in…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 6 September 2016

What is the cost of success?

The competition for market share for Smartphones continues to gather pace. We are now all too familiar with the Apple product releases in the second half of the year, the new iOS…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 5 September 2016

This time next year……We’ll be Millionaires!

It’s one of the classic lines from Only Fools and Horses, the story of hope from adversity and a little bit of luck along the way. When you look at the story line, it is very easy…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 6 July 2016

Can we achieve testing agility?

I often get asked my views on testing agility, is it achievable? Can it keep pace with development, how flexible to change is the approach; the list goes on.

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 3 July 2016

“We don’t have a problem with intelligence…. We don’t have any Intelligence”

One of my favourite quotes from Good Morning Vietnam, with the late Robin Williams still resonates for me in my working life; particularly when we look at the ‪security‬ of our…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 22 May 2016

“Et tu Brute..et tu”

Ok, so the Shakespeare reference is perhaps a little dramatic, but when projects head down the ‘Death March’ route, the cries from Stakeholders and Programme team resonate around…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 9 May 2016

As a user … I just want it to work!

The concept of a user story is not new, there are numerous training courses available, as well as supporting publications that inform us how to write that killer user story that is…

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PROGRAMME DELIVERY · 8 May 2016

Understanding Quality: Does it really matter?

Quality. It’s the first word on programme sponsor lists at the start of a project, yet it is the first word to be discounted in times of challenge. We’ve all seen the signs;…

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LET’S FIND YOUR NEXT MOVE

Let’s talk about your business.

A free 30-minute introductory conversation about your challenge, what you want to achieve and whether Ovate could help.

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