Simon Minty's recent thoughts and more

Spend a couple of minutes thinking about the answers to these questions.  What’s working ok for work and for home? What’s difficult? What do you do to make yourself happy?                         OK, I’ve thought about it. Here’s mine... Understated mug Work - Like many, I’m working from home. For me that means delivering virtual training. I’ve bought a fan to cool me as my office area gets hot. I have acquired two understated mugs so, during video calls I look professional and not a teenager with a Simpsons or Snoopy mug. I like my ‘commute’ from the kitchen to the office.  Home - Communication with my family is way more than usual. Video calls, audio calls, even the odd card or letter. I like that. I sleep a bit more.  Difficult - The loss of human contact, someone in the same room, a handshake, a hug, a wink. I miss going to dinner with an interesting person, not seeing theatre or ...

This time last week I climbed aboard a coach to travel to conference called Names Not Numbers  held at Oxford University. Now in its 10th year, it is a remarkable conference with a remarkable group of people. It is both professional and personal, about networking and connections.  The conference theme was 'Judgement' and each speaker or session incorporated the concept in some way. As the conference began, I soon found myself instinctively jotting down notes - pithy sentences, profound points, startling facts and emotive thoughts from the various speakers. My intention was to able to reflect on them at a later date.  However, I've changed my mind and I have set out some of them here. That’s a risk as it might be a case of 'you had to be there'... how can they have the same impact in a blog when compared to hearing them from the person’s own voice, in the context of the rest of their talk? Worryingly, such excellent speakers might be a tad unimpressed that I'v...

Acting on Disability team,  L-R Georgie, Ben, Simon, Don and Juliette Just back from a trip to the USA to provide training for a global tech firm.  The Sminty team, all five of us, decided to  walk the ten blocks from our hotel to our first event in downtown Manhattan. We thought we would make a striking alternative to the famous Reservoir Dogs photo - two men on mobility scooters, two women with hidden disabilities and a man who has Aspergers.  As we walked I was talking about how polite New Yorkers were, how they move out of the way for wheelchair and scooter users and often say hello or smile. An older lady, wrapped in a thick scarf in sweltering heat, saw us. She stopped and as we passed her, pointed at me and yelled ‘Now that is not normal!’ My fellow scooter user waited a moment and then asked me ‘Well how do you feel about that?’ I paused to process it and then answered, ‘I feel I should be angry or upset but actually I am rather pleased. I now hav...