This week was A LOT. Five cities, three countries, two flights and far more people-ing than I’m used to doing these days. And in the background, juggling three live client projects with three that want to start working with us. And, as always, slightly too many side projects.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m writing this weeknote from the balcony of my Airbnb by the sea on the Portuguese Riviera, where I’ve taken myself for a few days so I can catch up and unwind.

The sun is shining, the wine is cheap and it’s a beautiful part of the world.

Evoked, maybe, by the scent of jacaranda trees and vinho verde my brain has just unearthed a proverb my Portuguese schoolfriend’s mum used to use, which I hadn’t even thought about for 20 years.

Fia-te na Virgem e não corras, meaning “trust the Virgin and don’t run away”.

It means that you can’t just sit back; you have to act and trust that things will work out.

It feels oddly fitting. There are lots of exciting opportunities on the horizon, and with so much going on I’ve started to doubt my ability to do it. But I need to grab chances as they come and not run away.

Some things I did this week

Like I said, this week involved a lot of juggling of projects and people and places.

Ran a workshop for a client in the UK to help them get a complex, multi-stream programme on track. We looked at scope, comms and routines and helped them get to what really matters and how to make it all actionable and realistic. I enjoyed this a lot and we got really positive feedback from the team afterwards. So: warm glow at a job well done.

Two very different clients want turn discovery work into delivery. We’ve been working with both on how to do that, and how we can – and can’t – help. We’re delighted that clients come back to us again, and recommend us to others, but this week Jon and I reached the conclusion we need to hire someone to help us coordinate it all.

Attended the 10th Social Now event in Lisbon, Portugal. This is the second time I’ve been to this event for people working with enterprise social and digital workplace. Organiser Ana Neves brings together an impressive group of practitioners and vendors but, in focusing it on the needs of a fictitious company with recognisable challenges, makes it action-focused rather than salesy.

My highlights were:

Andrew Pope characteristically sensible opening on empowering managers to build capability and resilience in digital work practices

Fabio Frota (of OrangeTrail) giving a informative and practical intro to Microsoft co-pilot. In a world where every conference has a string of talks on AI that are delivered from a position of zero knowledge and on closer examination aren’t really AI, it was refreshing to have an accessible-yet-expert take on the tool everyone’s talking about

Emily Hinks ☀️ on why we need to make mischief at work to bring values to life and humanity into all we do

Sumeet Gayathri Moghe on taking an async-first approach to work

Simon Scullion on building your Digital Workplace one block or layer at a time

Clearbox’s Suzie Robinson‘s intro to mapping the digital workplace. Every organisation has one – it’s never truly greenfield – and it likely a messy muddle of overlapping tools

I delivered a tongue-in-cheek talk to close the event, called “How to ensure failure in your digital workplace programme”.

Plus a number of hands-on exercises facilitated by Céline Schillinger, and smooth MCing from Samuel Driessen. And – what I think makes this event special – the in-depth chats with experienced, knowledgeable and passionate digital pros over long lunches.

Ana claims this will be the last Social Now, but attendees are already hoping she has a change of heart.

What I read

Nothing. Zero spare time this week!

Connections

Social Now was a brilliant chance to catch up with some old friends and contacts from the digital workplace world, and to meet new ones. We’re already planning a little reunion for the Amsterdam contingent next month.

But I am peopled out now and need a solid few days talking to absolutely no one.

Coverage

For a while I’ve been predicting that Meta would pull the plug on their Workplace enterprise offering as it’s failed to gain the traction they hoped for and is increasingly mis-aligned with their core offering.

I was right. I love being right, but I do feel for everyone affected by the fallout.

I wrote this for Reworked on what went wrong for Workplace.

“As news of Workplace’s demise became public, many former customers and staffers took to LinkedIn to express sadness at the product’s failure to revolutionize the way we collaborate and communicate at work. But perhaps it was the expectation that it ever would do so that sowed the seeds of its failure.“

(PS I’m not sure it actually is week 20. It might be 21. Did I lose a week somewhere?)