Paul Taylor

Latest Writing

  • Net Zero and The Law of Horse Manure

    Net Zero and The Law of Horse Manure

    Catastrophic predictions that spell dark days for humanity are nothing new. The Times predicted in 1894 that in 50 years time, every street in London would be buried under nine feet of horse manure. It was the crisis of all crises. There was, to be fair, some evidence for this. As urban populations rapidly increased… Read more

  • The Gravitational Pull Of Business As Usual

    The Gravitational Pull Of Business As Usual

    The interior secrets of black holes are guarded by a one-way light-trapping boundary called the event horizon. This horizon is the point, according to NASA, that the gravitational influence of the black hole becomes so intense that not even light is fast enough to escape it. A very different horizon exists in many organisations, except… Read more

  • Adapt or Die: 3 Challenges To Going Digital

    Yesterday was a significant day. The sector in which I work put on a huge show of newly found digital awareness. My Twitter timeline nearly melted. As Shirley Ayres correctly observed: This , just one year after the 2012 Northern Housing Consortium Social Media event – which was the first mainstream housing conference to promote… Read more

  • The Social CV: How Social Media Could Get You Your Next Job

    I often joke with a friend of mine that if they ever lost their job they would be unemployable. Because they have a great CV but zero digital footprint. No LinkedIn , no Twitter , no Facebook. Nothing. I ask them to imagine a future where you don’t have a CV or resume. A future… Read more

  • Why Living In Paradise Is Bad For Business

    Here is a story about what can happen when you don’t anticipate change. When you get used to things being easy for everyone. It’s a story you will have heard before but, like all the best tales , is as relevant today as when it was first told: There was once a lucky little bird… Read more

  • 5 Social Media Policies That You Can Love

    I posted last week about How Your Social Media Policy Could Kill Your Culture. It was about the “control creep” that’s affecting some organisations as they try to protect themselves from a social media firestorm. In this post I want to look at a few organisations whose policies and guidance acknowledge the risks but see… Read more

  • Can I Borrow A Cup Of Wi-Fi?

    I’m on holiday. I’m flicking through Twitter and sipping a beer in a village bar. Outside, some Thai kids are playing a game on the smartphone they’ve borrowed from their Mum. Locals pop in every so often to sit down , catch up on gossip and read their emails. What’s wrong with this picture? Here… Read more

  • How Your Social Media Policy Could Kill Your Culture

    I love Social Media. But really, it’s not that important. Not compared to some things. I’ve begun to see a few posts suggesting that companies need to take more control over their employees social media output. That word – ‘control’ – has actually been used on more than one occasion. An unwelcome trend. It’s obvious… Read more