Committing to culture

This year's blog will look different to 2024's and I wanted to explain what I'll be doing in the hope that you will remain or become a subscriber and encourage others to subscribe too!

This is my 12th year of blogging. What started as a way of capturing my thoughts on project and change management in 2013 eventually morphed into the ‘Pocket Square’ weekly newsletter in 2015. We rebranded at the start of 2023 to ‘Making Great Work Happen’ and moved to a fortnightly newsletter (past blogs here), which I also alternated with a fortnightly podcast called Culture & Coffee (past episodes here).

At all times I've tried to write content that offers a global view of workplace and team culture along with useful insights into how you can create a great place to work. This won't change in 2025 and beyond.

In fact, I intend to do more. It's something I've thought about for a long time now based on the generous feedback you provide.

So this year I will move to a daily mixed media newsletter called ‘Colin on Culture’. That means that every weekday in your inbox you can expect either a short opinion, a video, an audio recording, a podcast or maybe an image I've seen that links to culture or something from my working week. I'll also be writing a ‘longer read’ every couple of weeks for those that prefer a deep dive into a particular culture topic.

The emphasis will always be on adding value to your team's daily work habits through positive reflection and action. To that end, the newsletter will always be free.

Why I'm not moving you all to Substack

There is a trend at the minute of bloggers proudly trumpeting the fact that they're moving to Substack, a technology platform for subscription newsletters. Of course, the major benefits to bloggers is that they can potentially reach a bigger audience and can start charging for their content.

I understand why some wish to do this, but this is not my approach. I've never been one to blindly follow the crowd, no matter how excited they seem to get!

Whilst reaching millions more people and getting paid to produce content sounds great in theory, by uploading it to a third-party 'free to use' platform you surrender the ownership of it. Not only that, but you also have no control over the other content on the platform.

Unfortunately, technology companies do not have a great record when it comes to monitoring, managing or curating content that contains hate speech or doing enough to protect vulnerable people from abuse. Facebook and X's decision to remove fact checkers is a great example of this and the early noises from the Substack founders on this issue aren't great either.

Marketing guru Seth Godin refers to these platforms as being run by ‘selfish conmen’.

Also - on a slightly less serious note - I don't wish to have you download another application, surrender your personal information, only to have it continually send you notifications and steal your attention when we're time poor as it is! 

For those that want more

Of course, many of you are happy to pay (or happy for your company to pay!) for more structured, developmental, action-focused and easy to apply content and that will keep coming too.

I will be running - as I have done for the past 5 years - paid virtual sessions, masterclasses and programs and you will be the first to know about these. But they will be separate from the blog, entirely at your discretion and focused on not only connecting you with like-minded people but also dedicated to measurably (which is very important when you're investing in development) improving the way that you work.

So there we are. New year, new approach, and a continued focus on greater value to you. Of course, if a daily blog isn't for you, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter. However, I'm hoping that you'll enjoy and continue to support the newsletter and if you do so I'd be grateful if you could share it with others, which you can do by directing them here.

This is my culture commitment to you for 2025. I hope you make a similar commitment to your culture.