Think Platform, Not Project

The concept of 'platform thinking' is gaining traction in organisations I work with. Rather than building point solutions for individual problems, forward-thinking organisations are investing in platforms that can support multiple use cases and evolve over time. This week I saw a great example of this in a healthcare context. Instead of building separate systems for patient communication, appointment management, and feedback collection, the organisation invested in a unified platform that handled all three. The initial investment was higher, but the ongoing flexibility and reduced maintenance burden more than justified the approach.

This week reminded me that change management is not a phase at the end of a project — it's a thread that runs through the entire delivery lifecycle. A client I'm working with made the mistake of leaving user communication and training until the final weeks before go-live. The result: resistance, confusion, and a rocky launch that could have been avoided with earlier engagement.

March already — the year is flying. I've started using Sunday evenings to plan the week ahead, not in detail, but in terms of themes and priorities. What are the three most important things I need to achieve this week? What can I say no to? This simple practice has made Monday mornings significantly less stressful.

Zapier — the automation glue that connects different apps and services without code. This week I set up a workflow that automatically creates a task in my project management tool when a new email arrives from a specific client, logs it in a spreadsheet, and sends me a Slack notification. Took 10 minutes to set up, saves time every day.

This week's challenge: identify one decision you've been putting off. Write down what information you'd need to make it confidently. Often the barrier isn't complexity — it's clarity about what you actually need to know.