<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Workplace Intelligence]]></title><description><![CDATA[Workplace Intelligen]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2026 06:19:46 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Dark IT: Paving the Desire Path]]></title><description><![CDATA[Citizen Developers, Dark IT and the Queue at the Gate Walk across any university campus or business park and you'll see them: thin brown tracks worn through the grass, cutting the corner the architect drew. Planners call them desire paths. They are the routes people actually take when the official one is longer than it needs to be, and they carry a useful lesson. You can put up a fence and a sign. Or you can notice where everyone is walking and pave it. I should declare an interest, because...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/dark-it-paving-the-desire-path</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6ac522c36c2ede780621ba5a</guid><pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:12:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_21f7ad3fbbc647b6aadc5677bfa8969a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_559,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Are You Collecting the Right Data: Why Data Captured by Accident Can't Run a Business on Purpose]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every post in this series so far has taken the data organisations already hold as its starting point. The mess exists; the question has been what to do about it. This final post asks the question that sits upstream of all of it: why does the mess keep forming in the first place? The answer, more often than not, is that the data was never really collected at all. It just happened. It's a byproduct: the exhaust of systems and processes that were designed to do something else. The CRM was bought...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/are-you-collecting-the-right-data-why-data-captured-by-accident-can-t-run-a-business-on-purpose</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c263f4e12adafbf7f26bb</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:30:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_ebedde7eb4a34994b5296b49fd6bd041~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Keep It or Kill It: The Framework]]></title><description><![CDATA[Five posts into this series and the argument so far has mostly been about what's wrong: data nobody trusts, AI trained on data that was never fit to train anything, definitions that contradict each other across departments, analysts drowning in more of all of it than anyone can reasonably process, and, sitting underneath the lot, an unbudgeted risk nobody has ever billed to anyone. None of that is much use without an answer to the obvious next question. What do you actually do about it? Not...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/keep-it-or-kill-it-the-framework</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c25ff16311e23431a6485</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:45:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_2b18f862dc89426c85b78f3763cfd5da~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Data Hoarding: It's a Risk Management Failure, Not a Data Management One]]></title><description><![CDATA[No sensible business keeps a valuable physical asset without insuring it, securing it, and budgeting for what it costs to look after. Nobody leaves a warehouse full of stock unlocked because clearing it out felt like more effort than it was worth. And yet that's exactly how most organisations treat the data they hoard: as something with no ongoing cost and no real downside to keeping, right up until the moment it turns out to have both. This series has spent four posts looking at data...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/data-hoarding-it-s-a-risk-management-failure-not-a-data-management-one</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c25b491ea1d0846e17024</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 09:00:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_09c8ed1869ff43bb837c812f079dfedd~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lost in the Weeds: When More Data Makes Analysts Worse at Their Jobs]]></title><description><![CDATA[The pitch behind every data investment is roughly the same: collect more, see more, know more, decide better. It's intuitive enough that almost nobody questions it. More information should mean better-informed people. Except that's not what's actually happening in a lot of organisations. It's not that analysts have too little to work with. It's that they have so much, so poorly organised, that finding the part worth trusting has become a job in itself, one that eats the time that used to go...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/lost-in-the-weeds-when-more-data-makes-analysts-worse-at-their-jobs</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c2592fe6fd82d15093f43</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:15:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_37fbb856d9d64e11b5c338cd1ef2c611~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Definitions Problem: Why Your Data Can't Talk to Itself]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ask three departments how many active customers you have and there's a decent chance you get three different numbers. Not because anyone's lying, and not because the systems are broken. It's because "active" doesn't mean the same thing to all three of them. Sales might define active as anyone with a live contract. Finance might mean anyone who's paid in the last 90 days. Support might mean anyone who's raised a ticket this quarter. Each definition is internally consistent. Each team can...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/the-definitions-problem-why-your-data-can-t-talk-to-itself</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c24aa30d700055ab2064c</guid><pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:30:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_73604c0f97cf4966b4e2d55127cdabad~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Garbage In, Garbage Out: Now With AI Attached]]></title><description><![CDATA[Garbage in, garbage out. It's one of the oldest phrases in computing, older than most of the people repeating it, and by now it's fair to call it a cliché. Clichés earn that status by being true often enough that people eventually stop really listening to them. This one deserves a second look, because it has never mattered more than it does right now. There's a version of AI adoption that goes like this: buy the tool, point it at the business, wait for the insight. It's the pitch in most...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/garbage-in-garbage-out-now-with-ai-attached</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c246530d700055ab205b1</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:15:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_d26ae4451cb54851ac6ee7ada96e8bc2~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Throw It Away: The Case for Deleting Data on Purpose]]></title><description><![CDATA[Somewhere in your organisation right now, there's a server quietly holding a spreadsheet nobody has opened in three years. Nobody remembers what it was for. Nobody's job depends on it. And nobody, when asked, will agree to delete it. That's the strange contradiction sitting at the heart of most companies' data strategy. We talk about data as the new oil, the new gold, the most valuable asset on the balance sheet. And yet walk the floor of most analytics teams and you'll hear the same...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/throw-it-away-the-case-for-deleting-data-on-purpose</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a885e92023ad9e6d7ff90bd</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:43:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_82643cb512e646398db32072357eef22~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Dashboard Nobody Opens]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every organisation with a data or BI team has one. Usually several. The dashboard that took three weeks to build, got a polite round of nods in the launch meeting, and now sits untouched in a folder somewhere, a small monument to effort that went nowhere. We tend to treat this as a tooling problem. Maybe the charts aren't pretty enough. Maybe we need more filters, a better BI platform, a slicker layout. So we rebuild it, relaunch it, and watch it die again. The dashboard was never the...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/the-dashboard-nobody-opens</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a2845bd579005354a9ef958</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:45:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_2b32559d38894fbeb0a0f5b949ad3300~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_704,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[AI Drifts Just Like You Do, and That's the Trap]]></title><description><![CDATA[If your AI keeps surprising you with wrong answers, you don't need a better tool. You need to understand what it actually is. A colour test from 1935 makes it obvious. Try this. Read the colour these words are printed in: not the words, the colour of the ink. If the word GREEN is printed in red, the answer is "red." Simple. Except your brain hesitates, because part of you desperately wants to read the word instead of naming the colour. That hesitation is the Stroop effect, documented by a...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/ai-drifts-just-like-you-do-and-that-s-the-trap</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a2840b55b452722a3b61a07</guid><pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:43:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_c81abd6dd1a548689609e13c3d6cb8a4~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_900,h_491,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I use AI to write and express ideas. Does that make the results SLOP?]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is a small ritual I do before I publish anything. I read back through the text and replace every em-dash, one by one. The long dash that almost nobody actually types on a keyboard has quietly become a watermark, a tell, the thing people point at and say "ah, a machine wrote this." So I swap them out for commas and full stops and the occasional pair of brackets, and I tell myself the writing now looks a little more like it came from a person. I should be honest about why I do that. I use...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/i-use-ai-to-write-and-express-ideas-does-that-make-the-results-slop</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a28085957d70dac9796dae7</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:36:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_265743f6be554df99f8dd49c73f360b5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_675,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[LLMs Are Amazing. But They're Not the Answer — They're an Answer.]]></title><description><![CDATA[A gloriously simple idea turned out to be wildly useful. I still think it's a dead end on the road to AGI. LLMs Are Amazing. But They're Not the Answer — They're an Answer. A gloriously simple idea turned out to be wildly useful. I still think it's a dead end on the road to AGI. I've been thinking about buying an electric car, and everyone keeps warning me about range anxiety. They needn't bother. I've been managing it perfectly well on my own. I imagine the percentage ticking down on the...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/llms-are-amazing-but-they-re-not-the-answer-they-re-an-answer</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a27eb9dbcf454bfefdda680</guid><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:12:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_94bf647cd5114156ab00d6171454c863~mv2.gif/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Use SQL and Python Together in a Single Microsoft Fabric or Databricks Notebook]]></title><description><![CDATA[One of the greatest strengths of Microsoft Fabric and Databricks notebooks is their ability to mix multiple languages—most commonly SQL and Python—in a single, seamless workflow. This unlocks a powerful pattern: use SQL for what it’s best at (querying, filtering, aggregating), and use Python for everything else (transformations, machine learning, visualization, automation). If you've ever wondered “How exactly do I combine SQL and Python in one notebook?”, this guide walks you through the...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/how-to-use-sql-and-python-together-in-a-single-microsoft-fabric-or-databricks-notebook</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0386f248aeb3fcb240bd4f</guid><pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:14:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_e613eed0899f4d3fbc438340b13d3ca1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Data-Driven Strategies for AI Integration in Offices]]></title><description><![CDATA[In today's rapidly evolving workplace, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into office environments is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Organizations that leverage data-driven strategies to implement AI can enhance productivity, streamline operations, and foster innovation. This blog post explores effective strategies for AI integration in offices, providing practical insights and examples to help organizations navigate this transformative journey. Understanding the Role of AI in the...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/data-driven-strategies-for-ai-integration-in-offices</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a03586968a3e7adcb131f1b</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:13:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_80c994856afa42dab189c212c5eb91ff~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Data as a Product: If It’s the New Oil, Why Don’t We Value It?]]></title><description><![CDATA[For years we’ve been told that data is the new oil. It’s catchy, it’s memorable, and yet it falls apart the moment you ask a simple question: If data is the new oil, why don’t we price it, grade it, or value it like oil? We can tell you the price of oil at every stage of its journey. We know precisely what crude costs, what petrol costs, and what margins and processes sit between them. For example, in the UK: Fuel Type Price (£/litre) Crude Oil (WTI equivalent) ~£0.29 Petrol (Unleaded E10)...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/data-as-a-product-if-it-s-the-new-oil-why-don-t-we-value-it</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a038477a4a34bdda06e012f</guid><pubDate>Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:13:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_9b68b1e9d3a947bdafec41d34f8b454e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_763,h_672,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Export to Excel ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Getting Data from a Power BI Semantic Model into Excel For many analysts, Excel remains an essential part of day‑to‑day work—even in organizations that have fully embraced Power BI. The good news is that Power BI and Excel work hand‑in‑hand. Whether you want live, refreshable data; a one‑time extract; or full control through DAX, there are multiple ways to pull data from a Power BI semantic model into Excel. In this post, we’ll explore every major method, explain how they work, discuss when...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/export-to-excel</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a038540618ba45174fd6479</guid><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 06:30:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_e3d3304c7da1427899181afbb8b088bb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How will AI cut Headcount: You're Asking the Wrong Question]]></title><description><![CDATA[The dominant conversation around AI at work is about replacement. Will it take jobs? How many? How soon? It's the wrong question, and organisations fixated on it are not only missing the point, they are missing the opportunity. Using AI primarily as a headcount-reduction tool is a failure of imagination. It treats a transformative technology as a cost-cutting exercise, extracts short-term savings, and leaves the real value on the table. The organisations that will win are those asking a...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/how-will-ai-cut-headcount-you-re-asking-the-wrong-question</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0442d7ac68a8830fddd263</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2026 06:30:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_b690aa99d5184c7daad6eb3bdb69d659~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[AI for Data Analysis: Consistency, Curiosity, and a Healthy Amount of Skepticism]]></title><description><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence is becoming an everyday companion in data analysis, speeding up workflows, simplifying complex logic, and helping us explore ideas faster than ever before. But as with any powerful tool, how you use it matters just as much as what it produces. One of the most important questions to keep in mind when working with AI is deceptively simple: “If I ask the same question again, will I get the same answer, and if I don’t, does it actually matter?” This isn’t just a...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/ai-for-data-analysis-consistency-curiosity-and-a-healthy-amount-of-skepticism</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0380d5f6126ac2c9cf0486</guid><pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 06:00:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_8c4a22893ba541c49d3ab553c9be2c5d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_954,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Data Quality Doesn’t Just Happen: Why It Matters More Than Ever]]></title><description><![CDATA[In most organisations, data is everywhere,  flowing through systems, powering dashboards, informing decisions, and shaping strategy. But there’s an uncomfortable truth many teams eventually confront: Data quality doesn’t just happen. It doesn’t emerge naturally. It doesn’t improve on its own. It certainly doesn’t stay good without effort. And yet, many businesses act as though it does… until bad data causes a real problem. If You Don’t Measure It, You Don’t Care About It It’s impossible to...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/data-quality-doesn-t-just-happen-why-it-matters-more-than-ever</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0381c2e8ad7aab1e5d6397</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 10:45:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_a4e5a1b1a0c04860a782bb8b82795973~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_756,h_720,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Price of the Silo: How Monetizing Data Can Finally Bring People Together]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every organisation has its silos. Some are built from legacy systems, some from politics, some from fear—and some simply from habit. But if you listen closely, you’ll notice something interesting about these silos: they’re full of treasure. Hidden, dusty, unloved treasure. Data. The challenge isn’t just getting to it. The challenge is convincing the people guarding those silos that the data inside is worth sharing.And maybe—just maybe—that it’s worth something to them, too. This is a story...]]></description><link>https://tomesmithts.wixsite.com/workplace-intelligen/post/the-price-of-the-silo-how-monetizing-data-can-finally-bring-people-together</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0382ee618ba45174fd5f87</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 10:45:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/235c25_e7c739943f6540199605977d5a84c03b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>tom smith</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>