Desire Paths, and then some… You’ve probably heard of Desire Paths, the darling/nemesis of Urban Planners. The informal, beaten earth, muddy paths that pedestrians (people) create because they work for them. They are where the locals (people on the ground) have chosen to walk. Typically in different places to where the Architects, Engineers and Planners […]
Fixing the Bike(shed). A conversation about how to deal with Bikeshedding
Have you ever been in a meeting where you spend an eternity discussing something relatively trivial, and then microseconds on something significant? If the answer is yes, the chances are you’ve been Bikeshedding… Bikeshedding is the common name for Parkinson’s Law of Triviality: … ‘the amount of time a committee will spend discussing an item […]
Ordinary Clay, Not Gold and Silver #Cynefin21
Clai cyffredin nid aur ac arian. Being ordinary doesn’t feel like much of a goal does it. It’s certainly not aspirational in the sense of the ‘happy clappy’ vision statements you see in lots of corporate documents. But ordinary and mundane are essential. This is the stuff of everyday life, the fabric of society, the […]
How to Spot the Decoy Effect in Business Case Options Appraisals.
Coffee Choices and the Decoy Effect. Have you every bought a coffee and been ‘bedazzled’ into getting a bigger or frothier one than you’d planned? “It just seemed sooooohhh much better value to have the Maximo Grande Frothiata…”. Basically you’ve had your behaviour ‘modified’ by the retailer using a process called Decoy Pricing or the […]
Why isn’t the Retail Sector doing more ‘Nudging’ of Hand Sanitisation?
Is anyone else thinking about Behavioural Nudges and Hand Sanitisation? If you’ve ventured to the supermarket since COVID-19 you’ve probably experienced some version of the ‘Hand Sanitiser Station’. The good, the bad and the ugly. My experiences have ranged from the pathetic – empty bottles of disinfectant spray lurking behind the crisps – through to […]
Going Blind on a Spacewalk. Can Simulation Training Help?
Imagine you’ve made it to the International Space Station (ISS), left the ship on your spacewalk, then you go blind. What do you do? This is a guest post from my friend Sam Williams (@SamW112358 on Twitter). It’s Sam’s first post and is a prelude to him launching his own blog. Hopefully you enjoy it, […]
If You Can’t Sign it, Don’t Ship it.
Owning what you create. There’s a lot to be said for feeling real sense of ‘ownership’ of the things you build, manufacture, write, create or the service you provide. Ultimately it’s all about quality. If you care about what you are doing you should be prepared to put your name to it. By ‘signing’ whatever […]
Do Epidemiologists Play COVID-19 Computer Games After Work?
I’m guessing that during a pandemic most Epidemiologists will barely have time to sleep, so time in-front of the X-Box will be limited. But this is a serious question. Nobody will be surprised to hear that a bundle of COVID-19 related computer games have emerged in the last few months. Most of them ‘shovelware’. But […]
The Atomic Theory of Meetings. Atoms and Meetings are made of mostly NOTHING.
Atoms and meetings are surprisingly similar. Just like in science, where atoms are the basic building blocks, for organisations meetings seem to fulfill a similar purpose. Organisations wouldn’t exist without them (apparently). Unfortunately many meetings aren’t as remotely useful (or interesting) as atoms, but there are startling similarities. Let me explain. Basically there are 3 […]
What do Amazon’s Business Model and a COVID-19 Rapid Learning Engine have in common?
This is not as tenuous as it sounds. Have a glance at the image above and ponder on this. It was originally drawn in the early 2000’s by Jeff Bezos, on a paper napkin. Described as the ‘virtuous cycle’ its been at the heart of Amazon’s approach, and part of them becoming one of the […]
