Be careful what you wish for… After blathering on about Trojan Mice for ages people have actually paid attention. Thank you Paul Taylor for the mentions in this post ‘The Complex Problem with Big Change Programmes’ and ‘People Aren’t Sick of Change, They are Sick of Change Programmes’. There’s an important point in Paul’s posts. […]
The Retirement Speech Test. “I wish I’d said that years ago”
The Perfect Retirement Speech. I’m thinking of offering a course on how to write the perfect retirement speech. Nothing fancy, clever or sophisticated, just three bite-size chunks. Part 1 is just a case of, writing down what you really think about a specific topic connected to your working life; take your pick from the following […]
IMAGINE – everyone working towards a common aim, the benefit of Future Generations. #ChurchillFellowship Post12
This is a post for anyone interested in how; people, the place where they live, what happens there, private enterprise, public services and government, all co-exist in a way that is focussed on making sure future generations have something left for them to continue in that place. So, I’d like you to take a deep […]
What’s normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. Power shift and co-production. #ChurchillFellowship Post 8
Context is everything. Thanks to Beth Smith (@bethansmith93) for ‘what is normal to the spider is chaos to the fly’, which inspired the illustration above. The quote neatly describes how different experiences of a situation (the context), can massively influence your feelings and also the decisions you make about the situation. For the spider it’s […]
Cooperatives – The Basics. Beginners notes on whats behind ‘cooperative’. Churchill Fellowship Post 3.
I’ve got my Coop card, purchased for a pound. It entices me away from Aldi and into the local Coop; 5% rewards for me and 1% for my local community. But having the card, and being a ‘Member’ doesn’t mean I actually understand what’s going on. Sadly I haven’t developed a deeper insight into the […]
Beating the Inspectors Number 7*. Satisfaction of Search Bias
My old friend Martyn tells a lovely story about one of the most important jobs he’s done during a lifetime of working on building sites – distracting the Site Agent. Basically this exploits one of Martyn’s superpowers, the ability to talk to anyone, for quite a long time if needed. This superpower comes into play […]
Never ask the Internet to name something. The ‘wisdom of crowds’ isn’t always plain sailing.
Developing the nautical theme, I’m guessing you’ll be familiar with the Boaty McBoatface saga? The 2016 online poll to name the UK Government’s £200 million Arctic Research Ship? It actually ended up being called Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough (sigh…), despite Boaty McBoatface clearly winning the poll with over 124,000 votes! It’s explained in […]
Participatory Budgeting. Think carefully about ‘Going Brazilian’ and Silver Bullet Syndrome
Participatory budgeting is all the rage at the moment, but is the stampede for ‘Wales to be more like Brazil’ realistic? Participatory budgeting is big in Brazil by the way, and you can read about it here. The re-branding of Barry Island as ‘Barrybados’ was genius, but Cardiff-Copacabana-Bay might be a bit of a stretch. I do […]
Decision Fatigue. How to cope with 35,000 decisions a day by wearing the same clothes
I’m scenario planning at the moment. Please reflect upon this situation. I walk into the office and someone says, “Chris, you filthy minger(*), that’s the same clothes you’ve been wearing for the last 5 days, you smell like a Pole Cat”. My response is as follows: I carefully appraise their swanky outfit, Slowly fill my […]
