This is a genuine question. I only ask because there’s something from Dave Snowden rattling around my head that seems particularly relevant at the moment. “In a crisis, you should always deploy an innovation team alongside the business recovery teams…to capture the novel practice” The point of this statement (for me) is that during a […]
Trojan Mice in 900 Seconds
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. […]
Regulation, Inspection and Audit. It really, really shouldn’t hurt… and ‘behaviour begets behaviour’.
Imagine a situation where you can measure the psychological and physiological effects of a visit from the Regulator. That’s what this fuzzy image shows. It’s actually heart beats per minute of the registered manager of a care provider, and the impact of a notice to visit from the Regulator. The ‘spike’ happens when the ‘regulatory […]
Project Learning Reviews are like a Cheese Fondue…
…basically you throw everything into a pot and mix it all together into a smooth consistency. Then you stick a piece of bread on a fork, pop it into the mixture, and see what comes out. That’s your project learning, driven by a thinking process called retrospective coherence. The Origins of Fondue and Project Reviews. […]
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 […]
Failure is Not an Option, and Neither is Blame, Most of the Time.
Here’s a quick quiz. Where did the phrase ‘Failure is not an option’ originate? Queen Boudicca AD 61, in her famous rallying call to the Iceni Tribe before taking on the occupation forces of the Roman Empire. Chief Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel 1835. In his brief memo to all Great Western Railway staff, stressing the importance […]
Its good to have a hobby. Currently mine is #TiL253
I’ve tried all sorts of hobbies over the years. Probably my worst has been building Airfix models. It’s the glue. And the painting. And don’t get me started on those transfer things that are supposed to ‘slide on with ease’ to complete your masterpiece. There are several boxes of ‘bodged’ attempts lurking in our attic. […]
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good and deviant librarians
Designing out the idiot. Very many years ago I had a job to create a system to collect information from staff working out in the fields (literally, they did work in fields). My boss at that time instructed me to create something that ‘designed out the idiot’. Basically something that nobody could get wrong, accidentally or […]
Minimum Viable Transformation: Change should be Small and Imperfect
Speeches you never hear at a Corporate Conference: “….. Our Transformation Programme is going to be small and imperfect. We are going to do many small things that probably won’t work straight away. However, we will learn lessons from these ‘experiments’ and apply the learning to a better next small thing, making sure we progressively move forward, […]
3 Mystery Shopper Tasks for; Executives, Non Executives, Directors and Chiefs
I’m thrilled with my latest T-Shirt purchase,“something buried in the dirt cannot topple”, it’s all about the slogan….. My interpretation; if you are deeply involved to something at a practical level (buried in the dirt), you are less likely to be easily disrupted (toppled) by external forces or events. I’m sure we could spend […]
