How do you send a message to someone 10,000 years in the future? It’s not a question I’d imagine most of us think about every day. Even the people who have Futurologist in their job title, or work on the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (Wales) probably don’t stretch to 10,000 years in the future […]
Campbell’s Law and why Outcome Measurement is a Dead Cobra.
Target setting and ‘outcome measurement’ are part of a vast industry of checking and ‘holding to account’ but basically it doesn’t work, and probably causes more problems than if you didn’t bother in the first place. That’s a bit controversial…, particularly if you are in the game of; measurement, checking and ‘holding to account’. Let […]
Planting Oak Trees to Build Future Ships. Churchill Fellowship Post 6.
Here’s a quiz. What links these four things together? There are pictures to help you: A replica (under construction)of the Basque Galleon, San Juan, Some strangely shaped pieces of wood, The Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and A template drawing of the ‘sections’ of a mature oak tree. * There’s a Mayflower II […]
Cool Story Bro… be cautious of Organisational Storytelling and Silver Bullets
Cool Story Bro. I’m feeling mildly guilty at the moment. I might have been a little bit over sceptical and grumpily dismissive of the heartwarming stories told at conference. I know, I sound like a cold-blooded reptile, but I’ll let you decide. For the after lunch slot two highly respected leaders took to the stage […]
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 […]
Cycling to Work, ‘it’s just what we do…’ could Social Practice Theory help?
Here’s a small experiment you can try. Introduce ‘what can we do to encourage cycling to work’ into a conversation. Wait and see how long it takes before someone mentions, ‘The Dutch’. Less than 5 mins I’d wager. Depending on which bit of the internet you believe, 25% of all trips to work in the Netherlands […]
Decision Making. Do you have, Inattentional Blindness, Search Satisfaction and miss the Gorilla?
A Question: In a typical workplace situation, what percentage of information available do you scan (use) to make decisions? Please use the scale below to indicate your answer: Your Answer? In the range 60-70% of available information? Up to 75%? (I’m a logical and rational person) MORE than 75%? (I deal in the evidence!) The […]
Speaking Moth. How (not) to Prepare for a Performance Review
This is a brilliantly weird story I heard last week. Thank you to Andy Middleton from TYF for letting me share it. Saturday Night at the Pub. Picture saturday night in an Australian Outback mining settlement, a good few years ago. At the local (only) Pub is a younger Andy, sampling the hospitality. As the […]
Duck or Rabbit, the Evidence! (based on perception and bias)
Can you see the Rabbit and the Duck? Try turning the screen through 90 degrees – then back again. Right, fun over, back to the serious stuff. Hands up if you hear this phrase, chanted out at just about every meeting you attend nowadays. It’s a new mantra that started creeping into widespread use about […]
Co-Working and Serendipity. It’s just like having Tapas with Strangers
This is a post about co-working, however let me start with something I learnt over the weekend, an essential for your etiquette handbook. When asked; “are you visiting Aberystwyth for anything special?”, DO NOT REPLY WITH, “We’re here to bury my Mother in Law’s Ashes”. It’s a bit of a conversation killer, stuns hotel receptionists […]
