Beer Committees were an important part of the small community rugby clubs I grew up around. So important, that I think they are an actual foundation stone in the temple of governance that is essential to any democratic society. Let me explain… What are Beer Committees? In any small club or society there are two […]
Don’t remove a fence until you understand why it was put there. Chesterton’s Fence.
Using a coat-stand to take down a fence. I once knew a Chief Executive who told me that the most important thing that came with their job was the office coat-stand. The reason? It was because the coat-stand allowed them to permanently wedge open their office door. They had wanted to unscrew the hinges and […]
Because, that’s the way we’ve always done things around here…
An expression that is usually followed up with something along the lines of… “is the most dangerous thing you’ll hear”. You may have heard it quoted by serious people or even seen it on posters or painted on the walls of more ‘progressive’ organisations. It’s a powerful statement that has many layers of meaning, but […]
Crowdsourcing Covid Recovery Ideas. Do I Panic and Scream or Do I Rejoice?
Is it just me… or are there an overwhelming number of ‘bright idea schemes’ floating around at the moment? All of them searching for the big idea that will make life better after COVID. A lot of what I’m seeing are versions of ‘crowdsourcing’. Ask lots of people a question, and they will eventually come […]
Customer Contact Centers After Covid. More Human, More Local, More Joyful?
It’s Down By There… I had two experiences of Customer Services this week. One was a terrible grind, the other left me feeling joyful. The terrible grind is what you might expect when trying to cancel a conscription* with a massive global company. You don’t actually get to speak to anyone human. It’s just a […]
Knowledge Management is like a Boomerang.
There’s so much I don’t know (about knowledge). I don’t feel particularly confident about writing this post. The more I’ve learnt about ‘knowledge’, the more I realise that I don’t know very much. However, sometimes I feel the need to speak out – in a helpful sort of way – to prevent others making the […]
Sneckdowns. The Ultimate; Desire Paths, Snowfall and User Centered Design Combo.
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 […]
What's the PONT 