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. […]
Trojan Mice and the #DollyChallenge
Does this make any sense? Or is it just a lame attempt to make taking ‘well managed risks’ sound appealing? The Dolly Challenge. If I’m having to explain this. I guess I’ve failed, but thanks for sticking with me. Basically the #DollyPartonChallenge is the latest fad that’s doing the rounds on the internet. Post pictures […]
That Which Does Not Kill Us Makes Us Stronger. Beneficial Accidents and Survivable Failure
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger” A terrible confession to start….. I thought it was Del Boy Trotter; Risk Management Advisor (“who dares wins”) and famous Peckham Philosopher who said this. Actually it was Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German Philosopher (1844-1900), but you all knew that. We all know it makes sense….. some minor trauma, […]
Trojan Horses are not Trojan Mice. 5 Questions to Spot the Difference.
How did the other pilots go? An innocent question to ask anyone talking about their ‘pilot project’. A common response… tumbleweed… silence… nothing but embarrassing silence and the shuffling of feet… Phased Implementation is not a Safe to Fail Pilot. I want to paint this in 6ft high letters somewhere sothat; ‘Policy Wonks’, PRINCE2 Practitioners, […]
Loving and Learning from Failure. Great idea, but how does it work?
“Accept that failure will happen and learn the lessons”. That could be a classic from the dictionary of “easy to say, hard to do” inspirational quotes. You know the ones, they get posted all over Facebook with backgrounds of epic landscapes or golden sunsets. I fully agree with the sentiment, but how does this work in a […]
Failure* should be part of your CV (*= fast intelligent failure)
Now that’s a statement that might cause a few recruitment consultants and career coaches to splutter into their skinny macchiato. Surely its all about winning and trumpeting your success, isn’t it? Admitting to failure, and claiming it as some sort of achievement is a pretty alien concept. In many organisations the approach to failure is […]
Continuous Improvement – why it matters to Squeeze the Pips, Release Trojan Mice and Win Small
I recently heard someone being very dismissive about staff suggestion schemes and efforts to encourage small improvements. He was one of those “what you need is a paradigm shift”…..and…., “I’m just the fella to tell you what your big new idea needs to be” types . Oh, and he threw in something along the lines […]
Agile Project Management and a Naval Bombardment in Newport, South Wales
This is actually about the game Battleships and not some sinister plot (probably by Cardiffians) to obliterate Newport in a naval bombardment. Last week I went to Newport to learn about agile project management from James Scrimshire of hurricanefour.com and got involved in a game of Battleships. It was at a Port80 event organised by […]
Crowdsourcing, could this be the groovy new name for staff ideas schemes?
Recently someone important told me that Crowdsourcing was “old hat, and we’ve moved on from that”. What they had moved on to wasn’t explained but I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of Crowdsourcing in the world I occupy. Fortunately I went to an IdeasUK event last week which was focussed on how social media […]
What’s eating the Trojan Mice?
Last week I posted about setting free Trojan Mice and argued that when faced with complex situations we need to carry out multiple ‘safe to fail’ pilots (rather than large single option solutions) . All very fine, but once you’ve set the Trojan Mice free, how do you give them the best chance of success? Learning […]
