Year: 2023
-
Shipped in 2023
Wow. This is my tenth year of doing an end of year retrospective taking a look at the shape of the work which I’ve done over the past 12 months (previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021). I find it a helpful thing to do. It’s useful to take a step back and think about the mix…
-
The Learning Organisation
In all my work whether it’s about organisational agility, leadership, marketing or transformation, I am increasingly of the opinion that the critical capability of the modern organisation is the ability to learn fast. And I don’t mean training or new skills (though this too is not unimportant). I mean to learn about the optimal way…
-
Google Firestarters: Kevin Kelly
A brand new episode of Google Firestarters is now LIVE, featuring the peerless Kevin Kelly, author and co-founder of Wired. Kevin’s insights are fantastic in this. He talks about why technology optimism is the only way to make a future that we really want to live in and why we need imagination and a ‘willing…
-
Perception vs Perspective
What’s the difference between perception and perspective? Why does this matter? It may be a subtle distinction but understanding this difference can really help us to improve or change something. Perception is how we translate the world around us (often through sensory inputs). It is how make sense of something, and what enables us to…
-
Questions for leaders
Over the last year I’ve been doing a lot of work with leaders in the NHS helping them to navigate change and understand to get the most out of technology in support of improvement. One of the resources that I found really useful in the research phase of the project were these questions for leaders…
-
On writing to think
James Caig pointed to this wonderful post by Shane Parrish about how writing helps you think – a subject to which I have returned several times on this blog. Shane has a typically thoughtful take on the subject (the best I think I’ve read), going beyond what I’ve said before about how blogging is like…
-
Why AI should be like a man and a bicycle
With all the hype around the application of AI at the moment I keep coming back to this simple analogy articulated by Steve Jobs when talking about his vision for man’s relationship with computers: “I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least…
-
Missionaries, not Mercenaries
In the comments to my post on tipping points in social convention and change Mark Earls made a couple of great points. He built on the central theme of the post about how (rather than treating transformation as a marketing exercise) leaders should focus more on the ‘pioneers’ or ‘early adopters’ to forge a new…
-
How workshop culture supports high performing teams
I facilitate a lot of workshops as part of what I do and so I was really looking forward to speaking with facilitator extraordinaire Alison Coward who works with a wide range of teams to help them work better and achieve their goals. Alison’s just written a new book (out this week) called ‘Workshop Culture:…
-
Tipping points in social convention and change
This was an interesting study (HT @Emollick) looking at tipping points in social convention. Researchers conducted an experiment to test what proportion of people were needed to successfully challenge a norm that was held within the group. They looked at groups of people that had acheived a consensus about something (in this case the name…