Month: June 2024
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Transformers, and creative innovation
What’s the connection between Transformers and one of the most innovative lunar rovers to have been invented? The answer is this wonderful example of using partnerships and external perspectives to challenge norms. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, asked Takara Tomy (the company behind toys such as Transformers, amongst many others) to design it’s small lunar…
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Joy
Writer Donna Ashworth, who authored the book Wild Hope has written many wonderful words on the topic of joy, happiness and hope. Here are a couple of favourites that I’ve come across lately, in case you need it today. I love the line ‘Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life’.…
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The Art of Noticing
‘Interesting isn’t a personality type, it’s a set of habits and a way of seeing the world‘ Russell Davies The other day I came across this extract from Russell Davies’ book Do Interesting: Notice. Collect. Share. In the post Russell writes about a talk he gave years back on ‘How to be interesting’: ‘The way…
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The Downside of Sector-Relevant Case Studies
I use a wide range of case studies in workshops and consultancy. They can be really helpful in demonstrating real-world scenarios, exceptional strategies or choices, poor decision-making and disruption. But there’s a problem that we don’t talk enough about. Some leaders and executives want to focus (and sometimes insist) on using only sector-specific case studies…
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Chalkboard decisions
I liked Shane Parrish’s notion of ‘chalkboard decisions‘. These, says Shane, are the kind of decisions that ‘work well in the classroom but not in real life’. The maths may be right but you can still make the wrong decision if you follow the maths but don’t use judgement as well. The simple example that…
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High-reaching informality
The best leaders that I’ve worked with and for have typically all had one characteristic in common – what you might call a ‘high-reaching informality’. High-reaching: what I mean by this is that great leaders get the best out of their people by encouraging their teams to think bigger, think harder, aim higher, be more…