Category: Agile
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Why cognitive diversity is a superpower
‘If we are intent upon answering our most serious questions, from climate change to poverty, and curing diseases to designing new products, we need to work with people who think differently, not just accurately. And this requires us to take a step back and view performance from a fundamentally different vantage point’ I’m reading Matthew…
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The Three Types of Problem in the World (Redux)
In a complex, fast-changing world situational awareness and the ability to understand context in decision-making is all important. A few years back I described an approach to problem definition (originally from education) based on three fundamentally different types of contexts: simple, complicated, and complex. And I was reminded of just how critical this is only recently. Simple…
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Navigating uncertainty
I loved the approach that Sam Conniff (author of the brilliant Be More Pirate, and the founder of Uncertainty Experts) takes in the latest episode of Google Firestarters to how we should respond to uncertainty in the modern world. His fundamental point is that we have a choice about how we react to unpredictability and…
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On Climbing the Wrong Hill
This week, after first reading it several years ago, I was prompted to return to Chris Dixon’s wonderful post about climbing the wrong hill. The term comes originally from computer science, but to illustrate it he uses the example of a young, smart graduate who works on Wall Street and is considering staying despite hating…
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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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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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What shockwave jams tell us about getting stuff done
Ever been driving along a busy road with the traffic flowing along nicely and then for no apparent reason and with no obvious obstacles or changes in road conditions it starts to jam up? We’ve all been there. Believe it or not these types of traffic jams have a name – shockwave jams – referring…
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Red Teaming
I was in a client workshop last week and we were discussing the benefits of having an organisational culture and environment that encourages comfort with dissent. Many teams struggle with conflict but the ability to healthily disagree with each other is one of the foundations of psychological safety and high-performing teams. One of Amy Edmonsdon’s…
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On First Principles
My favourite example of the power of first principles in coming up with breakthrough ideas is an experiment run by Dr. Tina Seelig, at Stanford University. She split her class into fourteen small teams and gave each group five dollars and two hours in which their challenge was to make the highest possible return. They…