Category: Agile
-
Incentivising 10X
Sometimes in my workshops with clients I run exercises around how a team can create possible futures as opposed to just plausible and probable ones. This is akin to what Google have termed '10X' thinking. The idea of creating disproportionate rather than
-
Applying Current Reality Trees
Every so often when working with a client on a project there will be a tricky problem that we need to understand better and one of the best tools that I've found to do this is to visualise the challenge using a
-
The Danger of Blindly Following Machines
This episode of Tim Harford's podcast series Cautionary Tales has some brilliant stories about the dangers of blindly following technology. Tim talks about the phenomenon of what rangers in Death Valley California have termed death by GPS – genuine examples of where
-
Learning Opportunities
There were several well articulated points in this post by Lean specialist John Shook about why it's so important for leaders not to try and solve all the problems on behalf of their teams. An outdated style of leadership believes that all
-
Wardley’s Universal Doctrine
I'm a fan of Simon Wardley's thinking – he did an excellent Google Firestarters talk a few years ago, and I drew on some of his work in my first and second book. His approaches to understanding situational context and strategy with
-
Dynamic resource allocation in a crisis
There's already been a lot of speculation about what's likely to change and not change in the long-term given the current enormous challenges faced by so many businesses, but the reality is that no-one really knows. The one thing that businesses can
-
Cynefin and the Importance of Contexts
Over the years I've frequently referenced Dave Snowden's Cynefin model as a way of understanding problems and contexts (and I talked about it my books). It's fantastically useful. This ten year old film is a good, short run through: In my experience
-
Bias to Action
Richard Shotton makes a great point in this post about why marketers so often overemphasise chasing the latest fads at the expense of more established activities. A good part of the reason for this, he says, is demonstrated by a study that
-
Distribution vs Innovation
'The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.' Saying that large, legacy businesses should act like startups is overly simplistic and lazy thinking. There is much that big companies can
-
Data-as-a-Service
I've been writing a new report on marketing structures and resourcing and in the research process came across the concept of 'Data-as-a-Service' (DaaS) via Ashley Friedlein's annual trends post which I think is a useful way of thinking about how to set