Category: change
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Birthday Paradox
Answer this: How many people do you think need to be in the same room before two of them have the same birthday? We have a tendency to think of this question in a linear way and so most people approach this by thinking about the 365 days in a year. Meaning that having around…
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On unquestioned legacy
I loved this example of the kind of legacy thinking that goes unquestioned for years (originally via). The standard size of wine bottles was formalised around the world for the 1973 vintage at 750ml. US sizes until that point had been a half gallon and a gallon but 750ml had been the default size for…
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Sweathead, with Mark Pollard
A while back I was holed up in a hotel room in Lisbon after running a leadership workshop for Vodafone and I recorded an interview for Mark Pollard's excellent Sweathead podcast. Mark's an excellent interviewer and has a lovely disarming style to his questioning so even though I was pretty knackered, Mark ensured that we…
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The Decline of Historical Perspective
I've been thinking a lot recently about whether we're seeing a deterioration in the value that we place in learning from the past. This New Yorker piece on the decline of historical thinking in particular struck me. The article features a study done by Northeastern University professor Benjamin M. Schmidt that showed that in spite…
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The Buxton Index, and the Rhythm of Business
'The Buxton Index of an entity, i.e. person or organization, is defined as the length of the period, measured in years, over which the entity makes its plans.' I came across the 'Buxton Index' via this Shane Parrish podcast with Patrick Collison founder of Stripe (which is really worth a listen). Seemingly originated by Professor John Buxton at…
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The Reality of How Marketing is Changing
Each year Scott Brinker's amazing work tracking and mapping the changing marketing technology landscape reminds us of just how much the discipline and function of marketing is changing. Last year's survey mapped more than 5,000 separate martech solutions and you would have been forgiven for believing then that the market must surely have reached its…