Category: insight
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Groupthink, and management by leaving the room
I had no idea that the original research into the concept of ‘groupthink’ was inspired by what happened with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. Irving Janis, a Yale psychologist who studied group cohesion, became fascinated by how a group of highly intellectual politicians and government officials could make such a…
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Writing changes how we think about the world
I came across this lecture by Larry McEnerney from the University of Chicago Writing Program over on LinkedIn and I got so much from it. Larry makes some wonderful points about writing better. He talks about how we’re taught to follow the rules of writing rather than thinking about how our writing can be valuable…
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QWERTY, and lessons on user-centric design
Why are keyboards set out in the way that they are? Why aren’t the letters in alphabetical order? It turns out that the answer to these questions reveals a brilliant piece of user-centric thinking. After some early attempts at creating writing machines which were less than user friendly, inventors Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden and Samuel…
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Categorising Cognitive Bias
I’m not a behavioural science expert but I do think it provides a useful lens to consider when we’re trying to understand how people make decisions. One of the things I’ve always struggled with however, is how to navigate the long list of cognitive biases (there’s something like 150+ cognitive biases listed on the Wikipedia…
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Creativity from ignorance
Sheer ignorance – you know, there’s no confidence to equal it.’ – Orson Welles. After reading two excellent posts today on the trend towards banality (Martin Weigel on ‘fighting the astro-turfing of culture’, and Alex Murrell’s ‘the age of average’) my thoughts turned to this fantastic film featuring journalist Huw Wheldon interviewing Orson Welles in 1960. In it Orson talks…
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Google Firestarters: Helen Edwards on Growth from the Margins
The latest episode of Google Firestarters is now live – this one features Helen Edwards, founder of Passionbrand, columnist for Marketing Week, and adjunct professor at London Business School. Helen has just published a new book ‘From Marginal to Mainstream: Why Tomorrow’s Brand Growth Will Come From the Fringes – and how to get there…
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Leadership, Teams and Bids
Psychologist Dr John Gottman (along with his wife Dr Julie Gottman) is renowned for his work on marital stability, relationships and predicting divorce in couples. In his research he has famously predicted with a 94% accuracy which marriages will end in divorce. After decades studying the way that married couples interact and the factors that…
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Focus means saying ‘no’
Last week Richard Huntington shared this video of Jony Ive talking about how Steve Jobs was brilliant at focusing. Many of us think about focus in terms of being able to sit and work exclusively on one thing and yet this is only the half of it. Jony makes a great point here about how…
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Autonomy doesn’t work without situational awareness
The need to combine team autonomy with situational awareness to truly empower teams and individuals
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Dazzle Camouflage and Reframing a Problem
I love this example of reframing a problem that relates to the dazzle camouflage which was invented (by British Marine Artist Norman Wilkinson) and extensively used during World War One to help protect warships. British Zoologist John Graham Kerr had originally proposed using disruptive camouflage to break up the outline of ships, using the example…