Category: insight
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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…
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On Brainstorming
The under-recognised but proven ways to improve the outputs of brainstorming sessions.
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Agile Marketing is NOW OUT
So, big news. My third book is published TODAY. It was a real labour of love to write this one but I’m so pleased with how it turned out. You can read more about why I wrote it here but I’ve also uploaded a sample chapter for you to access which is taken from the…
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Google Firestarters Episode 18: Rachel Mercer
An insightful episode of Google Firestarters with Rache Mercer, co-founder and CXO of Proto and ex VP, Head of Strategy at R/GA New York