Category: strategy
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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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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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Why culture is at the heart of Boeing’s problems
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’, or so the saying (from Peter Drucker) goes. Boeing’s long list of recent problems have been well documented. And there’s been a number of good analyses of the real causes behind them, amongst which this Harvard piece is probably the best. What has struck me as I’ve read more about…
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On Xerox PARC, and the failure of execution
“Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry, could have been the IBM of the nineties, could have been the Microsoft of the nineties.” Steve Jobs When Xerox opened their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1970 it brought together talented computer engineers, scientists and programmers who were tasked with inventing the computing technologies of the…
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Using SAMR to navigate technological change
One of my favourite frameworks for helping to understand and navigate technological change is the acronym SAMR, which stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition. SAMR originates from the education sector, and was created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura as a way for instructors to understand how they could best integrate new technology and tools into…
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Building trust in client / agency relationships
Some months back I did a piece of work for the IPA that sought to understand how clients could build mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships with their agency partners. Called Partnering for Growth, the report captured the inputs of a broad range of industry and non-industry experts, academics and both client and agency-side practitioners. I…