There is an interesting phenomenon that I'm noticing with many groups with whom I work at the moment. If you ask people what it is that their "customers" (the people to whom they provide a product or service) need their services for, they will (more often than not) reply with a description of their service, … Continue reading The value, not the thing
Category: Management
I love a good metaphor. Equally, I despise a bad one. I've been doing some work recently for a client on what they should have where once stood an Enterprise Architecture team. If you are not familiar with what an Enterprise Architect does, think about what an Architect does. Yeah, it's nothing like that. And … Continue reading The IT Planning and Building Controls Department
My younger son can get overly focused on things. A couple of days ago it was the Eight Queens Puzzle. The puzzle is relatively simple to explain. You need to place eight chess queens onto a chessboard in such a way that no piece can take another piece. There are millions of permutations of how … Continue reading Reframing problems
Over the past six years, I've been working with all sorts of clients in all sorts of sectors. I'm constantly adapting and iterating my approaches from the work that I do, and here's where I am currently at when it comes to helping my clients to establish models and approaches to do things differently. This … Continue reading Innovation in 4 diagrams – the summary
Now we have established that there are different approaches required for doing things where we don't know the solution, to those when we do, let's now unpack that skill set. Let's look at the Skills of the Bricoleur. First of all there is a collective mindset required, that which wants to Collaborate. Working Out Loud … Continue reading Innovation in 4 diagrams – 4. The Skills of the Bricoleur
Having taken a look at the products and services that you offer, it's now time to look at how you gear to deliver change and innovation. Essentially all of this is a response to a somewhat oxymoronic question I've been asked on a number of occasions over the years: We want to be innovative. Can … Continue reading Innovation in 4 diagrams – 3. The Play Matrix
Having explored the drive for change because of changing expectations, the next step one can take is to examine what the current state of products and services look like. Enter the 3P model. At the core of 3P is the old adage, it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it. It's … Continue reading Innovation in 4 diagrams – 2. The 3P Model
Every so often I need to take stock and outline where my thinking is at. This is one of those moments. In the past few months my work increasingly has turned to helping my clients to plot courses through the need to make change happen to the services that they deliver to their clients and … Continue reading Innovation in 4 diagrams – 1. Digital Architecture
This week was partly spent planning an innovation event for a client in the utilities sector. We have been developing a few scenarios that can be used as part of the event to help participants to push at the boundaries of what might be possible in the future when thinking about doing things differently. We … Continue reading Carbon Consumers
For a year or so now I've been playing with the role of tactility in consulting processes. Well, that's a good retrospective justification of what I've been doing - what I've actually been doing is creating and playing with different sets of the Priority Cards. Nonetheless, it's become an exercise in understanding the role of … Continue reading The remarkable world of touch
