There was an interesting nugget that I recently read in Clay Christensen's "How will you measure your life?" about the impact of high performer management fast track programmes: that they train leaders in organisations to be less innovative. Christensen (who is probably best known for his earlier book "The Innovator's Dilemma") argues that such streaming … Continue reading The fast track to zero innovation
Category: Themes
There was a link to a concept for Twitter redesign posted on the Guardian Tech Blog this morning that made me ponder a broader subject - as established brands and media force deeper into their use of social media, have we seen the end of Web 2.0? The first iteration of the world wide web … Continue reading The end of 2.0?
A few evenings ago I was giving a friend of mine a bit of advice. She'd been asked to, as a "career development opportunity" (alongside her day job) to create a digital channel strategy for her organisation. One of the topics that came up was the subject of telephone helpdesks, and specifically whether helpdesk callers … Continue reading Hanging on the telephone
One of the many things that I learned when I spent a couple of years working for a small consulting firm in the mid-00s was the importance of the second person pronoun. To be honest, given the paucity of my education in grammar at school, I had to look that one up: basically "you" and … Continue reading It’s not me, it’s you
Some thoughts on Tiny Data by me on Computer Weekly...
I'm not a great fan of the type of management consulting that is typified by organisations like McKinsey (too often it merely represents the wrong sort of management delegation from my lowly viewpoint), but there are many things of value that come from the work of such firms. A case in point is the 7-S … Continue reading Dodging silver bullets
One of the things I've learned fairly early on in the journey that is parenting is that kids tend to want something more if it's not available to them. With my sons, this becomes particularly apparent when one is playing with a particular toy: that toy seems to often become the most desirable object in … Continue reading The power of scarcity
Today marks the the centenary of my grandfather Bertie's birthday (that's him on the left above, along with my dad, Gran and uncle pictured in around 1948). Grandad was a physicist. After completing his education at Queen's University in Belfast, he headed over to the mainland to work for GEC. This was in an era … Continue reading Centenary
This morning, amongst the baby news, is coverage of David Cameron's latest big scheme - to make UK ISPs implement mandatory opt-out pornography filters on their services. Another great example of politicians not understanding the fallibility of technology. My mobile provider, Orange, currently provides such a service. It's one I've disabled, not because I'm a … Continue reading The Scunthorpe issue
In the first week of September, I'm going to be speaking at the wonderful Silicon Beach conference in (hopefully still) sunny Bournemouth. The following article isn't my talk, but sets up what I will be talking about - the importance of empathy in design (and ways to achieve it). If you are interested in coming … Continue reading Silicon Beach 2013 – The World Isn’t Flat
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