I've been recently orbiting again in public sector circles, and it's striking me how much of the work that is the Civil Service is about implementing change. The delivery of new policy, the dramatic changes in funding in the past six years, the forthcoming consultancy jamboree that will be the country's skulking out of the … Continue reading The need for change
Category: Themes
My esteemed former colleague Euan Semple published an interesting little video on YouTube yesterday. I think I've seen the "Ambulance Drone" clip before, but through my new-found PRTech lenses, I smelt something of a rat, and called it out. "Spoilsport" said Euan, quite rightly. https://youtu.be/y-rEI4bezWc For the record, Ambulance Drone was a design concept from a … Continue reading Virtually reality
"How do you eat an elephant?" The metaphor is oft repeated in working life, and elephant eating seems to be a stock in trade of the average large organisation. But nobody seems to stop and ask "Why the bloody hell are we eating elephant? Isn't there something a little smaller?" Simplification has become the mantra. … Continue reading Everything is a complex system
A randomised trial of fitness trackers has resulted in data that shows that data doesn't necessarily lead to improved health outcomes. Let's just replay that. Giving people data about their exercise activity has not been proven to lead to outcomes like weight loss. In a massive case of confirmation bias, my prediction has yet to be … Continue reading You can’t manage what you can measure
There's an awful lot of technological Utopian bullshit spoken at the moment about how we are at the cusp of a massive revolution in the hands of technology. On the one hand I think there's a strong argument that this has always been the case, at least since the first industrial revolution. There's a chronocentricity that … Continue reading The Money Siphon
I am, personally, prone to the odd metaphor. "Rainbow shitting unicorns" is one I use with depressing regularity, usually in reference to a quest to find technologies or skills that patently do not exist. A unicorn is a mythical creature. A rainbow shitting variety doubly so. Unfortunately, it seems that Unicorns now has two meanings … Continue reading Crap Tech Industry Metaphors: 15 Unicorns
I remember a news story from probably about 20 years ago where a full scale nuclear panic was instigated in the back garden of a suburban house in the South East of England when small capsules marked as nuclear waste had been discovered when flowerbeds had been turned over. To cut a long story short, … Continue reading Data as nuclear waste
As they get older (and they are still only 5 and 6) I increasingly find I'm learning from my kids, both in what they tell me and also in what I can observe. Take, for example, how they play with Lego (or "Legos" if you are American - although why, if you're American you can't … Continue reading Three things innovators can learn from Lego
Had a wonderfully mind-stretching time this morning chairing a session for the Winmark L&D network with Nick Shackleton-Jones leading a discussion about Gamification. The session spurred a number of thoughts for me - here are a few of the related links: My own blogging 0n the subject: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2012/02/13/motivating-through-games/ (includes photo of the marvellous Perspex box) https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2012/02/14/skinner-the-art-of-motivation/ … Continue reading Gamification – links
I listen to a fair amount of podcast these days. Here's what my Podcast Player is shuffling through (I use BeyondPod, for the record)... Business & Economics StartUp Podcast The first of a few from New York-based Gimlet Media, Startup in its first season followed the trials and tribulations of setting up a podcasting company, in the second … Continue reading Podcast Playlist 2016
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