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
Category: Themes
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
Nearly a quarter of a century ago I began on the circuitous path that is my career with a few jobs working for the big accountancy firm KPMG. Back then big accountancy firms were big accountancy firms, but they were beginning their mutation into what they have become today - multidisciplinary professional services providers. Over … Continue reading I fought the law…
The Emotional Change Curve is something of a stock in trade amongst people involved in organizational change management, and a model that I have used extensively over the years. The model and its variants are derived from work by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and plots a series of emotional reacts that people have when confronted by change … Continue reading Changing habits
My LEF colleague Dave Aron posted about a fast food drone delivery service a couple of days ago. Having been recently reading James Garvey's takedown of the PR industry The Persuaders, it got me thinking about how there is an increasing breed of technology publicised these days which, for want of a better term, one could call … Continue reading The unstoppable rise of PRTech
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