A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a distinction between two types ofthinking - map thinking and list thinking. In a chance' conversation this week with a former colleague Mark, we started to explore how these two mindsets might apply to the thorny world of strategy. To start off, there are many interpretations of … Continue reading Lists, maps and strategy
Category: Technology
Eight or so years ago, I found myself at a software developer event organised by the US company Twilio. If you are not familiar, Twilio provide software that allows other people building apps to connect their products and services to the telephone system. They enable you to integrate with voice and text messages without the … Continue reading Evolution, not intelligent design
Some quick notes on a workshop session that we ran this week to help to get people familiar with Customer Journey Mapping in a short and interactive session. Overall objectives Get a group from across our organisation's support functions (HR, L&D, Health & Safety, Comms, Tech) and some key people from across the rest of … Continue reading Service Design Workshop
I've been struggling a bit recently with the names of things. Not in a getting old, way - well, no more than is usual. But more in the sense of what terms we use to describe things. Words, very specifically like "Digital Transformation". In fact, those two words. I hate them. Digital doesn't mean anything … Continue reading Plant-like
On the long drive down the A303 to Somerset yesterday morning, I caught a show on Radio 4 that was exploring the concept of "over parenting". It was an interesting listen, and one thing in particular has been bouncing around my head since, a metaphor for describing two different styles of parenting: the carpenter or … Continue reading Carpentry vs Gardening
I've never been a big fan of the associations of the concept of "Shadow IT". It's been often portrayed as a bad thing, the result of a Corporate IT department that has lost control. Somehow that those pursuing alternatives to the mandated corporate systems are somehow furtively trying to undermine the power of authority. Ever … Continue reading Shadowless IT
People are getting overloaded with meetings. There's no two ways about it. A combination of the lack of informal conversations in office environments plus the ease of organising meetings with online diaries multiplied by there no longer being the limiting factor of "no meeting room available" means that for many of us there is no … Continue reading Back to back
In the course of my research for Who Shares Wins, I was told the possibly apocryphal story of how email was introduced into a law firm back in the early 1990s. The senior partners had been sceptical about this new-fangled communications medium, and had resisted its introduction. However a more tech-friendly group of employees started … Continue reading Let them play
Every so often, the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field switches. Geomagnetic reversal is a phenomenon that seems to happen at random, and has been observed through a natural records as having occurred 183 times in the last 83 million years. In the "list of stuff that I would worry about (but not unduly) at … Continue reading The world turned upside down?
Imagine that tomorrow your government announced that a new App was to be released. That every citizen over the age of 16 would be obliged to install this app on their phone, and would be duty-bound to carry the phone around with them at all times. Travelling without a phone with the active app install … Continue reading Hard choices
