Something has been bothering me. I have been listening for many years to politicians and public affairs representatives in the media. I have noticed an interesting trend in the way that they respond to questions. It seems to me that there must be a special course for these individuals, with a half-day component called Nay Saying. The trend I notice is this . . . when asked a direct question, either for verfification, clarification or to elicit a definitive answer, [...]
I came across a billboard with this statement last week. It's part of a marketing campaign for one of the short term insurers. When I read it, my first thought was that this is probably one of the silliest statements I've seen in a while, but after thinking about it, I realised that someone who doesn't look at life through a complexity lense may think that it's rather clever. So why do I have a problem with it? Well, first [...]
It is a good question, and it comes with an assumption: that people actually read this blog, and might miss our once semi-regular writing. Anyway, we've been hit by the busy-bug and sadly, regular writing on current affairs applications of narrative and complexity has taken the back seat. Certainly, the intent is there to pick up the writing again ...
If I were a senior executive who had to look at figures and statistics on why people are leaving my company, I would pull my hair out (maybe this is why I'm not a senior executive ... I still have too much hair). Not because people are perhaps leaving in their droves, but because the figures are actually so meaningless. What does it really mean if the staff turnover rate is 15%? Then, you get the superficial reasons stuck to [...]
We'll be presenting on Wisdom Continuity at the upcoming Refirement Conference on 11th June. Along with Lynda from the Refirement Network, we've been developing a narrative-based approach at capturing and transferring that special, unique Wisdom that Baby Boomers have. This conference is a must if you experiencing a loss of information and wisdom as people exit your company. DATE: 11th June PLACE: Bryanston Country Club TIME: 08h30 to 12h00 PRICE: R250 per person The brochure is also attached below. Attachment Size [...]
In reading a book by Eugene Peterson, I came across this paragraph: "Apart from the before the now has little meaning. The now is only a thin slice of who I am; isolated from the rich deposits of before, it cannot be understood. ... The before is the root system of the visible now" While this is most certainly true for individuals, we also know this to be true for organisations. It once again re-iterates the importance of context when dealing with any kind of change in large organisations. Often times, [...]
In a Financial Times article on the 15th of April, an interesting, albeit illegal, trust network was explained. In short, what people in Iran have to do to move large sums of money in and out of the country in the face of an increasing economic clamp down from the US, is to make use of a centuries-old method known as havalah. In a Financial Times article on the 15th of April, an interesting, albeit illegal, trust network was explained. In short, what people in [...]
What do you get when you pull together a former meteorologist, anenigmatic maven and a former narrative therapist? Answer:The Narrative Lab and pretty informative breakfast conversation oncomplexity in the business landscape. In an amazingly short amount of time we managed to showcase our keynote on complexity (The New Simplicity), listen to a customised podcast from Prof. Dave Snowden on the Cynefin framework, hear how our methods are applied in practice and to talk briefly about the SenseMaker software we use when working with mass narrative capture. Thanks to all our friends, partners, potential [...]
Shawn, at Anecdote, recently wrote about the definition of a story, which he took from Annette Simmons latest book, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: "Story is a reimagined experience narrated with enough detail and feeling to cause your listeners' imaginations to experience it as real." Christopher Booker, in his seminal book on why we tell stories, wrote of stories as "structured sequences of imagery". These are some helpful definitions to use in business space when confronting the lethargic effects of the business science [...]
In a recent blog entry, Dave Snowden commented positively about the design elements that make up our corporate identity. Coming from him this is a great complement, as the interpretation of abstract ideas such as "probe, sense, respond" into visually compelling graphic elements was a challenge! I'd like to express appreciation to our designer, Angela Lang for a job well done! Maybe I should elaborate a bit on why we selected probe: sense: respond as a tagline. We see our core focus area as [...]
