'Many are stubborn with regard to the once-chosen path, few with regard to the goal' -Nietzsche
[Apologies for the multiple preambles here! This note is added to say that deeper and clearer links - at least to the use of diamonds, and divergent and convergent thinking - have been provided by others and are in the replies to this piece] I just did a LinkedIn post picking up on this story, … Continue reading The Double Diamond as an example of some challenges of attribution in the history of ideas
Kegan and Laskow Lahey’s Immunity to Change is a beautiful simple practice which goes really deep. Take a piece of paper with five spaces: 1) commitment to change A thing you really want to do — lose ten kilos, transform your sales. A netural, factual description of a change that really implicates you, that you feel in … Continue reading Being compassionate to ourselves turns out to be a powerful lever for change
We all find ourselves trying to sort it out. Between: - the Bosses and the Doers - two teams we’re supposed to help to merge together - the Customer and the Organisation. X wants something from Y, but they’re asking YOU. And guess what? Y wants something from X, but who do they come to? … Continue reading What do you do when you’re stuck in the middle? How’s that working out for you?
What’s your favourite example to illustrate radically different 'worlds'? Consider the #oboe. It’s a weird instrument; one of the most ancient. To play it requires immense skill, and the patience to spend hours crafting the reeds necessary to make any sound at all. Early pictorial examples of a double-reed instrument resembling the oboe have been … Continue reading Consider the oboe
New innovations add more and more layers of details. Those layers of details create new spaces, new possibilities, new ideas. It happens in ecologies, with evolution. In economies, with innovation. And in thoughtspace – every brilliant new meme, every time a critic gets *just* the right phrase to explain the dynamics of a new movie … Continue reading The universe is greebling.
#QualityImprovement can be dangerous. redquadrant-qi-considered-dangerousDownload Very popular in the NHS, and beyond. Very good, in context. Our clients are doing our systems-flavoured #LeadingTransformation programme, and asked me how it fits with #QI. This isn’t new, and I constantly say: ‘but *really good* QI people look outside the box at this stuff’. But QI should be considered dangerous. It's a … Continue reading Quality Improvement – considered dangerous?
RedQuadrant is looking for a 'hub' person, to lead our bid support and admin coordination, working directly to Managing Partner, Benjamin Taylor. It's an initial one-year contract, £28-32k with room to grow, remote for the foreseeable future, really at the heart of growing a business - ideally it would be someone with (1) bid management … Continue reading I’m hiring! Be at the heart of RedQuadrant
Threshold concepts, or gateway ideas, are ideas that, once you get them, change your way of thinking permanently. There’s no going back. And you’re stuck with it. Realising that ‘you’re not the child your parent had in mind’ (as Peter Block says) is a big one. Deep systems insights like power+systems dynamics or the Viable … Continue reading What idea changed the way you see the world?
What would you like to add to your consulting repertoire? When you help your kid work out how to motivate themselves for homework, or how to make more friends at school. When you help a friend work out a career move When you act as strategic adviser to a large technology-driven transformation programme 😉 You’re … Continue reading We are all consultants, advisers, coaches, change people – but only a select few enter the tool shed!
“Our business is a smoothly oiled machine.” “Life is a box of chocolates.” “We call the boss Darth Vader” “Kai has the heart of a lion.” We think by comparing one thing to another (analogy) or mapping one thing onto another (metaphor). They’re stages – platforms that boost our ideas – because they create: - … Continue reading Metaphors are both stages and cages for our thinking.
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