>> What was your worst customer experience recently? And what did they do to learn? The *silliest* a business can do is ask me to mark the agent out of ten. That tells you nothing about whether your processes are working or not. If the agent gets the blame because the organisation is incompetent, you … Continue reading Most customer service performance measures are worse than doing nothing →

Slides show of three tribes and the #futureofwork BLUE tribe is the continuation of the machine - big, high-profile, high-status corporate organisation They want you in the office, in a suit, on their PC, using their methods. These days, hey probably have an amazing diversity programme, and increasingly focused 'work/life integration'. The worker's identity comes … Continue reading Three tribes are contesting for the #futureofwork. Which one will you join? →

Here’s another ‘transformation’ teaser! Our job was to prepare young people at risk of getting involved with drugs, crime, abuse, and therefore the criminal justice system to on expeditions to places like Kinabalu or Belize (with others, including the young British Princes). They had to complete a series of things over twelve months: * several … Continue reading What would *you* do to improve this organisation? →

But we’re all stuck in the swampy lowlands, whether we like it or not. Bongard games are a brilliant, fun little way to illustrate that you can never have one theory to tell you what to do in all situations. It’s simple. You have six postcard-sized images on the left, and six on the right. … Continue reading We would all like a ‘neat and compleat’ way of making sense of the world, of leading, consulting, managing. →

Let me take you back to a great team I worked with, when we were stuck in dysfunctional patterns (still sadly familiar in many organisations today) - and ask you how we got out of it. I'm going to come back on Friday and give 'the answer' - what we actually did. I'll answer any … Continue reading What does ‘service transformation’ look like? A challenge for you! →

It could be the secret to success! There are two great stories… In Hawaii, Gregory Bateson saw dolphins being trained to perform circus tricks. When trainers stopped rewarding the same old tricks, what happened? The dolphins came up with new tricks of their own. At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, scientists rewarded dolphins for … Continue reading 🐬Are you learning as effectively as a dolphin? →

What are your fundamental needs at work? And are they being met? I’ve been asked to share more of me personally — well, this isn’t quite that! But it’s a neat little video, twelve minutes long, with Ben Mosior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrdXKNgwo-g We have six fundamental needs:- certainty and comfort (sameness, predictability)- uncertainty and variety (newness, unpredictability)- love, connection, and … Continue reading What are your fundamental needs at work? And are they being met? →

Image by Graham Richardson - https://www.flickr.com/photos/didbygraham/537575394 , Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ We’ve all been there. The leaders and politicians/board have literally put their names to the big IT or transformation contract, it’s all signed off. Celebrated with cigars. Commitments have been made to boards and shareholders, to families, deposits deposited, future income … Continue reading The worst projects I’ve ever been on have been doomed to succeed →