'Many are stubborn with regard to the once-chosen path, few with regard to the goal' -Nietzsche
many models of commissioning Originally published on Medium: Oct 31, 2017 · 6 min read Jeff Sussna asked this as a ‘dumb question’. Which is a great question. Commissioning means many things to many people — it’s probably a bit like asking ‘what is agile’. Much of the value of commissioning, I believe, is that it is an emerging … Continue reading What is ‘commissioning’?
Originally published on Medium: Oct 16, 2017 · 1 min read I presented at SCiO (www.scio.org.uk) on Bongard games and concepts of meta-contextuality — slides (with spoilers!) at the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvsv50okntx6tw6/2017-10-16%20Metacontextuality%20and%20bongard%20games%20v1.1BT%20for%20circulation.pdf?dl=0 This is an element of the RedQuadrant Leading Transformation blended training — watch this space! Vide-o: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI5sFwR1dCc& This was a curated and stirred presentation drawn mainly … Continue reading Meta-contextuality, Bongard games, systems thinking, consultancy, transformation
Originally published on Medium Aug 11, 2017 · 2 min read A couple of recent conversations, and noticing a recurring pattern, have got me thinking. I have observed loads of movements come and go in public services, enthused usually by a methodology or similar ‘thing’: TQM, KM, joined-up government, eGoverment, zero based budgeting, lean, service design, agile, digital, etc … Continue reading On the new guerrilla initiative hype/enthusiasm cycle, the uses of naivety, and becoming a Jedi
Originally published on Medium: Mar 9, 2017 · 5 min read TL: DR even being ‘clever’ and calling out bullies on their own terms creates a negative atmosphere for public debate. It can feel fun, but it lowers us all. Hmm, I wonder if there are any lessons on a world level here? John Seddon has intentionally used … Continue reading Why I was wrong to call John Seddon ‘you old bastard’, even though he probably deserved it
Originally published at http://www.human-current.com/blog/2016/9/1/making-change-that-matters September 2, 2016 by Benjamin Taylor “You never understand a system until you start to try to change it.” — Lewin “It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than it is to think yourself into a new way of acting.” — *(See Footnote) These two quotes rounded … Continue reading Making Change That Matters
Originally published at: http://www.human-current.com/blog/2016/9/1/what-is-control-do-leaders-have-it September 2, 2016 by Benjamin Taylor Control is probably an ‘essentially contested’ concept – which is to say that not only does it mean many different things to different people, these meanings are grounded in concepts of rationality, human communities and practices, which may make it impossible for proponents of different meanings … Continue reading What is Control? Do Leaders Have It?
Originally published on Medium: Jul 1, 2016 · 14 min read Limitation of liability Most professional indemnity insurance will not cover unlimited liability or, where it does so, will be truly prohibitively expensive. RedQuadrant pays £8,000 per year, and our liability limits are: public liability: £10m total (£5m + £5m excess) employer’s liability: £10m professional … Continue reading [Boring and technical] Why UK government, and any, suppliers should not accept limitation of liability, and why procurement people should never ask for it…
Originally published on Medium, May 1, 2016 · 5 min read This is, really, an apology — and a confession. I recently enjoyed the guilty pleasure of venting, on social media. Oh, I was so justified! Our Virgin Media broadband has been flaky for months — dropping out, slowing down etc. Finally, attempting to complete a proposal at … Continue reading Self-righteousness is the enemy of righteousness: an apology to Virgin Media (Or, ‘why is it every time I go on a self-righteous rant, I regret it?’)
Barry Oshry’s Power+Systems and and Stafford Beer’s Viable Systems Model I’ve been a long-time student of Barry Oshry’s work ( http://www.powerandsystems.com ), which is based on observations of human behaviour in experiential learning situations, and in the world. Barry is an artisan of experiential learning, and an observer and expert in long-distance pattern recognition. On … Continue reading The dance of power and robust systems
Originally published on Medium - May 1, 2016 (image credit to www.stuffthathappens.com by Eric Burke, sadly no longer with us — the blog, that is. Happily Eric Burke is still with us and happily woodworking at www.ericburke.net) This is a great illustration, and pretty accurate. I’ve seen similar things with the third version described as ‘Microsoft’… The Apple … Continue reading Why user-centred design is more complex than just this image… (but Apple wins anyway)
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