If you want a sharp strategy, you must diagnose your current situation well. The best strategies I see are the ones that are elegant in their diagnosis of their current situation. Without a shared, tight, description of the challenges and opportunities you are facing, you will founder in trying to work out what to do. This term – diagnosis – comes … Read More
The “Now Hear This” Podcast Festival in LA
This is a jet-lagged post from the LAX American Airlines lounge waiting for a flight to Dallas. (Every Aussie frequent flyer should fly domestic in the US once in a while to realise how great we have it back home). Yesterday I spent my lay-over at the “Now Hear This” podcast festival in Anaheim. I got to see two of … Read More
The “centaur approach” to technology
I’ve been thinking a lot about technology lately and how it’s going to impact humans at work. One client of mine is undertaking a strategic look at the future of work (and wondering about the future effects of AI on people and work); at the same time I’m preparing for a workshop in Palo Alto with a tech company that works … Read More
Podcasting the US election
Everyone thought Serial was going to change podcasting forever. I wonder whether actually it will be the 2016 US election. Unlike any other political campaign in the past, most of my news on the US presidential race is coming from podcasts. There are six key podcasts I follow for US politics right now: 538 Elections – Nate Silver’s data journalism … Read More
Quick post – The irony of Trump being undone by video
It’s been a while since I posted last – principally because I’ve been on holidays (Texas, DC and New York) – and then settling back in. But it’s time to start posting regularly again. I was going to post on how the way we consume media has continued to evolve, but the irony of Trump’s self-immolation is too attractive to … Read More
More on disfluency
We’re off to the US on holidays this week so it will only be a quick update today, and then no posts for a few weeks. First stop is Texas for a mate’s wedding. It will be my first taste of an “open carry” state. And then on to New York with Lyn to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Last week’s … Read More
Disfluency – the key to insight
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re surrounded by well presented data these days but actually not making any better decisions, or taking any better actions, because of it? Well you wouldn’t be alone. It turns out that often the easier data is to read – well designed graphs and tables – the less you’ll end up doing with … Read More
Clinton: “love trumps hate”
After last week’s stunning speeches at the DNC, indulge me, please, with one more post on the US election. I’ve had people ask me a few times to say how I think Clinton crafts her narrative and how she answers the “worldview questions”. (If you need context on this, read the original post on narrative here. And the post on … Read More
Donald Trump’s “it’s midnight in America” narrative
I sat stunned watching Donald Trump’s acceptance speech on Friday. A rambling, unstructured, but terrifyingly dark view of America. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it – as Nate Silver says, it will be the reason he loses by 15 points or goes on to win. The unrelenting bleakness and anger made me ask myself, what narrative is … Read More
Amusing ourselves to death – Part two
This is the second post in a two part series on Neil Postman’s 1985 book “Amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business” . The first part is here. This week’s post is also the final in the series on how technology “hijacks our minds” (to quote Google’s Tristan Harris), which I started a few weeks ago. You can … Read More