(Photo above – Prince in Brussels in 1986 By Yves Lorson from Kapellen, Belgium – Prince, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4171922) Psychologists describe the years between 15 and 25 as the “reminiscence bulge”. These are the years we will go to when asked to tell stories about ourselves. Between the ages of 15 and 25 you become the person you will be for … Read More
Kitty Genovese and the 38 silent witnesses – the power of a narrative to incorrectly shape half a century of research
Last week Winston Moseley, convicted of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, died in prison at the age of 81. In the words of Kitty Genovese’s brother, Moseley’s death marks “maybe, the final chapter in the tragic story of the events of the early morning of Friday, March 13, 1964”. If you’ve done any study in the social sciences, it’s odds … Read More
Want your team to think together well? Get the “forum” right
The idea of choosing the right “forum” to make your speech the best it can be is as old as the Greeks and Romans. But I would contend that getting the right “forum” is also vital if you want your team’s conversation (and therefore thinking) to be the best it can be. The “forum” is an idea from the ancient art of … Read More
Survivorship bias – lessons from World War Two aircraft
I don’t know about you, but I spent quite a bit of my Easter fighting in 1940 Western Europe. My teenage daughter, Zoe, playing the Axis powers, made quick work of France. England was standing alone as the German navy massed in the channel. But, even as all seemed lost, and Operation Sealion was underway, the Royal Airforce swung into … Read More
Is Donald Trump a living example of the Dunning Kruger effect?
Did you see the David Brooks’ op-ed piece in the New York Times over the weekend? Brooks is a conservative columnist, but that didn’t mean he was going to hold back on Donald Trump. He is withering: “Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes … Read More
Your meditation is difficult? It’s still doing you good
Frustrated with your meditation practice? Ever tried a regular regime of meditation and given up in frustration? You know mindfulness meditation is good for you. You know that it helps fight procrastination as well as makes you less reactive to stress, helps with self control more broadly, and increases your focus. You made a promise to yourself to try ten … Read More
A useful ten minute procrastination “hack”
Have you ever put off a piece of work because every time you think about it you just get more stressed? A toxic cycle of feeling guilty and stressed holds you paralysed until the night before the thing is due. And then the stress of not delivering the work finally becomes higher than the stress of doing the work, so … Read More
Understand the stories you inhabit
We make sense of our lives by understanding them as narratives. We tell ourselves and our family and friends stories about what we did, what we have become, and why. Human beings seem wired to make sense of the world through story. I suspect that one of the best ways we can think more clearly about ourselves, our organisations, and … Read More
The teleconference before the Challenger disaster – how the thinking shifted (Part Two)
This is part two of a post begun last week on the Challenger disaster. This post looks at the teleconference the night before the Challenger shuttle launch in 1986 and why the decision was made to launch even though the engineers were nervous. But to understand this post you need to understand about O-Rings on solid fuel rocket boosters and … Read More
The teleconference before the Challenger disaster – how the thinking shifted (Part One)
Believe it or not, the Challenger disaster happened 30 years ago last month. It’s another one of those “where were you when?” moments. I’d decided not to get up early to watch the launch covered live on TV. A 3am wake-time seemed a bit extreme. This was now the 25th shuttle launch, and these launches were getting to be very … Read More