04 · Ideas
Ideas.
A space for fresh thinking. Field notes, provocations and the questions I'm working through, shared as they take shape.
Field note 001
Five questions before the solution.
A short prompt for the moment a room starts converging on an answer. Five questions that slow the rush to a fix, just long enough to find the real problem.
Field note 002
Whose gap is it anyway?
A leader asks for more ownership. The work says the team is fine. A real conversation from this week, and the harder question underneath: how do you show your worth when the best answer is to build nothing?
Field note 003
Rush hour in the flow of work.
If everyone starts putting everything in the flow of work, at what point does it get in the way of the work? A question from this week, and a case for placing support with intent.
Field note 004
Ready or not.
A new onboarding program, and business partners who want it all face to face. How to define job readiness, choose what goes where, and use the room for what only a room can do.
Field note 005
Pack for the move.
Reskilling, designed around the person. Define the new role by its jobs to be done, practise the tasks, and pack what people will need wherever they land.
Field note 006
Tick the box. Then fix the thing.
Training is the easiest thing to be seen doing. How to give the organisation its quick win, and spend the goodwill it buys on fixing the work.
Field note 007 · New
It's tough in the middle.
Middle managers deliver, lead and translate, often all at once. How to find the leadership moments worth developing, investigate what's getting in the way, and make room for leaders to practise.
Provocations
Ideas worth arguing with.
Consulting Move 008100% complete. So what?
What if completion and satisfaction disappeared from your impact report tomorrow?
Consulting Move 007We need to talk about the L-word.
Why one small word shapes the brief, and what to call people instead.
What I'm exploring
Open questions.
Things I'm thinking about right now. Notes will follow as they take shape.
- What does human-centred design look like when the human isn't the customer?
- Can a beginner armed with AI outperform an expert with 20 years of experience?
- Can you design courage in 20 minutes, or does real behaviour change take more than a powerful experience?
- What if we've been designing work around the wrong thing all along: tasks instead of decisions?
- How much organisational complexity have we mistaken for a capability gap?