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Crazy People Get Bad Reviews

28 September, 2019 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Never hire a crazy person They can’t be trusted… They are unpredictable They see the world differently They go where others won’t go They don’t do what they are supposed to do You just can’t rely on a crazy person Crazy ideas In the late 1980’s a bunch of political activists had an idea.  They […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: diversity, group think, innovation

Build a Tower Build a Team

19 September, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

TED Talk Tom Wujec This is a talk about a powerful little game with some far-reaching implications.  It challenges the way we manage and implement projects. First Tom Wujec shows how we get caught up in a management world of plans, priorities and proposals. Then he demonstrates how much more effective we could be if […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web, Blog, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: diversity, incentives, innovation, marshmallow challenge, TED talks, test and learn, Tom Wujec, video

Pointless Conversations

30 August, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Management meetings Do you ever lose the will to live in management meetings?  Sometimes they are so bad I want to scoop out my eyeballs with a tea-spoon.  I’d do anything to get out of the conversation. I hate futile meetings that are a waste of everybody’s time — usually highly paid people’s time. Here […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bureaucracy, command and control, cost saving, diversity, effective meetings, employee performance measures, forced fun, key performance indicators, management style, motivation, objective setting, office productivity, performance management, targets, waste, wasted intellect

Jack of All Trades Master of Non

15 January, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Identical People

What makes a successful scientist? In the 1950’s, Bernice T. Eiduson started to wonder why some scientists had a greater impact than others.  Some scientists produce insight after insight, racking up papers and prizes.  Whilst others just plod along and never account for much. What makes some scientists more innovative than others? To find out, she picked a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: diversity, group think, innovation, twenty percent time

Where Do You Keep Your Ketchup?

30 January, 2016 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Ketchup

Diversity It is a little known fact that people in the U.K. tend to keep their ketchup in the cupboard.  People in the States tend to keep it in the fridge. I know what you are thinking – “not me” (it is a generalisation) and more importantly “so what?” Problem solving The “so what” comes […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: diversity, innovation, problem solving

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