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Old Wives Tales and Conventional Wisdom

12 April, 2013 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Girl with scarf

I spent Easter with my mother, siblings, their spouses and eight children. The weather was truly awful. I caught my daughter singing; “I’m dreaming of a white Easter”.  In the bleak North of England it snowed on Good Friday. There are few things as unpleasant as 8 children running around a house screaming.   So despite the weather […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, dogmatism, test and learn

When Will You Die Daddy?

12 February, 2013 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Learning and Development

A charming question asked me by my 4-year-old daughter this weekend.   I didn’t know the answer so I had a search in line for some statistics. In Ancient Rome life expectancy at birth was 28 years old.  If you made it through your first 15 years (avoiding all the horrific causes of child mortality) you […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: information technology, knowledge management, learning, test and learn, training, video

Caution: Management by Hippopotamus

6 February, 2013 by James Lawther 2 Comments

There is a HiPPO in the room.  It is big, loud, ugly and everybody is doing what it wants. The HiPPO is the Highest Paid Persons Opinion. You can spot HiPPO’s quite easily, they are expressed forcefully, everybody nods and agrees with them and they are always the last thing said. A HiPPO is a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: assumptions, learning, sacred cows, test and learn, video

How to Push Your Big Idea

31 March, 2012 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Dyson Vacuum Cleaner

There are two ways to push your next big idea: 1. The Business Case Pull together a fancy looking presentation with buckets full of analysis (discounted cash flows, net present values, operations analysis, customer value analysis, competitive positioning, the whole nine yards), it is the  professional thing to do.  Unfortunately: Your idea will be flat […]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Techniques, Wild Cards Tagged With: innovation, test and learn

Do You Test and Learn or Just Fail?

3 March, 2012 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Samuel Pierpont Langley dreamed of being the first man to fly an aeroplane. His approach was simple, build the most powerful engine he could.  Strap a couple of wings to it and watch it go. He was well funded.  He and a large staff focused all their attention on developing a big muscular engine, something […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: aviation, innovation, test and learn, video

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