It's not the Bad Apple, it's the Rotten Barrel
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 23, 2010 4:52:00 PM
The University of Prius offered up another gem as I was driving to work this week - this time from ABC's great All in the Mind podcast. For copyright reasons, the 3rd July 2010 episode was a re-run of a 2007 piece with Philip Zimbardo, titled When Good People Turn Bad. Zimbardo was th …
DIY Disaster Relief - local level can be faster, cheaper, more effective
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 22, 2010 8:47:53 PM
One of the things that struck me from the work we did the other year in Pakistan was that current aid and disaster relief often works top-down, with governments and NGOs putting in large programmes and amounts of funding at the national or, at best, regional level. Where control (or t …
Practicalities and applications - SenseMaker in application
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 12, 2010 2:06:13 PM
Two great sessions last week at the QEII Conference Centre with Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge. The shift from theory to practical application of new management techniques based on principles of complexity, cognitive neuroscience, anthropology and others has been remarkably swift in r …
Seminar workshop: Practical approaches to intractable problems
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 21, 2010 4:36:00 PM
I mentioned this on Wednesday. Details are finalised:
Doing more with less: detecting shifts, spotting weak signals - SenseMaker I
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 19, 2010 10:14:00 AM
I promised a series of posts talking about using SenseMaker. They'll be interspersed over the coming weeks with others - I don't particularly want to be singing a one-note song and sending you all away in search of diversity...
Organisational amnesia - is it safe to let go yet?
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 14, 2010 11:59:35 AM
The UK is having a bonfire today, well ahead of the usual Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. The Bonfire of the Quangos will be abolishing somewhere in the region of 180 QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations today in a bid to cut costs and reduce the confusion around these organ …
Where's the pilot?
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 12, 2010 2:53:49 PM
When did you last try something new? Or test a brilliant new insight? What have you done differently in your job recently?
Attribution is complicated, targets are unable to see contribution
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 11, 2010 10:34:46 PM
I'm spending time this afternoon at the launch of the UK office of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). While it's a subject I'm keenly interested in, it's not one in which I've got depth of understanding. I struggle sometimes to understand some of the conversatio …
Who do you believe - the people or the experts?
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 8, 2010 6:05:30 PM
One of the areas where narrative research can make a real difference is the development world. Recent conversations with colleagues at the World Health Organisation and UNICEF have revolved around how to address complex environments and issues - and the central role that narrative mus …
Reflections on The Future, Backwards
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 3, 2010 7:13:01 PM
Wednesday's session of The Future, Backwards was great. I played uber-facilitator, racing between the 8 separate groups, while Anne, Dick, Sally and Meg worked with two groups each more closely. That seemed to work pretty well - I walked miles, helped steer and got to see 4 distinctly …