Information is to behaviour change as spaghetti is to a brick
by Tony Quinlan on Aug 31, 2010 10:49:17 PM
The title of this post comes from Wilbert E. Fordyce, who worked with people in chronic pain. It fascinates me that professionals who work in life and death fields understand (and get frustrated by) the fact that when people need to change their behaviour to save their lives, it's not …
Making sense of thousands of stories, suggestions or complaints
by Tony Quinlan on Aug 27, 2010 12:00:56 PM
Stories are fabulous things, but there's one thing about them that makes them a real bugger to work with. They're big, wordy and take time to read. And if you've got loads of them (or indeed anything over a couple of dozen) it's well-nigh impossible to see patterns in them or analyse …
Leeds Castle Leadership - the communications piece
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 12, 2009 6:30:28 PM
Thanks to everyone at the Leeds Castle leadership event today - a whistle-stop challenge on communications, with an abbreviated Anecdote Circle thrown in. At the break a few of us were talking about The Future, Backwards and, naturally, I recommended Gary Klein's Sources of Power.
Playing with SenseMakerTM
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 7, 2009 10:58:15 PM
On Monday this week, I spent the day with four smart people playing with Cognitive Edge's SenseMaker software and a collection of just over 1500 stories. What was most encouraging was that, up to that point, most of us had used it and looked at material and wondered why we didn't get …
KCUK - Building a change management strategy
by Tony Quinlan on Jul 10, 2008 11:21:00 AM
Thanks to everyone who participated in last week's workshop at the KCUK conference. Various odds and sods off the back of the session:
Undiverse diversity
by Tony Quinlan on Jul 3, 2008 3:17:53 PM
In recent weeks I've spoken at or run workshops at conferences on knowledge management, employee engagement and change communications. Very few moments in those that excited, but one over-riding element that depresses me.
Is the Tipping Point Toast?
by Tony Quinlan on Jun 6, 2008 3:26:55 PM
In the last couple of years, there's been a lot of interest in social networks - and (somewhat belatedly) communications professionals are starting to look at greater use of informal networks and word-of-mouth. There's still, however, the temptation to look at the model Malcolm Gladwe …
Newton vs free will
by Tony Quinlan on Mar 28, 2008 10:59:00 AM
From Scarlett Thomas' The End of Mr Y:
The dangers of facilitation
by Tony Quinlan on Mar 3, 2008 2:45:00 PM
An interesting experience last week in one of my other identities as a school governor. There’s a debate going on regarding whether or not a Trust is formed in Mid-Beds under Samuel Whitbread Upper School and whether we join it or not. So, mindful of wanting to understand different pe …
Patience that produces common sense
by Tony Quinlan on Jan 30, 2008 6:15:00 PM
Last week, as part of a visioning/future planning exercise for local education, I ran a Future Backwards exercise with Year 4 – a group of 8-9 year-olds. It reinforced the power of the exercise – but also that if you create the conditions for discussion, allow time for that to happen …