designthinking Archives

The art is in the engagement! (not the artifact)

‘You’re letting them choose? No no no no. Are you crazy? Seriously Mo – stop making it hard for yourself.’ I was showing some of my creative buddies the individually collaged inside flaps of my Working From Home books, and explaining my grand scheme of laying them all out for the revised revised book release…

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Living Art: how art can help you create a meaningful life.

(Final chapter and excerpt from my new book Working From Home: An artobiography, out January 2022) I remember it was sunny. It was mid-2001, and I was in the office, as usual. Working on a doomed and contentious pitch for IKEA or something equally unfulfilling. (I love IKEA, but this pitch was a politicised non-starter.)…

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A Heard of Elephants: Managing Gnarly Stakeholder Issues

do a lot of stakeholder management, either building teams, helping to change how organisations work, or getting conflicting groups to collaborate. And it’s staggering how often the agenda and subsequent outcome of the initiative is driven, not by the leaders, but by the elephants in the room. The inconvenient, invisible and usually surly metaphorical pachyderms that people know are there, but aren’t willing to deal with. But you have to. In fact, if you want to do this well, start with the elephants.

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The Opposite of Work Is Not Play, It Is Dysfunction

Play is a biological necessity. We need it as much as we need food, water, sleep, shelter and sex. All animals play. Man is the only animal that sees it as either a luxury or frivolity.

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The Secret to Taming Your Messiest Problems (Part III in a series on Wicked Problems)

This is the final article in a three part series on Wicked Problems. If you missed Part I (the difference between Simple, Complex and Wicked problems), click here and for Part II click here. So you’ve diagnosed your problem and have most likely come to the conclusion that at least a significant chunk of it is…

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Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART II IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

This is Part II of a three part series on Wicked Problems. If you missed Part I (the difference between Simple, Complex and Wicked problems), click here. For Part III, click here. So how do you tell what kind of a problem yours is? Any of these sound familiar? The company restructure looks great on…

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Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART I IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Think of a problem. In fact, think of two. A professional one and a personal one. Problems that are of the gnarly-never-seem-to-go-quietly variety, regardless of how often you take a run at it. Maybe you can’t get a micro-managing boss to give you enough space to do what you can do, or you need to…

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Want To Think Smarter? Use Atoms not Pixels!

Waddaya made of? Atoms. We are made of atoms and we spend our lives interacting and making with a world of atoms. So instead of sequestering ourselves in our cerebral ivory towers, it makes sense that we should solve problems and create solutions by… using atoms. By using our bodies to think, and by making…

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What is Creativity?

Creativity. How do we unpack it, let it out and work with it? How do we make it safe for our teams to play with it? How do we handle failing (which, let’s face it, few people really enjoy)? I recently discussed the ins and outs of creativity in the workplace via webinar with the…

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Partners in Procurement? You’ve got to be kidding

Are you a consultant? An executive? A human? In which case I defy you to read the following email I just received and not have “Get stuffed” or something more profane running through your mind… (names redacted to protect the guilty – and I’ve worked with lots of BigCo’s in my time, most of whom I’ve…

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Archives of #designthinking

The art is in the engagement! (not the artifact)

Living Art: how art can help you create a meaningful life.

A Heard of Elephants: Managing Gnarly Stakeholder Issues

The Opposite of Work Is Not Play, It Is Dysfunction

The Secret to Taming Your Messiest Problems (Part III in a series on Wicked Problems)

Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART II IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART I IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Want To Think Smarter? Use Atoms not Pixels!

What is Creativity?

Partners in Procurement? You’ve got to be kidding

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