Read on – the offer in the title is real. Just before Easter, I was in New York for an excellent project exploration meeting with Starlight Runner and others. (An opportunity to let out my inner sci-fi geek and talk all sorts of speculative fiction, from Jasper Fforde to Stephen Read more…
Most companies think they know what their customer thinks of them – some through customer surveys, others through feedback. But most have it wrong – because their starting point for looking at what customers say is their own marketing and branding. So the values or marketing proposition they’ve defined themselves Read more…
With Andrew Moore at DAV Management, I’ve written a piece recently: “New approaches to ‘big’ problems“. Edited with copy of the article, as it’s no longer available from DAV Management. New Approaches To Big Problems It’s a business piece talking about how new complexity-based approaches can offer major benefits in terms Read more…
I’m head-deep in my dataset of micro-narratives from Egypt today stalking results – I hope to put something up later in the week to show what emerges from all this fabulous data. (For a taster, here are a couple of quick triads from the project: In the meantime, however, I Read more…
In the current climate, the title of this post seems to be increasingly appropriate. Or it would, if it weren't utter nonsense. It's a fabulous example of people interpreting someone else's words and viewpoint. In this case, someone has entered into an online database the lyrics to a song – Read more…
In rules-based organisations, there is a real tendency to add new rules to suit new situations and when things are not going according to plan. It’s not, however, effective. Rules are like scaffolding around a building – they should be used for a while to support the building of the Read more…
Following the recent Pfizer case study, we've decided to run another masterclass – this time looking specifically at tools and techniques to apply narrative and storytelling in organisations. Date: Thursday 7th April 2011, 9.30-16.30 Venue: Regus, Central London Register: http://narrativemasterclass.eventbrite.com Cost: £295 (Early bird tickets until 8th March £195) This Read more…
I was talking with a client recently who asked me about the internal comms masterclass where we first met. Ark Group had asked me to run a masterclass that had got some great feedback and he wanted to know when he could send some of his team on a similar Read more…
Yesterday morning, I managed to meet up with Shawn Callahan of Anecdote who’s over in the UK at the moment. Coffee in the Great Court of the British Museum is always a treat, although the overcast sky outside meant the fabulous roof wasn’t shown to best effect. Afterwards I sneaked Read more…
Customers (or clients or patients or…) are naturally full of stories about services that an organisation offers. And they regularly share them, particularly the stories from which we can find opportunities for improvement – complaint stories or call-centre phone calls. These are actually more valuable than most focus groups or Read more…