Paul Taylor
-
Lessons in Rapid Experiments and Learning from Failure
In 1943, the U.S. Airforce met with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to express their need for a fighter plane to counter a rapidly growing Nazi jet threat. Because of the need for secrecy “Skunk Works”, as it became known, was allowed… Continue reading
-
Designing Out Problems Through Networks
On Monday I attempted my swiftest ever return to work after a trip. My plane from Zanzibar via Kilimanjaro and Doha landed at 6am. I was home by 8:30am, online by 9 and in work by 11.30am. I felt like… Continue reading
-
Using Weak Signals To Determine Your Future Organisation
“Weak signals consist of emergent changes to technology, culture, markets, the economy, consumer tastes and behaviour, and demographics. Weak signals are hard to evaluate because they are incomplete, unsettled and unclear” – Vijay Govindarajan. Luckily for us the future doesn’t… Continue reading
-
How To Make Complex Things Simple
I’ve just had to apply for a new passport. It’s one of those things that you generally only do every ten years or so. It prompts you to ruminate on a few things. Ageing: That old passport photo you were… Continue reading
-
Why You Need To Selectively Forget Your Own Past
Reset All Assumptions We must selectively forget the past. That means not accepting current practices but challenging underlying assumptions, our solutions and mindsets, and the way we tackle the problem. We need services designed as people need them – not as we… Continue reading
-
Bending The Rules To Drive Frugal Innovation
The frugal innovation revolution, by making the means to innovate more widely available, has the potential to speed up the innovation process – Jaideep Prabhu Jugaad is a Hindi word that roughly means ‘solution born from cleverness.’ It’s usually applied to… Continue reading
-
Resisting the Rush to Technology for Solutions
Is anyone else getting tired of the talk – and it is mainly talk – of digital transformation? The endless rounds of conferences, clubs and lists of so-called digital leaders – all promising a tech utopia. At a recent event I… Continue reading
-
To Boost Innovation We Need To Make Ourselves Obsolete
If you’re of a certain age you’ll sometimes find yourself reminiscing about an age where things were built to last. My own mother swears her first washing machine lasted for over 20 years. Today, Apple expects the lifecycle for an average… Continue reading
-
People Don’t Believe Our Organisations – Here’s Why
There’s not a week goes by – and I mean that quite literally – in which we don’t see a sector bemoan its image problem. The launch of some campaign or other to raise awareness of a ‘message’ and get… Continue reading
-
How To Kill Creativity (And How To Rebuild It)
Many of our organisations , without realising it , act as inhibitors of innovation. Rules and protocols are put in place — often for very good reasons — that preserve the status quo. Over time, organisations develop a set of social norms — ‘the way we do things… Continue reading
-
The Big Tech Trends For 2016 (and why you shouldn’t believe them)
In late 2010 my personal assistant Sarah-Jane conducted an experiment on me – without my permission or knowledge. Unknown to me at the time she took my effusive notes from a couple of “Future Service” conferences and sealed them… Continue reading
-
Holiday in Cambodia: 13 Innovations in Pictures
In 1975 Cambodia attempted the most radical reinvention of society and community in history. This was ‘Year Zero’ – a beginning of a new era where people would return to a mythic past. Self sufficiency and collectivism were promoted, technology and creativity… Continue reading
-
Innovation, the Death of Email and Star Wars. My top posts of 2015
It’s slightly self indulgent to do an end of year review of your own posts , but I do find it useful to reflect what’s gone down well and what’s not over the past 12 months. This has been a… Continue reading
-
We Need Less Talk of Innovation and More Evidence of Impact
In my last post I looked at why change fails and how most corporate programmes are destined for failure. Year on year, huge resources are invested in them. Yet we somehow hope for a different outcome. The biggest reason change… Continue reading
-
Why Change Fails: Four Ways To Hack Your Culture
All over the the world our organisations are experiencing profound change. The most common way to react to that is the corporate change programme. Every year businesses will embark on a series of reports , meetings, visioning sessions , training… Continue reading
-
Nine Things On Customer Experience And Innovation From Indonesia
I have a thing for travel. For me it’s as much about productivity as pleasure. I operate best in the four weeks before I go on leave and the four weeks on returning. In an ideal world I’d have a break… Continue reading
Paul Taylor 