Paul Taylor

Latest Writing

  • Net Zero and The Law of Horse Manure

    Net Zero and The Law of Horse Manure

    Catastrophic predictions that spell dark days for humanity are nothing new. The Times predicted in 1894 that in 50 years time, every street in London would be buried under nine feet of horse manure. It was the crisis of all crises. There was, to be fair, some evidence for this. As urban populations rapidly increased… Read more

  • The Gravitational Pull Of Business As Usual

    The Gravitational Pull Of Business As Usual

    The interior secrets of black holes are guarded by a one-way light-trapping boundary called the event horizon. This horizon is the point, according to NASA, that the gravitational influence of the black hole becomes so intense that not even light is fast enough to escape it. A very different horizon exists in many organisations, except… Read more

  • The Cost Of Complaining Just Collapsed

    The Cost Of Complaining Just Collapsed

    AI hasn’t really redistributed power, but it has exposed which parts of it were real in the first place. The cost of complaining has collapsed within 18 months. Now the era of weaponising bureaucracy is over; and companies will either learn to treat people fairly by default, or be overwhelmed by the very friction they… Read more

  • Community Connection Isn’t An Optional Extra

    Community Connection Isn’t An Optional Extra

    I often hear people imploring public service institutions to “stick to the basics”—to just do what it says on the tin and leave the rest alone. But that assumes community connection is an optional extra. It isn’t. If we want to have places that can actually withstand the crises of the future, bringing people together… Read more

  • You Can’t Pilot Your Way Out Of A System Problem

    You Can’t Pilot Your Way Out Of A System Problem

    A pilot tests a new part inside an old machine, while system change rewires the entire machine—and the people operating it. When Bromford and the Lab co-created, tested and launched the role of the Neighbourhood Coach they were inserting a new part into an old machine. And true to form , over time,  the machine… Read more

  • The Ratchet Effect: Why Bad Rules Tend To Stick Around

    The Ratchet Effect: Why Bad Rules Tend To Stick Around

    A ratchet only spins in one direction and then locks into place, so the Ratchet Effect describes systems and behaviours that easily move forward but heavily resist going back. During a crisis (think of airports post 9/11,  or the COVID-19 pandemic) , governments and institutions may raise taxes/prices or create new rules.  Citizens accept this… Read more

  • Positive Deviance Versus Deficit Fetishism

    Positive Deviance Versus Deficit Fetishism

    Positive Deviance is a strength-based approach with some core principles:  Communities possess the solutions and expertise to best address their own problems These communities are self-organising with sufficient human resources and assets to derive solutions to communal problems Communities possess a ‘collective intelligence’, equally distributed through the community, which the approach seeks to foster and… Read more

  • AI Is Doing The Paperwork Of Centralisation, Faster.

    AI Is Doing The Paperwork Of Centralisation, Faster.

    The price that made it right to centralise might be disappearing. Whilst artificial intelligence doesn’t eliminate the need for a centre it fundamentally redefines its purpose.  Rather than managing the centre becomes enabling.  Rather than seeking consistency the centre can promote local variation and innovation.  Rather than requiring managers to do work about work, AI… Read more