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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
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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
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Have we lost our ability to do big, ambitious things as communities?
The system has constrained the ability for local innovation by drawing resources , power and control to the centre. If you’re part of publicly focused services you are part of that same system Read more
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Our Obsession With League Tables, And The Performance Paradox
This is our classic paradox: the metrics and targets that are intended to drive improvement can create a powerful set of incentives that actually work against the very innovation and risk-taking we need to strive for. Read more
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How To (Re)Build An Innovation Lab
Bromford Lab is dead. But what comes next? And how can we build upon the lessons we learned? Read more
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Digital Transformation and Our Failure To Learn From Past Mistakes
The cyclical nature of public sector failure is a testament not to a lack of intelligence or goodwill, but to a deeply ingrained resistance to genuine learning. It’s a system designed for stability, not innovation. The very structures that make it reliable—bureaucracy, risk aversion, and short-termism—are the same ones that guarantee we will, time and… Read more
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The Way Out of The ‘Performance Myth’
The Performance Myth reduces individuals to commodities or “performers,” whose value is contingent on meeting predefined metrics. This leads to a workplace culture where employees are constantly evaluated not for their creativity, integrity, or contributions to collective well-being, but for their ability to meet targets that may or may not be aligned with deeper organisational… Read more
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The Problem with a Narrow Focus on Efficiency
Being efficient is not half as effective as conventional management would like to think. Read more
Paul Taylor 