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

  • How Connected Citizens Are Mobilising Social Movements

    This post is long overdue and has been sitting in my “must edit” file for a couple of months. The prompt to finish it has come from events in the past few days where online campaigns and watershed moments in the media (traditional and social) have again found our politicians wanting.  In June I was on… Read more

  • Our Next Innovation Challenge: Stop Talking To Ourselves

    “Wicked problems”—ranging from malaria to dwindling water supplies—are being reframed as “wicked opportunities” and tackled by networks of non-governmental organisations, social entrepreneurs, governments, and big businesses. The challenge is connecting the players and closing the gaps. – William Eggars Global Public Sector Research Director at Deloitte, speaking at Lab Works 2015 I had one huge takeaway… Read more

  • We need to encourage organisations to seek risk – and forgive failure

    “I’ve focused on the idea of failure being the engine for innovation. Not being afraid of failure but seeing it as a learning opportunity, and the value of getting out into the world and testing things earlier rather than later.” – Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, Google X Risk is still a toxic word across much… Read more

  • 12 Months of Failure: Lessons Learned in Year One of Bromford Lab

    Guest post by Tom Hartland One year ago the Bromford Lab was established as a way of accelerating new ideas, driving innovation in the business and building our external networks. ‘Failing fast’ was a founding principle, any idea was a good idea and our 12 week window to complete work was the target to aim… Read more

  • Five Questions for Prospective Digital Leaders

    Engaged leadership in the digital era means not chasing the latest apps and gadgets. Being an engaged leader in the digital era means knowing what your goals are and what tools to use to achieve them. It also means being brave and bold enough to step into the fray: listen to followers, share yourself with… Read more

  • Lessons From a Year Spent on a Two Pizza Team

    Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team – Steve Wozniak In the early years of Amazon , as the company was in transition from fledgling startup to world-eating behemoth , managers held a corporate… Read more