Paul Taylor

  • Designing For Ambiguity

    When you introduce ambiguity, rather than control, into a system, people think for themselves and find a way to reach the right answer. Mark McArthur Christie The only traffic sign in the small northern Dutch village of Makkinga says ‘Verkeersbordvrij’ which translates as ‘free of traffic signs’.  People living there have to find their own way around,…

    Paul Taylor

  • What Effect Does Environment Have On Our Ability To Think Creatively?

    When you think of the “space to innovate” what immediately springs to mind? Is it the physical space , the mental space, the calendar space? All three? I’ve been thinking a lot about spaces and environments this week: specifically what are the best creative spaces to boost collaboration? Few companies measure whether the design of…

    Paul Taylor

  • Moving Beyond Command And Control

    The natural reaction of the rule maker when people start breaking the rules is not to redesign them, or seek to understand why, but to issue yet more rules.

    Paul Taylor

  • Reshaping Organisations Around What’s Strong – Not What’s Wrong

    “ECONOMICS ARE THE METHOD: THE OBJECT IS TO CHANGE THE SOUL” This (pretty chilling) quote comes from Margaret Thatcher in 1981 – and ushered in an era that promoted the belief that social progress is achieved through the accumulation of wealth or status. Earn more, consume more, and you’ll be happy.  The legacy of this is…

    Paul Taylor

  • Continuous Partial Attention: Designing A Less Distracted Future Of Work

    Calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts—the faster, the better – Nicholas Carr , The Shallows You’d have thought we’d have given up on the physical office by now.…

    Paul Taylor

  • How To Kill Innovation In 10 Easy Steps

    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 around here’ designed to protect the business from failure.…

    Paul Taylor

  • How Automation Helps Us Solve The Problems That Matter

    “One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” – Elbert Hubbard Automation gets a bad rap. The original draft of our design principles stated “Automate everything that can be automated”. People flinched – it was seen as too harsh. Mention automation and people make a mental…

    Paul Taylor

  • 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 have learned to do them. Bromford Design Principle 1 (Draft) I’m doing some work at…

    Paul Taylor

  • 12 Weeks To Change Your Online Life (or hand your iPad back…)

    I’ve had a breakthrough that I want to share. Last Week  I threw down a special challenge to some of our Board Members and Customer Stakeholders who we had struggled to get engaged in Online collaboration and Social Media. 3 Rules I’ll loan you an iPad for 12 Weeks. If it doesn’t change your life…

    Paul Taylor

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com