Journal Themes
How simple changing the game can be
“Changing the game” can sound grand, like inventing a brand new industry but it can be far more practical and specific. Here are just three pretty straight-forward ways to find some Blue Ocean in your world.
From ideation to action: crossing a difficult gap in transformation
Most transformation programmes begin with no shortage of ideas, ambition, vision, opportunities and potential solutions - but transformation can falter because its difficult to bridge the gap between thinking and doing.
Experimenting. Testing new ideas in a micro business
Fail fast everyone says. Often offered as a cure-all for uncertainty but I find this is unhelpful advice for many small businesses
Using digital tools well starts with understanding your own Small business
You may not even need a tool. You may simply need to make the best use of the tools you already have. Sometimes the problem is not technological at all. The important thing is that the business need comes first.
What project accounting is
Project accounting is the practice of tracking, managing, and reporting money at project level, rather than only at business, department, or cost-centre level.
The small business owner’s digital tooling playbook
Create capacity, improve customer experience, and raise quality by using the digital tools you already have, or choosing better ones with more knowledge and more confidence.
Transformation projects have a human undercurrent
When people work on a transformation programme, they are not always just delivering tasks; they may also be living with uncertainty about their role, their team, their managers, their status, their expertise, their workload, and sometimes their future employment.
If you didn’t change, at least a little, where were the passages of a life?
A favoured quote from fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay
Innovation requires experimentation, but experimentation is not innovation
Testing ideas, trying new approaches, and learning from what happens are all essential. Without experimentation, innovation remains theoretical. But experimentation on its own is not innovation.
What undermines problem‑solving during business change?
Every transformation introduces friction. These frictions are temporary problems created by the act of transition. They are not defects in the plan, they are the point at which the plan meets reality.
Analysis as an input to innovation
“Analysis” has a reputation problem. It is often positioned as the opposite of creativity, something you endure in order to get back to the interesting work. And yet, much meaningful innovation can come from understanding how things actually fit together.
When everyone is focused on winning, no one is focused on changing the game.
Businesses can end up trapped in a game: a sole focus on winning is often the enemy of creating new value.
Careful use of carrots & sticks for motivating change
In a period of transition, rewarding the highest target, the fastest adopter, or the top scorer is a mistake.
Change management is about far more than managing resistance
While resistance is real and ever‑present, it is only one piece of a much wider and more valuable discipline.
What is Parsons’ AGIL Model?
Talcott Parsons’ work sought to answer a big question: “How do societies maintain stability and order over time?”
Risks & Mitigations for changing a business name
Changing your business name can be a strategic move, but it comes with several risks that are worth considering and mitigating.
Examples of strategy language that needs converting
Strategy language is deliberately conceptual, written so the organisation can explore, ideate, innovate, and shape multiple possible routes without prematurely locking into detail. Without proper translation however, they can create chaos when they reach delivery teams.
Digital tools only create value when the business needs are clear
Whether you have a CTO or not, the principle is the same: technology works best when the business itself is understood clearly.
The very things that make a business excellent in operations make it fragile during change
Capacity often becomes the biggest friction force hampering change delivery - not lack of ambition, not lack of vision, not lack of support, not lack of skill, not lack of money.
Transformation deserves the spotlight
I mean……I’m biased……but I’m ready for Transformation to steal some spotlight from it’s sexier-seeming cousins - Business Development and Innovation. Here’s my case.