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our reflections and recent adventures

  • image depicting a partnering model of operation
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    Enabling functions in an organisation are critical to performance. Yet we regularly get the plug-in model wrong. We leave users of services feeling unsupported and managers frustrated. Or we go too far the other way and let managers dictate their preferences even though they are not in the best interests of the organisation. There is […]

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  • Image contains the text: Disrupt assumptions before jumping to solutions" over a flat Earth illustration featuring ships sailing off the edge in comparison with an image of a round Earth featuring 2 people and a ship journeying around it.
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    You’ll often hear design thinkers talk about the importance of identifying biases, assumptions and blindspots. The problem is if we unconsciously define these into the problem definition we hobble ourselves before we get started. A great technique to do this is assumption dumping. Get a group of people in the room that are likely to […]

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  • illustration depicting an idea growing across 3 heads. It grows consecutively. The last lightbulb is the biggest and fully lit. The heading "many minds make light work" is a play on words.
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    Meetings may be energy sucking resource draining blights on a organisation but well crafted collaboration can be incredibly efficient and effective. We often hear clients baulk when we talk about collaborative design or problem solving. They express concerns that it will be costly, lengthy and resource intensive and worst of all won’t deliver a result. […]

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  • image with text "customer driven storyboards create the parameters for design."
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    Narrative helps us order information. It gives a framework within which we make choices about what we do and don’t do.A good storyboard is a great way to get people on one page and working towards an agreed outcome. Whether it is a team of designers tasked with solving a policy or service challenge, or […]

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  • Image preview of the 'effective leader profile' available for download
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    An executive group will make or break an organisation’s strategy. Use this quick test of effective leadership, adapted from Drucker, to start a conversation on constructive executive behaviours, or just give yourself an individual health check. The three elements Drucker draws attention to are: focus: this is about an executive’s capacity and willingness to understand […]

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  • preview of the prototype feedback freebie available for download
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    A light prototype (think paper walk through or storyboard) is all you need to be ready for client involvement in your design. Use this simple discussion guide to get valuable client input into your design before you start to climb the investment curve. The principles in the guide can equally be applied to a public […]

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  • Preview of the implementation planning pdf, available for download
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    Most change programs fail at two points. At the diagnosis, where we treat the wrong symptoms and get nowhere near the cause. Or in implementation, where our planning and methods of attack don’t match the circumstances or the nature of the change challenge. Our implementation matrix gives you a head start on whether to pursue […]

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