I speak on business change, technology reform and digital transformation. Talks like these...
Communications at the Digital Gunfight
This is about the futility of managing digital transformation with pdf documents, email and large oak tables.
Managing profound change is a gunfight: turning up with a plastic spoon, no matter how valiantly, will not go well. I challenge the unquestioned mental model that information lives and circulates on digital A4 pages stored in manilla folders. I talk about my experiences of promoting collaboration in the NHS and the challenges of shifting to new communication tools such as wikis, messaging apps and task managers. I also talk about a digital start up I am involved with - the collaboration tool TextThing. To be digital on the outside, we must also be digital on the inside.
4Ex Thinking
The 4Ex Model - a way to think about doing innovative things in complex environments (and to avoid big mistakes).
I explain a model that has 4 words beginning with Ex (see picture). It's a framework I developed for understanding how the management needs of business initiatives change through their life-cycles and how the agile malarkey fits with everything else. I tell the story of how it became a very successful can-opener of change in a sophisticated technology organisation that was shifting to Internet operations. I explain how it was used for all sorts of things from growing innovation communities to designing large IT infrastructures. More...
The Clock and the Cat
A simple talk about complexity (in organisations). It has clocks, cats and lots of pictures.
This is about increasing complexity in the world - caused mainly by digital technology - and the fundamental problems it brings. I talk about the emerging science of complex systems. I use it to reveal the critical difference between Complicated situations - that yield to traditional, linear change programmes; and Complex ones - that don't. I illustrate with examples from recent history of government technical programmes and explain the counter-intuitive changes in mindset needed to make real change happen. More...
Gubbins of Government
About how digital technology will change government. It starts with a simple video that explains Government as a Platform and features Steve, a bloke from a chip shop.
I show a 3-minute video that I made in 2014 - The Gubbins of Government - about digital government. The video has become well known and is used by digital government folk across the world, to introduce Government as a Platform. I explore the consequences of fundamental changes to the shape of government and use current examples to explain challenges and tensions. More...