“He said that about us?"

People are always knowledgeable and passionate about their craft and about the tools they use. Many are flattered that we seek their opinions and thus willingly give their time. Over 90% of respondents participate in conversation, and more than 70% run over the allotted interview time—at their request.

Simon Lunt23 September 2016Customer R&D, branding, dots and patterns, voice of the customerComment

Management vs Tonga

I was fortunate to play school-boy rugby at a reasonable level, aided in no small part by a maths teacher coach who brought us training by “deploying the science of goals and measurement”, an extremely radical approach some 40 years ago. While most teams were told to simply “go out and play” or “run harder,” we had our tackle count, sprint times, times to ‘break-down’ logged, with appropriate improvement goals provided. This caused some of the less motivated and, shall I say, less mobile players to self de-select, and the overall impact was to produce a more motivated, mobile, speedier rugby team. Naturally, the team did well by local standards, and the ‘scientific method’ was emulated by a number of the local authorities.

Simon Lunt24 January 2012NPS, Narrative, dots and patternsComment

A turnip seed never grows into a parsnip

For those of us who travel extensively, one of the most valued Christmas gifts is the opportunity to take time over the holidays to read heavy books. These may not be mentally demanding nor intellectually ponderous but their physical dimensions preclude them as traveling companions; when packing I err toward the gazelle rather than the mule.

Simon Lunt23 September 2016cynefin, dots and patterns, safe-to-fail, strategyComment

Dots and patterns: how to make your competitors colour blind

An alternative title for this piece could have been “Narrative research—a practical introduction.” As stated previously, most of my clients are hard-nosed and commercially-orientated, and typically prefer to see a cause-and-effect relationship between spending and a return. They often have a science or engineering background, and have a predilection for anything that can be measured and spreadsheeted—preferably with error bars. They have huge intellectual horsepower and readily assimilate the concepts around complex adaptive systems, but less readily want to deal with the attending implications of managing ambiguity.

Simon Lunt23 September 2016Customer R&D, NPS, dots and patterns Comment

THE FRUITS OF RIOTOUS EXPERIMENTATION

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