photos Category

If a picture is worth a thousand words…

Improvement, photos No Comments

In a recent blog we talked of how we use photos routinely now. Have you spotted the scrolling photos on our new website? What do you reckon of them? Most are by our colleague David. Have a look at a few more of his photos here– we hope you agree they are truly stunning shots.

We do believe that the 100 year old phrase ‘ a picture is worth a thousand words’ is right – and tend to use a visual illustration on most pages of documents or slides we write.

A more recent twist from Daniel Pink is ‘a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures’. We agree with the power of an illustration, narrative, analogy…the range of presentation device is endless….like a long winding road through a rugged mountain forest, like the crashing waves of the ocean, like…you are the artist, the sage, the architect…with your colleagues as the band, the travellers, the troupe.

Pictures and metaphors;

Frameworks and Stories;

Theory and narrative;

Discuss…

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Meditation as an organisational intervention?

Do, Personal productivity, photos No Comments

Being still is getting to be quite popular (in literature and magazine articles) it seems.

Meditation

Recently, a client group chose to pick up an offer from a funky venue in London for a 30 minute meditation session.  It was very popular with this rational and scientific bunch – so much so, they have experimented with a minute of silence at the start of their team meeting.

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Tulips from Amsterdam?

photos, Think No Comments

A scene from…

Tulips

…The Netherlands?

Nah,

Near

London Theatre Land

(though they’re almost certainly Dutch bulbs!)

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Artful headliners

photos, Think No Comments

Sun headline

 

Playful copy editors get everywhere…now even at the FT.

Follows a recent favourite from the Sun during some warm weather – Elton John looking at photo of David Furnish holding their baby with the headline of “Don’t let my son go brown on me”.

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Getting through the snow (safely)

Do, photos No Comments

Canada snow

As it feels like Spring has sprung (at least in Cambridge), a recent trip to Canada prompted some reflection on the comparisons with the UK travel system in the snow a couple of months back.

First, in Canada there is a huge investment in path and road clearing (see picture).  So much so that one much-travelled colleague says he has only been cancelled twice when flying from Ottawa. There, as here, freezing rain is the biggest disruption.

Second, there is more use of concrete in pavements and roads (though there are still some pot holes!).

Third, and the most striking difference, when the pavements are slippery (and they were) and the roads icy, people simply get on with moving about – not because trips to work or social events are easy, but because they just go slowly.

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Being surprised

photos, Think No Comments

We love being surprised – whether by the surf dude head teacher or the meditating, ascetic banker (both of whom we have met recently). 

Here a sign from reserved seating in Bangkok: priority for older people, pregnant women, those with children, disabled people…and monks!

Monk seat

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Making an impression

photos, Reflect No Comments

Stephen FrySee these pictures of Stephen Fry.

Same story.

Two papers.

Two photos.

Two impressions?

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Quick, make your mind up

photos, Think No Comments

Waitrose charitiesWaitrose offers tokens which you can allocate to a charity or local organisation as you leave the store. They share £1000 according to the proportion of total tokens each organisation receives.

Which of these three would you allocate your token to?

For what reasons?

– I might need them or know someone who does
– they look popular already and I should support the one that most people think is important
– they seem under-supported and I want to help the underdog
– they already have enough support and mine won’t make much difference
– I won’t allocate at all as I can’t choose between them (or I’m late and need to rush!).

When people make quick decisions, it can be worth exploring the underlying reasoning.

PS – this accumulative and transparent way of expressing a preference (where you can see the relative support so far) is quite an efficient and possibly fairer way of allocating resources. It ensures that lower profile needs or those with weaker ‘brands’ or ‘voices’ don’t miss out completely. If you did this blind (ie the boxes were opaque), the most popular one could well get a much higher proportion of the votes as people are less informed and hence less inclined to make some of the alternative choices listed above.

PPS – the Hampsire search and rescue has consistently had the most support.

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The new Istanbul?

photos, Reflect No Comments

hong kong

 

Where East meets West. 

Is Hong Kong the 21st Century Istanbul?

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Extreme branding

Do, photos No Comments

How do you describe your product?

Using the word ‘extreme’ is extreme, but maybe not if you are an ornithologist!

little book of birdwatching

And thinking of little books, download ours on influence here

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