Tuesday, July 22, 2008

THINKING MAN'S FOOTBALL

Here's what happens when the balance between doing and thinking isn't quite right.

FEAR OF FAILURE

Mitchell Sava is starting the Glory of Failure project with the RSA. Lots of events celebrating failure. He cites how Venture Capitalists look for signs of past failure before investing and how Penn State Uni runs a Failure 101 course for engineers. There are signs that we're beginning to accept the benefits of failure - even though Galileo wrote about it 400 years ago. It'll take a while though while we still have people like Ian stringer (Apprentice candidate) who can't even say the word.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

SIMPLE FRAMEWORKS FOR COMPLEX ISSUES

Last week I helped a team of game designers get a handle on what their next game would look like. Now I'm not a game player, let alone a designer, and I can tell you this project looks awesomely complex. So all I could do was to hang on to the simplest of processes to get our heads around the issues. To everyone's surprise, not least mine, we succeded, and came out the other side with not only clarity, but a few kilotons of energy and commitment. It reminded me how a simple approach, coupled with trust and collective will, can turn apparently intractable challenges into exciting and energising prospects.