2023

Vapourware CEOs

Rebranding: the go-to panacea of ineffective leadership

Selling an outcome versus selling a process

My pluralistic practice

2022

Beautiful outcomes - a reflection on my changing practice

Think Bigger, Grow and Succeed interview

The psychology of pricing

Two modes of working

Work with the garage door up

2021

How to do a receipt well

Bonuses reward the wrong type of performance

Un-scaring as a Service

Systems naturally deter innovation

2020

The corruption of “do it, ask forgiveness later”

The perils of buying upward

When the cause of a cause-based business takes over

Business must now come second to people

Business is not separate from community

Evil clients and systems designed to fail

Why are big businesses so fragile?

"Good business" practices damage national resilience

Situational promotions

Composing constructive criticism

Criticism is not (always) insult

JotterPad customer experience fail

2019

Gaslight marketing

Happiness from a simple business transaction

Unnecessary and stupid customer churn

Lawyer-heavy opinion-led leadership

2018

To live is to design

A worker who dreams; a maker who sells

Social gaps generate potential energy

Doing diversity is hard!

Three ways to do innovation

Fixing the bus while driving it

Two assets lost in restructures

Perpetuated product UX fails

That Google Duplex demo

Interrogation vs Inquiry

The context gap in UX design

Two reasons to leave

Hospitals to start drug company

2017

Experience design must move beyond marketing

Don't marketing-speak to your people

Why hotdesking is broken

Too senior to be accountable

Continuum of customer service care factor

Thank those who go the extra mile, because it probably cost them

Signs of a broken organisation

Can your business bank help (with innovation)?

Incremental acceptance of the unacceptable

Just hiring diversity is not enough

Reviewing commitments

Details details details

2016

Problems in an ego-driven business

Why ego-driven businesses fail

The pros and cons of being nice

$500 census server

If you truly feared failure...

Recruitment approach limits fresh thinking?

Making THEM change

Pragmatism an undervalued strength

Making money in software

2015

Working on vs working in

What does your brand sound like?

Empathy in customer service

"What an ugly baby"

If we were our own client

Un-extraordinary Vertu

Selling game alphas is the ultimate lean

Idea banks and the need for curation

Curating methodologies

Let me tell you how it should be

Lesson from Van Gogh 3

Lesson from Van Gogh 2

Lesson from Van Gogh 1

9,000 year commitment

Travelling is like a startup business

Driving over vs walking around potholes

Design + applied psychology: A hybrid problem solving process

Avoiding suffering

From big external to small internal

Helping people build loyalty

The normalisation of sociopathy

Five Gamification Techniques for Business

Chaos or order?

Lifeline skills in consulting - Part IV

Lifeline skills in consulting - Part III

Lifeline skills in consulting - Part II

Lifeline skills in consulting - Part I

2014

The Divine One

Captain Hindsight

Crafting our toolbox

We get what we measure

Excuses for not improving

Convert Thinking to more Doing

Two ways to use notes

16 New Rules of Business

Purposing

Projects are like mahjong

False certainties

Fortress Learning: Learn and Lend

The mastery-boredom cycle

Safety and positive affect in problem solving

Designing for motivation

Designing for happiness

Client-centred consulting

Agile, change-embracing, accelerated projects

Project management models: Agile, PRINCE2 and PMBOK

Listening to transform crises and conflict

Hidden true value

Industry habits and expectations

Leading by example not

Change toolkit

Solving non-problems

The dark side of expertise

Personality vs process businesses

The Lucifer Effect

The changing nature of my work

McDonalds: our food, your questions

My kanban

Resource: What is Strategic Design

Maybe you need a project designer?

2013

Protocol and practise

Whole-self, not wholesale

Death by deliberation

A unifying vision

Work is serial monogamy

Personal responsibility

Pain and invoicing for work

Confusing methodology with outcomes

Coping with disruptions

Decision "rights"

Paper-pen replacement?

Selling short? Or practising abundance?

Fear-based workplace

The voices within

UI, UX, IA and gamification in context

The Cycle of Abuse in the workplace

Resource feature: Strategy Formulation Framework

Co-design vs design by committee

Whole-heartedly; or go home

Mettle and metal

Narcissistic leadership

Narcissistic organisations: characteristics & risks

Replacing computers with tablets

Self employment eyes wide open

A safe place for challenging conversations

Dare we shift beyond the short term?

Honouring ideals and values

2012

Why upgrade?

The organisational ego

Emotional obstacles

What price for business success

Beliefs and care factor

Don’t be the tool

The myth of trying to change people

A means to an end

Give people control, and they make better decisions

On the continuum of Rational and Intuitive

On the continuum of Do and Think

Control in the hands of the few

Mittelstand: sensible sustainable

Businesses don’t care. Individuals do.

Denying reality – the good way

Denying reality – the bad way

Serve the process; miss the point

Understanding your audience

Strategy formulation framework

Service and money

New resource: Agility

Workplace abuse

"Price Sensitive People are Not Loyal"

Freedom and responsibility

Re-thinking Cheap Fast Good - a much better diagram

Self-regulation is an illusion

Baking cookies

Six Secret Multinational Giants

Making things unnecessarily complicated

Does business poison passion?

Avoiding the “guru” syndrome

Trading crutches for scaffolding

Meetings

Beliefs about success

Realisation: I don’t have to fix it!

Re-thinking Cheap Fast Good

Thinking differently about profit sharing

2011

Building trust in processes

Trust of systems

Listening beyond “stupid”

Tangible versus intangible value

Money versus other measures of value

Thoughts for a meaningful creative work/life

Growth

Learning from big business

Imitating big business

Is this a good employee?

Consumer habits reflect business habits

Cultural resilience

Social media is a construct

Human factors underpin everything we do

Same old

The evolution of business 2

The evolution of business 1

Eight management tips from an anonymous RIM employee

Signs of a successful culture programme

Resolving exceptions and social media

Hire designers to design or think?

Basic people skills still apply

Deloitte's Seven Signals

Leveraging I and T shaped characteristics through the innovation process

Customer is king...

Booty-call marketing

Bad things happen overnight…

A clear, compelling and engaging vision

From QMS to CES

Liberating lists and the Age of Knowledge Synthesis

IBM 100

More on moving from things to thinking

Superstition kills curiosity

Decision making drivers

Don’t forget the small things in relationships

People is the other constant

From things to thinking

The Dark Matter that is consumer-led innovation

What cultures value

Freeway driving as a business ecology metaphor

Innovation is not a business model

A change-embracing approach to business process improvement

Making a difference. Where?

Innovation and operations model

If maturity = uniformity, what are the next greenfield industries?

Selling innovation when businesses can’t and don’t want to be innovative

Most businesses can’t and don’t want to be more innovative

Is culture change a fallacy?

Cheap-Fast-Good – having it all?

Creating vs replicating your world

2010

Size; and “too big to fail”

F**k my weaknesses

The age of crises

Clueless and care-less – why corporations fail at humanity, and thus will never be innovative

Processes make corporations stupid

More incentives does not equal more performance

Commission-based remuneration kills creativity

Board meetings still backward looking

Don’t be cool

Empathy vs second-guessing

Imagining a simpler way to do business

Passion and attraction

Marketing still fail

Acceptance or denial – it’s our choice

Shoulds vs wants in business

The threat to word-of-mouth authenticity

The inertia against change

I & T-shaped people in innovation

Learning to play again

Obstacles to generating ideas

Business process design primer

Three universal strategic paths

It is ok to lie and misinform

Rework

The people who give selling a bad name

Why democratise business?

Waking up to stupid

Government sues itself

Bartering as a community building endeavour

The heal-thyself myth

Valuing the service component of products

Two aspects of service design

The gravy train trap

Empathy and regulations

2009

The Story of Stuff

Business as usual will destroy our planet

The Art and Science of Pricing

Corporate culture and happiness

Evolution process of companies

The big-small supplier cycle

Analysis, synthesis, planning and strategy formation

Eliminate Small Business

Disposable / sacrificial business models

Clean pond vs polluted lake

Wealth is a barrier to innovation

Measuring what is easy, not what matters

Trust and happiness

Pillar management

Animals and integrity

Kia-su economics

Choice paralysis and decision facilitation

Happiness as Your Business Model

Design process – how not to do it

Crisis-driven change

Social media and the porn industry

Two insightful and fun gems

The Ten Commandments for Business Failure

Why we don’t subscribe to Rupert Murdoch

Business is personal (in Arab culture)

The religion of capitalism

The folly of the advertising account pitch process

The shape of things to come?

The feel of a beautiful business

Big business: we will have our cake and eat it too

Fire hydrants – hidden critical infrastructure

The folly of the tendering process

Overpackaged Singapore

Funny evidence of short term thinking

Perspective, perspective, perspective

The challenge of selling brainspace

The problem of alignment

Weird business idea

The rise of the small

Competing with everyone

Paying for care

Repair not replace

Cultivating innovation Alessi style

Jackie Chan’s restaurant

Reasonable approach to risk management

The power of belief

RBS business as usual

“Businesslike”

Getting the technology and missing the point

Kittehpreneur

What shape are you?

Open plan offices bad

Noisy clients and natural selection

Feeling the attention

To improve or not to improve?

Using cheating as an honest means

The opportunities in being counter-intuitive

Interesting tools and tips from the Ten Faces of Innovation

Outliers

Social graces, ethics and learnt behaviour

Another type of giving

Crappy travel agent

Re-imagine

Is your business a fundi or freethinker?

2008

How much?!!!

Taking time out to see the big picture

Love keeps businesses excelling

The Innovation Interrupt

A Poverty of Desire

Irrationality, morality, respect, mirroring, social empathy, self reflection, conciliation

Market Fragmentation

“It’ll do.”

Financial risk vs passion risk

Six Illusions

Two different attitudes

Greater economy of scale = less innovation

Monoculture risk

Organic business (aka be yourself)

The hours are long...

Embarrassing ineptitude at an awards event

Of wikis and emails

Sales/marketing techniques in Singapore

Assumptions about business “success”

Thoughts on expectations management

TV shows and emerging musicians

Fowl foul

Five most important questions - adapted for marketing

Five most important questions

Four turbulent characteristics

'Bridget Riley' PowerBook

Emotions and decision-making

Blogging and transparency

Building your future starts with now

Positioning, vision, mission statements

Artists in residence; in corporations

10 years of notebooks

Freedom Escapes revisited

The unspoken rules

Having a CSR manager is only the first step

Perceived responsibility creep

Nudie lies

Evaluating communication effectiveness

Five gamification techniques for business

Certainty is irrational

Ever had a boss?

Seeing the leaves as well as the forest

Seminar: Business Blogging

When service becomes automated and meaningless

Design is unnecessary and materialistic

Management intentions show through

I am an accidental "web identity"

Good processes and little things

The Salary-Sensitive Org Chart

The evolving strategic needs of business

And that's what we call "market sentiment"

Cash registers broken = free gorcery

Slags on business without facts

Most businesses are not ready for innovation

Rationality is an illusion

Jesus light switch – what happens when everything thinks inside a box

Having integrity means being congruent

Businesses that have persistent IT emergencies

Marketing, intrinsic motivation, happiness and Joy Ninja

Bigger is not always better

Transparency is still a joke

How do you treat your staff?

Innovation training and recruitment

Southern Phone Company – missed opportunity

The Power Paradox

Definitions of "power"

Make sale now; lose customer long-term

Heart core vs hard core

Fostering involvement and buy-in – what the cat taught me

When "sellers" think they are more important

Substance behind Coke?

New eicolab website!

Fostering innovation Google’s way

2007

When good business sense makes zero sense

A simple and effective customer loyalty sign-up process

Mobile phone plans get Shonky Award

Principles vs methods

The security of being in a box

Graphic design for the real world

China bashing

Humanising technology

Baby or career? Talk to Karen Miles

“We say we do” vs “here’s what we’ve done”

Gently coaxing the best from people

The best brand differentiation ever

BPM* hypocrisy

Actions speak loudest - go NRMA

On Chinese manufacturers

A spoonful of sewage

Effortless action

What price self-esteem

Processes

Fitness First in-gym advertising

The end of ecards?

Psychological salary

How to appear big

Moral Intelligence

Fear still driving

Consultant, coach, and counsellor

Hard work

Sending strangers to your home

"Whorez"

Terrorism - principles are more effective than rules

“Monetize”

Dog food, exploding laptops and chlorine dioxide

Words of wisdom … from a commercial

The age of actions without consequences

More on Integration and differentiation

Sh*tty marketing lies and radical transparency

Knowledge workers in the factories

How to piss off customers – rant and lessons

Share your secrets and empower users

Sophistication is…

What if this were to happen here?!!!

Differentiation from integration

Another take on the attention economy

Like your drink spyked?

Our beliefs and expectations of others

Will spin fix it?

Startup pitfalls

Without a smile…

What are your business’ externalities?

Tailor your business to suit you

The good guys need to win – and they do!

Attention, Meaning, and Meaningfulness

Practical vs innovative; doing vs thinking

Entrepreneurs of life

Principles vs rules

Three requirements for a fulfilling life

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Shopping is…

Reactive nature of stock market

Why I won’t buy Apple (ever again)

Ideas come from…

Great diagrams

Why is every big retailer like a (somewhat) glorified warehouse?

Ethical iPods?

Baby food blow-up

Doctor Who on middle management

Most career paths are dead ends

The four hour day

Help stop global warming at work

A non-rise pay rise joke

Conversations: the big thing

Beyond “work-life balance” to simply “life”

ISO standard for meaningful business

A personals ad for your business

Showing visitors around your city

Take it personally

Running effective ideas-generation sessions

“Business is just business”

The temptation of immediate decisions and being told what to do

2006

Unshrink

Vermillion is dead, long live Vermillion!

Advantages of a value net

Traditional org chart vs value nets

Designing work to enable flow

In praise of Telstra (seriously)

Really really really good thought-provoking stuff

Flow

Eating to feed hunger

Fix the symptoms, that’ll do

Good Business

An Inconvenient Truth

The Peter Principle

Profit centres and esteem

Over-planning over a toothbrush

The illusion of security and the goodness of people

Faith

Commercial strategy for tomorrow

Cubicle Commando

Steward OR strategist

Yes-men and corporate-speak

Never work when you are desperate

Silent wheels

White collar slave, blue collar entrepreneur

Contemplating an egg

Toxic business creates togetherness

Part time work a cynical scam?

Keeping score vs satisfaction

Bellyaching yum cha waiting

Paying for profits

What has your business done for you lately?

The blessings of peripheral pains

What does your business smell like?

Flash bulbs in stadiums

Out of the ordinary - right now

Corner computer shops ripe for reboot

The power of little things

Jesus CEO

New beginnings

Innovation is...

Invention vs Innovation vs Improvement

Corporations as psychopaths

Management empathy

Butterflies or blowflies?

Act first, seek forgiveness later

Play is…

2005

Are sales really the way to boost profits?

Stats and trends = group-think

Avoidance and lies

When hiearchies become immovably big

Inviting dragons in

Despicable den of greed

Are women too sensible?

Enterprise Systems Integration means…

Deviants in the boardroom

Harping on about excellence? Have you done Step 1?

How to cut costs and wreck a business

Work with “consultants?” Buy this sign

Train of thoughts (attention CityRail)

“Computer says … No.”

Writing effective emails

Three challenges of evaluating technology

Branding ABC

Using colour in business communications

Learn respect or DIE!

A slapping for AFR BOSS

Changing rooms

Getting paid by your weight

Middle management disconnect

Innovation is subversive

Good night with Goodcompany

Best practice = same practice

Copycatting not winning eyeballs

Your future competition

Just like dating

Directorial distractions