At one point I was asked to deliver a project in a high-risk, highly-regulated service. It was an area that I hadn't worked-in before and I was pretty anxious to do no harm. Reading through the internal documentation; previous consulting reviews (including one from the big three), reports and project documentation, the organisation had repeatedly tried to solve these problems. … [Read more...] about Whac-a-mole projects
efficiency exchange
To understand effectiveness university leaders should study demand
One of the quickest ways for university leaders to understand the effectiveness of their services is to study demand. When done right, such studies will provide a student perspective that can act as a sophisticated way to reframe student services. Studying demand in a university As a consultant I conducted a demand analysis (adapted to meet constraints and to fit within … [Read more...] about To understand effectiveness university leaders should study demand
Seeing distance learning module production as a system
Recently a department responsible for the digital design and build of distance learning modules asked me to assess the feasibility of introducing new technology and agile. A quick-look identified that an expanded study was necessary. Excavating the system It can take some time for a module to progress from initial idea, through the process of design, content creation and … [Read more...] about Seeing distance learning module production as a system
Studying reveals the impact of incentives
One of the most important capabilities for any organisations to have, is to be able to study their services from the customer's point of view. Most organisations lack this capability, and this means that the vast majority of their change activity makes services worse for the customer and increases costs. So the incentive you think has improved things has made things worse and … [Read more...] about Studying reveals the impact of incentives
Systems thinking in Lloyds bank
In this video Justin Watts (Head of Systems Thinking Lloyds Bank) talks about the application of systems thinking in banking. Justin highlights how traditional transformation approaches and the introduction of technology drove huge volumes of failure demand into their service centres. Now Lloyds advocates studying and learning before doing. Watching time: 8 … [Read more...] about Systems thinking in Lloyds bank