A collection of tips and tools

Stop worrying and learn to love a worst-case scenario: A risk management refresher

Nobody throws a party to celebrate the completion of the Risk Register. Risk management is often treated as the corporate equivalent of eating your vegetables ─ entirely necessary, slightly tedious, and prone to being pushed around the plate.

Instead of a box ticked, a good risk strategy is a clarification. It isn’t about being a pessimist; it’s about calculated bravery. The trick is understanding and using the core components of risk.

It is about getting the Confidence Pattern and the Ownership Pattern working together.

Unleash your creative DNA: A guide to Adapter Dogs and Innovator Catz

A quick guide on maximizing your team’s creative potential. We’re talking about the two dynamic styles of creative problem-solving: Adaption and Innovation. While “innovation” usually gets all the buzz, the truth is that both styles are absolute powerhouses. The secret isn’t about choosing one over the other ─ it’s about knowing exactly when to unleash each style and how they can be combined.

It is about getting the Novelty Pattern under control.

The DECIDE model is a practical six-step framework designed to help teams to make  challenging decisions quickly and act immedaitey.

Fixing Thinking: The framework allows teams to map specific Thinking Patterns ─ like Confirmation Bias or Framing ─ to the exact spots in the process where they are most likely to cause errors. For more information have a look at The Thinking Fix.

By internalising these steps so that they become standard terms, groups can navigate complicated environments with high levels of efficiency. Speaking the same language will turn their collective brain power into a significant competitive advantage.

Creating and managing options: Two sides of a similar coin

Most education systems heavily emphasize constructive criticism as the fastest route to the truth. This kind of deductive reasoning is incredibly useful for narrowing down choices and making swift decisions. In fact, it is so deeply ingrained in us that we rarely talk about its equally important partner: the initial step of creating those options in the first place.

Most people are naturally better at one than the other. Being the ‘genius’ ─ spraying out whacky ideas, or the ‘wonk’ ─ narrowing the myriad options to one,  are both valuable roles. We can all do both with a little help.