Most of work is “conversation design” most of the time, for which good questions play a critical role. Questions disrupt our default ways of thinking, communicating and designing. Questions are conversational and cultural interventions that invite and entrust. Offering a solution collapses options. …

This is a transcript of my short talk at the School of System Change’s Constellating Change series, Session 2: Structures and Rhythms, on 15th November 2023. Nati Lombardo of The Hum also did a brilliant talk around team rhythms. …

Writing is famously difficult. I have visions of a prolific publishing schedule, but a glance at my Medium or Substack shows a far more meagre output. It turns out that writing is much easier with body doubling (working on something individually alongside others, borrowed from the ADHD community), someone to…

This is my updated user manual, my V1 from 2020 is here. It’s been interesting to see what’s changed in three years. I can see a lot of progress, which is encouraging. …

Local government needs municipal imagination. Investing time, space and practice is key. Imagination Activism can help. — This blogpost outlines a call for municipal imagination made by Cllr Georgia Gould in her February Banister Fletcher Lecture, introduces the term, and talks about the Camden Council and Moral Imaginations partnership, working over the last 12 months using Imagination Activism to build municipal imagination in Camden. …

I write a monthly newsletter, This Might Resonate (TMR), full of earnest inspiration for people seeking unusual ideas and deeper understanding. The first edition was 31st January 2021. Below, I take stock of the past two year’s worth of writing to consolidate what I’ve learned. I started TMR with some assumptions and hopes: A fortnightly cadence is achievable…

Emily Bazalgette, who has 12 years experience supporting the supporting nonprofits through organisational design and coaching, shares some practical approaches to “know by trying” To develop supportive, people-centred, equitable and humane organisations, we need to accept that (many) organisations are complex systems. This means embracing organisational development (OD) practices…

This post is a organisational design case study of applying service design to internal organisational services — in this instance, appraisals. It covers: Designing a new appraisals process with employees Low-fidelity and live prototyping of an internal service, including what didn’t work Some out of scope things we got excited…

What I use to run my business and do my work I welcome suggestions for Better products – cheaper, more usable, more beautiful, more inclusive, more ethical Streamlining my stack: “The anticipated productivity gains of each shiny new tool are often outweighed by the noise they create”. Task + knowledge management Still figuring out…