Russell Davies

Attention and power

I was thinking about 'shearing layers' and 'pace layering' for this Lift talk - that might be how we get at the ends of the 'innovation' scale - thinking about how deep into the layers we're digging.

Then, with his usual immaculate timing, my old boss posted some more (related) Stewart Brand wisdom:

"The fast moving trends get most of the attention. The slow moving trends have most of the power."

There's lots in that. The flashy version of innovation gets you attention, gets you on the front cover of Wired. Dealing with infrastructure, governance and culture gets you deep, lasting difference.

Both are useful.

Tell 'em about the artisanal grain pillows, Mummy

We were chatting and Arthur asked me what my favourite cereal was when I was a kid. Sugar Puffs! I said. They don't sound very healthy he said. Which, when I thought about it, was obviously true. But I'd never thought about it. Sugar Puffs. It's the least-appopriate-for-21st-century-children-cereal name ever.

And, I said, they has a great character who was on the boxes and was called Honey Monster. Why, he said, did they have honey in them, shouldn't they have been called Honey Puffs. I don't know, I said, I don't remember any honey, though I definitely remember the Honey Monster.

So we googled it and discovered that they did in fact change their name to Honey Monster Puffs a couple of months ago.

And, they're made in London. So they could be sold here. But I don't imagine they will be, even with the new name.

Restart

The Britannia Cafe in Derby.

Lift again

Nicolas has asked me to talk at Lift at the beginning of February. I've been there a couple of times and talked once (evidence), it's always interesting. He's sent the brief below and asked me for a title. I'm thinking of something like Escaping Innovation: Getting Things Done in Large Organisations.

The brief:

"The plan is to have you do the opening speech of the conference Wednesday 4 at 2pm. Given that it’s going to be the 10th year anniversary of the event, there’s no specific theme for the conference. However, given the audience in the room (same type of people since last time you spoke here), we thought it could be good to have you deal with change (innovation?) in large organizations (I thought about public ones because of your current position at Government Digital Service but it can be broader than that).

I always liked “undermanager” as a twitter handle and it made me think about the various paths to change/innovate: there’s the glorious one (with startup creating products with great fanfare) and the other end of the spectrum: this little thing that eventually may find their way to create something new and relevant for people. Judging from what you publish online, the kind of event you created (interesting), RIG projects… I’m under the impression this is something you’re interested in. The presentation should not necessarily be a summary of your initiatives, but, rather, a discussion on your perspective at this point in time. It can be based on your experience, your work, weird projects you saw,… and it should last 20 minutes."

Initial thoughts:

Some of this will, inevitably, mean going over old territory, bits of talks from Dots and the APG thing, I'm not good enough to come up with a whole new talk.

I like the distinction Nicolas makes between 'glorious' innovation and 'the other end of the spectrum'. I'd like to talk about this. After all, what we're mostly talking about in large orgs these days is digital transformation and that's not especially innovative, it's well-understood, it's fixing the basics.

I also think there's something to touch on about the connections between innovation and Strategy. And, as a Director of Strategy, I'm increasingly convinced that the deification of Strategy and Innovation is unhelpful in organisations.

That seems like enough doesn't it? It's only 20 minutes so my budget is roughly:

5 minutes: intro/admin/background/conclusions/thanks

5 minutes: thoughts and ideas

5 minutes: actual examples

5 minutes: moments of light relief

That probably means two meaty ideas and four examples. It's not a lot. I will try and share on here as I start to work it out.

1-11

the dry mock

This Archive Hour about irony is quite good and sounds less radio-y than most radio. Though quite a lot of it consists of one lot of people being annoyed by the way other groups of people use irony, which, ironically, I found annoying.

The right form for the job

I keep meaning to keep a tumblr for these - Media Forms That Explain Something Better Than Any Other Form Possibly Could

This would be number 1: split screen video and the speed of racing vehicles. (Found, as I remember, via Kottke)

Related: this documentary explains how darts only got really popular when they worked out that splitscreen made it really, really televisual.

 

Radio voice

We are experiencing a podcast renaissance. Mostly, I suspect, because people are starting to make podcasts that sound like American public radio. That's progress, of a sort, because podcasts used to just sound like bad radio but, ideally, podcasts would try and find new ways to sound. Maybe that will come.

Back in radioland though, are these five essays, exploring The Radio Voice. Again, the voices don't stray very far from a radio-y norm, but they're still worth listening to.

The first one points at a splendid parody of radio drama called This Gun That I Have in My Right Hand is Loaded  'adapted for radio' by one of my favourite ever (presumably) fictional names: H. and Cynthia Old Hardwick~Box.

original neonist

I was too intimidated to go in here and actually see this, I just pressed my nose against the window. Private galleries don't do welcoming do they? But, if you're braver than I this'll be good. From when neon was all just fields.

Authentics

 

Peter York, only ten years late. Ha!