How I Spent 2011 – Literally.

This is a little sad, but as 2011 came to a close I started to get an inkling of excitement … not about 2012 and new beginnings … no, no. I was excited about completing a whole year’s worth of tracking every fils that came in or out of my proverbial purse. Perhaps what I […]

The Swiss Cheese Model

The Swiss Cheese Model is one which describes accident causation as a series of events which must occur in a specific order and manner for an accident to occur. A stack of unique individual slices of cheese is analogous to an organisational system – where each layer contains a gap. Accidents occur when a process […]

Hersey-Blanchard Model

The Hersey-Blanchard Model is a tool to manage and direct people based on situational factors. The model consists of two parts: a process (top) and a matrix (graph). The matrix is a tool designed for leaders and reads from right to left starting with S1 (Situation 1: Directing) to S4 (Situation 4: Delegating). The process […]

Prisoner’s Dilemma

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a classic game theory problem that shows how communication can drastically affect outcomes. The image is self explanatory: two prisoners are offered a deal, if one confesses the other gets 20 years, if none confess both get 1 year, and if both confess they each get 5 years in prison. Trust […]

Appreciative Inquiry Model

In the early 20th Century, a major development in philosophy took place called the Linguistic Turn. Not to bore you into a state of comatose ~ the linguistic turn is based on the notion that language constitutes reality and is not a transparent medium for thought. In layman’s terms: your language defines the way you […]

Conflict Resolution

Conflict is the condition that debilitates communication – the best way to overcome conflict is to understand the situation and understand your position in context (self awareness). The conflict resolution model helps you identify the type of conflict and possible outcomes to better understand the situation and your role n the conflict resolution. There are […]

The Morphological Box

The morphological box is a tool that enables you to create something new from many things that exist – by combining features to create new configurations. “The task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.” ~ Arthur […]

The Family Tree Model

The family tree model is based on the assumption that people are fundamentally social and connected through shared interests – products, brands, people – and their inherent desire to discuss their interests among themselves. The model maps out how one person is connected to another, revealing important nodes in your relationships – exposing over concentrated […]

The Eisenhower Matrix

“The most urgent decisions are rarely the most important ones”. The Eisenhower matrix helps you organise your tasks by breaking them down into one of four possible priorities. Ask yourself: When will I deal with the things that are important but not urgent? When will I take the time to deal with important tasks before […]