For reasons we don't particularly need to go into, failure fascinates me. Especially that of individuals and organisations that think they are 'all that.' When life is less "horrible (#firstworldproblems) I want to write about the differences between the 1977 Tenerife disaster and United Airlines 232 in 1989. But for now, this article I read while walking... Continue Reading →
Glossaries and my undiagnosed CDO
CDO? That's OCD, in the correct alphabetical order, dammit. So, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. Quite stressful. And one of the ways I cope with stress (a displacement activity, perhaps) is to try to categorise information. It somehow soothes me. Go figure. Here are five glossaries that I've worked on (some I started quite a... Continue Reading →
Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities
Ooh yeah!!! Academia that is useful!! Zollo, M and Winter, S. 2002. Deliberate learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities. Organization Science, Vol. 13, (3), pp.339-351. This fantastic article talks about "the role of (1) experience accumulation, (2) knowledge articulation, and (3) knowledge codification processes in the evolution of dynamic, as well as operational, routines." (Zollo... Continue Reading →
Barriers to learning – good article
Just read this - Elliot, D., Smith. D. and McGuinness, M. 2000. Exploring the failure to learn: crises and the barriers to learning. Review of Business, 21, 3/4 pp.17-24. Dead useful for something I am investigating at the moment. There are lots of juicy bits. Though the authors don't use the term, they are basically... Continue Reading →
I just saved a life!
Okay, it was a snail. But it was interesting nonetheless, and surely racks me up some karma points (I am not yet sure if those are transferable with my good guy tokens)? Cycling along Higher Cambridge Street I almost squished a snail who'd started a long and perilous journey across the road, and wasn't looking... Continue Reading →
Dangerous(ly seductive) curves ahead – of life cycles and hype
or "smacking your (rule of) thumb with the hammer marked 'brain'". Narratives are great. They help you arrange (or even create) facts that fit in a nice orderly view of the world. If there is a graph to go along with the narrative, they're even more comforting. I mean, it's science, right? Sadly, no. So,... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Nice Guys finish first, but a bit too slowly…
The film is worth your time. You won’t emerge a better person, but there are some laughs, some excellent performances and nostalgia for “The Rockford Files”. That’s a pretty good deal, I’d say. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are two men stumbling down mean streets in the ever-more-confusing and gritty (thanks to the pollution, both literal... Continue Reading →
Pathways, Publications and … Panda Penises. #Manchester PhD careers advice
University of Manchester’s Careers Service have just put on their tenth “Pathways” day for PhD students. There was free food (good), free entertainment (better) and free advice (best of all). There were 500 of us, and if there'd been a medical emergency, it would have been easier to shout out "“Is there someone who ISN’T a... Continue Reading →
My “Three Minute Thesis” effort on #climate
Here's my performance in the University of Manchester final of "Three Minute Thesis." (Thank you very much to the organisers - and the training we received was fab). I did okay but on reflection, I tried to do too much - a history of climate science and policy, an explanation of issue lifecycle models, AND the Australian... Continue Reading →
Whoop! My first academic conference invite
UPDATE - a reply below. Wow! All that work writing for The Conversation and reviewing books (and writing my thesis, natch) has paid off! I have been sent an email"to deliver an invited talk" at a conference to be held at the end of the year in Hong Kong. Not smelling a rat at all, I... Continue Reading →