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Topic: Belief and making believe
“StoryForm”: A work in progress
StoryForm is a new project Throughline is gestating. The aim is to create a tool for driving, inspiring and shaping BUYING (business and consumer purchasing) and BUY-IN (commercial decisions, especially around innovative concepts). As such, it relates to and also goes beyond our work in KILN around catalysing innovation. Continue reading
Back in late February, I heard Alexander Osterwalder speak at the Front End of Innovation EMEA conference hosted by the Institute of International Research. The keynote was about the Business Model Canvas. Indy had received Alex's book Business Model Generation (co-authored with Yves ...MORE >
Neverland is here: Peter Pan
Another favourite from 2010 was The National Theatre of Scotland’s enchanting production of Peter Pan. Continue reading
I had read the unabridged book aloud in the winter. In mid May I saw the play. Two choices continue to delight and haunt me.
First, Tinker Bell was played by lighter paper. Really. It was extraordinary.
Second, a body double was used in the ...MORE >
Networked businesses: the icon isn’t iconic
In the second piece on networked businesses, we look at the classic example of the network business – today’s Hollywood films. Interesting as it is, the Hollywood model doesn’t migrate easily to other industries. Here’s why. Continue reading
From the birth of American cinema to the 1950s when television began vying foraudiences, studios made films. Studios owned land, held contracts with “talent”, and employed union labourers in order to manufacture a steady stream of genre films that could find ready audiences ...MORE >
A Disappearing Number: fine image-making
Top evenings at the theatre in 2010 included the return to London of Complicite’s 2005 production A Disappearing Number, which we saw in September. Continue reading
...because it rendered complex ideas accessible, by mashing up a real story of friendship and collaboration from the 1910s with a fictional story of contemporary love across distance
...because the love stories moved me, as did the moments of loss, so much so that ...MORE >
Collaborating to create value: who is the client?
Now in our fourth year, we’re thinking a lot about how we collaborate to create value for our clients. One of things we’ve discovered is that: network-delivery models create hidden “clients” who can crowd out the needs of the actual, ultimate client. Here’s a story about hidden clients in a networked business situation:
Continue reading
Robert just told me about his work with Jane. Jane is internal communications manager for a company involved in a merger. Her annual budget trebled for the merger period. She had a choice: enlarge her circle of advisors or ask an incumbent agency ...MORE >
Putting metaphor in the frame
University of Leeds Professor Joep Cornelissen’s talk “It’s all in the game: How to successfully frame a strategic change or opportunity” used real-world and television drama examples to the show the interplay between how leaders framed future action and what people understood through the frames. Continue reading
It’s so refreshing to hear someone flag up the importance of metaphor and analogy in business communications. They aren’t simply “literary tools”: metaphor and analogy are tools fundamental to humans’ sense-making.
Joep’s talk and the discussion it sparked reminded me how powerful metaphors and ...MORE >
Is the singular image obsolete?
Filmmaker Simon Kreitem’s take on the art and science of film-making explained the convergence of still photography and videography. In doing so, he raised the problem of the singular image – something that is so eternal appears now to have a social history. After more than a month of mulling his talk, I share my thoughts. Continue reading
When I heard Simon speak last month (thanks to the hospitality of SAS's Kevin Keohane and his Verb Publishing co-founder Dan Gray), I found my unwavering faith in the singular image shaken - and quite rightly so.
Simon came along to address a mix ...MORE >
Singing from the same hymn sheet?
How does organisational culture actually work? Do value statements actually describe behaviour and day-to-day practices? Or is there a gap? A story about singing, and a song…. Continue reading
Here's comic Tim Minchin on the dilemma he faces because he can't walk the talk.
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In his book Unmanaging: Opening up the organisation to its own unspoken knowledge, McKinsey veteran Theodore Taptikilis tells an entertaining story that prefigures the organisational culture movement in the ...MORE >
The actor’s “as if” in turbulent times
Management guru Stefan Stern meticulously recalls a screen performance by the late great actor Paul Newman. Continue reading
FT Weekend reprints Stefan Stern's eulogy blog to Newman. It's great to see how Stern notates Newman's deft performance of David Mamet's script for the Sidney Lumet 1982 film The Verdict. Click here to read the blog.
To add: The speech works on another level. In speaking of ...MORE >
What is a throughline?
Explaining our company’s name and the connection we forge between the craft of acting and the art of business Continue reading
In theatre, a throughline is the work an actor undertakes to connect all the actions visible to an audience with the unseen – but no less integral – inner life of the character s/he portrays.
In “literary” theatre, a playwright dictates the dialogue (that’s ...MORE >