Trigger Strategy is now Tentacles

When something that starts small becomes bigger and bigger, we can lose sight of what we were trying to do in the first place. We talk through some examples: from workshops, from designing flyers for dance classes, and from Lego bridges.

The trick is subtraction. The knack is knowing what to subtract.

"When putting on accessories, take off the last thing you've put on." – Coco Chanel

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom & Corissa talk about how understanding and tackling problems requires more than just a linear approach, like is often inferred through something like the Double Diamond. A bunch of metaphors, real world examples and other fun in this one. We also offer practical tips for engaging with solution-oriented colleagues and suggest some methods and recipes to see and solve more problems differently. Plus: a somewhat tortured supermarket metaphor.

00:00 Welcome to Trigger Strategy Podcast

00:11 Dental adventures

00:31 Exploring problems and solutions

02:09 The arrogance of designers

02:54 The horse poo problem

06:12 The Double Diamond design process

13:32 The Iron Triangle and trade-offs

14:37 Abductive logic and interconnected systems

19:49 The over-reach of the Enlightenment

20:13 The secret life of trees

21:12 Complex vs. complicated problems

22:33 Problem "validation"

24:16 The supermarket metaphor

28:34 Be more Cal Newport by putting solution recipes first?

33:25 What to do with solutionizing colleagues

38:34 Wrapping up in utopia

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk about the good and the bad sides of stress. We tend to treat stress as a negative, but sometimes stress is helpful, and sometimes you want to provoke stress deliberately. But be careful.

References:

Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos

The Experience Machine by Andy Clark

Estuarine Mapping – find links and resources at triggerstrategy.com

That clip from Apollo 13: https://youtu.be/ry55--J4_VQ?si=FV3l_OZJklkmm-aS

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We explore the story of a classic zombie project: where the team had the evidence they needed to know that a project was doomed, but carried on with it for 6 months anyway. These happen all the time, and we spend a few minutes unpacking the dynamics behind the trap. We also share some thoughts for how to ease open the jaws of the trap.

We also reference Annie Duke's book Quit

And Set Your First Pivot Triggers, available via a link here: https://pivot-triggers.com/

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Strap in for some high-quality sleep deprived thinking out loud.

We talk about the standard approach towards vision and strategy in organisations, and we challenge it. With some stories of past triumphs and pratfalls based on setting vision and suggest of alternative ways to go about Doing Strategy.

We refer to some LinkedIn posts during this chat ... here they are!

Dr Jabe Bloom's post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jabebloom_scanning-the-future-requires-a-diversity-activity-7211396177232060417-kCeb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Stephanie Leue's post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7211982950198894592-jQsX?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

John Cutler's post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/johnpcutler_theres-a-big-thing-missing-in-most-it-starts-activity-7212101683579953153-55qS?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we talk about the appendix, fences, SaaS for lawyers, putting Shoggoth in a box ... and more.

Some links we mentioned:

Why aren't smart people happier and how that relates to well-defined problems: https://www.experimental-history.com/p/why-arent-smart-people-happier

Explainer on LLMs and why they probably won't take your job: https://cyberneticforests.substack.com/p/a-hallucinogenic-compendium

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one's quite focused on business and building products ... OR IS IT?

In this one we respond to a question that Tom's received from several people recently. We'll call one of them Dave. Dave has a friend who has a big product idea they want to build, or big business project they want to do. The plan Dave's friend has landed on is to do the whole thing (how hard can it be anyway?) and then receive the (as yet unspecified) rewards. And Dave wants to know: how can I help them see that's not the only way, that they'll probably fail, and that there's a better way ... without being preachy or lecturing them?

We talk about the impossibility of reasoning someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into, and share a few ideas for thought exercises that can help Dave figure out what flavour of situation he's dealing with.

For example, the "I'm going to A even if it means I never B" exercise and the Time Machine selling manoeuvre.

We also talk about "the inherent bigness of ideas", about dogfooding when you're not actually a dog, and the shocking distribution of returns for start up entrepreneurs.

Beans and noses: https://articles.centercentre.com/beans-and-noses/

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is kind of a follow-up to our previous episode that was recorded before the UX London conference. With the whirlwind of travel and baby-care, this was the first chance Tom & Corissa have really had to talk about the conference, and we captured it for the podcast too.

In our longest episode yet, we touch on Pitch Provocations, Multiverse Mapping, Zenko Mapping, rewilding, research repositories, behavioural design, regulations, stories, metaphor, communication, collaboration, validation, information architecture, design systems AND MORE. Whew.

Also lots of shout outs and thanks to folks who gave talks and workshops, including Serena Verdenicci, Luke Hay, Emma Boulton, Dr Harry Brignull, Ben Sauer, John V Willshire, Tshili Ndou, Alicia Calderón, Stéphanie Walter, Peter Boersma and Brad Frost ... and the folks who curated, helmed and scaffolded a great few days: Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash, and many other awesome folk from Clearleft.

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is one of those where you walk along with Tom and Corissa while we're trying to figure something out. This time, Tom's giving a conference talk next week (which is last week from the podcast's perspective). He knows what he's talking about, but there's TOO MUCH of it! We try to figure out the one point he wants to make and why someone should care. Do we manage to tame this unruly topic or does it get away from us? You be the judge ...

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom saw a discussion on LinkedIn about why Cynefin hasn't caught on in some scenes. One take was that it's the "academic, technical" language that puts people off. Corissa has lots of experience of the power of simplifying your language from her background in copywriting, and especially usability testing her copy. On the other hand, weird new words can provoke weird new ways of thinking ... but it's also easier to dismiss weird things if you don't like their implications. Perhaps there's no right answer.

We talk about our experiences getting to grips with ideas like Cynefin, our experiences sharing such ideas with others, and we even talk about a dance class to explain the idea of the disposition of a complex adaptive system.

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.