Mark Foden

The Clock and the Cat

A podcast of conversations about complexity

Author

Mark Foden

Category

Government

Podcast website

markfoden.com

Latest episode

Mar 22, 2024

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Episodes

Episode 11 - Don't Panic 22.03.2024

This episode is a conversation with Johnnie Moore about his inspiring work as facilitator Johnnie Moore - Bio Johnnie Moore is a great facilitator, He's written two books about it - Creative Facilitation and Unhurried. More here johnniemoore.com

Episode 10 - How to make good telly 09.06.2023

This episode is another conversation with Daniel Thornton (like Episode 2 but this time with bells on) about Covid, companies dying, electric cars, corporate bullshit, and the Succession series. Daniel Thornton - Bio Daniel studied PPE at Oxford and History at LSE. He’s had huge experience in central government. He worked in the Foreign Office, Parliament, the Treasury, DCLG and has been a Private...

Episode 9 - Experimental Finland 19.02.2020

This episode is a conversation with Olli-Pekka Heinonen - currently the civil servant responsible for primary and secondary education in Finland - about his experience of applying complexity thinking in the Finnish government. Olli-Pekka Heinonen - Bio Olli-Pekka is the Director General of the National Agency for Education in Finland and is responsible for running primary and secondary education f...

Episode 8 - Not systems thinking 13.01.2020

This episode is a conversation with Eric Wenzel about his experience of the theory of complex responsive processes of relating. Selected quotes "And it took me the three years of the [Doctor of Mangement] programme to try and understand what it was that I was contributing" - 3:52 "Complex responsive process... [theory is] ...important because it offers a compelling alternative to accepted ways of...

Episode 7 - Turning the purpose of management upside-down 04.11.2019

Selected quotes “The idea of complexity helped us explain why outcome based performance management [is failing]” - 3:09 “Outcome based performance management … and New Public Management … is conceptually flawed” - 6:21 “We needed a new paradigm” - 6:41 “You’ve got a crackpot idea about doing something fundamentally different. How do you persuade people to pay you to do it?” - 7:15 “Is it ok to tal...

Episode 6 - Trust, Gestalt and the Inflatable Elephant 13.03.2019

Selected quotes > "The environment we're in changes who we are and what we bring." - 6:55 > "Gestalt for me is about ... it's about the whole and about the parts." - 8:30 > "How do we build enough trust within the team that we can start to tell each other the truth?" - 13:55 > "I really do have a blow-up elephant [in the room]" - 14:10 > "Perceived Weirdness Index ... it's okay to b...

Episode 5 - Experimenting 15.02.2019

Main points - Losing Control movement - 2:00 / 31:00 - Emphasis on evidence-based policy - 5:15 - The difference between Explicit and Tacit knowledge and the importance of place - 6:30 - Cultural barriers to experimentation - 18:45 - Buurtzorg and the need for a "heatshield" - 21:30 - Difference between pilots and experiments / and industrial vs organic approaches - 27:15 - Continuous experimentat...

Episode 4 - How to learn about complexity 11.01.2019

References Book - Quark and the Jaguar - Murray Gell-Mann Book - Complexity - Mitchell Waldrop Book - Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics - Ralph Stacey Book - The Nature of Technology - Brian Arthur Online resources - Complexity Explorer Course - Singapore Complexity Institute Course - Complex Systems Summer School - Santa Fe Institute Course - Introduction to complexity - Santa Fe I...

Episode 3 - What complexity actually is 08.01.2019

Roland Kupers - Bio Roland is an independent advisor on Complexity, Resilience and Energy Transition. He Dutch and speaks 4 other languages fluently. Originally a theoretical physicist he’s worked in business management in AT&T then in Shell where he held several senior positions. He has written books on scenario planning, resilience and complexity in the context of public policy. And he’s wri...

Episode 2 - Why big government things go wrong 14.12.2018

Daniel Thornton - Bio Daniel studied PPE at Oxford and History at LSE. He’s had huge experience in central government. He worked in the Foreign Office, Parliament, the Treasury, DCLG and has been a Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. Since then he’s worked for Gavi a charity promoting vaccination low-income countries; he’s been a programme director at the leading think tank the Institute for...

Episode 1 - About the Clock and the Cat 01.12.2018

For more information read my stuff on complexity or these books: - The Quark and the Jaguar by Murray Gell-Mann - Complexity by Michael Waldrop

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