Thinking and doing: theory and practice

Welcome and thanks for visiting.  This blog is where I write about projects I am working on, capture my research in progress and generally organise my thinking in public.  It helps me enormously to have a place to do this – I hope you also find it useful.  I try and maintain a running post with some definitions and background reading that may be helpful.

I tend to roam between designing for democracy and more general thinking about technology driven change and the digital mindset.   I’m increasing thinking about systems practice as well as my own leadership practice. You may find it helpful to read this ‘why I blog blog’ but suffice to say that this a place where I share my thinking in public but that means its subject to change and may look quite different when its actually applied in my role at Adur and Worthing.

If you are looking for my professional bio then you need to head over to LinkedIn . If you are trying to find me online for a more research orientated discussion then you can find me on twitter as @curiousc.  If you want to contact to me about speaking at an event then you can contact me via either of these routes.

Dr Catherine Howe

Here are some of the things I am currently working on:

Latest posts
AI musing – time to get engaged

AI musing – time to get engaged

Having said goodbye to social media (sort of) and having largely bypassed the data hype cycle as being a technocratic rather than social one (with a large exception for a fascination with the quantified self and big data meets IOT which I might come back to) I am fully on ...

Setting up for 2024

Setting up for 2024

Given I only managed to post my 2023 intentions in August it feels a bit soon to be posting again – but here we are with some intentions for 2024 – all written alongside the annual sorting week. Part of my sorting this year is to get a proper AI ...

So long twitter…it was fun while it lasted

So long twitter…it was fun while it lasted

I have been fascinated by the power of online community to provide real support and connection for people for nearly 20 years (eek) and when the internet got social, I was an early and enthusiastic adopter. Right now I find myself withdrawing from most social media and I will pop ...


Fantasy system…what would you dream?

Fantasy system…what would you dream?

I have been pitching an idea for a while now which almost always lands well and which I can’t leave alone, so I thought I would put it out more widely in the universe and see what happens…. I want to be part of an event which brings together a ...

Taking the red pill…..

Taking the red pill…..

I hope The Matrix reference resonates – but in case of confusion its explained here – I’m using the pop culture rather than the political framing for it! We’re in the process of creating a new organisational design and operating model that will better reflect and allow us to deliver ...

Missions of various sizes and shapes

Missions of various sizes and shapes

Not long before Christmas we published ‘Our Plan’ which is the culmination of nearly a year of ‘thinking, feeling and doing’ and I am hugely proud of what we have created. It’s not a strategy – but instead it is a description of the kind of organisation we want to ...


Setting an intention:  better late than never

Setting an intention: better late than never

I wrote this piece back in January but didn’t post it and I was going to discard it but decided not to as I like being able to hold myself to account for this stuff at the end of the year – and so here it is: Anticipate I use ...

Decisions….decisions…

Decisions….decisions…

I’ve been thinking about governance a lot recently – how and where we make decisions – and specifically how we make them robust and trusted how we make them fast enough to get stuff done rather than admiring problems How we manage the tension between these two things How you ...

In which everything is STILL extremely very important and urgent

In which everything is STILL extremely very important and urgent

I wrote about our approach to prioritisation a while ago and we have been progressing the work. Spoiler alert: its still really bloody hard and there is still more stuff to do than time (or people) to do it. The cost of living crisis that we see unfolding in front ...


Why we are not setting the why on fire

Why we are not setting the why on fire

We are working hard now on how we take the detail of Our Plan and the next stages of our change work out to the members and wider organisation and we have circled back around to the why question – why exactly are we doing this? It’s a good question ...

 
 

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