The term ‘Mathephobia’ was coined by mathematician Mary de Lellis Gough in 1953 after observing her struggling students.   In the US, almost inconceivably,  researchers have found that 9 in 10 adults have some kind of anxiety about math (that is maths to the readers in the UK, of course). Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist and…

The best fictional detectives never follow the establishment rules.   Crime and detective fiction is one of the most popular genres that there is.  Fans demand a strict adherence to a story arc, which for most of them runs as follows: Vera Stanhope, always arrests the criminal, never gets promoted because she won’t follow directives and…

Do this.  Stop that.  In a world where there are so many new things to do and to consider it is absolutely crucial to transform what we do. In order to do new things well people need to know what they should stop doing.   If you have ever encountered change programmes that don’t work that…

On my new journey to work I keep seeing an ad for a drink that proclaims “don’t act your age; defy it”.  I wonder if it is aimed at me, (though it might be that I am not in the desired target market.)  I am certainly not defying my age.  I am revelling in it,…

In a high performance business, whatever your team is called, it is also the team that helps clients’ business growth. In a discussion about the parlous state of the National Health Service in the UK, one commentator remarked recently that nothing would change until every government department understood that it was also the department for…

At its simplest any strategy is a longer term view of a plan, a way of achieving a longer term objective. Of course that isn’t enough.  Anyone can write a longer term view.  What you need, (or otherwise what’s the point?), is a winning strategy.  And a winning media strategy will contain three elements: Let’s…

New vinyl, new gifting I have missed the smell of vinyl.  Growing up, buying a record on vinyl (the main format when I was a teenager) was hugely exciting.  After months of saving up you would venture out to the quite intimidating record store, staffed by trendy young adults (everyone who worked in a record…

When you are in a stressful situation at work there are famously two reactions that you might feel: Flight or Fight.  These ancient responses make sense if you think of a pre language situation, where danger, at the dawn of mankind, might be sensed by the snap of a twig in the antediluvian forests.  Your…

Ernest Hemingway fans will recognise this as the apparently contradictory yet ruefully truthful reply that Mike Campbell gives when he’s asked “How did you go bankrupt?” in Ernest Hemingway’s iconic novel The Sun Also Rises. It’s an important concept. It might seem contradictory, (if its gradual, how is it sudden?) but it isn’t uncommon and…

On April 2nd 2024 Taylor Swift officially became the 2545th richest billionaire on the planet.  (There are apparently a lot of billionaires these days).  According to Forbes she is the first musician to achieve this from talent alone (not needing side hustles).  A new concept has been named for her.  Swiftonomics, coined by Bloomberg, originally…

Do you ever feel like this? I’ve blogged in the past about the fact that we are part ape and part bee.  Not just you and me, but humans in general.  It’s the theory of author and social scientist Jonathan Haidt who says that whilst deep down we are still pack animals, social creatures who…