Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." Often misattributed to Einstein, but actually written by sociologist William Bruce Cameron in 1963.
My uncle worked at CERN, trying, in his words, to prove the existence of god with maths. My biggest shock in my mid-twenties was discovering that something with mass sits well outside the periodic table. Not a new element, but dark matter, the invisible scaffolding holding galaxies together. And then dark energy, the even stranger force pushing the universe to expand faster and faster, rather than collapsing on itself, as some were expecting.
And why did Vera Rubin end up looking at that part of the sky? That's material for a whole other post, and if you haven't come across her story, she is worth reading about.
This takes me back to the old 'What's the ROI of your parent?' provocation. A good enough answer for the strategy scenario, for now, might be client testimonials and appropriate pre/post engagement measures.
Loved this piece of writing. It's particularly relevant at a time where specificity it is becoming increasingly important for discovery. I wonder if a measure could be the risk of not engaging you - what would happen if you DIDN'T catalyse the change? Again, tricky to measure but sometimes the cost of continuing to do something the same way it's always been done, is greater than the 'risk' (or even 'lag') or the change coming into play.
Another absolute corker Zoe - the writing is as fantastic as ever, the arguments and points are nuanced but what I appreciate most about your writing is the intellectual honesty and depth of the way you interrogate your own thinking and assumptions. It has changed the way I think about thinking, and how I teach people about thinking- thank you very much indeed!
Zoe - You really made me think, as usual. Thank you.
I work at an agency and we make claims about strategic depth and motivation insight as differentiators all the time without producing tangible evidence, but when institutional artifacts, ecosystem shifts, new organizational questions, and language entering the field's bloodstream all point at the same source, I'd like to think that that convergence is the evidence, even if the methodology to measure that dark matter doesn't exist.
Wonderfully written. This spurred me to think about behavioural science , the nudge which changes the choice architecture but difficult to measure the impact of the intervention. How do measure impact of familiarity bias, social proof is still in the grey zone ; but we know it works in many contexts.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." Often misattributed to Einstein, but actually written by sociologist William Bruce Cameron in 1963.
My uncle worked at CERN, trying, in his words, to prove the existence of god with maths. My biggest shock in my mid-twenties was discovering that something with mass sits well outside the periodic table. Not a new element, but dark matter, the invisible scaffolding holding galaxies together. And then dark energy, the even stranger force pushing the universe to expand faster and faster, rather than collapsing on itself, as some were expecting.
And why did Vera Rubin end up looking at that part of the sky? That's material for a whole other post, and if you haven't come across her story, she is worth reading about.
Can't wait to read your next one.
The value of strategic work isn’t monetized, it’s capitalized — something financial professionals aren’t equipped to understand.
This takes me back to the old 'What's the ROI of your parent?' provocation. A good enough answer for the strategy scenario, for now, might be client testimonials and appropriate pre/post engagement measures.
Loved this piece of writing. It's particularly relevant at a time where specificity it is becoming increasingly important for discovery. I wonder if a measure could be the risk of not engaging you - what would happen if you DIDN'T catalyse the change? Again, tricky to measure but sometimes the cost of continuing to do something the same way it's always been done, is greater than the 'risk' (or even 'lag') or the change coming into play.
Have you asked your clients how they value the work you do?
Another absolute corker Zoe - the writing is as fantastic as ever, the arguments and points are nuanced but what I appreciate most about your writing is the intellectual honesty and depth of the way you interrogate your own thinking and assumptions. It has changed the way I think about thinking, and how I teach people about thinking- thank you very much indeed!
Zoe - You really made me think, as usual. Thank you.
I work at an agency and we make claims about strategic depth and motivation insight as differentiators all the time without producing tangible evidence, but when institutional artifacts, ecosystem shifts, new organizational questions, and language entering the field's bloodstream all point at the same source, I'd like to think that that convergence is the evidence, even if the methodology to measure that dark matter doesn't exist.
Wonderfully written. This spurred me to think about behavioural science , the nudge which changes the choice architecture but difficult to measure the impact of the intervention. How do measure impact of familiarity bias, social proof is still in the grey zone ; but we know it works in many contexts.