Dr Nick Waggett

A factor in current organizational and social turbulence is rapid technological change   I am sharing the text of an article I wrote for publication in 2018 but then withdrew (long story). I am working on a new (different, better) article so sharing this version in case anyone is interested in the findings of my doctoral thesis - but doesn't want to read the whole thing! I think the paper has continued relevance today and adds to discussions about our 'entanglement' with new technologies including AI. The focus is on human services (health, social care, education etc.) but my view is that similar processes operate in all kinds of organizations and in wider society.  The paper aims to develop theory and practice in systems-psychodynamics in relation to the role of technology within the organization of work. It argues for the importance of technology as a significant actor within, and mediator of, human processes in the 21st Century.   It is proposed that leaders ...

What is the one thing that your organisation (company, team, service) must do in order to survive and thrive? Is that what you are actually doing?   Most people working in an organisation, or leading it, will be familiar with the feeling of having to do too much with too little resources. Phrases such as ‘having to keep all the balls in the air’ and ‘I need to keep all the plates spinning’ suggest a person juggling multiple tasks, responsibilities, or commitments simultaneously. This is stressful for the individual or team and often not very effective as it is hard to determine which of the ‘plates’ is the priority and therefore deserves greater time or resources. Prioritization is crucial to effective planning and clarity on which tasks are likely to produce most gains is important for job satisfaction.   When we are in the middle of a whirl of competing demands, or facing deadlines and targets, it can feel impossible to determine what is most important. Most likely w...

Discussion of the potential benefits and harms of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere currently following the ‘AI Safety Summit’ hosted by the UK government.  But what of the human side of the relationship? How might this be affected as the power and reach of AI develops?  Drawing on my research and consultancy experience, I offer some brief thoughts on how our thinking about AI might be lost and gained in future. Is AI awful? In the episode of the Netflix series Black Mirror called ‘ Joan is Awful ’ the main character Joan (played by Annie Murphy) discovers that a global streaming platform has launched a TV drama adaptation of her life - in which she is portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek. Joan discovers that she has signed away the rights to her identity by ticking the T&Cs box which ‘nobody reads’ and can therefore do nothing about it. She teams up with the real Salma ‘f***ing’ Hayek who, we learn, has also lost the rights to her actor identity and t...

Manchester United men’s team have been struggling this season including two successive 3-0 home defeats. Inevitably, there is talk of the manager Erik ten Hag’s position being under threat unless he oversees an upturn in results. In his first season in charge, United won the League (Carabao) Cup and finished third in the Premier League to earn a return to the Champions League. So what has gone wrong this season? Reading the reports in the papers, and thinking about it as someone who works with organizational dynamics, a few things jumped out. Fresh legs – Ten Hag has brought players over from his former club Ajax who are not performing well and this has led people to question his decision-making or ‘smarts’. It is understandable that he might want to have players he feels he can trust and who have performed for him before, but I wonder what this communicated to the existing United players. Trying to replicate a ‘formula’ or even re-create the same team in a new context is unlikely to ...

I enjoy photography and it is one of my main sources, and expressions, of creativity. I like to incorporate photography and imagery into my consultancy work as a way of opening up conversations and coming at organizational dilemmas from a fresh perspective. My approach is to help people make sense of the challenges they face, find new ways to address them and perform effectively. In this way, they are left with additional capacities to meet new and different challenges. A meaningful image creates something new out of what life presents you with. Andrew Paynter, Photographer Working with  imagery of all kinds is a source of great potential to unstick teams, organizations and leaders, and help them towards creative and effective responses to the rapidly evolving demands facing all sectors. If the answer to new market challenges was obvious then everyone would be doing it! The use of imagery is a way in which the hidden and ‘beneath the surface’ can be made visible and thought about....

  Like, what colour is a conversation with a colleague? All those bits that might not be reflected in the calendar. The research I undertook for my Professional Doctorate (completed in 2017) explored how technology alters organizational processes and structures. The above quote relates to the use of the Outlook calendar to manage workload in a health clinic. Some of the findings anticipated the transformation of work that was accelerated by the pandemic and enabled by technology.  For example, I showed how technology transports work across an organization’s usual boundaries of time (9-5) and place (the office). The affordances of technology (i.e. what it enables) have many positive aspects, such as maintaining delivery of critical services during a global pandemic. Society’s capacity to deliver its core functions was many times greater in 2020 that it was 10 or 50 years earlier. Some impacts were unexpected – such as accelerating the decline in physical newspaper sales beca...

Creativity is central to organizational success Creativity is crucial in responding to change, innovation, growth, re-structuring and challenges in the market or operating environment. Creativity in these situations is needed to enable new thoughts, connections and ideas to arise, and to avoid getting stuck in old and unhelpful patterns of working.  Think of the sports team that has a set way of playing that has worked for them but who can’t adapt to other teams improving or using new techniques. A once successful team will steadily, or even rapidly, become second best. Doing the same thing over and over - when it has been shown to be ineffective or even damaging - is a sign of something unhealthy going on in the team, organization or business. To unstick  and move to a new, healthy and productive position requires curiosity, creativity and the generation of new ways of working and connecting with the client, customer or audience.  The problem is that these processes – ch...