Flexible Thinking Forum

It is rather appropriate that ‘Stupid Aid Day’ is on Thursday April 1st- - and offers all of us the chance stupidity in the world at large.

By stupidity we don’t mean low intelligence but rather the bureaucratic, ‘the Computer says No’ moments and other examples of stupidity in the world - whether it is the global financial crisis or the latest example of ‘healthandsafetyitus’.

If you have an example of stupid thinking please let us know at our special campaign web site, www.stupidaid.com.

This is not about making fun of people (although some may deserve it) rather it is about providing practical help to tackle the pressures of modern life.

My book ’Overcoming Stupidity’ contains advice to help anyone wanting to stand up to unhelpful telephone call centres, bureaucracy gone mad, or when confronted with unhelpful ‘jobsworths’.

The furore in the news over British Airways implementing a charge of up to £60 for choosing your seat on a flight has overlooked two key issues.
The first, is one very close to home to me. I do a lot of travelling, particularly through work.
Now, people who know me will hopefully vouch that I am [...]

A good friend of mine teased me about the extra mural activity at the notorious West Ham v Millwall game last week, and included a quote from an eye witness to the unfortunate events.

‘A 29-year-old owner of a kebab shop said he closed his premises in nearby Green Street for two hours. He said: “All hell broke loose - it was very frightening.”’

Now, in my new book I have created the term ‘kebabonomics’ to describe commercial enterprises which seemed to flourish, or at least surface and survive, in the least attractive of social environments.

I had to speak at two NHS conferences recently relating to swine flu.
Certainly, there is a fear of an almost Tsunami-like deluge of public concern, media overkill, and bombardment from so many different directions – which can all overload and overwhelm the hard-working network communications professionals.
Putting the issue into context, I depicted a brand landscape [...]

This may sound like a cliché but the world of football was united in its grief and sadness in response to the death last week of Sir Bobby Robson, the former England manager.
His track record was outstanding: almost getting England to a World Cup Final in 1986 and 1990, European success for unfashionable Ipswich Town [...]