Your monthly CX and insight newsletter from TLF Research

...gadgets and people both bear watching.

Roger Zelazny

I'm not going to mention the word "roadmap", but when things do get back to something close to normality, I hope we all remember to take stock. We need to reflect on what matters to us, what we've learned about dealing with existential risks like pandemic disease and climate change, and how we've managed over the past tumultuous year. Perhaps we might reconsider the relative importance of efficiency and resilience?

All of this is far above my pay grade, but when it comes to the customer experience this year is also a good time to start afresh. You need to understand your organisational culture, and you can only do that by talking to your people. You need to make sure that your understanding of customers is accurate and up to date, and that means you need qualitative research.

Don't rush back to the old normal without making sure you know what your people and customers need in the new normal.

Thanks for reading,
Stephen

Here are 6 things we think are worth you time this month

Why Most Cultures Need to Change

A quick read from Steve Simpson's newsletter, arguing that culture is more important than ever as a result of the pandemic. "There has never been a time more important than now for organisations to focus on their culture."

Read: Why Most Cultures Need to Change

AI and CX Jobs

Interesting article on which jobs will be quickest to go to AI, and where humans will retain an advantage for now. Long-time readers will know I'm a sceptical of the AI hype, but a good read. "...in today’s Thinking Economy, human workers still have an advantage in two areas: thinking intuitively and maximizing AI as a tool for providing personalized customer experiences..."

Read: AI and CX Jobs

100 Innovations per Hour

I've been really enjoying this series from Paul Smith. Imagine a regular voice message from a mate about the most interesting new stuff happening in the world, from emoji domains to rollable displays and glucose monitors. It's like a super-short podcast delivered to your WhatsApp twice a week. "Really short, always less than 2 minutes but guaranteed to be an interesting fun idea."

Sign up: 100 Innovations per Hour

Data vs Science

Judea Pearl, author of "The Book of Why", explains his view that data science and AI are neglecting the science of interpretation and causal explanation in their rush to build empirical models. I totally agree. "We have been rushing too eagerly to reap the low-lying fruits of big data and data fitting technologies, at the cost of neglecting data-interpretation technologies."

Read: Data vs Science

Collaboration Toolbox

A useful collection of tools and resources which you can mine for ideas next time you need to plan a workshop, or even just to reflect on your own. "A resource kit you can use to apply creative collaboration and unleash potential in your team or organization."

Find out more: Collaboration Toolbox

Top Reads: The Knowledge

If the apocalypse came tomorrow, and you were one of the survivors, would you know what to do? This book aims to outline a path to not only survive in the short term, but to rebuild civilisation in the long term. It really drove home to me how much of a house of cards so much of our current way of life is, and how difficult it will be to recover if we ever lose it. "...each piece of modern technology we take for granted requires an enormous support network of other technologies."

Top Reads: The Knowledge