Opinion | Langmaid Practice

Sunday 10 February 2013

New Free Pilots for Spring 2013!

Hello Everyone, Back to the blog. Apologies for my long absence, I have been busy with other things. Family and catching up with each other has been important these last weeks. We have kicked off the Advanced Practitioner’s Course in partnership with the Market Research Society and have now completed three of five weeks. We [...]

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Wednesday 23 January 2013

Will Hutton reminds us of the crisis in capitalism

Profits as a share of GDP in western countries are at record highs, along with executive pay. Meanwhile, wages for the majority are stagnating, if not falling, http://bit.ly/XWGwtT Out in Davos, the solution is: ‘resilient dynamism’. Wonder what that is when it’s at home? Sounds like ‘we get to keep all our perks’ (resilience) while [...]

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Wednesday 16 January 2013

NHS needs compassion

Although this post and the attached paper is about the lack of compassion in the NHS, the point I am making is that there is little hope that the authorities will take any notice of empirical evidence, whatever the issue, if it conflicts with financial or political interests. Thus, although the value of homework has [...]

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Wednesday 19 December 2012

Domestic Violence makes it to Corrie

Here is our original report to the Department of Justice in 2004. This work led to a change in the procedures adopted by the Metropolitan Police. Domestic Violence A Qual Study from Roy Langmaid Here is a poster from the campaign that followed the work:

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Friday 7 December 2012

Jacintha’s Story & the Law of Unintended Consequences

There is a great deal of outrage in the media about the subject of press freedom and the case of the nurse who took that call. From the ‘free-speech whatever the cost side’, the two ideas – freedom of the press and freedom of speech are viewed as indistinguishable. This is not the case. As [...]

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Friday 30 November 2012

My first video blog!

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Monday 12 November 2012

Newquay Workshop Brief

Please open the link below to see your leadership brief.

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Sunday 11 November 2012

Hope, humility and inspiration

Obama’s Tears. If ever there was proof of one of our maxims – ‘relationships are the source of results’ – we saw it play out on the world stage in last week’s American elections. Misunderstanding the importance of relevance, credibility and intimacy, Mitt Romney shipped his ‘ground workers’ in to areas from other states or [...]

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Tuesday 6 November 2012

SIgn Me Up for A Fortune…Mr Cameron

The wonderful John Ward has written a letter to Mr Cameron asking for one of the featherbed pension jobs. I think we should all send an application. You can find it here: http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/on-the-money/ And the truth about our FTSE 100 Chief Executives securing themselves a 27% pay rise here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20216031

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Friday 2 November 2012

Reading the News – Print versus Digital or Not At All!

I bought the Daily Mirror yesterday to pass the time on the Tube. I could hardly believe how poor it was! It was dull, predictable, turgid, clumsy and utterly boring. Pages were taken up by the Granny Bitten By Dogs story and while I sympathise greatly with the family who endured this tragedy – I [...]

Posted by roy at 10:18 am. No comments

Wednesday 31 October 2012

The Latest Inequality Chart from USA

To add to our chart from China yesterday, here is a related pie-chart from the US. It would be wonderful to hope that this growing awareness might shift people towards re-distribution of wealth. However, it is going to take more than just awareness to shift things in both the US and the UK. Those who [...]

Posted by roy at 11:55 am. No comments

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Inequality: the Tipping Point Draws Nearer?

Inequality and its consequences has been a subject of this blog for two years. The issue and its contribution to human suffering is what I’m talking about. Now, this data on the left shows it is the third biggest issue for people in China. As in our own country, there is proximity between concerns about [...]

Posted by roy at 10:32 am. No comments

Monday 29 October 2012

A Facilitator’s Bible!

For facilitators here is a model that really helps both to understand what’s happening and to diagnose what’s going wrong. For me this model is the proverbial bees knees. The model relates the use of Structure (agenda, timing, topics) with Affect, or emotional tone. From a meta-analysis of 300 studies on the effectiveness of leaders [...]

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Sunday 28 October 2012

OMG: A Romney Win say the Emotional Winds!

If ever you needed proof of what we say about the light and dark side – or good and bad opinions – existing in the same space, Word Clouds are a perfect demo of it! The four clouds on the left were generated by Pew Research in the US around Obama and Romney and their [...]

Posted by roy at 12:29 pm. No comments

Saturday 20 October 2012

Roy on Leadership in today’s world

A few months ago I was invited to put together a training that focused on the personal qualities that make a great leader. Here is a short video in which I explain the person-centred & psychology-based thinking that went into that training session. Alongside other things there is a core plea for more women leaders, [...]

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Sunday 14 October 2012

Two Interesting New Books

There are a couple of new books around that are of interest. The first includes a very complimentary account by an LSE Professor on my insights in our work for Tony Blair in 2005, done while I was at Promise. Forget your worries about Tony himself and what he did – most of us have [...]

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Sunday 7 October 2012

Stop Labelling Children

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Sunday 30 September 2012

Confessions of a Focus Group Guru 3: The Top Model & the Amazing Concept Board!

“Are you really sure you can have these boards and sound-tracks ready by Thursday?” I asked. “Absolutely, no worries!” replied the account director. “You can count on us!” We say our farewells and I leave the agency, passing not one but two glamorous dolls in reception…examining their nails. Several days later I am sitting in [...]

Posted by roy at 11:13 am. No comments

A Dreadful Consequence of Inequality?

Does this look familiar? Probably not. But look more carefully, in the centrepiece you will see a Swastika and we have seen that before. Readers of this blog will have noticed my concern with the rising inequality across developed nations. This boils down to a redistribution of wealth massively in favour of the richest 1% [...]

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Tuesday 25 September 2012

Confessions of A Focus Group Guru, Part 2

Continued From Part One: http://www.langmaidpractice.com/blog/confessions-of-a-focus-group-guru/ “I thought it was about beer. Aren’t we getting anything to drink? Oh Gawd, they wanna get drunk now… “Well, I’m not sure what’s been arranged, I’m new here, why don’t we find out.” “There’s a whole bunch of beers and sandwiches on a tray outside, with that filmy stuff [...]

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Wednesday 19 September 2012

The Bristol Workshop

Great Workshop session with Bristol members of MRS last night. I was particularly impressed by their creativity in expressing the way they felt about a huge brand. We had five different groups, each one producing a unique piece of expressive work about the Apple brand. Well done everyone and thanks for taking it on! An [...]

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Tuesday 18 September 2012

Confessions of A Focus Group Guru

I did my last conventional focus group in 1989. I think. I have done so many that sometimes they return in my dreams as if they were yesterday. In these dreams I am often trying to get an art bag full of concept boards, so heavy that it can barely be lifted, through a narrow [...]

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Wednesday 12 September 2012

Your friendly Bobby? I don’t think so…

Deaths due to Negligence? Ninety-six Liverpool supporters died in a human crush at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium on April 15, 1989, during the start of an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. The families of those who died will this morning be given first access to more than 400,000 pages taken from organisations including the [...]

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Saturday 1 September 2012

Choice as an Expression of Identity

Ask for a cup of coffee in Starbucks and you’ll face a seemingly infinite number of choices: tall, soy, java chip frappuccino, extra-hot, half-caf. Shop for jeans at the Gap and you’ll face endless walls of them: long, lean, drop-waist, distressed denim, short cuffed. Thirst for an orange juice — but would that be orange [...]

Posted by roy at 10:32 am. No comments

Thursday 30 August 2012

Greetings from Marettimo

This is the incredibly clear blue sea on the west side of Marettimo, last of the Egadi Isles, south-west of Sicily. Last night I found the path across the top of the island to the Case Romane, a fantastically well preserved set of Roman houses high above the village. I have to say it was [...]

Posted by roy at 11:20 am. No comments

Thursday 23 August 2012

The Death of Creativity: the Formula! [Or why I can't stand conventional advertising or research.]

“Why does Hollywood produce so many predictable, boring movies? Because they’re following a formula. And there’s nothing a formula-led mindset likes more than a nice, comfortable process. You can take refuge in a process. Those in business who are formula-led are always trying to find a way of processing creative thought. They want to streamline [...]

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Wednesday 22 August 2012

‘And treat these two impostors just the same…’

I was reminded of Kipling’s famous quote about triumph and disaster when just a few minutes after this sighting of rubbish in the street we were seated in the place you can see in the second photograph, gazing over a scene of serenity and beauty. I posted about the rubbish and the poverty the other [...]

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Monday 20 August 2012

Breakthrough Psychology – a Primer

The triangle on the left reminds me that when we start out to create a breakthrough we are likely to feel a sense of challenge bordering on the impossible. To overcome that doubt and fear, I include a one page primer for you to download that lists some of the things you need to do [...]

Posted by roy at 8:09 pm. No comments

Europe At Breaking Point?

Distressing scenes here in Sicily. It finally looks as though the burden of debt in the south of Europe is showing up in the streets and communes on just about every corner. We have never seen so much rubbish dumped just anywhere, as many forlorn-looking people on porches and doorsteps, as many large groups of [...]

Posted by roy at 4:16 pm. No comments

Saturday 18 August 2012

ls Inequality the Natural State of Affairs?

Many theories about the hierarchy in society start with an assumption that inequality is somehow a natural state of affairs and beneficial to us. The argument usually suggests that it bestows efficiencies, motivates innovation and increases the likelihood of survival. But what if the opposite were true? It seems highly likely that our pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer [...]

Posted by roy at 12:44 pm. No comments

Tuesday 7 August 2012

The One Who Woke Up

The Second in Our Series on Overcoming Avoidance as a Route to Clarity and Peace of Mind. According to legend, the Buddha was born Siddharta Guatama, the son of a King in a palace in the foothills of the Himalayas. Like Oedipus his destiny had been foretold – that he would become either a powerful [...]

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Saturday 4 August 2012

Anything You Resist Persists…

I’ve tried for years to explain the idea that resistance ensures persistence. I am indebted to the brilliant Oliver Burkeman* for bringing to my attention two important stories that demonstrate this idea. Both are founding myths of world culture. I will start with the Oedipus tale. The essence of the story is that when Oedipus [...]

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Thursday 12 July 2012

Touffou Leadership Brief

Please Open the link below to see your leadership brief. You have already been emailed the password to allow you to see the video link.

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Tuesday 26 June 2012

Geek Politics

Was surprised to learn that I am a GEEK yesterday. That’s if a new book called The Geek Manifesto is to be believed. Find out more here: http://geekmanifesto.wordpress.com/ You might be one too. You can also have a go at calibrating your level of ‘geekness’ using the picture at the side. How many of these [...]

Posted by roy at 11:10 am. No comments

Kelly Hicks & Talk for Health

The photo is of Kelly Hicks, Social Worker of the Year. I post it because Kelly, based in Darlington, recently sponsored Nicky’s Talk for Health among service users in her community. The programme was so successful that Kelly and her colleagues are determined to install TfH as a permanent feature of their work in supporting [...]

Posted by roy at 9:07 am. No comments

Never Fear, Podge is here!

Rooney dons his invisibility cloak at the end of England vs Italy in the European Championships. Not known for his razor sharp mind, it seems that Wayne has not realised that while he can’t see us, we can still see him. A matter for national regret. Twice during the game the ball was seen to [...]

Posted by roy at 8:30 am. No comments

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Myths & Silly Ideas 4: Brand Laddering

The cartoon here from Tom Fishburne would be simply funny if it did not remind me of so many of my own and other’s attempts to imbue brands with significance beyond their means. However did we think that buying a snack or a new pair of shades could act as a lever to world peace, [...]

Posted by roy at 2:58 pm. No comments

Tuesday 19 June 2012

The Death of Qual?

Click on the Thumbnail to see the film. Doubts about qualitative research in its traditional forms continue to gather pace. Here, in a cutely executed piece Coca Cola take a swipe at traditional processes – among them qualitative research. If you look more closely though, it is a particular form of qual that they criticise, [...]

Posted by roy at 12:17 pm. No comments

Saturday 16 June 2012

A Shameful Demonisation!

It is hard to know where to begin to protest the outrageous non-evidence based policies being advocated in my country! In an amazing set of proclamations the Convservatives last week attempted to shroud their economic incompetence by demonising a small group of people, the very poor and deprived, and blaming them for our woes. When [...]

Posted by roy at 11:56 am. No comments

Wednesday 6 June 2012

The Real Austerity Agenda?

This man is Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate and – in my view – the best reader of the current economic ills with the most sensible views on how to turn things around. He believes, as I do, that you can’t shrink your way back to greatness! Here, paraphrased is his demolition of our government’s favourite [...]

Posted by roy at 7:02 am. No comments

Tuesday 5 June 2012

The Face of Things

The Chinese have a saying: ‘The Bigger the Front the Bigger the Back” and events over the Jubilee weekend in the UK have shown us both our front and back. The emphasis has been on the front, putting a brave foot forward to rejoice in the sense of being united, together and cheerful in the [...]

Posted by roy at 9:32 am. No comments

Friday 1 June 2012

My New Paper on Depth Work

This week I want to offer you a copy of my latest paper, published in the International Journal of Market Research, Volume 54, Issue 3, this month. Called Working in Depth it provides what I hope is a comprehensive description of the value of face to face work – and the principles underpinning it – [...]

Posted by roy at 7:16 am. No comments

Friday 25 May 2012

Austerity

Thought you might enjoy this, from the Queen’s Speech a few days ago…

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Facebook’s struggles

As Facebook writhes amongst its riches it is difficult to resist a sense of deja vu. This was a tool for people talking to people, a peer to peer site much beloved of those who found it a window for self-expresion and a way of staying in touch. In a world that has become increasingly [...]

Posted by roy at 5:26 am. No comments

Wednesday 23 May 2012

More loss of Face than we thought?

It looks as though it was worse than I thought. What was clearly an overpriced shambles might have involved a conspiracy to fleece the public. It seems that one of Morgan Stanley’s analysts actually reduced his forecast for Facebook’s earnings as the shares went on sale and this wasn’t reported to the general public. Within [...]

Posted by roy at 10:16 pm. No comments

Sunday 20 May 2012

On my tod!

The UK is in DEEP trouble… The population of this country is approximately 60 million. 32 million are retired. That leaves 28 million to do the work.. There are 17 million in school or at Universities. Which leaves 11 million to do the work. Of this there are 8 million employed by the UK government. [...]

Posted by roy at 11:19 am. No comments

Saturday 19 May 2012

Loss of Face(book)

Facebook’s first day as a public company ended with the company narrowly avoiding the embarrassment of its stock dipping below the $38 (£24) starting price, in one of the most frenzied share sales in history. Insiders speculated that Facebook’s own bankers had intervened in last minute panic buying to prop up the shares to avoid [...]

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Friday 18 May 2012

The seeds of Facism – not just in Greece!

Another reason to dispense with Jeremy Hunt is his ill-informed prejudice against the poor. Hunt argued before the general election that long-term claimants had to “take responsibility’ for the number of children they had, adding that the state would no longer fund large workless families. But it is all based on myths. Just 3.4 per [...]

Posted by roy at 1:49 pm. No comments

The Rich get Richer…

I first predicted problems for the Government’s austerity programme and their ‘marketing’ of it in this post from August 2011. “It is indisputable that the Government have used the power of fear and nightmares to mobilise the population into acceptance of a desperate situation. For a year now we have been hearing tales of how [...]

Posted by roy at 10:46 am. No comments

Welcome to A New Serfdom!

Veiled beneath the tricks and clicks of smartphones and technology, more and more people across the world are recognising that these technologies are being used to subjugate rather than free them. Try phoning almost any large organisation and you will find yourself forced to ‘verify’ yourself, after hanging about pressing 1 or 2 or 3 [...]

Posted by roy at 9:58 am. No comments

Sunday 13 May 2012

Jeremy “I’m innocent” Hunt

Meanwhile, on planet Earth where most people would be proud to stand on Jeremy’s head, the IoS this morning leads with the shocking and yet somehow unsurprising news that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson ‘called the bluff of the Tory leader and George Osborne by refusing to sign a confidentiality clause as [...]

Posted by roy at 12:06 pm. No comments

Monday 7 May 2012

Eat, Sleep, Click

There’s something a bit unnerving about this image. It might even be that these two are on the phone to each other, judging by what I notice from my own life, where my wife and I often hove into view while talking to each other on our mobiles. Far be it from me to complain [...]

Posted by roy at 11:40 am. No comments

Friday 4 May 2012

Danny Duh! Politics a Busted Flush?

This morning on Daybreak, Danny Alexander tried the yabber/blabber technique much beloved of politicians nowadays. This relies on talking so fast that the interviewer can’t get any observation or questions in…like, why have the Coalition lost so many Council seats? Apparently, [yabber/blabber] it’s because ‘any government – including Tony Blair’s expects a big downturn in [...]

Posted by roy at 8:11 am. No comments

Monday 23 April 2012

Why the Wealth Gap Matters to Us All!

I have always tried to build bridges between the best of empirical studies and what I notice in the world. If you have followed this site you will have noticed my concern about the effects of inequality on our society – and on each of us individually. This week’s post introduces you to the growing [...]

Posted by roy at 11:49 am. No comments

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Healthcare – perhaps not!

In an astonishing series of announcements it turns out that our beloved NHS has sent no fewer than 240,000 patients home between the hours of 11pm and 6am. What can these people be thinking of? Certainly not the well-being of those in their care I suspect. More than 35% of these patients will be going [...]

Posted by roy at 9:08 am. No comments

Monday 16 April 2012

Obesogenics & the Sugar Blues…

I pinched this image from yesterday’s Observer. It shows a palette of sugary drinks being taken into the Aquatic Centre at the Olympic complex. As I predicted on this site months ago the furore over the role of sugar and regulation is just beginning: http://bit.ly/HKGVX6 There is even more cause for concern if you dig [...]

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Sunday 15 April 2012

An Independent View of Talk for Health

Here is a link to a lovely site put together by someone who is active in the area of trying to normalise mental illness and get us away from the medical model. The site is built around the idea of mental wellness – and I believe this is a growing and necessary reframing of views [...]

Posted by roy at 12:09 pm. No comments

Listening More Important Than Speaking in Insight Work!

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Friday 13 April 2012

Behavioural Economics is Exciting – but you won’t meet many people there!

It was great to sit and talk with Robert Bain from Research Magazine about my belief in the value of face-to-face contact in research. The full article can be found here: http://www.research-live.com/features/in-praise-of-face-to-face/4007207.article In the May issue of the International Journal of Market Research I explore this issue in more detail, lamenting the rise of ‘scientism’ [...]

Posted by roy at 3:06 pm. No comments

Thursday 12 April 2012

Extraordinary Television through Ordinary Eyes!

An extraordinary account of the sinking of the Costa Concordia on Channel 4 last night. The whole story was told through videos taken on smartphones by those on board. I have never seen anything quite so completely a ‘personal digital record’ of an event. No voice overs, no patronising explanations of what the front/back/sides of [...]

Posted by roy at 1:21 pm. No comments

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Talk that feeds the soul…

Anyone who enjoyed the empathy exercise on our Facilitation training may be interested in Nicky’s programme Talk for Health , which teaches similar techniques in much more depth. Her next programme starts 30 May and there is a 25% discount for friends of the Langmaid Practice. The influence of this work is spreading. Talk for [...]

Posted by roy at 1:10 pm. No comments

Tuesday 3 April 2012

The Pasty Panic!

What the papers said: As I watched the Budget and saw Messrs Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Alexander I got that “What do they know about anything?” feeling which, polls suggest, is doing the coalition harm. Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph The Chancellor and his rich cabinet colleagues cannot begin to understand what it’s like to be [...]

Posted by roy at 6:58 am. No comments

Sunday 25 March 2012

A Deal on ‘Daveing’

Always keen to bring you a deal, it turns out I can save you a cool 75% on schmoozing with Dave. It’s actually on sale here, for £50K. Presumably all the rest was going straight into Crudd-ass’s pocket. And you don’t have to eat the prawn cocktail! You can just get drunk at the booze-ups, [...]

Posted by roy at 10:11 am. No comments

Dinner with Dave – it’ll cost you! But it may be the best investment you’ll ever make.

There is a fundamental difference of opinion that dominates politics nowadays. The mindsets which underpin these opinions rest upon whether you believe that success – or failure – starts and ends with individuals, or that intervention by others, including the state, makes a significant difference to our achievements. In politics, the ‘individuals’ position flows from [...]

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Friday 23 March 2012

Re-energising the group!

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Thursday 15 March 2012

Myths & Silly Rules: how many of them actually said that?

Where shall I start? This is one of the most common misunderstandings of qualitative procedures. It tells both of the quantitative (how much, how many?) orientation of many buyers and practitioners – and more fundamentally in group work – it demonstrates the failure to take the group seriously! It is part of what David Rennie, [...]

Posted by roy at 7:30 am. No comments

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Hear Nicky talk about empathic communication on Thursday!

For anyone interested in exploring empathic listening and communications, Nicky is running a session on this at Wellbeing in the City this Thursday evening 7.0 to 9.0. Here’s the link. http://beta.wellbeinginthecity.me/gatherings/event/11-it-s-not-what-you-say-it-s-how-you-say-it

Posted by roy at 4:43 pm. 1 comment

Monday 5 March 2012

Qualities that Work About You

Please click on the thumbnail to play movie. This is our first movie from the recent Facilitation workshop pilots. Here we can see participants receiving feedback from other group members about what works when they are in front of the room. Many of us do not clearly know what our great qualities are – especially [...]

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Monday 27 February 2012

Facilitation Workshop, First Feedback Video

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Sunday 26 February 2012

Daring to Disagree with Albert E!

It’s sacrilegious to disagree with the great Albert, but here goes… Although we can agree sympathetically with Einstein’s thought about the primacy afforded to reason, the truth is actually different. As Kahneman points out, 95% of what we do, say, think is actually generated pretty much automatically – out of an amalgam of sensory experience, [...]

Posted by roy at 10:38 am. No comments

Friday 24 February 2012

Psychology on a Page 11: Psychodrama – the basis of action techniques

“The word is not the route to the psyche. In the beginning was not the word, but the act.” Jacob Moreno is the founder of Psychodrama, the use of theatrical performance and staging to re-enact events and circumstances from life. Trained as a doctor in Vienna 1912-1917, he rejected Freudian theory while still at [...]

Posted by roy at 7:11 am. 3 comments

Thursday 23 February 2012

RBS Sums…101

Let me see. Losses this year £766 million. Bonuses this year £785 million. Sounds good to me, give or take £19 million!

Posted by roy at 5:28 pm. No comments

Tuesday 21 February 2012

We’re a Couple of Toffs – sorry ‘Swells’:

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Sunday 19 February 2012

Kicking the Cripples

It isn’t that I think that scrounging, lying or cheating are alright. They are not. However, attacks on the disabled are not alright either. There is a long history of hostility to people who are different, whether through virtue of race, gender, education or capability. It is very difficult if you are disabled, either physically [...]

Posted by roy at 1:34 pm. No comments

Saturday 18 February 2012

Top Tips for Moderators 12: Three Golden Rules

If you have done a lot of focus groups you will have developed your own style or way of working. What was once a frightening procedure – being expected to contact and direct a group of strangers in a productive inquiry – may have become so commonplace that you have created and adopted a style [...]

Posted by roy at 9:44 am. No comments

Friday 10 February 2012

A Model of Consumer Motivation in a Page

My model is derived from years of experience in working with people on perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviour – and the relationships between them. From that work I have noticed a set of interlocking motivational drivers that persist in daily life. These drivers are made more or less potent by current events, fashions and culture. [...]

Posted by roy at 4:00 pm. No comments

Monday 6 February 2012

New Windows

We have used Reframing as a tool many times over the years and I remain interested in new examples that I hear about which strike me as useful. Today I heard from my wife about a Community Psychology Group in Newcastle. One of its members, Joel Yoelli, has come up with a fascinating reframe using [...]

Posted by roy at 9:41 am. No comments

Sunday 5 February 2012

Biased Questions?

Alex’s Salmond’s proposed referendum question – “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” – is hopelessly biased because it is asking people to positively agree, not to choose from neutral options. It is well established in countless studies (Solomon Asch’s is the classic) that humans prefer to agree and say ‘Yes’ rather [...]

Posted by roy at 11:03 am. No comments

Thursday 2 February 2012

Emotions rule the Roost!

“At a recent research conference, I listened to Phyllis McFarlane, Managing Director of the international market research agency GfK NOP speak of the growing need for a change in approach to research. The argument was clear – it is time to move away from the stale, outdated assumption of human beings as rational decision makers. [...]

Posted by roy at 11:24 am. No comments

Friday 27 January 2012

The Best Chart of 2012 so far!

Simply had to post this. Thanks to Paul Feldwick and Roddy Glen for drawing my attention to it. I’m in the “I’m Steve Jobs, really I am” crew, though I’m a bit short of turtlenecks and a bit over Powerpoint. Not sure [...]

Posted by roy at 3:08 pm. No comments

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Inequality UK

More upsetting news in the Government’s austerity policies. This time it concerns those well-known threats to society & wastrels, single mums. Here’s the key facts: if you are a single parent (usually a mum) who receives no maintenance from her partner, the Child Support Agency was set up to chase absent parents and demand maintenance [...]

Posted by roy at 8:08 am. No comments

Monday 16 January 2012

Plus ça change: plus c’est la même chose

Europe as a family business! Of course, the French are not to blame: their downgrading is a mistake and it should really have been the UK who got relegated to B-status – as our neighbours have always known – B is Les Rosbif’s place in the natural order. And while the storm cloud gathers and [...]

Posted by roy at 8:15 am. No comments

Saturday 14 January 2012

Miliband’s Credibility Problem

“Look, I am the guy who took on Murdoch,” Miliband said on Friday. “That was a decisive thing to do. I am the guy that has said the rules of capitalism as played in the last 30 years have got to change. What is the most important thing for a leader of the opposition to [...]

Posted by roy at 8:15 am. No comments

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Breakthrough Psychology Defined:

The Reason for a New Psychology – it gives us better paths to Insight! One trouble with great subjects in the modern era is that they take a long time to learn. Psychology is such a subject and what’s more 95% of its texts have nothing to say about the issues that we face in [...]

Posted by roy at 6:28 am. No comments

Saturday 7 January 2012

A slightly different view of the American ‘Upturn’!

Here from the Slog, (John Ward) is a bit of drilling into the employment and economic figures being heralded as the beginning of growth in the US by the Democrat press. Never forget we’re heading towards an election! http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/global-crisis-exclusive-us-labour-statistics-offer-no-sign-of-a-real-recovery-at-all/

Posted by roy at 12:57 pm. No comments

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Death Wish

The performance of the season in the best show on TV over Christmas – according to me. Showing death in life, Gillian Anderson’s Miss Haversham was a compelling reminder of the power of trauma to block progress, to freeze life at the instant of the shock and never to release its grip. A similar ‘death [...]

Posted by roy at 3:21 pm. No comments

A New Opportunity for Nudging!

Can You Nudge Yourself Thin? It’s that diet time of year. Being on a diet myself, I know what a lot of determination and focus it takes. Yet there is an idea around that this is an easy process. I suspect that the stimuli to eating are complex and I noticed this story about [...]

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Monday 2 January 2012

The Orientation of the Site in 2012

I’ve now been running my website for 8 months. During that time more than 6,000 people have visited the site, with 40% of you returning! Thank you for your interest and support! And all best wishes for 2012. I want to take a few seconds to update you on the orientation of the site and [...]

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Saturday 31 December 2011

Folk Devils and Moral Panics

If you’ve managed to struggle even part way through the Game of Thrones books (with their never-ending descriptions of sigils and costumes – a bit like the fashion pages for the middle ages) or the TV series with Sean Bean (pictured), you’ll have noticed that the big strong guy, who steps up to do the [...]

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Can a Central Bank Go Bust?

A long way from my usual territory, today I publish a link to a piece by John Redwood, discovered in John Ward’s blog, ‘Can a Central Bank Go Bust?’ What’s interesting is that one way a central bank avoids going bust is to print money, more than £200 billion in the UK so far! That, [...]

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Friday 30 December 2011

Body Language No 1:

What can Angela Merkel possibly be pointing at Our Dear Leader?

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No Way Out: the story so far

It’s terribly hard to keep up with all these characters, so I am again grateful to the WSJ for providing us with a revision cribsheet. As Angela Merkel said of these events on hearing about Strauss-Kahn’s little problem in the hotel in New York: “you couldn’t make this up!” Make no mistake, the story here [...]

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Anti-depressant use soars

You may have seen my post a while ago, called ‘That Other Crisis’. http://bit.ly/umgv8Z The things forecast there are coming true at a pace quicker than anyone have imagined. Anti-depressant use has soared by more than a quarter during 2011: details here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/30/antidepressant-use-england-soars I want to make it clear that I am not against the [...]

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Thursday 29 December 2011

Preview the Forthcoming TV series: No Way Out!

Here they are. This is the unattractive bunch who must be replaced by better looking celebrities once the production is underway. The big row is really over the one thing that should concern you and me: should the Banks take a Haircut ( a default on some of the money they’re owed by Greece), or [...]

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Tuesday 27 December 2011

My Second Prediction for 2012

We will see a rise in right-wing ‘corrections’ to multiculturalism and social democracy. It is hard to see how else it can play out: there are few places, after the clamp-down on the riots, for disaffected groups in society to express their frustration. If we cannot strike back against the authorities running the system without [...]

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Saturday 24 December 2011

My First Prediction for 2012

To a considerable fanfare on TV and press, the Government launched itself as a Consumer Champion yesterday (23rd December 2011). Did you have any idea that airline passengers alone pay more than £300 million in card surcharges in an average year? These charges also apply to rail, cinema and theatre bookings. My real issue though, [...]

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Wednesday 14 December 2011

Video 20: Co creation in Healthcare

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Tuesday 13 December 2011

Crime wave hits Britain!

If you have been following these pages you will have read my concerns about the effects of growing inequality. Overall, there are ten indices which differentiate between equal and unequal societies. You may remember that I pointed out that as the next most unequal society behind the USA, we are likely to see increases in [...]

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Tuesday 6 December 2011

Putting a Spin on It: Marketing Austerity

Do you remember the story of the boy who cried ‘WOLF’? Well this week we have the same tale in Britain’s High Streets – in other words a boy (little Georgie Osborne) who has cried wolf so many times in his efforts to blame everyone but his own side for the austerity measures that little [...]

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Thursday 1 December 2011

Potty Ideas in Groupwork

Can you keep the warm-up down to 5 minutes? How many times did I hear that request? It is one of the most common misunderstandings of group process to assume that you can cut the warm-up to the briefest of introductions and then proceed with your topic guide as if your participants are really there! [...]

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Wednesday 30 November 2011

That Other Crisis

You may have noticed my posts about the disastrous effects of the increasing inequality in Britain. Looking about you, if you are fortunate to have a good job and decent prospects, things might not look so bad from your perspective! However, there is something going on that testifies to the growing despair and disappointment in [...]

Posted by roy at 6:00 am. 2 comments

Peer support as effective & cheaper than therapy!

Psychotherapy has proved resistant to collecting evidence on whether it works or not. Exceptions are rare in the field. Most therapists do not collect outcome measures on whether or how their therapy helps clients! There are a few exceptions and, in particular, Mick Cooper at Strathclyde and Michael Lambert in the US have put together [...]

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Tuesday 15 November 2011

I’d like to get emotional but my client won’t understand…

Very enjoyable Members Session at MRS yesterday evening. We explored Action Techniques, based on Zerka Moreno’s maxim: “Don’t tell me, show me!” Hope the 60 or so people in the room enjoyed it as much as I did! At some point in any such session – where you are putting forward an approach that steps [...]

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Tuesday 8 November 2011

The Time Bomb!

Have you wondered how, when the average wage is around £25,000pa that people can afford so much stuff? How the planes are full to just about any destination you can think of and the shops are regularly packed? Well, now the answer is obvious: the amount owed by individuals in Britain is a staggering £1.5 [...]

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Monday 7 November 2011

Castles Made of Sand…

Somehow it feels more and more though control is slipping away from the established authorities. Are our castles made of sand? Chaka Khan rephrasing Jimi Hendrix thinks so…Chaka Khan – Castles Made Of Sand You’ll need to click on the post and Spotify to activate the link. The free one will do…get streaming!

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Wednesday 2 November 2011

Self consciousness is the Supreme Controller!

Self Consciousness – and why it matters to insight seekers We are very different when gripped by emotion from times when reason dominates. Most of us go to considerable lengths to present a reasonable – and reasoning – self to others. Special circumstances for allowing emotion and unreason to dominate are available but carefully boundaried [...]

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Tuesday 1 November 2011

What a Relief! The Hand-Out is Ready!

I’m delighted to say I finished the hand-outs for the Breakthrough Psychology Workshop this morning. I was determined that people attending the course would go away with a complete reference booklet providing: instructions to set up all the exercises in the workshop in their own projects the core principles origins, purposes, process and practices of [...]

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Monday 31 October 2011

Reconnecting the Prime Minister

Whatever you think of Tony Blair, in terms of technique the work we did for him in 2005 was a unique piece of insight work. So much so in fact that this work with its innovations in understanding the use of personality in political markets has made its way into the American Annals of Political [...]

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Thursday 20 October 2011

Video 19: Nicky, HMRC

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Video 18: Krystyna, Aviva

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Video 16: James, QRi Consulting

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A Charter for Breakthrough Psychology

A Charter for Breakthrough Psychology Here are the some key principles of this approach. You will be taught how to apply these during our workshops & courses. A lot of what appears to be ‘human nature’ comes from having to deal with a certain kind of world. If we change the rules of that world [...]

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Tuesday 18 October 2011

Video 15: Feedback on Art From Within from Participant

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Nicky leads Art From Within in the Workshop

Here we have a short video of Nicky setting up Art From Within and the group using the technique. We have had more memorable and breakthrough insights from this technique than any single other!

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Sunday 9 October 2011

Video 13: A Participant’s View of the Breakthrough Workshop

Doron Meyassed, founder and managing director of one of London’s leading online qualitative agencies talks about his experience of the workshop. Doron was winner of the Best Newcomer prize from the Market Research Society in 2010!

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Introduction to Breakthrough Psychology on the Advanced Practitoner’s Course

This short film introduces some of the key ideas in Breakthrough Psychology. A larger screen is available here. Shot during a pilot session with six attendees, you can get a sense of the topics and content. Reviews and ratings from all participants who attended the four pilot sessions (22) can be found here: Breakthrough Workshop [...]

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Thursday 6 October 2011

News of Breakthrough Psychology:

News Update: 6th October, 2011 We’ve now finished our four pilots and made some amendments to the Breakthrough Workshop based on your feedback. These are the changes we’ve made: The workshop is extended to a full day to give everyone hands-on experience of setting up and using all three tools: Foreground and Background, Art From [...]

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Wednesday 5 October 2011

Routledge Handbook of Political Marketing

Here is the cover of the forthcoming book on Political Marketing in which I am lucky enough to have a chapter, called Co-Creating the Future. If you are interested you can get a larger pdf of the cover here: PM Handbook

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Monday 3 October 2011

Action Techniques 4: Expressing Unmet Needs

No matter how sophisticated or customer aware your client, there is something about a large group expressing the essence of a need that is hard to ignore for brand, training & marketing teams. Here, rallied by a lady from Australia, staff and customers alike at the BA Big Talk, join in expressing what it is [...]

Posted by roy at 9:20 am. No comments

Friday 30 September 2011

Greece entirely owned by Germany!

For students among you, the last time Greece was occupied by Germany was in WW2, when Germany & Italy invaded in 1941. Now it seems that Euros might do the job done by Panzers with less bloodshed, but still a large amount of dismay and loss of honour among the Greeks! http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2011/10/01/greece-shocked-to-learn-it-is-now-owned-by-germany/

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Monday 26 September 2011

Action Techniques 3: Imagibuilding the A380

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Sunday 25 September 2011

Psychology at Work 1: Acting out of anxiety.

I am indebted to my good friend Johnnie Moore, for a more serious take on the above cartoon from the great J K Galbraith: “Men meet together for many reasons in the course of business. They need to instruct or persuade each other. They must agree on a course of action. They find thinking in [...]

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Top Tip No. 11: the case for working in depth

As a commercial qualitative researcher you might find yourself struggling to make the case for an in-depth approach. At times like these you need all the evidence and allies you can get. For what is the proven worth of in-depth work? This is a mildly absurd question – yet one favoured of the reductionists – [...]

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Tuesday 20 September 2011

Hear Roy’s Innovation Talk to the Pharma Researchers

At the link below you can see and hear the talk I did last week for researchers and marketers from the Pharmaceutical Industry. Slideshare who host this talk won’t allow you to add both a soundtrack and videos, so I have put hyperlinks on the slides where appropriate to take you to the videos. Then [...]

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Sunday 18 September 2011

Psychology on a Page 10: Fromm

Treat yourself to a book by this eloquent and deeply human man! His contribution was primarily as a thinker – drawing together political (Marx), psychoanalytic (Freud), theological and sociological ideas. Has an interest in the economic and cultural roots of personality – not just the biological and personal (c.f. Freud). Very close to being [...]

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Psychology on a Page 9: Otto Rank

With the previous two posts on Gestalt and Rogers I have started to focus in on the psychologists who have most influence on my contemporary thinking and practice. Another such is Otto Rank, the first non-medical practitioner of psycho-analysis. Like many of Freud’s followers, Rank’s perspective on our nature and the developmental steps that [...]

Posted by roy at 11:17 am. No comments

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Peer group therapy – cheaper and as effective as any other

This week Nicky Forsythe, founder of Talk for Health, a method for peer group therapy, talks on shades of grey in madness at Manchester Metropolitan University. Nicky believes that like the Kinsey scale that denotes the variance between homo and hetero- sexuality, that there is a continuum from sane to crazy – and that [...]

Posted by roy at 9:44 am. No comments

Saturday 10 September 2011

Bullies and the Bullingdon share five letters!

A few ID’s for you, from this fine photo taken in 1987: Hon. Sebastian Grigg, heir to Baron Altrincham and current chairman of Credit Suisse (UK). David Cameron. Ralph Perry Robinson, designer, furniture maker. Ewen Fergusson, son of British Ambassador to France, after Oxford at City Law firm Herbert Smith. Matthew Benson, heir to the [...]

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New Films for the Site: Results and Prizewinner

Preferred subjects for new videos Breakthrough Psychology – Principles 30 Value of Face to Face work 18 Two Chair work 15 Art from Within 14 Tantrum 12 Reframing 11 Key Ideas of Behavioural Economics 10 Therapy 9 The Spirit Walk 9 Creativity Techniques Classified 5 Dangers of Objectification 5 Yes but, yes and… 3 Imagibuilding [...]

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Wednesday 7 September 2011

Psychology on a Page 8 – Gestalt

The core idea of Gestalt psychology is that a whole or ‘gestalt’ is perceptually primary rather than a secondary quality that emerges from its parts. This ‘whole’ seems to represent the innate way in which we experience things. Related to our Course and to our approach to psychology generally is the idea that phenomena or [...]

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Psychology on a Page 7 – Carl Rogers

Rogers’ theory of the self is humanistic and phenomenological. However, in spite of a ‘New Age’ fascination with Rogers, his work is neither ephemeral nor lacking empirical foundations. He always stood for embracing and evaluating evidence from the phenomena and experiences of the people he met and the meanings that they made of their [...]

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Monday 5 September 2011

Video 11: Co Creation helps another product into the world!

This week’s video is a TV spot for a new collection of Sixties music: Dansette Days and Jukebox Nights. One of the best kicks from this work is when something that you have played a part in comes to market! Especially if, as in this case, the finished product contains elements that you can recall [...]

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Let’s go Shopping…

I have been a proud – yet guilty – bearer of such bags. There is a terrific self-satisfied glow that accompanies such moments of glee. However, this glee is not appropriate wherever you are. It’s easy to carry bags like this in Knightsbridge, among fellow wannabe’s, but less comfortable in Newham or Barking & Dagenham [...]

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Friday 2 September 2011

Top Tip 10: Dominant Respondents – what to do!

There is simply no place for the dominant respondent in a well facilitated group. It shouldn’t happen. But it does. The reason it happens is due to many things: In the first minutes of the group, people are nervous – some react by keeping quiet, others by ‘blurting’. It is quite usual that one group [...]

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Thursday 1 September 2011

Innovation creates resistance! Bolt bolts!

A few days ago we posted about the conservative nature of the Unconscious – how it prefers to keep things the way they are. This leads to the universal phenomenon of resistance to innovation. At the moment we have a great public example of resistance rising to an innovation made in the past year. In [...]

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Tuesday 30 August 2011

Action Techniques 2: Blindfold Game – a customer service exercise

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Monday 29 August 2011

Top Tip No. 9: Mapping the Unconscious

In our second look at the unconscious mind for insight workers we think about a human being, full of vulnerabilities – as well as potentials – and ask ourselves what role would make sense for an unconscious mind in such a creature? Above all, you would want to preserve its life, its existence. This [...]

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Tuesday 23 August 2011

Top Tip No. 8: Tapping the Unconscious

Many of us have formed the impression that the unconscious is deep below the surface, invisible, unknowable, out-of-reach – a bit like the huge mass beneath the water in the picture. This is simply untrue. It is present with us, intruding, dancing in and out of sight every moment of the day (and night!) It [...]

Posted by roy at 10:10 am. No comments

Action Techniques 1: Tantrum – an innovation exercise

This is the first in a series of videos that show more dynamic (active & expressive) techniques in action. On our Advanced Qualitative Course you can find out how & when and how to set up Tantrum and other Action Techniques in a group session. Clearly, it is not easy to do this kind of [...]

Posted by roy at 9:33 am. No comments

Sunday 21 August 2011

Inequality – the evidence

While the new rich make their way offshore with their booty, leaving the rest of us dangling in uncertainty and alarm, here is some interesting data, adapted from James Meadway in the Guardian: “Between 2003 and 2008, UK GDP increased by an apparently healthy 11%. Yet over the same period, median real incomes stagnated – [...]

Posted by roy at 11:58 am. No comments

Friday 19 August 2011

Nick Clegg: Prophet

In spite of my former irreverence towards Nick, he did get one thing right: Nick Clegg pointed out before the last election, that the likelihood of unrest would be increased under conditions of economic austerity: “Imagine the Conservatives go home and get an absolute majority, based on 25% of the eligible votes,” Clegg said. “They [...]

Posted by roy at 11:34 am. No comments

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Top Tip No. 7: hooking people’s attention

Have you got a couple of seconds? Have a look at the pictures above. They are all designed to capture or hook your attention. I hope one of those grabbed you. By the way, it does not matter if they turned you on or off – what I’m trying to do is stimulate your fast [...]

Posted by roy at 9:22 am. No comments

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Riots: What’s the one thing we need to change?

Thanks to all the readers of my posts on the Riots and our increasingly severe response to them. There is one thing we can change that could make the biggest difference. If you’d like to see that presented in a cool way – have a look at the video, which you may access by clicking [...]

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Monday 15 August 2011

What topics would you like in new films? (click for survey)

Here is a link to the very short survey asking for your votes on what topics to feature in the next six films on the website. Don’t forget there is a prize draw that will award a £50 voucher to the winner. You can also get to the survey by clicking on the image above. [...]

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Sunday 14 August 2011

Riots 2: the role of inequality

[For those who would like to study this picture more closely, if you click the graph above and then click the graph once more in the window that opens you will get an expanded version.] Thank you, to the more than one hundred of you who have read my post on the riots and my [...]

Posted by roy at 5:02 pm. No comments

Thursday 11 August 2011

Riots! Where did they come from?

I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that some elements of our society are sick, while everyone else is OK. Let’s think about what happened in the last few days without getting caught up in emotional responses of repugnance, revenge or retribution. Many thousands of people, in what appears to have been a series of events [...]

Posted by roy at 12:24 pm. 1 comment

Monday 8 August 2011

The second co-created consumer product!

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Friday 5 August 2011

Guest Post: Labels & Other Red Herrings

I was sent this as a comment by Owen, pictured here. I thought it deserved more prominence than to disappear in the heart of the blog. More kudos for Rory S too! “Labels can be misleading. Most of us have at one time or another probably met a teacher who isn’t or a doctor or [...]

Posted by roy at 5:07 pm. No comments

Behavioural Economics – hang on a minute!

Ever since the 1960’s people have worried about the validity of qualitative research. For a long time those worries turned on the reliability of small samples and interpretation. These concerns gave impetus to the ‘reportage’ approach and the asking of lots of questions to which you duly recorded the answers, weighting them in your analysis. [...]

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The first co-created product in the UK

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Video: Wendy Gordon on Behavioural Economics

Wendy’s wonderfully clear and intriguing introduction to Behavioural Economics. Well worth a view! You will find a link to Wendy’s site on the right hand side of this page. I will be publishing my own take on Behavioural Economics during the next weeks.

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Video: Mark Earls, “I’ll have what she’s having!”

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Thursday 4 August 2011

Video: Rory Sutherland on Behavioural Economics

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Wednesday 3 August 2011

Video: Shaun Woodward on brands and politics

Miraculously YouTube has allowed me to post videos of more than 15 minutes length. So over the next few days I will re-organise those I split into parts back into complete films. Here is the first, Shaun Woodward on political brands with some telling points about the Tories austerity strategy and their deviation from rebuilding [...]

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Friday 29 July 2011

Back in the UK…very soon

This is a view of Stromboli, from our balcony in Salina. In two days we leave these island shores to return to the UK. Looking forward to taking up the blog where I left off. Have an interesting film about the arrivals lounges showing co-creation in action and a paper for the International Journal of [...]

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Thursday 7 July 2011

The Downfall of Focus Groups

I have not published this in my video slider at the top of the page because some of you will have seen it and it is freely available on YouTube – at least for the moment. It will play if you click on the thumbnail. You can cancel the sponsors commercial by clicking on the [...]

Posted by roy at 11:46 am. No comments

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Brand Research – A Review of the June 9 Conference

MRS Brand Research Review Here is a review of our Brand Research Conference day on June 9th. Written by Judie Lannon, it is clear and informative as she always is. If you’re interested in the latest in brand research have a look and I’m sure the speakers would love to hear from you.

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Why I invented Co Creation

Some thoughts on the ethics of market research and where I stand. This is a pigeon in a Skinner Box. These were the kinds of boxes used in the early behaviourist experiments where the rules of Stimulus > Reward and reinforcement schedules were worked out. Something you may not notice and which has got conveniently [...]

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Friday 1 July 2011

My Story, Part One

The Rise of Individualistic Psychology and the Focus Group. I started my career as a psychologist working in market research in 1971. Although we could not see it then, two huge ideas from psychology were struggling for influence on business and politics. The first of these ideas, originating with Freud and appropriated by his nephew [...]

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Wednesday 29 June 2011

Psychology on a Page 2: Jung

Jung was the most spiritual of the great psychologists. For him, the unconscious was like a deep, vast sea upon which we are all afloat in our separate boats of consciousness. This sea, the collective unconscious, was populated near its surface by universal characters who we catch glimpses of in stories and tales that span [...]

Posted by roy at 8:37 pm. No comments

Top Tip No 6: Gossip More!

What do people do when they put aside their professional roles? What do you and your mates do on the way home from a match or a party? What level of debate do you usually reach when watching the X Factor? What sells newspapers and magazines? The answer to [...]

Posted by roy at 8:53 am. No comments

Tuesday 28 June 2011

New Videos – the Challenge to Market Research from Industry Leaders

I am very excited about the new movies arriving on the site! In addition to Shaun’s original take on political brands and the Tories moving away from revitalizing their brand to an opportunist position, we have three leading thinkers in Rory Sutherland, Mark Earls and Wendy Gordon talking about the fundamental mistakes common to modern [...]

Posted by roy at 9:11 pm. 1 comment

Thursday 23 June 2011

Advertising to the English

If you work in marketing, you will inevitably spend time trying to figure how the Brits respond to advertising. Whatever the topic and whoever the audience, if the purpose of the message is to sell something it will almost certainly be approached in an indirect way. Very few companies [...]

Posted by roy at 8:41 am. No comments

Sunday 19 June 2011

Video: Trouble at the Beeb?

Auntie lost her way on this day. Ever since they stopped challenging politicians after the Andrew Gilligan affair, I have been worried that the BBC is becoming slowly more inefficient and error-prone in their reporting. And given that they have surrendered their critical faculties, more slapdash in every way. I am grateful to Rory Sutherland [...]

Posted by roy at 10:46 pm. No comments

Monday 13 June 2011

The Value of the State

I couldn’t say it as well, but Will Hutton (see link below) points out with unerring clarity the importance of the state in all our lives. It is simply hogwash to decry it as useless, out-of-date, inferior to ‘private’ organisations. Who will clear up the Southern Cross mess? Why, it will be you and me, [...]

Posted by roy at 10:13 am. No comments

Friday 10 June 2011

Video 8: Fairy Tales & TV

The best book about the psychology of fairy tales and their impact on our growing children is in my view Bruno Bettelheim’s ‘The Uses of Enchantment’. Here Bettelheim analyses the use of impossible challenges, faith and courage to implant unconscious lessons in our children about how to solve life’s biggest problems. Some [...]

Posted by roy at 8:37 am. No comments

Monday 6 June 2011

Video: Freeing Britain – semiotics

Semiotics takes a bow! I’m pleased and proud today to welcome a video contribution from one of the UK’s leading semiotics consultants, Greg Rowland. In the first of what I hope will be a series of video clips from masters of consumer and social psychology, Greg gives us a snapshot of the role that [...]

Posted by roy at 7:52 am. No comments

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Slide show + talk on Co creation

http://www.slideshare.net/roylangmaid/roy-co-creation-talk-slides For those interested in the growing use of co-creation, I can genuinely claim to be one of the originators of this method. Since 1991 I’ve been running such sessions for a variety of organisations on different topics. I will post one of the British Airways case histories soon. Our pathway to this technique are [...]

Posted by roy at 4:38 pm. No comments

Psychology on a Page 6: NLP (neuro-linguistic programming)

The cartoon shows the three Primary Representation Systems from NLP; vision, hearing and feeling. There was a great deal of excitement about NLP, right from its origins in 1979. It appeared to offer not only some interesting and original ideas, but most of all an access to techniques which anyone, with a little training could [...]

Posted by roy at 11:12 am. 1 comment

Tuesday 31 May 2011

DSK wish you were here!

This just has to be airbrushed! Carol Shaw thinks it could be Wonderbra but I think her head is on someone else’s body. Am I losing it? What does everyone think? She’s lucky not to be in a hotel with the Man from the IMF (Instant Mother-F**king).

Posted by roy at 6:08 pm. No comments

Monday 30 May 2011

No you can’t!

In a prescient moment, Obama lays a restraining hand as DSK lurches towards the first lady!

Posted by roy at 9:55 am. No comments

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Top Tip 5: Don’t Probe!

My tip today is: don’t probe or pressurize people to provide reasons or justifications. They’ll just make stuff up to satisfy you. This is known as ‘confabulation’. Instead, take the pressure off, open things up, don’t pursue! How would you like to be ‘probed’. Sounds like the dentist! [...]

Posted by roy at 6:40 am. No comments

Monday 23 May 2011

Psychology on a Page 5: Adler

Adler was a contemporary of Freud, departing with him, like Jung, over the primacy of the sexual drive. All three were drive theorists – believing in innate capacities that were shaped in childhood and which shape our lives – but only Freud focused on the sexual instincts to the relative exclusion of the others. Adler [...]

Posted by roy at 6:06 pm. No comments

Psychology of Social Objects

What kind of act is reading a newspaper? Cleaning your teeth? Driving a car? Learned behaviour. It is learned from others and shaped by the social and political norms that surround you – and which you take on personally. Thus a newspaper is more than a text: it is a social object. Some call this [...]

Posted by roy at 8:18 am. No comments

Roy on Boredom

One of the things I see most often is the need to see reality and tell the truth about it. There is enough pretending going on already! Here I tackle boredom as a phenomenon that researchers will encounter…even though it may be difficult to admit it!

Posted by roy at 6:30 am. No comments

Friday 20 May 2011

Track of the Week:

It was 1969. It felt like the end of an era. Would the party really come to an end? Strange spangly people like Mud and Slade were starting to emerge…pushy, strangely unreflective after the Beatles… Gary Glitter was around…how about that? Every now and again there was a refreshing idea. Here is one from someone [...]

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Laugh of the Week!

What do you get if you play a country record backwards? Your farm back, your dog back, your wife back!

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Upcoming Events

I’m now scheduled to speak at two events in June and it would be lovely to see you there. The first is an MRS Conference on Brands on 9th June, the second is the Association of Qualitative Research’s Q Conference on June 16 where I’m demonstrating abnorming and disinhibition. If you can stand the idea [...]

Posted by roy at 5:56 am. No comments

Thursday 19 May 2011

Top Tips 4: Let yourself be fascinated!

Fascination! My tip this week is this: If you are to get the most out of an inquiry or study, become immersed in the phenomenon you are investigating. More particularly, see if you can begin to reflect upon & empathise with the significance that it has in everyday [...]

Posted by roy at 7:30 am. No comments

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Royal Wedding: A Modern Fairy Tale?

Some of you may remember the Psychology of the Royal Wedding post (26/04/2011) in which I predicted a shorter train to Kate’s dress (right) and lots of mentions of Diana (wrong). What I missed is the close relationship between this real marriage and the great loves of Fairy Tale romance. If you follow these posts [...]

Posted by roy at 7:00 am. 1 comment

Psychology on a Page 4: Behaviourism

Behaviourism My department of psychology was, in 1967, like many others, in the grip of the influence of Behaviourism (Watson & Skinner) and Learning Theory (Hull). Today, the legacy of these years is that empiricism holds sway over any other kind of proof or theoretical heuristic in accounts of human activity. Behaviourism has at its [...]

Posted by roy at 7:00 am. No comments

Monday 16 May 2011

Roy on Insight

A opener on insight. Talking about 4 paths to insight that I have found fruitful. This is the central topic of the site and there will be more on this in the next series of videos!

Posted by roy at 7:30 am. No comments

Friday 13 May 2011

New Products to Die For!

Summer’s coming! Time for sandals. Have a look at these. Look familiar, just like junior’s? Think again. These are doggy sandals. For the animal lovers among you all you have to do is send in your pet’s paw size. How you figure that out is another matter… These [...]

Posted by roy at 7:30 am. No comments

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Opinion (well rants really!)

This my friends is a ManCan. That’s a man’s candle to you. I was amused to find them as a result of a 13 year old’s entrepreneurism at: http://www.man-cans.com/Scripts/default.asp What is most fascinating is the ‘flavours’ or should I say ‘odours’? Not Lady Gaga onstage, or Beyonce b4 [...]

Posted by roy at 8:57 am. No comments

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Psychology on a Page 3: TA

Transactional Analysis (TA): Throughout my early career I became something of a specialist in advertising development research: the kind of project where you take a set of scripts or storyboards out into groups to see if they grab people or not. One of the essential components of this kind of work is to have a [...]

Posted by roy at 4:31 pm. 2 comments

Sad or Bad – Nick Clegg’s Integrity issue

If you’ve seen any pictures of Nick Clegg in the papers or on TV recently, they’re not a pretty sight. For the budding psychologists among us, these photos clearly show the troubled face of a man with an Integrity issue. Such issues arise as a result of broken promises or commitments –and because they [...]

Posted by roy at 7:39 am. 1 comment

Monday 9 May 2011

Top Tip 3: the discovery group

The key to discovery is letting go. Once you have formed your group or team, you need to set them free on their journey with whatever brief(s) and resources you plan to make available. This need to let go is one reason why I have focused so much on disinhibition in my group work – [...]

Posted by roy at 11:57 pm. No comments

Roy Chairs & Speaks at MRS Brand Research Conference, 9 June 2011

Yes folks, I’m gonna be speaking about some of the things I rant about here at an MRS conference soon. I’ve uploaded a pdf brochure for the conference – and if you’re able to come, I’d love to see you there. Great speakers, fascinating topic! You can get a pdf about the conference here: [...]

Posted by roy at 8:50 am. 2 comments

Sunday 8 May 2011

Roy on Breakthrough Psychology

Now we focus in on the heart of breakthrough psychology, the idea of abnorming – born out of my eventual realisation that no theory, no matter how cool, could explain all that we are. This is the key reason why I’ve bothered to learn about so many of the great ideas in psychology – and [...]

Posted by roy at 10:55 am. No comments

Laugh of the week!

Sometimes comedians get it just right! “When I left the country 18 months ago it was grim Gordon in charge. When I got back the show was being run by two gay antique dealers.”

Posted by roy at 9:26 am. No comments

Friday 6 May 2011

Track of the Week: Ben’s Wicked Soul!

Many of you may not have seen the wonderful Dansette record player – complete with Auto-Changer! A Miracle of the 1960′s. I posted about my son Ben’s Grammy last week. Well done him! But before La Roux Ben wrote for and produced a band with an indie-ish sound, called KUBB. Their debut album, Mother, [...]

Posted by roy at 12:36 pm. 3 comments

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Top Tip No 2: techniques for evaluation in groups

My Tip this week: get your groups arguing. Read on and you’ll see why. If you have a set of alternatives to evaluate its likely there are two main question you’ll want to answer: which is strongest and why? There are any number of ways in which one thing may be stronger than others, [...]

Posted by roy at 10:33 am. No comments

Sunday 1 May 2011

Roy on Working In Depth

This fourth video starts to tackle the conditions needed for creating depth in contact with people. It is in my view an illusion that you create any reliable real contact by venturing straight in to what may be twenty or more questions to strangers about their lives! I think that Relationships are the Source [...]

Posted by roy at 10:41 am. No comments

This week on the site: w/c 3rd May 2011

This week, starting with our 4th video on Tuesday the 3rd May we have four new things for you. The video is about the conditions you need to work in depth. Then on Wednesday a Tip of the Week – more on techniques for evaluating in Groups. On Thursday its Psychology on A Page. This [...]

Posted by roy at 9:21 am. No comments

Thursday 28 April 2011

Breakthrough & Society 2: ‘elf & safety’

In 2003, working for my good friend Joseph Debacq, we were both somewhat terrified of Joseph’s boss at Singapore Airlines, the formidable Yap Kim Wah! Mr Yap, as he was known, had many qualities which led to him being feared and respected among us juniors and I remember [...]

Posted by roy at 1:05 pm. No comments

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Track of the Week!

Track of the Week Hope you don’t mind, but you may know that my eldest Ben Langmaid, is a Grammy winner with La Roux for the best dance album in the USA (2011). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri5mDHZpw_o Overcoming my British modesty, it is possible that he learned some of his best licks at my knee, or growing up [...]

Posted by roy at 2:34 pm. 1 comment

Psychology of the Royal Wedding: things to watch out for!

The first thing to say is thank God for the extra holiday – and you don’t need to feel obliged for a moment to watch the wedding – they’re paying for it with your money anyway. Next, what’s the key ‘sub‘ or ‘covert‘ text to look out for? Well here’s my take on that: the [...]

Posted by roy at 11:05 am. 9 comments

Monday 25 April 2011

Psychology on a Page 1: Freud

Each of the layers of Freud’s three-part system is derived from different sources. The Id is the container of biological and species history – embodied in our instincts: a ‘seething cauldron’ as it has been called. It is the energy that makes you want to push someone out of the way if you are hungry [...]

Posted by roy at 8:07 am. No comments

Sunday 24 April 2011

Dangers of ‘Staycationing’

We set out on the Easter weekend with high hopes. We had no idea that Staycationing (taking a holiday in the UK for overseas readers) would prove such a dire experience. What happened? What went wrong? To be honest we had become so used to holidaying in Italy that we had forgotten about the English [...]

Posted by roy at 4:14 pm. 3 comments

Thursday 21 April 2011

Next Week on the Site!

Next week we have three new things for you: A New Video – this one’s on establishing the conditions to work with people in depth A New Tip: No 2 follows up on how to evaluate things in groups – and introduces a new Breakthrough Principle. Psychology on a [...]

Posted by roy at 7:17 am. No comments