Mysterious trends and fads

From Google Trends, a popularity chart of social change buzz words over time (in Australia).

Noticeable:

...the decline of "environmental education" and (thankfully) "capacity building";

...the rise and rise of "social marketing";

...the steady popularity of "behaviour change";

...the strange invisibility of "diffusion of innovations" (arguably the only one of these buzz words that represents a coherent body of knowledge!)

A nice insight – teams of two

One of the problems of organisational life is the weird centrifugal force that spins people into their own corners of the office where they become pressurised teams of one. And of course this isn't great for motivation, imagination, creativity, or morale.

I always thought the solution was “multidisciplinary teams”. But what about the Team of Two?

Here’s an insightful article that just changed my mind on this subject:

http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20100818

P.S. It’s true. I just finished a complicated Cycling Strategy where I was unintentionally in a team of two with a passionate cycling advocate. The team work was enjoyable and effortless. I can’t imagine it being that way with a bigger team.