Autonomous State

Book review The Silo Effect by Gillian Tett published by Abacus Reading time: 2 mins “W e need specialist, expert teams to function in a complex world.  But we also need to have a joined-up, flexible vision of life.” The author Gillian Tett is the US Managing Editor of The Financial Times.  Originally from the UK, she transferred to the FT’s New York office shortly after the financial crash.  Tett has a background in social anthropology which she uses to good effect in the book. In a nutshell The Silo Effect (TSE) examines the tendency of most (if not all) large organisations to divide into ‘silos’, resulting in poor internal communications and often an unwillingness to share knowledge between teams and departments.  The book challenges the reader to consider the implications of silos and some possible solutions. A recurring theme is the “insider-outsider” perspective, derived from social anthropology.  It emphasises the abilit...

Book review The Signals Are Talking by Amy Webb published by Public Affairs Reading time: 2 mins The author(s) Amy Webb is a futurist writer and academic at New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business .  She is also Founder of the Future Today Institute , which promotes the techniques described in The Signals are Talking (TSAT). In a nutshell TSAT offers a methodology for analysing today’s technology trends with the aim of identifying those most likely to produce mainstream products in the “far” future.  It is written in a non-academic style, accessible to anyone familiar with the most talked about technologies of the past three or four decades. Scope and scale The book tackles a large and relatively nebulous subject, namely the factors determining whether a technology sticks (or twists).  There is some historical narrative going back decades, even hundreds of years, but the focus is largely 21st Century and digital. Webb doesn’t ...