How do we keep adding value as we progress in our careers.
In the early days we learn and create value by doing.
I learned more about software development in three months of a student placement at Arm than all the lectures I had sat in previously.
Later, we might step away from the doing and start developing others.
We start thinking about systems that help get things done.
And that’s where the problems start.
If we get lost in the doing, our days turn into firefighting.
If we get lost in the thinking, it looks a lot like navel-gazing.
It’s the combination of thinking and doing that leads to growth and produces value.
It turns out there’s a term for that – Action Research – and it’s been around for 70 years.
This is about taking action and doing research at the same time – together with critical reflection.
Whether you’re trying to work out how to integrate AI into your business, decarbonize your estate, or work out your supply chain issues, Action Research is a way to engage with the problem in a pragmatic way.
Action Research has changed my own practice. Over the last 13 years, every service that I’ve developed has come from conversations with clients and prospects where we’ve co-created a value proposition and figured out how to make it real using Action Research.
Rather than trying to guess what customers wanted it was easier to simply talk to them, understand their situations, and co-create solutions to improve those situations.
It can seem like there’s an increasingly complex world out there – with AI, regulations, politics – all vying for attention and threatening rapid change.
But real change comes from both thinking and doing.
And Action Research is a way to make that happen.
Handcrafted insight 