Sketchplanations - The Podcast

This week, we ask ourselves if we've reached our professional peaks and if we now fall foul to the Peter Principle, having tipped into our levels of incompetency.

Amongst many other clever things, Jono applies the principle to Football Management.

Tommy gives his insight to how relevant it is managing at the very top of a business.

And I tell how my capacity to teach stuff is severely limited by exactly the kind of incompetence the Peter Principle is based on.

Where do you feel you or maybe more interestingly, where do those around you sit within the Peter Principle?

Here are some useful links if you want to find out more about some of the bits we discussed:

• The Peter Principle was first proposed by Canadian educator, Laurence J. Peter . In one of his books, he also said that "noblest of all dogs is the hot dog; it feeds the hand that bites it."
• Creator of The Paula Principle is Tom Schuller
• The Dilbert Principle
• The Generalised Peter Principle sketch
• #1 Rule of Indoor Games
• The BBC Peter Principle sitcom with Jim Broadbent on YouTube

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider putting in a pre-order for Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out very soon.

We'd love to hear your stories of any experience with The Peter Principle.

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It can be uncomfortable to express opinions different from those of a group. Perhaps you remember that feeling when a teacher asked a question in class and if everyone raised their hand to one answer it wasn't always easy to be the only hand up for a different one.

That's Groupthink!

Do you remember the story of 12 Angry Men? How it took the resilience of one jury member to arrive at a correct verdict of not guilty.

That's Groupthink.

Thankfully, Jono suggests various ways to help avoid falling into the Groupthink mentality. See the sketch online for more details.

The sketchplanation itself is set in a professional environment - where I'm sure many people have experienced it.

Let us know.

email [email protected]

Other sketches referenced include:

• Bandwagon Effect
• Bystander Effect
• Firehouse Effect
• Abilene Paradox

We also reference the concept of psychological safety - a very apt phrase in this context coined by American author and Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, Amy Edmondson

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The three of us are tired of being misunderstood when we've used the words "biweekly", "bimonthly" and "biannually".

It's just no fun.

And so we're starting the campaign to ditch biweekly and use fortnightly instead. See sketch here.

Try it out. You won't regret it.

Our discussion turns to the general ambiguity of language and how in many senses it's quite a good thing.

It allows for creative writing, comedy and ease of communication.

Lots of bits to link to this week from this week's episode - enjoy:

• Ian Hollingshead book - Imagine my surprise...
• William Empson's book - The 7 types of Ambiguity
• TED talk by Lera Boroditsky & here's her Instagram account too.
• Sketch on the Oxford comma
• Sketch on Context is King
• Sketch on Capitonyms
• Sketch on homonyms, homographs, homophones, heteronyms

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider putting in a pre-order for Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out very soon now.

We'd love to hear your stories of any confusion with the words biweekly, bimonthly or biannually.

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ah, that satisfying, superior, at once gleeful and slightly sinful feeling when the aggressive driver that overtook you gets their comeuppance and is flashed by a speed camera. Or when you find yourself laughing when a loved one falls over.

#EpicFail comes to mind.

This human experience can also be described as Schadenfreude, a nifty German word made up of schaden for damage, harm or hurt and freude for joy. Taking pleasure in others’ misfortunes.

And so begins a litany of examples amongst the three of us of times we've felt schadenfreude.

We learn that there are different types (summarised as 'good' and 'bad'), that some of us experience it more than others, and that there could be learnings in it for all of us to help consider our relationship with those around us.

You can find the headline sketch here.

We regularly reference the writing of cultural historian, Tiffany Watt Smith and her book on the topic.

Let us know your stories where you've experienced schadenfreude. We'll try not to laugh.

email us: [email protected]

alternatively, you can find all three of us on Social Media here too: Jono Hey, Tom Pellereau, Rob Bell.

Find many more sketches at Sketchplanations.com

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you like the thought of heading off on an adventure but don't really have the time to see it through?

Why not try a MicroAdventure?

They're smaller, achievable, won't break the bank and will go a long way to scratching that itch you might never have reached anyway.

In this episode we speak with the charming and inspirational Al Humphreys about adventures in his life, before focussing on the smaller, more achievable things we could all fit into our busy lives to keep our thirst for fun, physical activity and spiritual reward truly quenched. Al is the author of 14 books to date, is an accomplished and entertaining public speaker, podcaster and general all-round good guy. Our conversation is packed full of ideas for things you can do from your own doorstep that will ensure you have some great stories (and maybe photos) to share with friends and family - in fact, why not share your MicroAdventures with them too?

I know for a fact that since this conversation, Tommy climbs a tree near his office once a month during his lunch break!

Amongst many topics, we talk about the character traits of someone who enjoys adventure and adversity, what drives us to seek adventure and the legal & moral wrangling of responsible wild camping.

Get in Touch

How important is adventure in your life?

Do you have examples of your own MicroAdventures?

Let us know:

• email us: [email protected]
• OR leave us a voice note

Reference Links

In this episode we also reference:

• Custom Made Ordnance Survey Maps
• The Fun Scale podcast episode
• Small Little People TRIZ Tool podcast episode
• The book "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" by Laurie Lee
• Example of a simple Bivvy Bag
• How to find the halfway point between you and others to define the perfect place to meet.

All music on this podcast is provided by the very talented Franc Cinelli.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.