Tentacles - the podcast from Crown & Reach Podcast Por Tom Kerwin arte de portada

Tentacles - the podcast from Crown & Reach

Tentacles - the podcast from Crown & Reach

De: Tom Kerwin
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Hi, we’re Tom and Corissa from Crown & Reach, and this is Tentacles.


With over 100 episodes behind us, this might just be the best bad podcast out there. Unfiltered, unedited, and deeply curious.


We talk strategy, sense-making, and the blurry edges between work and the rest of life — because sometimes, the only way through the fog is to feel your way forward, limbs outstretched.


While we're migrating podcasts across, you can find all the goodness from our first 100 or so episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy

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

Tom Kerwin Economía Gestión Gestión y Liderazgo Liderazgo
Episodios
  • 130: The Sinclair Effect and the Winkler Constraint

    130: The Sinclair Effect and the Winkler Constraint
    Jan 9 2026

    Upton Sinclair said "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."


    But what if it goes deeper than salary? What if it's about identity itself?


    In this one, we explore why clear explanations often increase resistance, how an interior designer accidentally solved the change management problem, and what executive data analysis reveals when everyone plots different insights from the same numbers.


    From expert panels to Pimlico plumbers, we feel our way through the murky challenge of introducing ideas that threaten people's fundamental worldview – and discover that experience beats explanation every time.


    We get into:


    • The Sinclair Effect: when understanding threatens identity (not just salary)
    • Why simplifying your explanation can actually make your ideas MORE threatening
    • The executive data exercise that exposed beautiful chaos (everyone saw something different)
    • The Winkler Constraint: how Caroline Winkler transformed her viewers' rooms with only three purchases allowed – and why
    • How expertise shows up best under tight limitations
    • The plumber parallel and why end customers don't care which wrench you use
    • Leading with theory vs. leading with experience (and Tom's early mistakes)
    • Opening portals vs planting flags, and the role of jamming
    • Why the saying "consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds" can hurt your career (ask us how we know)
    • How to give people what they want while accidentally also giving them what they need (but without being manipulative about it)


    "You can't just not give people what they want. Then you are a blocker."


    References & links


    • Upton Sinclair - "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it"
    • Jen Briselli and Kyle Godbey's "Field notes from the swamp" https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL89SttTTcPTGDdRlcQTcEqz4Ra9z2w0le&si=FC6O6zfbLCzykKm8
    • Cynefin framework / complexity science (Dave Snowden)
    • Caroline Winkler - YouTube interior designer https://youtu.be/ZvHM_VCybN0?si=CIPObJld8IM4Mc-X
    • Venkatesh Rao - "Portals and flags" concept https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/06/25/portals-and-flags/
    • Eleanor Roosevelt - (possibly apocryphal) "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"
    • Pivot Triggers (Crown & Reach)


    When have you fallen over by leading with theory? When have you enabled an experience that let things shift by themselves? Drop us a line: tentacles@crownandreach.com

    Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    29 m
  • 129: Who gets to decide what counts as an insight?

    129: Who gets to decide what counts as an insight?
    Jan 7 2026

    Can "insights" be pre-packaged? Should they be?


    In this one, we wade into the murky distinction between polished agency deliverables and raw, messy data exposure. From a bank that knew what it wanted (and just needed to show due diligence) to clients who fundamentally changed direction after reading customer transcripts, we explore when different approaches can actually work.


    Along the way we talk about how the iconic Rowan Atkinson Barclaycard campaign (UK only, we think) had absolutely nothing to do with the original brief – and how frequently that's the story of projects and innovation. We also mention AI because that's still a thing, and we reference "decision-based evidence-making" and how it's more common than you might think.


    This one's for anyone who's sat through a glossy presentation questioning whether the conveniently self-serving story is justified, and for anyone who's tried to synthesise insights for others and been left wondering why it doesn't seem to make a dent.


    Including but not limited to:


    ● How a beloved Barclaycard ad campaign was thrown together in a last minute panic after the pitched idea fell apart

    ● Gary Klein's chef's kiss definition of insight: "an unexpected jump to a new story you can't unsee"

    ● The cost of pre-packaged, pre-masticated insights – if it's too easy to swallow there's no chewing needed

    ● Why you can't know what counts as an insight in someone else's company

    ● Decision-based evidence-making vs. evidence-based decision-making

    ● The intense 7 hours of workshopping that "changed everything" for our client

    ● How we use AI to clean transcripts (take out the ums and ahs) but not to generate insights ... because it can't

    ● Why "disintermediation" might be the most important move in strategic research, though it's not an easy one to pull off

    ● When glossy agency work actually serves the purpose perfectly

    ● The opportunity cost that isn't about money, and why senior teams avoid the hard work


    Links & references


    • Book "Why Does the Pedlar Sing?" by Paul Feldwick (advertising/creativity)
    • Gary Klein – insight definition
    • Jonathan Korman – "decision-based evidence making" quip (though we think he credits someone else)
    • Genchi Genbutsu – Toyota principle of "go and see"
    • Pitch Provocations – our research method, message us for more!
    • Multiverse Mapping – our mapping method
    • 4U Framework – our meta-methodology


    Questions, stories, or strongly-held opinions about research methods? Pop us a message: tentacles@crownandreach.com

    Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Más Menos
    32 m
  • 128: Chalk, plasticine, and the art of experimenting when broke

    128: Chalk, plasticine, and the art of experimenting when broke
    Dec 22 2025
    You've been told you must transform your business with AI. But you have no budget for consultants, no runway for experiments, and absolutely no permission to fail.So... what now?This is the impossible bind facing many executives right now. And spoiler: trying to brute-force it is exactly how you end up as the expendable experiment in someone else's portfolio.Drawing lessons from electricity infrastructure booms, a hapless lettuce entrepreneur, Tom Chi's plasticine prototypes, and our own white-knuckle cash crisis earlier this year, we explore what actually works when resources are scarce, pressure is high, and the path forward is genuinely uncertain.Including-but-not-limited-to:Complexity of abundance vs complexity of scarcity: why portfolio strategies collapse when you run out of eggs to put in basketsThe electricity/steam substrate shift: why you can't just "add AI" to your existing factory layout and expect magicWhy some execs are being set up as expendable experiments in someone else's portfolio ... and how to spot if you're one of themOur own near-death cash flow moment, and why we didn't buy any of the blueprints that promised us a solutionWatchful waiting: the counterintuitive move that actually worked when all we wanted to do was panicWhy the lettuce man was right but early, which is functionally the same as being wrongTom Chi and the art of radical cheapness: testing Google Glass with plasticine, wire, and half a dayThe oblique AI productivity hack where you get productivity ... but not by trying to be productiveHow to make experiments so cheap that you can afford to throw most of them awayTesting your core assumptions vs your peripheral ones—why people protect their existential beliefsThe dangerous middle ground: trying to get early adopter benefits without an early adopter resource cushionWhy substrate change happens through billions of individual choices, not top-down mandatesJP Castlin's bind: when your assumptions don't match reality, you can try to change your assumptions or you can try to change reality. Choose wisely."If you're really at the point where you've got no resources left, you have to focus on survival first. You can't do transformation when you're in survival mode."References:East of Eden by John Steinbeck (the lettuce carriage story)Shape Up by Ryan Singer / Basecamp (fat marker sketches)Dave Snowden - Cynefin framework https://cynefin.io/wiki/CynefinImre Lakatos - philosopher (research programs: core vs peripheral assumptions)JP Castlin https://strategyinpraxis.substack.comTom Chi - Google Glass rapid prototyping https://youtu.be/d5_h1VuwD6gRob Snyder - PULL framework, AI note-taker example https://howtogrow.substack.com/p/nobody-wants-aiJohn Cutler & Tom's article about leading in ambiguity https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-274-how-capable-leaders-navigateUncertainty bubbles / The Double Game (deliberate vs emergent strategy) Opportunity Method Format (OMF) https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/052-omf-opportunity-method-formatMultiverse Mapping https://multiversemapping.com4U framework: Unpack, Undergo, Unfold - https://crownandreach.com/#resourcesObliquity by John KayThe Founder (McDonald's kitchen scene) https://youtu.be/F-7cjdtrQ9YMinority Report (gesture interface scenes)Episode on Founder Mode / Brat Summer https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/073-brat-summer-for-billionairesEpisodes 007-009: Pitch Provocations: https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/663109cbcff31b0012ae9326Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    43 m
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