Philip Jones

Welcome

Attention is short. Time is shorter. You probably want to know if there are things on this site that will help you in whatever journey you are on. Out of respect for your time, here is a short summary of the work I am doing to help you decide just that.

I hope you find something interesting or meaningful to you!

Ideas I’ve worked on in the past

• Cognitive schemes: This idea describe the relationship between the language we use, the world we perceive, and the ideas we create. This is the topic that started my interest in thinking as a system (something with patterns and rules that can be improved or developed) that is influenced by many variables. My work here was driven by questions like:

  • How the words we use to shape our thoughts?

  • How do those same words impact our perceptions? 

  • How does this relationship create complex systems of belief?

  • Can our understanding of these systems give us a clue to improving creativity?

• Rapid skill acquisition: What is the most efficient paths to speed up skill acquisition to arrive at practical uses as soon as possible? Can we teach others this skill? Can it be scaled inside of companies? What is the role of rapid learning in overcoming organizational and environment change?

• Measuring the hard to quantify: A necessary step in practice and learning, as well as organizational efforts for continual improvement, is being able to measure outcomes effectively. So called "soft work" has been a challenge to measure quantifiably. there are still ways we can reduce uncertainty and tighten our improvement loop.

Current areas of research and interest:

• Organizational development of change fluency: Organizations, teams, and people that can change are blessed with a critical survival skill in the age of VUCA.  I've been exploring the idea that the ability to navigate change is a discrete skill that can be learned and trained. Exploring the components of effective change practitioners both as the practitioners and leaders, and as an individual discipline for those experiencing the change.

• Organizational immunology: Our body's immune system is a marvel of evolutionary biology. It's ability to adapt to previously unknown threats using existing building blocks can teach us a framework for coping with VUCA. Building organizational processes and disciplines that are inspired by the mechanism of immunology can give us practical tools to prepare for the unknowable.

About me:

Here's my basic background:

Education: Studied Writing and Philosophy at St. Edward's University in Austin, TX. Have been reading and thinking through the act of writing ever since.

Career: I've worked in consulting my entire career. The ability to learn from each project, and the people I meet on client engagements has been a joy. I appreciate the creativity that's been part of my project work, mostly around organizational change and technology.

Personal: My primary hobby is learning. It's not a traditional hobby, really, but I love starting from scratch and developing new skills. That has a side effect of having created a constellation of hobbies that take up my time, as there are very few that don't interest me. Most of them are creative. If you were inclined to fancy French words, you might call me a dilettante.

I live in Texas with my family and fantastic friends.

Why I write: I believe that writing is how you make thinking manifest. It's how ideas are refined, and learning gets codified. It is the ultimate creative and cognitive expression. I also spent a lot of time and money on a degree in writing, so it would seem like a waste to stop...

I think ideas share something with life. Much like people are a unique expression of traits of their ancestors, combined and shared with the world, ideas are created from other ideas. They take a form that can be shared. They live a life, either of solitude, or perhaps one joining other ideas and then birthing their own offspring.

Writing gives us a chance to seed that ecosystem of ideation with life.

I don't see myself as an expert. Experts stop asking because they “know” (h/t Warren Berger, A More Beautiful Question). But I believe in this world of ours, being relentlessly curious and eager to learn can be almost as valuable.

My Contact Information

You can email me here.