Human betterment is one of the best studied phenomena in the modern
sciences of mind. No need for jargon, ‘secret methods’, or ‘cutting edge’
mystique. If you want to be a better leader, improve the culture of your
team, or just learn how people work, then we’ll help you make
transparent, measurable change in your dealings with others. Move beyond
betterment by buzzword, with Karstica.
Leadership development, executive coaching, and culture transformation
programs are full of jargon and mystique. Gurus with secret formulas that
can help you or your team reach their full potential. But science doesn’t
have much in the way of secrets, and leadership and interpersonal dynamics
are some of the best studied. Let me show you.
“”
This is a very simple pitch. I want you to do a favour for me. I want you to go
to whatever program on leadership, coaching, interpersonal dynamics, or culture
change you’re eyeing, and ask the question “how do you measure impact?” If
they have something more substantial to say than “measuring impact is hard”, a
bustle of optimistic phraseology, and a logo cloud, then you probably don’t
need to be here. If you, however, have not come away with a clear idea of how
they measure impact, then even if you decide Karstica is not for you, you’ll
benefit by reading on.
If this hasn’t already occurred to you, I hope you’ll take it from me: a
Cambridge-educated brain scientist with ten years of clinical experience, a
six year military career culminating as an Infantry platoon commander,
several years consulting for some of the largest firms in the world, and a
lecturing position at one of the most prestigious military academies in the
world, most of these problems have already been solved.
Modern sciences of mind are over 100-years old. Problems of personal
development, leadership, and the dynamics of collectives are a core concern
of this branch of science. Junk programs know this. This is why you’ll often
see them deploy quotes like those you’re seeing slide across the website now.
The military is arguably the oldest professional trade, and a main priority
is the development of it’s leaders. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel.
That’s just just true of content, but outcome too.
Hence Karstica. From karst, gorgeous natural landscapes characterised by
sinkholes, caves, and underground rivers, the idea here is to help you watch
where you walking. If you want to:
Make measurable progress: With a deep background in the behavioural sciences, and the sciences of mind, I and my collaborators can help you find the tools to measure your existing program, or, at a push, design a measurable program for you.
Audit the 'science': We would take great delight in evaluating the legitimacy of existing programs' theories and methodologies. There's nothing more satisfying for a group of scientists than falsifying a hypothesis.
Just collect a bunch of free tools: A core value of science is the democratisation of knowledge. If you don't have the means, or the appetite to pay for a consultation, we offer a collection of free tools and content that should work with or without our specialised guidance so long as you have the time to implement them.
No reason not to see what we can do for you, right?
Our time is far from free. But frankly we don’t do this full-time. We don’t
even want to. We only do this when the projects are interesting enough
to tear us away from our academic pursuits. So, we’re motivated to
provide tools that solve common problems without our intervention.
If all Karstica does is improve the landscape of leadership transformation
and culture change, then that’ll do. All we ask is that, if the free tools
we provide below fix your problems, send us a kind word of thanks.
The tools need a bit of tweaking. Get notified about new tools as they re-appear.
No drip campaigns. No vaguely relevant blog posts. You can find those below, or subscribe to thebtrmt. newsletter for that. This form is just for the tools.
Other content
Content on leadership, culture, and human systems change.
Bias is just you using your expectations and assumptions to <em>ignore</em> the
noise, and see the picture more clearly. The trade-off is that, sometimes,
the noise is useful or your expectations are off. The human stress response
is perhaps the most fundamental example of this in behaviour, and a very
valuable tool.
The perils of cognitive bias is a subject that’s dominated a substantial slice
of social psychology, and appears in any leadership or personal development
course as something to be avoided at all costs. It’s interesting, but it’s not
actually that useful. You can’t sift through 200+ biases to work out what you
might do wrong. The brain treats bias differently. Bias is a <em>strategy</em> to
solve certain kinds of problems. Let me show you how.
To make the leap from someone else’s idea to your own understanding of it is
often troubled by something I call ‘the language problem’. Most of the time
this is because of a difference in experience. Knowledge is sometimes a
<em>barrier</em> to learning, and this is almost always related to the language
problem. Let me show you what I mean.
Tell us a bit about what you want to measure, achieve, or audit, and we'll see if we think we can help.
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