So what?
Grappling with some of the big questions leads me to write about them. Writing helps me formulate my thoughts, take the time to think deeply, and consider the possible.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about the world, whether through my own writing on Medium, articles written for publications or interviews in the media.
The MADE-UP Framework for Mind-Bending Innovation
Buckle up, buttercup. We're about to take a ride through the looking glass of conventional thinking.
The MADE-UP framework isn't just a fun mental exercise (though it is that, too). It's a pair of magic glasses that turn barriers into trampolines, obstacles into opportunities, and "impossible" into "I'm possible" (see what I did there?).
Nothing Exists. Everything is Made Up
Unleashing Innovation by Breaking the Fictions We Live By
The world is a story we tell ourselves, we have the power to rewrite it—to craft new narratives that align with our highest aspirations as a human species to do better in the world.
Welcome to the frontier of creativity as innovation.
Audacious Impact: Jason Perelson On Leading An Audacious, Visionary, Impact-Focused Program
An interview by Russ McLeod, for Authority Magazine.
What does it take to pioneer such transformative initiatives, and what can others learn from their successes?
Nudge, Sludge, Budge, and Fudge
There’s a common misconception that nudges are covert manipulations, a way to trick people into making certain decisions. But as Thaler and Sunstein argue, nudging is about helping people make choices that align with their own goals. It’s about creating environments where the path of least resistance leads to beneficial outcomes.
Here I explore 2 known, 1 lesser known term and 1 entirely made up behavioural convention to motivation.
The great public sector challenge
Achieving impact at pace within the context of change surrounding the system of government is the role and task of good governing. And good governing must be driven by government, and bolstered by focused and effective, targeted and connected, external experts that are geared to catalyse the ability to achieve this, rather than replicate capacity and redistribute budgets to offshore shareholders.
The Pirate’s Lament:
On the shifting tides of strategy and the loss of rebellious thinking
The true outlaws of innovation aren’t just about breaking rules for the sake of it. They’re about challenging deeply held assumptions and reimagining what’s possible. By embracing the spirit of the pirate, the rebel, and the outlaw, we can drive real, systemic change that goes beyond incremental improvements.
I lament the pirates. The rebels, and crazy ones. The risk takers and rule breakers that throw caution to the wind to try more, do more and experiment.
Innovation or Imitation?
The True Essence of Disruption Unveiled
Venture capital circles and corporate boardrooms alike champion the term ‘innovation’ with fervent zeal. Yet, all too often, what passes for innovation is merely optimisation — tweaks to existing models that, while valuable, don’t truly break new ground or challenge the status quo.
True innovation is about fundamentally reimagining how we approach problems and envision solutions. It disrupts, not just for the sake of disruption, but to pave the way for systemic change.
The Butterfly Effect in Action: How Your Coffee Cup Sparks Global Change
In the vast ocean of consumerism, each choice we make is a drop that can either ripple out to support a tsunami of change or merely evaporate into the sea of the status quo.
Behavioural science shows us that small nudges can lead to big shifts. The ‘Piano Staircase’ initiative encouraged more people to take the stairs simply by making it fun. Imagine applying this thinking to environmental behaviours. It’s not just about making the sustainable choice easier but making it more appealing, by innovating and disrupting the norm with a creativity-led approach.
The Art of Creative Destruction: Building Better from the Broken Pieces
The road to innovative change is seldom smooth or straightforward. It often involves destroying the known to uncover the elements, the flaws, and the potential inside.
Our journey towards true innovation though is often shackled by the inertia of comfort zones.
The real challenge lies in confronting and overcoming these mental barriers.
Upside-Down Brilliance: How Right-Brain Rebellion is Reshaping Innovation
True innovation is provocative. It challenges norms, upsets the status quo, and sometimes, it even makes us a little uncomfortable. But that discomfort is a sign of growth, of shedding the old skin of conventional thinking.
As we stand on the precipice of this new era, the question isn’t whether creativity and right-brain thinking have a place in the future of business and problem-solving.
The question is, how far are we willing to let it take us?
The Untapped Genius of Artemis: Why Your Organisation Needs to Think Wildly
In a world brimming with Apollonian logic, there lies a largely uncharted territory — a place where creativity reigns and conventional boundaries dissolve.
Welcome to the Artemisian Blueprint.
Where right-brain thinking meets strategic prowess, offering an innovative lens through which to view and solve complex challenges across diverse sectors, from Defence to sustainability, and beyond.
SXSW is coming to Sydney, with public voting shaping the agenda
As featured in Consultancy.com.au
Among the consultancies to have spawned proposals is Canberra-based Synergy Group, with only one percent of submissions to reach the voting stage by state or territory originating from the nation’s capital. Synergy Group, via creative director Jason Perelson, who leads Synergy’s behavioral change, communications and people strategy line creativeXpeople, lodged three separate pitches, all of which were all accepted to enter the next round.
How will you cope if the other side wins the election?
An interview by Region Media
Synergy Group offers advice to Australian governments of all levels and is taking to ‘The Pitch’ segment on the ABC’s popular Gruen Nation show this week with a plan to unite each and every Australian, no matter the outcome of the election on 21 May.
The Synergy Group pitch focuses on finding that human element to every issue because, from there, we can begin to feel empathy.
When Creativity, Science and Possums fall in love
A Neuro-Strategic Approach to Culture and Behavioural Change. If the previous decade has taught us anything, it’s that the convergence of creativity and scientific understanding can revolutionise our approach to people, culture, and behavioural change. The irony is palpable, given that just a few decades ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find science and creativity sitting in the same sentence, let alone at the same conference table.
The Quantum Leap of Strategy: Why Right-Brain Thinking Holds the Quill That Scripts Tomorrow’s Triumphs
In the arid landscapes of corporate boardrooms and government policy hives, the term “strategy” often echoes like a Pythonesque hymn confined to the scope of quantifiable metrics, data-driven insights, and over worshipped models. It’s as if Apollo, the God of Reason, has dominated the conversation, muting his twin Artemis, the Goddess of Intuition and Creativity. If art, culture, and humanity as taught us anything it’s that these 2 cannot exist without each other.
The Heartbeat of Innovation
Why Empathy is the Lifeblood of Modern Strategy.
Imagine stepping into Da Vinci’s studio, witnessing firsthand his Mona Lisa unfold.Now, switch gears and poof, you’re in a bustling start-up filled with bare concrete, Converse sneakers and flannel, where the seeds of the next tech marvel are being sown.
Spray and Pray doesn’t work
An interview by The Canberra Business Network
In a traditional advertising agency the stereotype of a Creative Director has always been the guy who wears converse sneakers and graphic t-shirts, sits on a bean bag and thinks of cool ideas all day.
However, that’s changed over the last couple of years and its going to change exponentially going forward. Creative Directors are less and less likely to be the person sitting in a back room thinking of how you can change the world with a cool slogan but rather the strategic thinkers and client service and implementation people.