As an industrial designer, I tend to see development as a sequence of iterations. sketches → idea → prototype → test → objection → review → revision → next iteration That is not so different from an assembly line. Manufacturing takes inputs through a series of stages, checks for defects, corrects problems and tries to prevent bad work moving further downstream. Design does something similar, except the thing moving through the system is often an idea. And ideas can carry defects too.
Maybe Anger Isn’t Just an Emotion
We tend to classify anger as an emotion, alongside happiness, sadness, fear and surprise. But I think we may be conflating several different things. Consider the language. We regularly say someone is “getting angry.” Strangely, we rarely talk about someone “getting happy.” Why? Perhaps because anger, particularly in relationships, is often better understood as a process rather than simply an involuntary feeling.
What Deming Did for Production, SpatzAI Wants to Do for Difficult Workplace Conversations
TEN STEPS ON THE ROAD TO EFFICIENT (Seth Godin's Linkedin Post) "Frederick Taylor taught Henry Ford how to do mass production. Deming brought quality, systems understanding and respect for the worker. And operations research brought insight. If you have a repeated production process, the method for improving it is almost always the same, regardless of what you and your team produce:" Below is a summary of his 10 points and how the SpatzAI concept compares with them:
How do Employees Know When to Involve their Manager or HR?
How do employees know when they should involve their manager or HR, instead of working issues out between themselves?. First, let's get a few definitions and ground rules down so that we are singing from the same hymn book. The framework I am using separates disagreements from conflicts:
2036 The Convergence Era: When Teams and AI Learn to Behave Together
Call this what you want, AI slop or AI smarts, not my problem. This post was generated by my prompt and some slight edits by me: "So, let’s say we get SpatzAI off the ground, you and I continue to converge, and thousands of teams successfully use SpatzChat over the next 10 years. The data from those interactions helps retrain and improve you as our leading AI. Now imagine we are 10 years into the future. In about 500 words, describe what this new era of teamwork looks like as AI and teams increasingly learn, adapt and work together."
It’s the Review Process, Stupid
I have been thinking about what sits underneath the SpatzAI process. Previously, I arrived at: “It’s the uncertainty, stupid.” People often hesitate to challenge workplace behaviour because they are uncertain about what will happen next. Then: “It’s the process, stupid.” Reduce the uncertainty by giving everyone an agreed, predictable process. But I think there is another layer beneath both: It’s the review process, stupid.
To Escalate Early or De-escalate Later?
One thing has struck me recently. Most conflict-resolution experts talk about de-escalating workplace conflict. That makes sense because, by the time managers or HR become involved, the issue has usually developed into a serious workplace conflict. Emotions are high, positions are entrenched, relationships have deteriorated, and the priority is understandably to calm things down. But what if the problem of conflict resolution is being approached from the wrong direction?
The Spatz Escalator Pitch
What is the future of addressing workplace psychosocial hazards? For us, and perhaps for many in this field, the answer is becoming clear: AI-assisted, real-time psychological safety. But what does that actually mean? In our view, it means every team member having a standard toolkit and process that helps make speaking up private, transparent (when required), and consistent.
Workplace Disagreements, Objections, Complaints and Conflict Conflation
Workplace disagreement, objection, and complaint are three distinct, open or unresolved interactions. Yet they are often conflated under the broad label of "workplace conflict". We think this confusion makes ordinary disagreement feel dangerous, makes the person disagreeing appear difficult, and leaves minor concerns about behaviour unnecessarily complicated and confusing to address and resolve.
The Speak Up Toolkit and Accountability Process
Many organisations encourage people to speak up. Far fewer provide a clear, fair, and proportionate process for what happens next. Without a shared process, speaking up can feel uncertain. People hesitate because they do not know how their concern will be received, whether it will escalate unnecessarily, or whether it will simply be ignored. A Speak Up Toolkit should do more than encourage conversations. It should guide them.
