Overview

One of our strongest forms of soft power is our global voice. This includes articles by and about us in the press, and our coverage in works of reference. ❧ The press includes newspapers and magazines, both print and online, and occasionally important blog posts and podcasts. Articles can be about the London Institute, our discoveries, our scientists, staff and donors, and how to organise and fund basic science. ❧ Coverage in works of reference includes the Wikipedia article about LIMS and being cited by articles in Wikipedia and other popular resources.

Scoring

The score of a press article depends on where it is published and its relevance to the London Institute or its work. ❧ All else being equal, print beats online, open-access beats paywall, broadsheets beat magazines, external writers beat internal writers, and older publications beat younger ones. ❧ An article that merely mentions the Institute is one point, whereas a piece about a core belief in a national paper is around 10. ❧ A reference to one of our papers in Wikipedia or the OEIS is one point, as is 140 characters of edits to LIMS’ Wikipedia page.

Scoring examples

140 chars of edits to LIMS Wiki...1

A paper cited in Wikipedia...1

A paper cited in the OEIS...1

Letter to the Editor in The Times...3

Nature solitons press release...4

Irix in Research Professional...7

Ben Delo’s piece in The Spectator...10

Murmurations in Quanta...11

Talulah interview in The Times...12

Physics to maths in Nautilus...13

AI maths World View in Nature...14

MBK interview in The Times...18

Overview

Because we don’t have students like a university or visitors like a museum, our website plays an outsized role in how people know us. It summarises all our activity, from papers to events to our routines and rituals. It helps us recruit scientists and staff, win over donors, and persuade people in business, media and government to support us. ❧ Counterintuitively, our website is also how we know ourselves. Self-knowledge is hard, for organisations as much as for individuals. Our survey of all that we’ve done helps us figure out what we need to do next.

Scoring

We score our website according to changes to its structure, rather than adding content to established structures. Adding content is scored in the relevant soft power section; for example, a new entry in our Press page is scored in §Voice. One exception is our Newsfeed, where each new entry is a point. ❧ The strength of our website relies more on polishing existing structures than creating new ones, so we score improvements and getting rid of inconsistencies. ❧ We also score changes that can’t be seen, such as faster loading and simplifying the backend.

Scoring examples

Add a brief to the newsfeed...1

Add a blackboard image...2

Add press distance...8

Add paper distance...14

Create our soft power script...18

Improve a brief in the newsfeed...1

Improve a picture in a brief...1

Improve archive page’s fly titles...4

Improve design of an archive page...8

Simplify the research papers filter...8

Horizontal scrolling for scripts...12

Simplify backend with Payload...20

Overview

Our premises are a form of soft power because they impact how we are perceived by others and bind us to the Royal Institution. ❧ We use our offices every day and invite a lot of visitors, so we try to make our offices attractive and functional in a way that respects the building’s history. ❧ The RI’s heritage and record of discovery enhance our convening power and our ability to raise money. To give back, we are building a symbiotic relationship with the RI based on the RI’s flair for science communication and our focus on scientific discovery.

Scoring

We score the soft power of our building in two ways. ❧ First, we improve our rooms by adding furniture, pictures, lights and blackboards, and occasionally improve the fabric of the building. We acquire new space from the Royal Institution as and when it becomes available. ❧ Second, we strengthen our relationship with the RI. We promote the RI, applaud it in the press, and with it put on joint events (counting half the points here and half in §Voice or §Meetings). We also get to know members of the RI team, which builds trust and catalyses collaboration.

Scoring examples

Add or improvd a light...1

Hang a picture...2

Acquire an armchair...3

Acquire a desk...4

Install a blackboard...5

Install a ceiling projector...6

Become a member of the RI...1

Applaud the RI in the press...2

A successful LIMS-RI drinks...3

Give a Friday Evening Discourse...12

Show-and-tell in front of the RI...14

Acquire 20 sq. m. of new space...20

Overview

Meetings and events can range from a visit by a potential donor, to drinks for journalists, to a public talk in the Royal Institution’s Lecture Theatre. ❧ Because outreach and education are not part of our purpose, our meetings and events are not ends in themselves. Rather, they are a means to promote our discoveries, raise money, recruit people, obtain advice or gain recognition. ❧ Key to all our events is a chance for the attendees to get to know each other. So all our events are in-person; we don’t do hybrid events and we don’t livestream talks.

Scoring

The score of a talk that we host depends on its significance and audience size, increasing from informal seminar to seminar to talk to conference to Theatre talk. ❧ The score of a visitor depends on our aligned interests and their scarcity. ❧ An event we put on is scored according to its audience size and strategic importance. ❧ We don’t award points for giving talks outside LIMS, apart from at high-profile events, such as a Ditchley conference. ❧ Regular events such as our Monday synopsis and Friday drinks are scored in §Organisational intelligence.

Scoring examples

Host an informal seminar...2

Host a seminar...3

Host a talk...4

Host a one-day conference...6

Host a Theatre talk...12

A visit from a journal editor...1

A visit from a major donor...3

A visit from a science minister...7

Put on our journalist drinks...6

Put on St Scholastica’s Feast...10

Put on our Christmas party...14

Attend a Ditchley conference...2

Overview

Our most important asset is the people that work for us. Recruitment comprises our convening power, focus on culture fit and emphasis on development. ❧ Convening power is our ability to quickly identify and bring in exceptional scientists and staff. ❧ As well as technical ability, we also care about culture fit—the extent to which candidates share our values. Culture fit reduces transaction costs within the organisation and makes work feel more like play. ❧ We pay attention to the psychology of performance, and expect people to grow with the organisation.

Scoring

We try to recruit fewer false positives by setting up visitor schemes so we can “try before we buy”. ❧ We reduce the lag time between identifying a new role and filling it, and disrupt the academic custom of recruiting once a year. ❧ When possible we use the press to announce our job openings, which increases their visibility. ❧ We lean into culture fit and assess a candidate’s values at the interview stage, and make sure they understand ours. ❧ We systematise our job descriptions so that they are easier to write and consistent across platforms.

Scoring examples

Add the result of a job description...1

Announce a job in the press...2

Interview a candidate in person...2

Add a job description...3

Create standard jobs template...8

Create success stories section...10

Add jobs section to our website...12

Visitors: add a scheme to a grant...2

Visitors: systematise our scheme...9

Visitors: Khodorkovsky scheme...10

Science goes pro, The Telegraph...12

Performance psychology exp...18

Overview

Organisational intelligence is an organisation’s ability to quickly adapt to opportunities and obstacles and be more than the sum of its parts. At the LIMS this means: ❧ There is an emphasis on simplicity and modularity, which enables us to predict the adjacent possible. ❧ Our routines and rituals are codified and accessible, usually through our evolvable scripts. ❧ There is an absence of secret meetings and secret information, and people are aware of what others are working on. ❧ Our scientists and staff are present, integrated and support each other.

Scoring

We grow and maintain our evolvable scripts—compact summaries of “the way we do things around here”—and make them accessible on our website. ❧ We are diligent in showing up for work during business hours, which is essential to agility and superadditivity. ❧ We measure what matters: we discuss our discoveries, fundraising and soft power every two weeks and track them on our main blackboard. ❧ We build awareness and camaraderie through our Monday synopsis, Friday drinks and other events. We try to progress and resolve things in person rather than by email.

Scoring examples

Add or edit two writing rules...1

Edit a culture script entry...1

Add a culture script entry...2

Meet for the Monday synopsis...1

Meet for Friday evening drinks...2

Meet for funding forum...2

Meet for soft power forum...2

Simplify our holiday records...10

Showing up in The Telegraph...14

Create our online calendar...14

Create website culture section...16