Introducing Mr Grimsdale, King Heron and Mobius

This blog is named after three characters, Mr Grimdale (fictitous), Heron King (legendary) and Mobius (real). It is my belief that they provide novel points of examination to understand how societal situations are interpreted, how they are dealt with and how we could be addressing common issues in new ways.

Mr Grimsdale

Mr Grimsdale was a genial civil servant in the excellent Norman Wisdom comedy, The Square Peg. Set during the Second World War, the first half of the film focuses on the clash between the council workmen’s drive to complete road maintenance outside the base and the army’s attempts to continue the war effort without Norman Wisdom’s mishaps and shenanigans.

Rather than focusing on their respective tasks the characters spend their time fighting each other rather than cooperating to both ‘keep the arteries of Britain open’ and fighting the enemy. Mr Grimsdale serves as a metaphor to highlight the failures that result in communications breakdown, the failure of operating within silos and not focusing on achieving common goals between stakeholders.

Mr Grimsdale’s Ire can be read here

King Heron

According to ancient legend, a mischievous band of Roman soldiers discovered, in the final days of an otherwise pitiful siege against England, that their enemy lived in perpetual fear of a half-man, half-bird creature known as the Heron King. Hoisting a Roman solider onto stilts and slapping a heron mask over his face, the Romans sent a tipsy Heron King decoy careening into the middle of a British camp, watching as lines of English soldiers scurried off in terror.

King Heron (I know its been switched, it reads a tad better) serves as a metaphor to highlight the ingenuity involved to sway people, the hollowness of some symbolism and the dangers of becoming influenced by malign propaganda.

Heron’s Eye can be read here

Mobius

Mobius was the surname of a lateral thinker who was able to double the effectiveness of an existing process through thinking outside the box. In the most well known example of his methods a leather strip that was used in a mill was cut in half. One side was rotated 180° and refixed so that the leather strip was worn down on both sides rather than just one.

Mobius reminds us that sometimes doing the right thing can sometimes be more important that doing something well. He serves as a metaphor for the benefits of innovation, even for minor alterations and how waste of resources and opportunity should be actively avoided.

In The Loop can be read here