Digital Digressions

Productivity Enhancer: Scrybe - Simply Unbelievable

Yes I know, not a post for a long time and my poor excuse of lots of travel and being so busy I haven't had a weekend to myself without work for the last two weeks will not cut the mustard. Once you have a blog you should write something. Simple as that. So until now I haven't had lots of useful things to say apart from gargling noises and looking like I need more sleep. On the upside my face is looking normal again after my Friday the 13th accident (which you can read about in the earlier post) and also I will be at home for at least the next two weeks without interruption - so I promise to write some more posts.

What caused my sudden return to the keyboard today is this most awesome application which proposes to solve all my troubles about being organised AND working on more than 10 things at once - both of whom are pre-requisites of my new role, but equally a source of continuous headache and a lasting challenge to any GTD application, a few of which I have put to the test previously on this blog.  Some I also liked a lot in the beginning, but their lack of a useful calendar and seamless integration with that oh so useful medium most digital applications shy away from, namely paper - make them fall into oblivion in the long run.

Along comes this amazing application called Scrybe - it has a very fluid calendar built in, which not only recognises time and dates when typed in normally (forget stupid pull down menus), but can also create calendars featuring several timezones simultaneously and fluidly moving between all of them. Recently I have been spending some time in the US and of course my clunky Outlook calendar has all my meetings occurring in the middle of the night, which has me permanently confused of what the correct time is - wonder no longer, put Scrybe to the test and watch all those troubles disappear. It also lets you print little pocket-sized versions of your calendar so you can have your latest to-do list with you in your pocket everywhere you go and scribble on it whenever you need.

Moreover, it has a great way of making task lists from any content you copy into it, by dragging a task onto a time and date, it automatically gets the time allocated to it, but what I love the most is the way Scrybe lets you browse the Internet and create Thought pages, a clip book of images, text and links you find and store those under their own topic rather than an eclectic mix of favourites lists with website links, but no way of ordering the information.

The beauty of it all is that it is all on-line - you don't have to install a thing and it also works offline. You make the changes you want and next time you are back on-line it syncs it all..check out all the functionality in the movie below. Aaah. Genius!

7 Free Software LifeSavers

Having spent an unreasonable amount of time recently fiddling around with editing video, dealing with ridiculously large files and trying to convert one thing into another I thought I'd break with the norm on this blog and share with you what have become my software life savers recently. The Internet is awash with useful utilities for nearly everything and the kitchen sink - some free and some not free, some truly lifesaving, some moderately useful and eventually quite useless, when you discover that the one thing you REALLY needed to do - this nifty app won't handle. So the criteria for my list of lifesavers?

1. They have to be FREE. Free is good. Free builds good Karma. More things in life should be free. Some lifesavers are - so anybody charging money, take heed!
2. They have to be truly USEFUL - no one-trick ponies here. Just because they are free they shouldn't be useless, just the opposite in fact.

Sound simple enough? Well, you will be surprised to know that most programs that are truly useful aren't free and those that are free stop being free when they begin to be truly useful, so this paradox will make my list fairly short. And as I'm only a mere mortal, I would like to tap into the hive of knowledge out there amongst you readers - please let me know of other truly USEFUL applications out there that are also FREE. Love is there to be shared.

So here comes list in no particular order.

1. SUPER
   Super is a small program with lifesaver written all over it. It hosts an impressive list of formats, both audio and video and it is a very capable converter between virtually anything. Bonus is that it is free. So stuck not getting any sound from your MPG files once you bring them into Premiere? Look no further. Want video on your phone? Again, Super will come to the rescue. Fancy seeing films on your Video Ipod? Convert anything and everything to Ipodformat right here. Simply fantastic, but sadly PC only.
2. YouSendIt
   Having to share big files? Tired of trying to figure out where to deposit files for others to download? This nifty (and again free) web-based application allows you to register, upload your chunky file (up to 100 MB) and send your friend the link in an email. What could be simpler? And this one I particularly like, because it is cross-platform.
3. FIREFOX
   FireFox is not new, but it is arguably the most flexible and user-friendly web-browser out there. Why? Because of its continuously expanding library of extensions and plug-ins which allow you to do anything from downloading Youtube videos right to your desktop, to hiding your tracks while surfing to many more handy features. These extensions keep growing on a daily basis and one of my favourites is Down-Them-All, a great extension to help you download stuff faster. Needless to say, FireFox is cross-platform.
   
4. NETVOUZ
   Is your favourites list on the computer beginning to resemble a study in chaos theory? Moreover - are you surfing the web on different computers, one at work, one at home? Or have you ever inadvertently lost all your favourites in a system re-install? Netvouz is one example of a very handy little web application that allows you to import all your favourites from any and every browser you use, regardless of platform, grade your links on a scale of 1 to 5, describe them - share them (if you want to) or just have them as a private link-log for your own backup. Another great detail is the fact that you can search the links to find what you are after, instead pf trawling the hundreds of links you may have logged. Browser-independent and cross-platform.
5. MOONEDIT
   Want to take live meeting notes, but struggle to both take dictation, edit the content, remove errors and insert comments? Why not use a little help from your friends and this little tool that allows you to share the chore of live note taking amongst a group and collaborate on the same file in real-time. Sadly only for PCs at the moment.
   
6. TIDDLYSPOT
   Fancy your very own Wikipedia page on a subject you adore? Or even a way of capturing information and collaborating on it with your friends? Or a digital notebook that can grow to contain both links, images, quotes and content of your choice? What about keeping a live to-do list of everything on your mind, regardless of computer platform? TiddlySpot offers a wide range of different spins on TiddlyWikis (personal Wikis), that you can store both on and offline as well as some hybrid solutions incorporating David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology in a tidy electronic solution, such as MonkeyGTD. Again free, cross-platform and REALLY useful. Start logging all that information now!
7. VYEW
   Vyew is a browser-based online collaboration platform that allows you to share presentations, visuals, text, whatever your mind can dream up, right from your desktop, without having to download a single thing. You can annotate things, have a live text chat and even busy yourself with a telephone conference all at the same time. Did I mention it was free? And cross-platform?

So there we are - my 5 pence on the subject of useful programs. Please feel free to share what you deem as Software Lifesavers!

3 Types of Productivity - Making the Most of a Working Day

Few weeks into my new job I have had a rare treat to enjoy - working from home. Now, don't get me wrong - I have been blessed with the business warrior's tools of trade for a while, such as a laptop and mobile phone, but mainly because of the habits of my previous team, it always felt awkward to suggest working from home. To be precise: it felt like my boss didn't think I would be doing as much work as he thought I was doing in the office. Interesting take on the issue of trust - but I reserve that to another post.

Working from home? Well, never mind how far we have got with information technology, computing and connectivity - there is still some stigma attached to this form of working, particularly in a work-obsessed country like Britain, where true men don't go home before at least 8pm. There has been numerous discussions about this in the press, where working hours have been compared with countries in Europe and conclusions made about the fact that our working hours are in fact getting longer, not shorter despite the advent of so much 'labour-saving' technology. In many ways it seems that the ubiquitous connectivity through laptops, blackberries and email means we are perpetually stuck checking them and thus inadvertently our working days stretch far into the evening and our spare-time than they would if we could leave them behind when leaving work.

Back to working from home though - this seems to be either a recipe for extreme productivity in the case of some and the recipe for perpetual distraction for others, all depends who you talk to. This also colours the response you get from people when you inform them that is what you will be doing. Some tell me that the office is an escape mechanism, they actually get some work done when not continuously interrupted by their children or pets, for others home is a cave, a lair where thinking and strategic planning can occur - away from the distractions of office routines. Others struggle with motivation when alone at home, others struggle with it at the office surrounded by chatty or catty colleagues. In any case - it seems that much of this depends on the kind of work you do.

First, you need to be able to assess the type of input your current tasks require. Often our to-do lists are a mixture of all three approaches listed below, but simply being aware of which type of concentration they require makes it easier to plan your day or even plan your 'Cave'-moments.

1. If your work requires long periods of un-interrupted concentration:
Such as planning, designing, programming, writing proposals, reports and analyses - you need to find a location where you can best do this. The office may not be the perfect place at all, as colleagues like to wander over, ring you or drop you emails which land right in the middle of your flow of consciousness and jolt you from whatever trail of thought you were trying to follow. In those cases, it is important to minimise the amount if distractions, wherever you happen to be;

• close the email and set your messenger status to away or busy:
• run only the application you need at that particular time
• have a comfortable area with a clean desk and nothing around you other than things connected to the task you are working on right now
• listen to music through headphones
• just wear headphones anyway (to make people less inclined to start talking to you from across the room)
• set your phone to forward to answering machine or on silent
• have a cup of coffee or some water handy
• keep a list of the things you need to be thinking about when doing this job
• sketch things out on paper first (think!), move to computer later (execute)
• avoid personal calls or chatting
• have lunch at your desk if necessary
• if you feel stuck, take a break and a piece of notepaper and a pen with you and go sit outside, in the canteen, in the park, another room and let your thoughts focus on some simple pointers: what are the objectives, the deliverables, the enablers, the obstacles, and the time-line?

2. If your work requires short bursts of intensive activity:
Such as phone calls, emails, meetings, routine tasks etc,

• Keep a list of things you need to do, follow the GTD method if necessary
• Avoid scheduling meetings whenever you can, make a habit of dropping by people's desks instead, particularly if you only need to speak to one person. Most things can be covered this way and followed up with an email if necessary. Meetings are often conducted whilst sitting down, which means people's thinking slows down too - and time is wasted unnecessarily.
• Meetings are useful if you need to talk to two or more people at the same time - but unless you distribute an agenda before hand and stick to it, meetings can drag on and be inconclusive, so always make it clear what you want to achieve, make everybody aware of this and stick to the plan rigorously
• Meetings with more than 8 attendees can rarely accomplish much more than be a form of information distribution and quick questions and answers, so use them for what they are. Again, have an agenda, be strict with timing and stop discussions going round in circles. Conclusions and actionables is what you want.
• If your intention is simply to update people on the tasks for the week or day ahead, there is nothing wrong with stand-up meetings. I know these have acquired an 80's yuppie-tinge in some circles, but again - they are very useful for what they are. If you have a set of instructions or information to give your team, gather people up, tell them and get on with it. These meetings should not go on for more than 15 minutes, but it is amazing how much information you can cover in 15 minutes standing up with everyone standing up around you, as opposed to all of you sitting down.
• Before making a phone call, make a list of things you need to cover, accomplish, agree upon or delegate and keep your eye on the list to make sure you cover all the points
• Try to avoid falling into the email trap where virtually all your communication is done via email, talk to people, ring them up and use email as a summary tool wherever possible - not as the tool for first contact.
• Be clear and to the point in your communication, make it clear what you need, and what you will do and want others to do
• Do 3 - 4 short tasks, have a break and come back - persisting too long makes you get slower the longer you persist. If you cannot finish a task in 30 minutes, allocate another time-slot for it later in the day or the next day (depending on your deadlines). If it's a big task, revert to point one and find yourself space and time for some un-interrupted thinking and concentration.

3. If Your Work Requires Creative Team Input:
Such as brainstorming, problem-solving, concept development, new product development etc.

• These things can seldom be accomplished in busy office environments as the many distractions around us prevent the un-interrupted concentration required not just by you, but the entire team.
• Some good tips on the prerequisites for running good creative brainstorms can be found here
• Get yourself away from the office to a place which is considered 'neutral' i.e nobody's 'homeground' so all team members are equal and devoid of all the usual office politics of rank, status and so on.
• Set aside solid time for this, but no more than an hour and a half at the time followed by a break
• End the day summarising your conclusions and be clear about what happens next. When things are fresh in people's minds, this is also the best time to mobilise people and make it clear who needs to do what. Give people ownership of the outcome.

All in all it's about analysing each project or task you have, understanding how you need to tackle it, i.e through long periods of intense concentration, short bursts of activity or through creative input and most projects require a combination of all three, which means you need to break the project down into constituent components that can be tackled in one of the three ways mentioned.

If you have a team, these activities apply to them too so it helps if you can be open about your thoughts and planning and make sure people know when all of you need to be together and when it is OK to be in Mode 1 and perhaps work from home, if that is the most conducive place for the person to be able to concentrate and think without being uninterrupted. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone else, so be accomodating here.

Big projects in particular come down to planning and not just planning in the sense that you stick some deadlines in a calendar and leave people to it. It's up to each and every one of the members in a team to assess their to-do lists and decide which of the three modes they need to engage in order to accomplish the tasks and communicate them openly so the team doesn't end up disintegrating because each member is engaged in their own deliverables and forget that time together is as important as time apart, provided there are clear goals for both.

The Curse of the Bored Brain

A friend of mine recently mentioned that reading one of my blog posts, he realised that his tendency to be grumpy on occasion was in fact a reaction to underlying procrastination. In many ways he is being very hard on himself, because he has a relentlessly inquisitive mind and yes, there are days when I used to just let him get on with things, but then - we all have days like these. Interestingly, what his statement reminded me of is what I call the curse of the bored brain.

Looking at what our brains have to cope with on a normal day - not only do we have to put up with  blurring industry lines and confusing responsibilities, ever shortening times to production, cost-cutting, redundancies - you name it - along with it come also the various frustrations caused by feature-rich and experience-poor technologies. A disproportionate amount of our time is taken up by computers, blackberries, mobile phones and email and these all have a capacity to distract us from more productive tasks. In fact, the whole process of checking emails first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening is a habit I certainly have got into, but probably many of you too - because of it's sheer unpredictability. We feel obliged to keep dipping into them so as to 'stay on top of things' , but we often find ourselves firefighting to keep the floodgates down and not getting completely swept away by an avalanche of 'actionables' that nobody mentioned until you clicked that Outlook shortcut on your desktop. Emails have an enormous capacity to jolt you from your plan of what you wanted to achieve that day - load your mind with sudden emergencies or simply make your mood swing from good to bad in about 3 milliseconds. Therefore there is an art to writing good emails - but more on that in another post.

Moreover, weeks and months of this same routine along with a predictable flow of meetings, office intrigue and other miscellanea are in fact quietly boring our brains. I know this about myself - too much routine kills me and I start fighting back. I don’t know about you, but I hate routine and the notion of predictability and those destructive behavioural patterns of procrastinating, pushing things close to the deadline and then suddenly almost drowning myself in work to deliver just-on-time, are in fact a reaction towards a sense of not learning or having enough challenges (a bored brain).

Actually, knowing this about myself is quite useful, a ‘boredom’-meter if you like so when I start behaving like that I know I need to think up new things to immerse myself in to keep my mind flexed. What I was getting to is the fact that modern life and the rich media we are surrounded with are in fact stimulating our minds in such a way that our brains continuously expect more stimuli and get bored more easily when lacking stimuli. On one hand life and all it's challenges keeps us on our toes - on the other hand, many things are repetitive, automated and predictable and we struggle to gain more control over them so we could make them less boring. So on one hand we are extremely capable and empowered and expected to behave as such - on the other hand things are not flexible or challenging enough to continuously engage our brains and keep us focused or interested. We are caught in the void between these two opposites.

Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, investigating our perception of time, has come to the conclusion that we feel that time passes more and more quickly the more and more of our lives are taken up by routine events and behaviour. We switch to a kind of auto-pilot, where having performed the same activities and tasks so many times before, makes us do it without paying a lot of attention. We almost become automated. This means we don't form memories about events like we do when something is new to us. Less memories formed means a greater sense of time simply rushing past and inadvertently, our inability to control it, which of course makes us feel more powerless.

Thus, when people keep banging on about life-long learning they do have a point - but not in the traditional sense. If we can ensure there are components in our life which we find challenging, awaken our curiosity and desire to learn - we are also forming memories, which means we slow down our perception of time. This means we feel more in control of the passage of time than we do when simply engaged in routine tasks. So yes, you could say life-long learning is pivotal for your continued career-progression and all that, but somehow it sounds quite boring. It sounds like we should always take cues from whatever our role at work demands and direct our learning initiatives to continuously bolster our professional skills.

Yes, maybe - but more importantly, I think it is about finding something, anything you love doing, whether it is connected to your work or not. If it is something you are curious and interested about, you will devote the necessary energy towards figuring things out and continuously be learning more and more, which keeps your mind engaged and active, which means you don't get bored. This means your brain is busy creating memories, which means you remember each day more distinctly and time doesn't just rush past in a blur. Boredom is a curse, it makes people cynical, angry, depressed, shopaholics, TV addicts, you name it - so fight it by finding something you are curious about and make time to delve into learning more and mastering it. A curious mind is a healthy mind.

And a hilariously insightful article on Structured Procrastination - by John Perry on how to turn procrastination into a method of getting things done.

Tenori-On: Coolest Electronic Music Interface since the Invention of the Synth!

Some of you know I like to dabble with music and mixing every now and then. Anyone with an interest in this field knows that electronic music these days is a collection of computers, cables, USB midi-controller interfaces, software, plug-ins, compatibility issues - never enough performance and many more challenges placed in our way of masterminding the field of digital music making. Intuitive is in fact a word that seldom springs to mind, as there are so many components to use concurrently that it is often easier to get stuck reviewing a library of samples or simply trying to make things run smoother than it is actually making music.

This is why this movie of a collaboration between Toshio Iwai and Yamaha really caught my eye - it's extremely simplistic dotmatrix interface seduces one into thinking this is some sort of pre-wacom type of tablet, until you realise that not only is it an incredibly intuitive way of playing music, but it also doubles up as a sequencer and synth all in one beautifully simple interface. Moreover - you can hold it in your lab AND it makes for interesting watching by the audience! Gone are the days of some geek with sunglasses standing behind the keyboard pressing keys and twiddling knobs - for all we know, he could have just been pretending. Not with this thing though - making music becomes a visual spectacle as well as an interface for experimentation and play. I want one!

Many thanks to prof. Edith Ackermann at the MIT for bringing this to my attention.

Microsoft Photosynth: 3D Image Browsing

Although you may have stumbled on my reluctance regarding Microsoft in some posts in this blog, this new technology championed by Microsoft Live labs is so cool I'm prepared to put aside some of my bugbears just this once. The technology in question is called Photosynth and is a kind of 3d tagging system for photographs, which means you can search the web for a picture and instantly have related pictures be aligned into a 3d environment around the source picture so you can navigate the area as if it was a 3d world. Sound weird? You betcha - until you check out this little film and it all makes sense.. if I was Adobe I would be very worried... very worried indeed as this is a kind of technology which would be great for the next generation of Photoshop, not the next generation of Microsoft Photo Editor.. just a personal preference. Anyway - have a look and be intrigued!

[Microsoft] [Youtube] [Computers and Internet] [Internet] [Photography] [Software] [Technology] [Web]

Running Creative Brainstorms: A Collection of 'Non-method' Methods

Recently I was yet again faced with the prospect of running a series of brainstorms to generate new product concepts. This time, with a team of people I had never met before. Aside from being a slightly daunting prospect, it got me thinking about the role of the catalyst in such situations - what is it that brings out the best in us and stimulates parts of our accumulated knowledge and insights and turns it into great ideas we felt we had all along, but struggled to articulate.

At the start of the day I was asked what methods I was intending to use and must say I struggled to name specific methods. Having worked in the same concept team for about 5 years and occasionally also with other teams, I've come to the conclusion that one needs to pick the good bits from a range of different methods and use them where appropriate. Sometimes it is about combining them to create a totally new method. Ultimately the discussion about methods can be very distracting though, because methods can be restrictive - they can disrupt the flow of a conversation, because it doesn't quite follow 'the method' one is intending to use. Methods can also be coercive in terms of making a team feel insecure about contributing, particularly if some team members are more familiar with the method being used and others less so - and the best brainstorms in my experience are sessions where discussions flow freely, one sticks loosely to the topic, but there is laughter, the atmosphere is relaxed and ultimately it feels more like play than work.

Find a Safe Haven
Brainstorms are seldom productive in stuffy office environments. I must say I have very seldom come across an office environment where all the chairs, tables and computers don't mount up to creating an oppressive atmosphere - even if you are blessed with beautiful interiors, designer chairs and a goldfish in a bowl. Ultimately I don't blame office environments, but more what offices do to us psychologically. Offices remind us of work, which reminds us of our positions and internal hierarchies and also sometimes about competitiveness within teams and departments. None of these are conducive to creativity and being open, wacky and wild. Brainstorming is very much like playing and kids are picky about the places they like to play. We are the same, even if we are grown up.

Awaken the Child Within
Creativity goes hand in hand with the ability to feel comfortable playing and listening to our inner child. As we grow up, we often lose touch with our inner children because of the pressures at work, responsibilities, hierarchies, mortgages, you name it - but if you have a passion whether it is steam trains, cars, motor bikes, cycling, flying remote controlled planes or whatever - whenever faced with something that reminds you of this passion your eyes light up, a big smile stretches over your face and your heart races just a little bit - this is the kid inside waking up. This kid is also the one who will be the most helpful in a brainstorm, but he needs to feel comfortable and accepted.

Play, according to Arthur Koestler, is about an ability to bisociate - which means you are able to perceive a situation or idea in two self-consistent, but habitually incompatible frames of reference. For a kid it means he can be in his bedroom and simultaneously be Batman hiding in his Batcave. These are two (to adult minds) incompatible frames of reference, but to the child - it is just play as normal. When kids play they collectively engage in this activity and negotiate among themselves what the rules are to the imaginary world and props they have invented - trust is at the heart of it all and everyone plays their part, much like in improvisational theatre.

Brainstorms, when successful are much the same - to engage our imagination it is important to sometimes part with reality, the politics and hindrances that are in our way and simply boldly dare to imagine, express thoughts and ideas - however wild, to in turn awaken new ideas in our colleagues. Many people feel awkward about saying crazy things, but it's often less about the crazy ideas than the effect they have on loosening up our imagination, and the thoughts they spur in others, when listening openly and without judgement. When brainstorming we need to create an atmosphere where saying even the craziest thought will be accepted, so our inner kids gradually can get coaxed out of hiding.

Think of the Ingredients before cooking the big dish
Often great ideas don't simply appear in a puff of smoke, but are in fact made up of an ideal balance and mix of the right ingredients. Brainstorms can easily grind to a halt if the topic picked is simply too enormous. For instance, we have frequently found it difficult to think of the greatest new toy concept in one sitting, ideas often don't work like that - instead it is about thinking about the ingredients to what make something great. Trying to pick apart things we like, why we like them, what was fun about them, what made them work really well.. you end up with ingredients, much like what you start with when making a dish. The ingredients on their own aren't necessarily as tasty as when they are brought together in the right amounts and applied in the right sequence. Concepts, I find, are often the same and brainstorming to me is an effort to find the constituent components and constructing concepts that are bigger than the sum of their parts from that balance of ingredients and their sequence.

Re-Creations (Re-Purpose, Re-Configure, Re-Assemble)
Going back to the Play analogy - sometimes it is about taking known things and playing with them, turning them on their head, using them for something completely different. Kids have an amazing capacity to use objects in ways not even imagined by adults - a wheelbarrow can become the roof of a lair, steel bars for safety become a climbing frame etc. Being relaxed and free in our imagination allows us to look at familiar objects in new ways, reconfigure their use and purpose and again, create something completely new.

Displacements (Pretend, Project, Time Travel)
Pretending to be someone else for a moment is also a useful excercise, whether it is being a kid, disabled person, your boss, member of the management team, your customer etc. Flexing your point of view allows for new things to be seen and discussed - again familiar elements in children's play, but an ability we use less and less when we get older.

Time alone, Time Together
Sometimes you just need to collect your thoughts - many things have surfaced in discussions and ideas are brewing - you can feel it, but struggle to articulate them in a group. This is a good time to take a few ingredients, or a topic and find yourself a private spot where you can sit, undisturbed and simply organise all the thoughts flying to your mind into ideas that make sense. Initially it will feel confusing and quite difficult and your mind can easily start wandering off, but as you persist - things will begin taking shape in your mind. Come together after 20 Min's or an hour and share your thoughts, this will again spark more ideas in the minds of others and ultimately move the conversation on much further than just sitting in a group all the time.

 

And now for something completely different
Breaks are as important when brainstorming as is the brainstorming itself - don't attempt to do more than hour and half maximum at a time - people get tired, discussions run in circles - allow people to stretch their legs and move about, have a break and come back. A pause helps everyone gather their thoughts and also move away from ideas they might have got stuck on. Sometimes things still get stuck and that's where the Monty Python-esque 'Now for Something Completely Different' comes in - find a fun activity, whether it is playing with some toys, bouncing on a trampoline, whatever - but preferably a little physical at least - do it for half and hour to an hour just to break up the day, make people get rid of some nervous energy and encourage them to laugh and have fun. Laughter relaxes us and doing something completely different jolts our brains from whatever groove we got stuck in and helps us think more openly and freely again when we get back into a brainstorm.

So there we go - my list of important 'non-method' things to do to get people's creative juices flowing - and remember, if you have to think of fun concepts - it is impossible if you are not having fun yourself!

Secret LEGO Mindstorms Movie

As some of you already know, the cool LEGO Mindstorms robotics invention system has received a much-needed face lift and a whole host of new and improved features. The new Mindstorms is actually a product of co-creation by some of our most avid fans and the LEGO group and is due to launch world-wide in August.

Having seen the many iterations the team have gone through to arrive at this perfect blend of open-ended building and also a revolutionary open-source programming language to encourage users to share their own creations and programs - Mindstorms is continuing as a trail-blazer in the field of robotics. It is one thing to be able to buy a robotic toy that walks, talks, reacts to sound and can pick things up - it's an entirely different matter to be able to decide for yourself what your robot looks like, what it does and how it reacts to stimuli in the environment. Check out this article in Wired Magazine on the new Mindstorms: Geeks in Toyland

More importantly - to get in the mood for the new Mindstorms launch, open the JPG below to see the instructions of how to find the secret Mindstorms movie hidden on LEGO.com!

Play with Your Walls

I seem to be on a bit of a roll here with groovy interfaces of late, but no harm sharing cool stuff. This is an interesting twist on projections, where rather than merely providing a bigger view of a screen - the projection on the wall actually comes alive, reacting to gestures from people around. Have a look!

Forget Keyboard & Mouse: Use Fingerpainting Instead

Regardless of far computers have come in the last decades, we are still using a pretty archaic form of input: keyboards. Mice aren't that intuitive either, at least not when you are trying to draw - so we have Wacom tablets and styluses instead. What if we did away with all of that and went back to a more child-like way of interacting with things? Touching, pointing, pulling our fingers on the screen? What if that actually meant commands for the computer to execute? Have a look at the video below:

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Global Street Art II Loop

As you may have gathered I'm quite a fan of graffiti - or street art as I prefer to call it. When done well it truly is art, it is evocative, strong and eye-catching and deserving of better treatment that the 'nuisance' people so often call it. Below is another selection of my favourites I have found on my travels. If you download the cool filmloop player (click on the loop) you can store these images on your computer and use them as a screensaver. And of course also the earlier loop, which you can find here

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

Creative Mess on Your Desktop

I don't know about you, but when I'm busy working on something, you can tell. My desk invariably overflows with paper, sketches, prototypes, old cups of coffee, sticky notes everywhere, water bottles, toys... the list goes on. To the untrained eye this looks like complete chaos, like a bomb's gone off, but if something gets moved - I can immediately tell. The piles of paper are actually organised according to a pattern and as I have a photographic memory, scattering things helps me find them. This, at least is what I tell people who question my need for a mess. The insights behind my messy behaviour are also what have inspired the geniuses at BumpTop to make computer desktops more intuitive and user-friendly. Have a look at the video below:

Adblock

The Beauty of Doing Things Right

Before settling for my new job, I spent the last few months seeing potential employers, being interviewed, but also trying my best to interview my potential employers in return to try to find out whether the job on offer really was going to be all it was cranked up to be. It's easy to be star-struck, particularly when going for interviews with companies one is passionate about, or admires for one reason or another, but in these cases it is even more important to ask some difficult questions too, in order to separate reality from one's dream of what the company is.

Often it can be disappointing, if not outright surprising, to discover that the success the company has enjoyed is more or less down to sheer luck, and throwing money at production with the rationale that something will be a hit eventually. Success by probability rather than strategy. I have been taken slightly aback by the realisation how many companies, despite all the literature, courses, best-practise case studies and whatever are out there - still can't get their head around how to do things right.

What is the right way? I'm inclined to think that despite the explosion of books on innovative business practises and leadership, the best and clearest findings are still free, courtesy of The International Standards Organisation (ISO) who works relentlessly to share best practises in a range of different fields, and publicising their findings freely and widely. In that respect we really don't have an excuse - this knowledge is out there so let's more use of it. The following text is an integral reproduction of the content of the document "Quality Management Principles":

Principle 1 Customer focus

Organisations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

Key benefits:

• Increased revenue and market share obtained through flexible and fast responses to market opportunities.
• Increased effectiveness in the use of the organisation's resources to enhance customer satisfaction.
• Improved customer loyalty leading to repeat business.

Applying the principle of customer focus typically leads to:

• Researching and understanding customer needs and expectations.
• Ensuring that the objectives of the organisation are linked to customer needs and expectations.
• Communicating customer needs and expectations throughout the organisation. Measuring customer satisfaction and acting on the results.
• Systematically managing customer relationships.
• Ensuring a balanced approach between satisfying customers and other interested parties (such as owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole).

Principle 2 Leadership

Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization's objectives.

Key benefits:

• People will understand and be motivated towards the organisation's goals and objectives.
• Activities are evaluated, aligned and implemented in a unified way.
• Miscommunication between levels of an organisation will be minimised.

Applying the principle of leadership typically leads to:

• Considering the needs of all interested parties including customers, owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole.
• Establishing a clear vision of the organisation's future.
• Setting challenging goals and targets.
• Creating and sustaining shared values, fairness and ethical role models at all levels of the organisation.
• Establishing trust and eliminating fear.
• Providing people with the required resources, training and freedom to act with responsibility and accountability.
• Inspiring, encouraging and recognising people's contributions.

Principle 3 Involvement of people

People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization's benefit.

Key benefits:

• Motivated, committed and involved people within the organisation.
• Innovation and creativity in furthering the organisation's objectives.
• People being accountable for their own performance.
• People eager to participate in and contribute to continual improvement.

Applying the principle of involvement of people typically leads to:

• People understanding the importance of their contribution and role in the organisation.
• People identifying constraints to their performance.
• People accepting ownership of problems and their responsibility for solving them. People evaluating their performance against their personal goals and objectives.
• People actively seeking opportunities to enhance their competence, knowledge and experience.    * People freely sharing knowledge and experience.
• People openly discussing problems and issues.

Principle 4 Process approach

A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

Key benefits:

• Lower costs and shorter cycle times through effective use of resources.
• Improved, consistent and predictable results.
• Focused and prioritised improvement opportunities.

Applying the principle of process approach typically leads to:

• Systematically defining the activities necessary to obtain a desired result.
• Establishing clear responsibility and accountability for managing key activities.
• Analysing and measuring of the capability of key activities.
• Identifying the interfaces of key activities within and between the functions of the organisation.
• Focusing on the factors such as resources, methods, and materials that will improve key activities of the organisation.
• Evaluating risks, consequences and impacts of activities on customers, suppliers and other interested parties.

Principle 5 System approach to management

Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.

Key benefits:

• Integration and alignment of the processes that will best achieve the desired results.
• Ability to focus effort on the key processes.
• Providing confidence to interested parties as to the consistency, effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation.

Applying the principle of system approach to management typically leads to:

• Structuring a system to achieve the organisation's objectives in the most effective and efficient way.
• Understanding the inter-dependencies between the processes of the system. Structured approaches that harmonise and integrate processes.
• Providing a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities necessary for achieving common objectives and thereby reducing cross-functional barriers. Understanding organisational capabilities and establishing resource constraints prior to action.
• Targeting and defining how specific activities within a system should operate. Continually improving the system through measurement and evaluation.

Principle 6 Continual improvement

Continual improvement of the organization's overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organization.

Key benefits:

• Performance advantage through improved organisational capabilities.
• Alignment of improvement activities at all levels to an organisation's strategic intent.
• Flexibility to react quickly to opportunities.

Applying the principle of continual improvement typically leads to:

• Employing a consistent organisation-wide approach to continual improvement of the organisation's performance.
• Providing people with training in the methods and tools of continual improvement. Making continual improvement of products, processes and systems an objective for every individual in the organisation.
• Establishing goals to guide, and measures to track, continual improvement. Recognising and acknowledging improvements.

Principle 7 Factual approach to decision making

Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information

Key benefits:

• Informed decisions.
• An increased ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of past decisions through reference to factual records.
• Increased ability to review, challenge and change opinions and decisions.

Applying the principle of factual approach to decision making typically leads to:

• Ensuring that data and information are sufficiently accurate and reliable.
• Making data accessible to those who need it.
• Analysing data and information using valid methods.
• Making decisions and taking action based on factual analysis, balanced with experience and intuition.

Principle 8 Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value

Key benefits:

• Increased ability to create value for both parties.
• Flexibility and speed of joint responses to changing market or customer needs and expectations.
• Optimisation of costs and resources.

Applying the principles of mutually beneficial supplier relationships typically leads to:

• Establishing relationships that balance short-term gains with long-term considerations.
• Pooling of expertise and resources with partners.
• Identifying and selecting key suppliers.
• Clear and open communication.
• Sharing information and future plans.
• Establishing joint development and improvement activities.
• Inspiring, encouraging and recognising improvements and achievements by suppliers.

Quality Management Principles

Don't Box Me In!

So these things happen. You go to a wedding, get asked the regular question of - ' what are you up to these days?' and end up explaining you are in the process of changing jobs. Always a dangerous discussion starter, as people invariably feel the need to offer their take on what you should do, regardless of whether they understand your industry or not. All of course with good intentions, but it gets a bit tiresome after a while. I'm sure you all know what I mean.

In my case things are on the up, just accepted a new job, which will to some seem like a radical departure from what I was doing so far (product development), but to me is simply widening my knowledge, business understanding and strategic thinking. What I'll be doing next is focusing not so much on product development in the traditional sense, but instead developing services, events and experiences in partnership with the fan community. Interestingly, I touched on the topic of community-driven innovation in an earlier post about The Conditions for Thriving Innovation as well as the design maturity of an organisation in Decoding Apple's Success: Why Only Great Leaders Know the True Power of Design - both critical factors in taking a company beyond the commodity trap and into an experience-driven realm. Summarising design maturity of an organisation:

Download design_maturity.pdf

1. No use of design. In these companies, design is a hidden aspect of product development. It is  generally the task of nondesign disciplines to develop the functionality and aesthetics of a product.

2. Design as styling. Design is seen as the final styling of a product. The task may or may not be undertaken by professional designers.

3. Design as process. Design is not an end result, but rather a work method adopted at an early stage of product development and requiring the involvement of several different disciplines, including design.

4. Design as problem-solving. Design finds new opportunities by solving existing problems.

5. Design as strategy. Design has been adopted as a central aspect of the company's business base, used as a means of encouraging innovation, for instance.

Of course it not just about how a company sees the use of design, it is also how designers themselves behave, Lazlo (1992) differentiates among five generations of designers:

1. The first generation designer is considered an expert and specialist in the design process. She studies the situation of the group and decides which is the best solution for them. 


2. The second generation designer is akin to the classical consultant who asks for information from the members of the group, and then analyses it and gives them a solution according to her perception of their needs. These two first generations design for others.  In contrast, the last three generations of designers design with others. 


3. The third generation designer gets the group involved in the creation of alternative solutions, but at the end of the process, she nevertheless selects the best alternative for them. 


4. The fourth generation designer works to create an adequate group environment that facilitates the processes of generating alternatives and selecting solutions. 


5. The newest generation, the fifth generation, not only involves the group in the design process, but also helps the group to learn how to learn to facilitate.  A group that does so can sustain the continued design process by themselves (Banathy, 1996.)

For me, it's about maturing as a designer. Invariably, if you are doing design as a freelancer or consultant, you get stuck on levels 1-2 as companies have a pretty defined idea of what they want you to deliver and don't want you asking the big questions. Often, because there is not a process in place in the company for asking the big questions, without being perceived as challenging management and clients seldom want to be seen to be rocking the boat.

Going full-time invariably means that you may be hovering around Levels 3-4 (if you are lucky), but still seen more as a doer than a thinker and even if you are in-house, your task is invariably to solve problems others have defined. This is not to be discounted as an exercise, but it tends to produce iterative, incremental improvements to product lines rather than cutting-edge innovation. Level 5 innovation can only really happen if the company management is populated by Level 4 leaders i.e Strategists, who generate organisational and personal transformations or even better, Level 5 leaders, commonly referred to as Alchemists, who generate society-wide transformations. Both are rare, and level 5 leaders even rarer (companies who have caused society-wide transformations are Apple, Amazon, EBay to name a few).

Design is about a desire to create meaning
Back to the wedding and the discussion about my next move, I got asked - 'isn't design for you about the passion of form and function of objects?' and I had to reply no. Design is bigger than that. Level 5 design is about framing the challenges that face the organisation, setting an agenda, outlining the boundaries and axes of interest, and moving design from executing strategy to shaping strategy. Or to put it more bluntly, what drives me is a desire to create meaning. Meaning is beyond simply obsessing about the form, finish and function of an object - it is about the meaning we assign an object in our lives. Companies like Harley-Davidson, Ducati, Apple to name but a few have created transformational products, products that have such meaning to their fans that the products have become part of their identity. These products have meaning, which is greater than the sum of the parts. As a designer aspiring to mature to higher levels, it surely must be about understanding ALL the elements that come in to play to create such a transformational product, rather than simply obsessing over one or two parts of it?

Ironically, it is not my design colleagues who have given me a hard time about my decision. Everyone can see the value of it, understanding how designing with users creates better solutions than merely designing for them, instead it is the people outside the design industry who have voiced their concerns. This leads me to thinking that part of the difficulty in creating a culture within a company conducive to successful innovation is the tendency of other disciplines to want to box in designers to having a very narrow role in the wider creation of a product solution. Whether these people idealise designers and envy their skills, or simply see them as yet another discipline that needs to have input on a product, in both cases we are talking about design as part of a process, often devoid of greater meaning. Check the hilarious photos below!

How do we take the complex task of creating a service or product, split it up into it's constituent 'boxes' (i.e people who almost like automatons, are expected to perform a very specific part, but are frequently discouraged from thinking about wider aspects of the problem they are trying to solve)  and orchestrate all these to create something greater than the sum of its parts?

Users and fans create meaning, they fall in love with products that have meaning. Surely designers should aspire to working more closely with them and creating frameworks for including them in the design process? That is want I want to do. I believe it is possible to reach level 4 or level 5 of design maturity specifically by creating mechanisms for empowering the fan community to have a greater say in the definition of their products. It won't be easy and I have a lot to learn, but God forbid if I ever end up in a job where I have very little to learn - boredom will not be far behind!

Photos courtesy of Hemmy.net

Graffiti is Art - Banksy Tribute Loop

Banksy is without question my favourite British graffiti artist and I'm not alone - many in the UK have cottoned on to his talent and even more people have unwittingly come across his work, whether it's on a street corner or even in a posh exhibition. Regardless of location, Banksy's work has the capacity to stir up debate and controversy as surely as it rains during Wimbledon.

Most recently, his mural on the wall of the Brook Young People's Sexual Health Clinic in Bristol, UK, depicting a woman in underwear, her jealous husband, and her naked lover dangling from a window ledge, would usually have been scrubbed off by council workers at the earliest opportunity. However, the employees of the clinic have sworn to guard Banksy's work and are coming head to head with the anti-graffiti lobby who see all street art as an eye-sore. Personally I hope this debate can be made public to ascertain the realm within which street art and graffiti can exist as a recognised form of art, rather than always be frowned upon by council elders and the target of some narrow-minded political campaigns claiming graffiti should be removed within 24 hours. There should be room to accomodate the geniuses of Banksy and others like him, just as we do with other forms of art.

Below I have gathered a few of my personal favourites of Banksy's prolific work, including an image of the contested Brooks clinic mural and wanted to share them with you. To me, Banksy's ability to use the location he places his stencils to help create context for some very poignant political messages raises him into the realm of a true artist, a genius whose medium is the urban canvas, spray paint and stencils and his messages thought-provoking comments to the issues we face as a society and ultimately as a civilisation. We need to embrace the likes of Banksy - not silence him!

Some more links:
Banksy's homepage
Banksy in Wikipedia
Banksy Photogallery

I/O Brush - The Coolest Thing Since the Invention of Photoshop

I don't know about you, but the longer I live on this planet the more it takes to surprise me. Also, to get me really excited, on par with those childhood WOOOOW moments when you learn something amazing, find the toy of your dreams or get told you are going on your dream holiday - it really takes a lot, and sadly, it doesn't happen that often. Recently, however, I did have that moment again as a dear friend of mine from the MIT passed me information about the fantastic I/O Brush. I have managed to get hold of a video, explaining how it works so without further ado: let's see if you have the same reaction as I did when I saw this ..

Adblock

Adblock

Adblock

None of Us Are as Smart as All of Us

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will have noticed that I regularly comment on business, creativity and how to manage the two. Why? Mainly because as a designer I refuse to accept the status-quo and like to challenge things, and secondly because too much management invariably kills creativity.

Some time ago I wrote about the importance of catalysts in my post on the Conditions for Thriving Innovation and although catalysts sounds like a fancy title, essentially they are people who like to work together, network across departments and find joy in creating unusual connections between things, people and situations. They make stuff happen. And they are immensely rare in the grand scheme of things, because the way most businesses operate - it is a skill which is not valued or recognised much in the way our roles are organised.

Invariably what happens is that a business, regardless of industry, will identify a selection of goals to strive towards, devise a set of projects that supposedly will take them there and then staff the projects accordingly. Sounds straightforward enough. What goes wrong is that these projects invariably end up being organised according to departments and department superstructures instead of being staffed with a holistic idea in mind (because departments are easier to manage and keep track of their deliverables than a mixed bunch of people representing a range of different departments and disciplines) and there are little or no initiatives to bridge it all together, to make things more efficient, transparent and effective.

Instead turf wars develop between departments and disciplines, things get split up according to department lines rather than logic and ultimately people get frustrated because those who do realise the value of collaboration aren't rewarded for their efforts and those who dig their heels in get away with it, because being a good networker and collaborator is seldom part of anyone's job description or bonus scheme, but makes for infinitely more smooth dealings with people if you come across one. Companies sometimes try to remedy this with frequent organisational reshuffles, but after the initial upheaval, the dust settles very quickly and things return to the old ways if there are no mechanisms in place to support and encourage a different way or working.

People who are kind and compassionate have great pre-requisites for being good collaborators. They do things not for selfish reasons, but because they genuinely want to improve things. Thus the objection of a colleague is an opportunity in disguise to learn more about how this person would like to change the situation/idea to make it better. People who can set aside their selfish pride and strive to listen and take on board the criticism with an genuine desire to use it to improve things can achieve not only great things, but also unprecedented support and commitment from their colleagues. People want to help when they feel they are listened to, not taken advantage of.

This is where management could make a real difference. Instead of championing a command-and-control culture completely out of date with today's increasingly interconnected, interdependent world it should empower people to decide for themselves, wherever possible, what is the best way to react or solve a problem. Or as Jeremy puts it in his comment to the most excellent post on How not to lead geeks :

The problem isn’t bad management, it’s the whole concept of management: the idea that decision making can be separated from the actual work. It’s ludicrous when you think about it, and the whole mythos of the managerial class is to give us the illusion that management is adding value. The problems with management are the same problems in any organization hierarchically structured where information flows between relatively more powerful and relatively less powerful people - because the jobs are on the line, and management is always playing catch up to the true situational picture, managers are simply told whatever they need to hear in order not to be fired much of the time. There’s a delay involved as well as a fundamental case of rose-colored glasses. It’s easy to see why somebody like Ken Lay could argue he didn’t know what was going on - in fact, I fail to see how any manager who isn’t getting his hands dirty on a project could possibly claim a knowledge of the project sufficient to judge it.

So there we are - working together beyond the lines of department structures and locations can add perspective, meaning and value to almost everything we do. Moreover, things will have more impact and we find them more meaningful too, but it requires us to challenge things, structures, habits 'we've always done it like this..', use our own initiative and determination to find those across the organisation, who can bring valuable insights, experience and ideas to anything you are working on and make it stronger. The joy of seeing the results is half of the joy of working together.

The Conditions for Thriving Innovation

A while ago I wrote about Catalysts and also the Power of Collaborative Innovation, because as I see it - businesses stuck in the commodity market are desperately trying to figure out how to 'add value' to whatever it is that they sell and realising that doing this requires thinking about providing experiences. Catalysts are important factors in creating experiences, because to do it effectively you need your company to adopt a kinf of 'hive-mind', where people spontaneously re-organise themselves to deal with a particular problem or exploit a new opportunity. Doing things the old way, by putting people in boxes and waiting for orders from the top is simply too slow to react to many things. Relying on individuals alone is not enough though. Companies need to change the way they approach solving problems by changing structures, staffing of teams and culture to create optimal conditions for innovation. Lastly, if your company has a community - figure out how to enable more of your fans to participate in what your company does and open up channels to enable dialogue.

Individuals as Catalysts

On one hand, values are what bring people together better and more efficiently than boxes. Breaking down boxes also create room to deal with previously unforeseen situations - it puts emphasis on people's knowledge and experience, more than restrictive 'roles and responsibilities' the modus operandi becomes the potential to outgrow those roles than merely sticking to them blinkering oneself to things going on nearby. It is an approach which encourages knowing what is wrong with any given product or situation, but equally, taking the view that one has power to find solutions and not being discouraged when the solutions produce unexpected results.

There used to be a clear division between people who give orders and those who receive them. There is a third group, previously rarely recognised, but a crucial component in making the 'hive-mind' work and those are the intermediaries. Intermediaries are catalysts who can achieve more than their own personal talents permit. The idea of catalysis gives intermediaries a new status. Previously, they were mere links or hyphens, supplying needs felt by others. As catalysts, by contrast, they have an independent existence or purpose: they can create new situations and transform people's lives by bringing them together, without having any arrogant pretensions themselves. To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking they can control it, wish to influence its direction.

And it is the catalysts who invariably see the power of collaborative innovation - or as the Japanese proverb puts it 'None of us are as smart as all of us' - that surely has to be the raison d'être of collaborative innovation, working across disciplines, departments, locations to create more meaningful and relevant solutions to problems that one could ever have achieved whilst stuck away in a silo somewhere.

Enabling Collaborative Innovation in Business

1. Know the experts - The bigger an organisation, the harder it is to know the unique skills and abilities of your staff, particularly in creative fields. Moreover, companies often forget that many of the true experts in their products are in fact not employees, but avid fans who have formed communities around your product. It is a match-making task, finding the right people to work on your project and equally, being committed in involving fans in improving your products - but infinitely more rewarding.

2. Feed the minds - Business, development and innovation moves ahead at a breakneck speed and there are no excuses for not keeping up with trends, industry developments, research and headline news. Effective collaboration enables information to get through effortlessly and this is where corporate communications should partially re-direct its efforts from being a insular company-only news media to serving the company with tools to stay on the cutting edge of the latest relevant information

3. Use technology to enable collaboration - Use the intranets to enable on-line knowledge share, take the wiki approach of creating web pages around a topic which can be modified by anyone with access and use that as a virtual meeting room, encouraging contributions, ideas and input.

4. Encourage entrepreneurship - Collaboration will not grow and flourish in structures continuing to employ command-and-control approaches. This stifles creative thinking and creates a cynical, passive attitude, as there are no incentives in doing things in an unconventional way. The benefits of unconventional methods are increasing speed, flexibility and innovation in solutions, but mechanisms net to be set in place to reward and encourage this behaviour - otherwise it is far too simple to do things the way we have always done.

5. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - Great ideas happen when timing, expertise, collaboration and geographic locations all come together in surprising, unpredictable, but effective combinations. Intranets, entrepreneurship-schemes, time can all be set aside to achieve this, but it is ultimately down to a shift in mindsets and a greater degree of personal ownership and responsibility of the outcome, which creates the necessary sparks. You need advocates, passionate champions of a new way of working to publicise the efforts, and all the other dimensions to be in place and last but not least, a profound understanding of the power of collaboration.

Community-driven co-creation

Creating meaningful links with communities sounds a lot simpler than it is. It actually requires a very particular type of person to instigate meaningful exchange and bring the best out of people, rather than cramping their style. Designers are naturally poised for this role, because of their continuous involvement in product development and the holistic view required to do this properly. However Laszlo & Lazslo draw a fascinating analogy between generations of designers and of conversations facilitators. In social systems design they differentiate among five generations of designers (Laszlo, 1992).

1. The first generation designer is consider an expert and specialist in the design process. She studies the situation of the group and decides which is the best solution for them. 
2. The second generation designer is akin to the classical consultant who asks for information from the members of the group, and then analyses it and gives them a solution according to her perception of their needs. These two first generations design for others.  In contrast, the last three generations of designers design with others. 
3. The third generation designer gets the group involved in the creation of alternative solutions, but at the end of the process, she nevertheless selects the best alternative for them. 
4. The fourth generation designer works to create an adequate group environment that facilitates the processes of generating alternatives and selecting solutions. 
5. The newest generation, the fifth generation, not only involves the group in the design process, but also helps the group to learn how to learn to facilitate.  A group that does so can sustain the continued design process by themselves (Banathy, 1996.)

How are these designer generations roles related to the role of the conversation facilitator?  We believe that a facilitator of a conversation cannot operate out of the values and assumptions derived from the first two generations.  That is to say, there is no possibility for an authentic conversation facilitator to “design for others” or to assume a position of authority and control over the conversants.  The conversation facilitator cannot be an external agent to the community but rather needs to be just another member of it.  In fact, many thriving conversations are characterised by a shared facilitation process in which the role of the facilitator is not assumed by only one individual but rotates among the members of the community. The facilitator of a conversation can function out of the framework of a third, fourth or fifth generation of designer. But facilitators of thriving conversations tends to work from the basis of the fifth generation — completely integrated into the group, sharing the facilitation functions and responsibilities, and helping the group to become more and more capable of facilitating their own process evolutionary change and transcendence.

Bela Banathy (1996) suggests a set of guardianship roles to share responsibility and accomplish the tasks of the group.  These roles include:
- the guardian of participation
- the guardian of keeping the focus
- the guardian of selected group technique
- the guardian of documentation
- the guardian of accepting and honouring all contributions
- the guardian of values
- the guardian of “keeping the fire burning”
- the guardian of time and coordination
Each role is descriptive of the functions that a facilitator carries out, but in thriving conversations, they are not assumed by just one individual but shared by the community as a whole.

Inspirational quotes by Frank Lloyd Wright

As my last set of quotes came from a cartoon character (Homer Simpson) or maybe his father, Matt Groenig, I've decided to counter-balance this emphasis on entertainment and popular culture with some thought-provoking quotes from one of the greatest American architects, Frank Lloyd Wright:

• "Less is only more where more is no good."

• "'Form follows function' — that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union."

• "Get the habit of analysis – analysis will, in time, enable synthesis to become your habit of mind."

• "Mechanisation best serves mediocrity."

• "Freedom is from within."

• "An idea is salvation by imagination."

• "The truth is more important than the facts."

• "The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."

• "Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities."

• "An expert is a man who has stopped thinking — he knows!"

• "The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind."
• "There is nothing more uncommon than common sense."

• "I'm all in favour of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."

Global Street Art Loop live!

Ah finally! A version of the very nifty FilmLoop Player that works! Don't get me wrong, I fell in love with this application a while ago, but it used to be very difficult to embed the player into a blog post. Not anymore - so here we go: a selection of my favourite street art animating right here! If you like the look of this, download it along with the player and you can use it as a screensaver. Enjoy!