tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79925328281183358482024-02-08T00:00:35.223+11:00Celebrating DesignAre good outcomes driven by design or chance?Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.comBlogger291125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-66968344542486376192016-08-02T14:22:00.002+10:002016-08-02T14:23:50.886+10:00A mark in stone<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's been some 4 years since posting here. I had tried to log back into this account a few years back without success ... but just tried it on a whim today, and *presto* here I am!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A lot has happened in that 4 years. I still have my small firm, Bumble Creek Initiative. Mostly, these days, Bumble is my landscape maintenance company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2 years ago I went through the life-transforming experience of becoming an EMyth coach. I had been interested in business design for some time, and was gently urged towards becoming a business coach. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am now partner in a small but growing practice, working with two people who are a thrill to work with each day. We get to walk with others whose long for their lives and businesses to be more intentional. It is wonderful work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I don't expect anyone will read this, but it just somehow seemed appropriate to stop by and leave this note, like a chiselled mark on stone ... even if it just sits here and slowly weathers away. The life is not in the mark, but in what the mark points to. And that is alive!</span>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-81969695205400814822012-04-19T16:44:00.003+10:002012-04-30T20:22:29.769+10:00A new day: Bumble Creek Initiative<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioK-6gH-tcZmsHDgeKQB3Nritp-cx3fkKTIe59vvYdzORyOr4QBsdfuAB-kTpFcvJIR4fI2khlgn-qf6hPZFovKpY2z650eUf3p-wEBZzmdlLWs4KZ_VPsBXX56wZlCJxWH7UeuuI3T6KX/s1600/Bumble+Creek+logo+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioK-6gH-tcZmsHDgeKQB3Nritp-cx3fkKTIe59vvYdzORyOr4QBsdfuAB-kTpFcvJIR4fI2khlgn-qf6hPZFovKpY2z650eUf3p-wEBZzmdlLWs4KZ_VPsBXX56wZlCJxWH7UeuuI3T6KX/s200/Bumble+Creek+logo+3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
As of 12.32pm today, I've got a new name to work with.<br />
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It's a new chapter. Not really sure which one, or how far through the story we are, but it's a new name to live and work with.</div>
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At lunchtime I registered 'Bumble Creek Initiative' as my business name. It was a strange feeling walking out of the Office of Fair Trading having exchanged $160 for a new piece of paper to adorn my home office wall.</div>
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There is no website at this stage, but something may change on that front some day soon. </div>
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Registering a business name is an odd thing to do when I'm still sorting through exactly what I want to offer the world. There are a few options afloat, but whichever way I choose to jump the passion is to work profitably for the good of people and planet. Good design is central to that.</div>
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Some of what I choose to offer is the development of business proposals. I've already recently begun my Cert IV Training & Assessment (TAE 40110), and have an opportunity to develop some training at a local government level. </div>
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So many people have nurtured the seeds of hope along the way. We're still in seedling stage in many respects but it's good to be alive, to be growing, to be contributing. </div>
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'Grateful' and 'hopeful' are words that have a special resonance this afternoon.</div>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-64030113006723283502011-12-20T06:17:00.003+11:002011-12-20T06:35:51.557+11:00Saw handlesWhile going for my lunchtime walk the other day, I noticed a stack of bric-a-brac piled out the front of someone's house with a large 'FREE' sign on it.<br /><br />Making the assumption that 'FREE' referred to the stuff, and not the sign, I picked up 2 old Disston handsaws.<br /><br />If you've ever spent money on a handsaw from any hardware shop these days, one thing you'll notice straight away is how blocky the handle is.<br /><br />Henry Disston - quite apart from being <a href="http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/disstonbio.html">a fascinating bloke</a> to read about - made great saws. And a key part of a great saw is a great handle. Almost all the old saws have them.<br /><br />The two saws I picked up both have apple handles. Apple wood (yes, from apple trees) makes great handles. The oldest saw of these two, which I date somewhere between 1878-88, is both comfortable and elegant.<br /><br />As Disston's descendants carried the business on, the handles slowly lost their elegance and their comfort.<br /><br />It is a lovely thing to be able to pick up a saw - even a rough one - 120 years after its birth, and feel a bond with it. A good saw feels like an extension of your arm.<br /><br />I'm looking forward to restoring this one, cutting new teeth, and pressing it into service.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-32744396757702784442011-12-15T06:05:00.010+11:002011-12-15T07:14:16.262+11:00Tools to build a new tomorrow<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnr_cN88ltHZOdZKQjVABVkDONb2GiSxlJgex7fa4c3d7RzSGZmfYf9tGkEmVD_znskCkPdJfpiNqMQLrvIQ5ic64baVytI9tULEsXQD6dfHeO4JKDzOCdf2RuyN_XDvXk4QdzWiWkI-NO/s1600/IMG_0408.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 239px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5686078694659248450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnr_cN88ltHZOdZKQjVABVkDONb2GiSxlJgex7fa4c3d7RzSGZmfYf9tGkEmVD_znskCkPdJfpiNqMQLrvIQ5ic64baVytI9tULEsXQD6dfHeO4JKDzOCdf2RuyN_XDvXk4QdzWiWkI-NO/s320/IMG_0408.JPG" /></a><br /><div>The world is full of designers. People who get paid to engage their brains and hearts to take concepts, understand their parameters, imagine possibilities, and translate them from mind to paper or screen.<br /><br />Design is part of the basic package of what we, as human beings, do. It's a key part of how we make stuff happen in the world. From music, to buildings, to cars, to kitchenware, to urban planning, to making a sandwich, it's what we do.</div><br /><div>Except when we don't.</div><br /><div>Probably around 1/3 of the clients I currently work with are paid to design. I love walking into the workspaces of designers. It causes you to ponder about the measure of the people who create stuff there.</div><br /><div>One observation I've made in the last 4 years is that many of the people we work with excel at making 'hard stuff' - landscapes etc. But a qualification in design doesn't necessarily mean you design strong processes - or as I heard one designer call 'the soft infrastructure'.</div><br /><div>My contention - and I've said it often in recent times - is that what a lot of designers don't design well are <em>conversations that help us achieve outcomes</em>. A friend who is an industrial designer insists otherwise. He says design tools are the designer's working tools, so of course they bring design processes to their exchanges; they cannot do otherwise. </div><br /><div>With the greatest respect, I cannot agree. My contention is not universally true - we get to work with some wonderful exceptions - but the trend is plain enough.</div><br /><div>Yes, they know the language of project management. Yes, they can navigate council through the D.A and C.C. phases. But this is different to designing the conversations requisite to good outcomes that preserve intent, and utilise the best of each party for the good of the project's end users and owners.</div><br /><div>Our passion is in finding the right questions that would help to drive the process forward while keeping the voice of intent alive. </div><br /><div>Most often these are the exchanges that don't make the official register. They are the 'between the gaps' conversations, the links between silos. </div><br /><div>We need to harness those gaps for the good of the project. And to do that we need a set of good conversational tools to carry us forward. This is a key part of a toolkit for tomorrow.</div><br /><div><em></em></div><br /><div><em></em></div>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-16119793527055069382011-12-08T06:50:00.006+11:002011-12-08T07:37:40.530+11:00Small decisions<div>Motivational speakers.<br /><br />There -- I just polarised my readers.<br /><br />I'm leary of motivational speakers. They make life's problems sound so predictable, and easy to solve. Just follow these 12 steps ...<br /><br />My boss left something on my desk recently; an audio book titled '<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Slight-Edge-Jeff-Olson/dp/B000NU3KS6/ref=pd_rhf_ee_shvl_tab0_cpp_2">The Slight Edge</a>' by Jeff Olson. </div><br /><div>The slick presentation style was nearly enough to result in an early 'bust off'. The sweeping generalisations made me cranky. The simplistic and formulaic approach of 'Do this, and these things will follow' annoyed me.</div><br /><div>But I pushed through. I'm glad I did. </div><br /><div>What Olson 'sells' here is the 'slow way to success'. It was his basic premise that kept me listening: that achievement in life was not about 'lucky breaks' or windfalls, but about discipline in making small decisions well.</div><br /><div>Decisions like, "Will I eat the cheeseburger or the salad? Will I get up early or sleep in? Will I walk for 20 minutes today, or will I drink a beer and chat on the phone? Will I read a good book or watch television?"</div><br /><div>At some points he feels way too dismissive of the choices of others, too ready to make value judgements. But his big idea has stuck with me, and has impacted on my decisions.</div><br /><div>Failure in life does not occur in one bad decision but in 10,000 small decisions. So it is with those who build lives that we applaud. It's an exponential curve thing.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Rm9xYtarJ9n2ohBRIaNs3S7deaxGULYthjaecC0KF2XY947bYdca6-VxEtNFiBN2Ukxk6A3LcvSEPAdhptX11iJ5EOkEOZTJmOJhoG0vD7OEvGcD8ua6hSh3jj4d3hIYVah5-GXGP6TV/s1600/the+slight+edge.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 270px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683487487170682610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Rm9xYtarJ9n2ohBRIaNs3S7deaxGULYthjaecC0KF2XY947bYdca6-VxEtNFiBN2Ukxk6A3LcvSEPAdhptX11iJ5EOkEOZTJmOJhoG0vD7OEvGcD8ua6hSh3jj4d3hIYVah5-GXGP6TV/s320/the+slight+edge.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Olson has observed a pattern here. The book is the result of watching 'how it is' in the world. Small decisions, deliberate decisions, each day. Moving steadily in an upwards direction, no matter where you're starting from. </div><br /><div>The packaging did not appeal -- nor did quite a few of the ideas. But the core idea stuck. And it's been worth the listen for that.</div>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-20344806878990982702011-11-22T06:09:00.002+11:002011-11-22T06:30:10.751+11:00GratefulFor the past year I've had the privilege of serving on our local school's P&C.<br /><br />They are a very committed bunch of people, and are responsible for so much of the good that happens in our school community.<br /><br />Meaningful actions have been driven by caring and considerate thought or concern. It's been great to be a part of.<br /><br />We have a wonderful, dedicated principal whose actions demonstrate that he cares about his staff and teachers very deeply. We have staff who turn up day-after-day, often dealing with the complaints of ungrateful parents, and still faithfully carrying forward the job of educating kids.<br /><br />And then there are the other parents in P&C who dig deep to get other things over the line. School banking. Uniform shop. End-of-year concert. Building repairs.<br /><br />The savour for me this year in P&C has been the way we have been thinking about the question of engagement. It's been exciting to watch the conversation unfold. To have the P&C wrestling hard with such questions is a rich space to be in.<br /><br />There is much to be grateful for. We get to have a say in the shape of the future. We get to form something, to think, talk, create something for the kids. We get to work alongside amazing, dedicated staff to do this. I am grateful.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-22766752923712352042011-11-17T06:05:00.010+11:002011-11-17T06:43:39.797+11:00Consider it [visually] notedLast week was my first attempt at sketchnoting a conference. It was an ideal conference to try my hand at sketchnoting as the content of the sessions provided plenty of scope for pictures and mental play. This was always likely to be the case, given it was the annual conference for <a href="http://greenroofsaustralasia.com.au/">Green Roofs Australasia</a>.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUyND0ArukOTLDIH06Sss20Q8EEAfUz_rf1mskcYK92_5izO4Oo73SBkZlDmMkQkQLcnE-NcI0vDDVbDnV5sWGGv1F1MBN_tuPxV66O9RPC86HDSyIDyLQeGXI2PcSkD33qAClSWcbo3J/s1600/IMG_0385.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 239px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675677854868855938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUyND0ArukOTLDIH06Sss20Q8EEAfUz_rf1mskcYK92_5izO4Oo73SBkZlDmMkQkQLcnE-NcI0vDDVbDnV5sWGGv1F1MBN_tuPxV66O9RPC86HDSyIDyLQeGXI2PcSkD33qAClSWcbo3J/s320/IMG_0385.JPG" /></a><br />I'm happy with my first attempts at sketchnoting, but I see a lot of room for growth. That's okay -- there's plenty of time for learning and improving.<br /><br />It would be really nice to be as good as <a href="http://sketchnotearmy.com/">these guys</a> one day (I think Eva-Lotta Lamm's notes are especially awesome), but in truth, I am the only person these notes need to matter to.<br /><br />(It has largely been the impact of a <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=BqyyJYlPXKMC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=crowe+laseau&source=bl&ots=Y7VfLfGAoo&sig=JjtH78becJ2uEHVh5K1ZHi6GWqE&hl=en&ei=eQ_ETqSZMsKuiQechIH7DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">27-year-old book</a> that has led me down this road.)Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-80397605236191026672011-10-31T06:09:00.003+11:002011-10-31T07:10:59.919+11:00Q.A. as a living processThere's a good chance that the car sitting in your driveway owes a lot to <a href="http://deming.org/">W. Edwards Deming</a>. Deming was an American statistician largely responsible for the overhaul of Japanese industry from 1950 onwards. He helped to shift the perception that the Japanese were only capable of producing rubbish to the realisation of American car manufacturers that Japan had stolen the limelight from Detroit.<br /><br />I've travelled in several American / Australian cars in recent times, and while it is probably inflammatory and a broad generalisation, my experiences lead me to the perception that Americans and Aussies are very capable of producing crap. Once I got onto Japanese cars, I never looked back.<br /><br />Deming came to represent a whole philosophy of manufacturing. One element I note today is his belief that Q.A. is best offered as a living process. That is, instead of pouring resources into paying for exhaustive inspections at the end of a production process (with a range of acceptable tolerances), build in continuous improvement (<em>'kaizen'</em>) into each process and verify quality improvements through statistical sampling.<br /><br />Deming believed that while cost of manufacturing went down, quality and production could go up. How? Very simple: careful observation of what happens in planning and production, coupled with a culture of 'every participant is a designer', allows the sources of problems to be identified and corrected early in the process. When your only means of catching non-performance is the factory loading dock, then correcting mistakes becomes costly.<br /><br />Most processes surrounding quality could be put right if people were given the space to resolve them. Deming saw the biggest problem here as management, not the people doing the actual work of manufacturing. These were cultural problems that needed to be resolved through a fresh approach to managing people, their willingness to work well, and their ability to do so. If you got the question of 'people' sorted out, then the 'quality' question had the space it needed to resolve.<br /><br />Companies like Toyota have inculturated Deming's whole approach. (He was emphatic that for his thinking to work, his whole system had to be adopted, as it is a package.) And as a result we have better cars, microwaves, televisions.<br /><br />While Deming was widely known and respected in Japan, he did not come into prominence in his home country until he was in his 80's. Once Americans realised what he had done for Japan, he quickly became flavour of the month, and began running 4-day workshops all over America and the world. He wrote books, he consulted to large companies, he supervised post-graduate students.<br /><br />He continued to do this until his death at age 93. Interestingly, he never felt that his philosophy was embraced in his home country to the extent it had been in Japan. People wanted to 'cherry pick' his methods.<br /><br />And that is why I can tell within 20 seconds of the driving experience that a car is a Chrysler and not a Subaru. When a door lining falls off (true story) then it is confirmed.<br /><br />For an overview of Deming's life and his thinking, you'll probably enjoy <a href="http://www.iqfnet.org/Ff4203.pdf">this paper</a>.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-88877646158234718142011-10-26T06:02:00.002+11:002011-10-26T06:40:39.837+11:00Life's a beachDavid Jones, thank you for sending across the wonderful gift that is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKyHmjyrkA">this video</a> of Theo Jansen discussing his Strandbeeste.<br /><br />There is something both elegant and clumsy about Theo's creatures -- on his home site he has a short clip involving one teetering and then falling over -- but there is such drive behind the inventions.<br /><br />We like the notion of 'living on' after we're gone. We have discovered many different ways of achieving this. What is nice about Theo's creations is that they will continue to scuttle about through the sand dunes of Dutch beaches after he is gone.<br /><br />They will not simply follow predictable patterns of motion. Theo, through his 'living' designs, will continue to playfully (and surprisingly) impact the lives of others.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-82336571581602276202011-10-17T06:03:00.010+11:002011-10-17T08:33:23.025+11:00Nuts!<div>You'd like to think it's not every other day that you find yourself an unwilling disciple of children's play equipment.</div><br /><div>But twice in this last week I have been humbled by kids' stuff -- first, by a bicycle and then by a scooter. And I am contrite.</div><br /><div>I used to work with someone who would say, "Experience is a tough teacher: she gives you the test first, and then she gives you the lesson." So damn true.</div><br /><div>Test one: The handlebars on my eldest son's bike were loose. I decided to tighten up the headset, but then realised I didn't have a spanner large enough to tighten up the large nut on the collar. </div><br /><div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 239px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664187636961363634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aab31lf2wYarVb8bUKkLHOnyV8EqdUzDAbta3SXyxYFL_voQV5k-oSPHhCFyUmDjJoFW7yD1h9SfjZiccWl4LbEbkiE4MrnlXJ5pRWk-chcN2A79kgJe7vbVW_XfDzTXMT35t22_yE22/s320/IMG_0353.JPG" /><br /><div>This is embarrassing to admit, but I dug around through what I had and came up with a pair of multi-grips and ... a whopping big set of Stilsons.</div><br /><div>You probably think it is impressive that I have Stilsons in my toolshed. You probably think it is less-than-impressive that I chose to use them to loosen off the locking collar. But I was desperate. It wasn't pretty.</div><br /><div>It only took a few weeks for us to realise that the handlebars were still loose. This time I knew better: I asked my boss if he had a large shifter in his workshop. He did. </div><br /><div>I tackled the headset with a combination of large shifter and multi-grips. The shifter held. The multi-grips slipped under pressure. I bent back a thumbnail and swore. Finally, I got it all loosened up, and then tightened it to a tension I was happy with.</div><br /><div>The handlebars still moved. More swearing. Then I noticed the little nut on top of the stem at the base of the handlebars. I grabbed a little socket out of my box. Ten seconds of tightening, and the problem was fixed. </div><br /><div>I felt like an idiot. The fix was there right under my nose all along. All the fooling about, and big tools and damaged paint was needless. A small socket was the answer.</div><br /><div>Test two: I noticed that our scooter had two plastic screw covers that weren't sitting down properly. A quick inspection caused me to believe that the person who fitted the nuts-and-bolts had put them in the wrong way.</div><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 239px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664188632960073442" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsWWyje4oFOERPUdrXAKzKiNiP4cYjDeJPTb29mYtIWD9zvwoy_mS5dekOo1U-idKUhyphenhyphenFxY9Zdqq0B9Z_H9g3kwtGW26nq_LDceWCxyYsI_7PWedfhp41VzijcCaDyRSXBzT57zuK-syD/s320/IMG_0352.JPG" /><br /><div>I pulled them out (fiddly), turned them around, and retightened. And the covers still did not fit. Then I realised that the fix was a lot simpler than I assumed: the covers simply needed to be spun around (hard to explain, even with a photo). The nuts-and-bolts were right the first time around. So I had to undo them and turn them back around again.</div><br /><div>In both cases my poor diagnostic work forced me to rush to a solution that was no solution at all. In both cases a lot more time and energy was wasted than was necessary.</div>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-6835167046278104842011-10-12T06:11:00.002+11:002011-10-12T06:48:18.684+11:00A taxing read"We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. 'At least,' as one man said, 'there's one advantage about death: it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. -- Erwin N. Griswold, 34th United States Solicitor General<br /><br />I have just finished reading <a href="http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/research/conferences/dtrs8/docs/DTRS8-York-et-al.pdf">a paper</a> delivered by some of the crew at <a href="http://www.secondroad.com.au/">Second Road </a>on how they worked with the ATO to help the organisation rethink its relationship to law, politics, and its clientele: Aussie taxpayers.<br /><br />It makes for an interesting read, and is a fascinating test case for what can happen in the most analysis-driven of organisations when a design approach to problem-solving and future-casting is adopted not for a one-off workshop, but as the persistent model of thinking.<br /><br />If accountants and taxation lawyers can work this way (in a culture of co-design), anyone can. It fits with what <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Growth-Thinking-Managers-Publishing/dp/0231158386">Lietdka and Ogilvie </a>have posited about the 'discipline of design'. Quoting <a href="http://www.doblin.com/AboutUs/ourteam.html#">Larry Keeley of Doblin</a>: "Creating new concepts depends a lot more on discipline than on creativity. You take the ten most creative people you can find anywhere. Give me a squad of ten marines and the right protocols, and I promise we'll out-innovate you."<br /><br />If you live in Australia and pay taxes (the two seem to be mutually exclusive for some people), then the paper is well worth the read -- if nothing else, it builds your empathy for those on the other end of the tax form / BAS.<br /><br />If you work in an organisation where you think, "There is no way a design thinking approach could have anything to offer us or our clients", the paper is worth a read.<br /><br />The story offers a nice interplay between the role of individuals (both outside and inside the ATO), the value of persistence, and the importance of good ethnographic work mated to a strong design process.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-82054853687480580862011-10-07T22:31:00.004+11:002011-11-06T07:39:03.585+11:00Edges of Opportunity<span style="font-style: italic;">"If design were simply a matter of solving problems, much of design activity could be eliminated and along with it would go much of the value of design.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Aesthetics-Design-David-Pye/dp/0713652861">David Pye</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> has brilliantly debunked the notion of 'purely functional' design. He illustrates the presence of the human touch in all design including that which is supposed to be very objective such as structural design.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">We also observe that design problems are not static; they change with time and are changed by the way we perceive them; a client may come to an architect with the problem of adding a room to the back of his house but the architect may expand the client's understanding of the problem to include energy consumption in the entire house or the impact of an addition upon the use of backyard space.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The designer looks for opportunities while working with problems; he seeks not only the application of known solutions but the invention of new solutions which extend human experience and delight.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One of the keys to inventing is the ability to see analogies between design problems and design solutions."</span><br /><br />-- Norman Crowe & Paul Laseau, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Notes-Architects-Designers-Norman/dp/0471289590">Visual Notes for Architects and Designers</a></em>, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984), p.32Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-70635893755413197532011-10-05T05:56:00.003+11:002011-10-05T07:01:02.210+11:00A personality but no nameWe have just returned from 4 days of hangin' with friends in the northern Victorian town on Wangaratta.<br /><br />Monday provided an opportunity (what fantastic weather!) to make our way over to Beechworth, a half-hour drive away.<br /><br />We spent the best part of the day lugging around strollers and provisions for 5 kids (it looked like a sort of amateur Andean caravan, without the llamas).<br /><br />Beechworth wears its history loud and proud. From Lake Sambell's nod to the town's history in gold (this spot is a true picture of beauty from ashes), to the remaining lock-up in the Police Paddock and the old courthouse (where Ned Kelly was committed to stand trial for the murder of Thomas Lonigan), its present-day 'face to the world' is distinctive <em>because of its history</em>.<br /><br />There are things that can be said about Beechworth that cannot be said of any old town. The town's history (well-researched, recorded and published by the local people) have become a foundation for its positioning into the future.<br /><br />If you have ever spent any time looking at the mission and vision statements of companies or public entities (local councils come to mind for me), you will notice how many of these statements about 'Who we are' / 'What we do' are generic and abstract. You could engineer a simple template with a series of positive assertions, and 'Just add your organisation's name in place of X'.<br /><br />The following comes randomly from a particular local government website:<br /><br />"Council is committed to overseeing the continued growth of the City and ensuring high quality of life for residents and visitors. This role is guided by Council's Vision and Mission Statements.<br /><br />OUR VISION: A vibrant city of lifestyle and opportunity.<br /><br />OUR MISSION: To manage and promote X’s diversity, lifestyle and opportunity through innovation and excellence."<br /><br />Such statements tell us next-to-nothing. It's when you start to dig around in the organisation's policy and strategy documents -- particularly those that have been formulated well around good demographic work, and not simply focus groups -- that you begin to uncover the unique personality of the organisation and its challenges and hopes ... and how it would measure 'success'.<br /><br />But many organisations struggle to express this in any meaningful way in their most public statements. It seems instead that many of us resort to picking up The Big Book of Mission and Vision Statements and labour hard and long (often with extended argumentation and consultation) to develop a series of statements that sounds like ... everyone else's.<br /><br />We find it hard to say what is uniquely 'us' and what this offers the world. But we do know that if a vision statement is going to pass muster it should contain words like 'excellence', 'hard-working', 'innovative', 'honesty', 'integrity', 'world leader'.<br /><br />I wonder what would happen if you got a group of politicians and business people together and asked them to craft a vision statement for Beechworth? Would the story of the place (its personality) come through, or would 'Vision Statement' mode kick in? I wonder ...Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-88230681343065200922011-09-30T06:01:00.006+10:002011-09-30T07:03:12.249+10:00Looking backwards into an uncertain futureIt's budget time in our business; time to look to an open future and dare to put some numbers up against it.<br /><br />When it comes to prognosticating about tomorrow's joys or woes, our society's mainstream media seems to have an obsession with two social sciences: psychology and economics. It is the psychologists with their analysis of human behaviour, and the economists with their analysis of financial trends that become the prophets.<br /><br />We seem to draw comfort from putting numbers on the future -- especially when faced with great uncertainty. Those numbers seem to have additional value to us if they are accompanied by either $ or %.<br /><br />One of the ways that we do this is to look to the past. We examine past trends. And then we play with some 'But what if?' market scenarios, and offer our picture of the future.<br /><br />A future that is bequeathed to us from analysis of the past fails dismally to serve us well. A public educator captured the heart of it when he said to me in an email last week: "It always amazes me ... that we turn to economists to help us determine what tomorrow's world will be like (if they really knew then why are they so wrong so often?)"<br /><br />Analysis is most useful for telling us something about where we are, or have been. But looking backwards is a very limited tool for moving us forward. I'm not talking about being attuned to the ebb-and-flow of history -- even economic history -- but I am wrestling with the idea the economists aren't particularly good prophets, and that if their vision of the future becomes our vision of the future it is quite an impoverished (pun intended) picture to be carried forward by.<br /><br />We started going through our numbers yesterday. You can see how stimulating it was for one team member who was already feeling a bit under the weather:<br /><br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 239px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657883438534114434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTGD52Lnz_S-mR5-ONSfB1YK00mHMHXuaV0ffgP-J3T57vh8ELF0DPFbZtiO07BXpzpUt0WUp-8nlx3yzdasbz2pMjp9foZ5vrF6Tm1MsKGoNP1o_5mxXZNqAEgcQAfIOOA4hqi2JCu8Dq/s320/IMG_0314.JPG" /><br /><br />When you sit down to forecast budgets for the coming year, it is important to look back at past customers ('The best source of new business is old business') and buying trends. But there is a profound <em>feeling</em> of helplessness about casting numbers into the future.<br /><br />It is one reason that it has been so good to be part of a business that has chosen to not reduce its picture of the future simply into a set of numbers. That would be crushing.<br /><br />The future is more than a set of backwards-oriented numbers -- though they have a place in the dialogue (and so we have our budgets for 2012).<br /><br />The conversation around budgets works smarter when we are having conversations about the possibilities for the future (and not simply about $$$), what our clients are aspiring to, and what sort of future they are imagining. Then we become engaged as 'authors', not simply as 'readers' of past numbers and trends.<br /><br />We can speak to an open future with more intelligence (and hope) if we reframe our conversations around 'design' questions (complemented by a rich anthropology and some good, road-tested business sense). This then provides a context for good economic commentary, instead of having economics as the frame, and the supposed 'all-seeing eye'.<br /><br />And before I sign off this morning: TB, we'll miss you. You have been a valued team player. DJ was right when he said last night that you have 'honed your craft'. You are a craftsman, mate. We cannot speak of the strengths of our business without talking about what you have given to it. We'll miss you. A lot. Go well, and with our blessing.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-51552865188063362292011-09-28T06:01:00.002+10:002011-09-28T06:27:08.060+10:00Designing a futureWhen have you been part of designing a future?<br /><br />We can't sit down together and design the past. It's spoken for. Our opportunity lies before us.<br /><br />We could leave the future to analysts or dreamers. <br /><br />We could leave it to haphazard use of tools like brainstorming or kinesthetic modelling or sketchboarding. (All useful tools, by the way.)<br /><br />Or we could engage it as a design exercise ... we engage it as designers. We rise to the task of looking at and speaking to the future through the disciplined use of the tools of design.<br /><br />When designers become slaves to their tools, we're in trouble.<br /><br />When we end up in a storm of wonderful creative activity, but lack the discipline to harness it, sort it, test it, change it, use it, we run the very real risk of ending up disillusioned and even cynical.<br /><br />But the future is too pregnant with possibility to give up on. Designers need hope. We need to know that out of the chaos can come order.<br /><br />Occasionally, it happens serendipitously. For the most part it reflects intent and discipline. (And probably spends a fair measure of its time 'tacking' back-and-forward across those trajectories, constantly shifting and correcting, working with the wind and flow, working the tools.)Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-83039058445775542032011-09-26T06:01:00.006+10:002011-09-26T06:55:44.752+10:00A home among the gum trees ...<div>On Mondays and Fridays (and occasionally other days) I work from our office in the Blue Mountains.</div><br /><div>Lunchtimes provide the opportunity to get out for a walk, which I usually tend to do. My walk normally takes me through a short patch (several hundred metres) of fairly isolated bush track.</div><br /><div>Walking through there the other week, I was enjoying the solitude, and the company, of the tall eucalypts and bunched up turpentines. I've walked this track many times, but as I trudged along this day, I noticed something about 30 metres downhill off the side of the track: the form of a tree house. I've got no idea how long it had been there.</div><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656400782781344690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgkcZ1LZ-X9C1I3QDYNFNIEhaufs8gL0MBSNSKPxjuk8eUNx0xaiFYUEE2zvGcTRmQ2i3kcmBxo6PI25I89FLYz1NVqRa5nbHLI6LvI-wFDbJDxAhJcrKckq33XpnhBfSe1S0SmeUXBkjt/s320/Adriaan%2527s+iPhone+25+Sept+11+tree+house+cropped.jpg" /><br /><div>The structure is fairly basic, and almost invisible, but there it is. Some people would decry this sort of construction, but I rejoice: a kid is learning to build, and he / she is doing that utilising natural forms.</div><br /><div>Yes, the trees will suffer a bit. Some groundcovers or shrubs will probably be trampled to death, and an ant or two will likely die. And it will all look a bit messy. If kids are like other builders, there will probably be some detritis strewn around the site after the job is done.</div><br /><div>But so much will be gained! Richard Louv offers a fairly exhaustive breakdown on pp. 80-83 of his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/1565123913"><em>Last Child in the Woods</em></a><em> </em>on what the exercise of tree-house building offers a child<em>. And much of the learning is in trial-and-error.</em></div><br /><div>This 'home among the gum trees', 6 metres up, is a piece of grounded learning. Once a place of noisy construction, it becomes a place of solace among the treetops. But it only becomes that through intent, thoughts about design, bent nails, pieces of wood cut too short, problem-solving, ant bites, and sweat (and probably some tears).</div><br /><div>How sad that we see so few tree houses these days. What have we done to our kids?</div><br /><br /><div></div>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-92159353689557485382011-06-20T21:42:00.006+10:002011-06-20T22:03:29.571+10:00If your work were a house ...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zxSrbxK994GCGl7ZaoogQfndfL6AiLCvSQNEkrV-hB3x0RzE7i8KarPrODHNFWumyPpZscE23uabKBSn6Dk1a9-FBbV-DwF8HqZlALbWaW0RwRpY3hPXzYRNQlMvR2mmtwOsKZ4XkFk9/s1600/IMG_0208.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620270489326484722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zxSrbxK994GCGl7ZaoogQfndfL6AiLCvSQNEkrV-hB3x0RzE7i8KarPrODHNFWumyPpZscE23uabKBSn6Dk1a9-FBbV-DwF8HqZlALbWaW0RwRpY3hPXzYRNQlMvR2mmtwOsKZ4XkFk9/s320/IMG_0208.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Recently I've been working back through Dick Bolles' <i>What color is your parachute? </i><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">This has become a fairly precious book to me. Though it purports to be a guide 'for job hunters and career changers' to me it is much more: it is a tool of deep value to help you know yourself, and to map the contours which are your life story, and your life passion.</span></span></span><br /><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">In other words, it's the sort of book that people either snort at and walk away from, or it is a book that 'runs deep' with you.</span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">I don't agree with Bolles' every premise. (I find his splitting of life into 'spiritual' and 'secular' especially aggravating, and at odds with his overall direction.)</span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">What Dick Bolles does exceptionally well is </span><i>ask good questions</i><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">. Provocative writers do this, even if their prose contains no question marks. They make you look deep, look fresh, stand back, stand close, listen, puzzle over.</span></span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The power of Bolles' questions is not in analysis. His best questions are connected to emotions, to stories, to longings, to feelings. His is less a wisdom of lecturing than it is of pondering, of wondering.</span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">If you are crazy enough to pick up a pen (or in my case, pencil) and a notebook, and give some space to musing with Bolles, I don't think you'll ever look at life the same way. (Certainly, at the very least, you could never look at your work the same way again.)</span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">There are some big questions here that deserve long, slow consideration. What I am choosing to do with them is answer them in various ways: some with written answers, others with pictures or maps or physical creations.</span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">I took his question, “What is the one thing, more than anything else in the world, that I would love to do?” and recast it as “What do I yearn </span><i>to build</i><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal"> – to build into, to build with?” </span></span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">I then flicked through my copy of Beaver's </span><i>Another 100 of the world's best houses</i><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal"> and marked up the houses that I felt had a resonance with my response to this question. I decided to treat my work as a space that is built for others, a place for friends, a haven for the weary or the world-worn or down-trodden. I remembered my naming of several years ago as 'one who rejoices in the laughter of friends'. </span></span></span></p><br /><p style="FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><span style="font-family:Gentium Book Basic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">I was looking (subconsiously) for places that could make people feel 'big' on the inside, and yet warm and secure. Places where conversation would flow as easily as silence. Places that were a shelter from the pounding elements, and yet in harmony with the wildness, having deep resonance with their surrounds whether the eye is looking from the outside in, or from a window outward. </span></span></p>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-7813259524752991962010-07-31T16:26:00.003+10:002010-08-02T14:10:49.813+10:00So helpful. And not that helpful in the end.Satellite maps give us instant access to a level of realism that is unimaginable for those of us who grew up on dad's manky old copy of Gregory's or UBD (or Melways for you strange southern people).<br /><br />Satellite mapping can be really useful for helping you identify the exact location you're trying to get to. I use it a lot - normally either <a href="http://maps.google.com.au/">Google Maps</a> or <a href="http://www.nearmap.com/">NearMap</a> (if you want extra detail in suburban areas).<br /><br />Satellite maps are also useful work tools. If you're an urban planner or an engineer or an architect (or, presumably, <a href="http://www.afsc.org.au/">a Feng Shui consultant</a>), you're going to find satellite maps a real asset.<br /><br />Except when they become a liability. This seems to happen when people become overly dependent on them for information, and discard other useful, more traditional, resources.<br /><br />Like topographical maps, or site visits.<br /><br />We are working with some clients on tree planting work in greater Sydney area. I was onsite with the contractor last week. From above, the site looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGms6HY4nUbFuCgx_-VjdGd_sSsAmiQruH4i00oOtiOSb63mfRPoLlfm2GSDAPILUQARiM-qkBgSmnBSJRRTN18sURP7hrhkCFXfkIyY-afmGB5Qfee0V0Sq0U3O0ndAsWJqgXB0nOGb3/s1600/satmap.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGms6HY4nUbFuCgx_-VjdGd_sSsAmiQruH4i00oOtiOSb63mfRPoLlfm2GSDAPILUQARiM-qkBgSmnBSJRRTN18sURP7hrhkCFXfkIyY-afmGB5Qfee0V0Sq0U3O0ndAsWJqgXB0nOGb3/s320/satmap.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500657177288579298" border="0" /></a><br />The problem occurs at point 'X'. This is where several axes converge. There is a lot of grade across this site, and it all slopes down to this spot.<br /><br />On a heavy clay site, you suddenly have planting holes that fill with water. Not so good for most trees (some will cope with it, but the species planted only has moderate tolerance for this).<br /><br />The designer of the planting is friendly and accessible, which is a plus. Unfortunately, they didn't get out on site much. I asked the site supervisor on what basis they had planned out the streets. His answer: they used satellite maps. (I can only take his word for it.)<br /><br />Perhaps even using a feature like 'Street View' (Google Maps) would have helped here, and given an appreciation of the slope on the street.<br /><br />Sadly, an above view did not tell the whole story in this case, or even enough of it to be truly helpful.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-10595797017209147832010-07-14T22:56:00.005+10:002010-07-20T21:27:19.735+10:00Conversational flocculant<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82eojNsaW123WvuPVwjCh7FhmOzXQe4pSbVAyQe5g2P-ztOsgY4ZFScYlYa9aAk74UMhaLYhq00cZtaYGHZrm4ZHhyYDW0-XHSDmnWFbQ0VsoLdJvm-A-k7TRTxghyphenhyphenL7EEsRSfg8ImCr2/s1600/cutting+through+messy+noise.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82eojNsaW123WvuPVwjCh7FhmOzXQe4pSbVAyQe5g2P-ztOsgY4ZFScYlYa9aAk74UMhaLYhq00cZtaYGHZrm4ZHhyYDW0-XHSDmnWFbQ0VsoLdJvm-A-k7TRTxghyphenhyphenL7EEsRSfg8ImCr2/s320/cutting+through+messy+noise.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493745238363052146" border="0"></a>Dispersion is a distinguishing feature of so-called 'sodic' soils.<br /><br />When a clump of sodic soil (a clay material) is placed in a beaker of water and stirred, the colloids disperse and discolour the water. If you've ever owned a chlorinated swimming pool you'll also be familiar with the milky cloudiness that can become more prominent over time.<br /><br />The addition of gypsum to sodic soils causes the dispersed particles to clump together, and so it is possible to have structure emerge where 'slumping' has been the trend beforehand.<br /><br />Last week, our business re-explored its approach to 'strategic conversation'. With the expert assistance of one of the our former associate directors (also <a href="http://www.justknowledge.com.au/">one of the most gifted strategic conversationalists around</a>), we began to dig deep into the stories of people within our business in the creation of new meaning, and directed action informed by those acts.<br /><br />Strategic conversation allows us to walk into confusing and complex situations, to look at what is going on, to look at where we are at (and want to be), and to see crystallisation emerge out of cloudiness, meaning emerge out of apparent noise. I put it to Dave that his toolkit functions in many ways as a 'conversational flocculant'.<br /><br />Dave's art is not to tell people the solution: his art is to help them see what is already there, to look it at it in fresh ways, and to hypothesise ways forward as they work together, reading their surrounds with wisdom, patience, love and resolve.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-47107777267487803342010-07-10T20:52:00.017+10:002010-07-10T23:16:13.644+10:00A puzzle becomes a window<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><em>(David Jones, Mark Strom and Jim Ireland will all realise in this post their own influence on my thinking, the fruit of conversations and reading. With all of its simplistic shortcomings, I offer it with a grateful 'nod' to each of you. I would welcome your critique of the ideas, either in comment here, or via another medium.</em></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><em></em></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><em><br />My admiration for each of you grows daily as I realise the complex and confusing situations that you have learned to navigate -- and even thrive in. Each of you has influenced our own personal journey through some pretty 'hairy' space! Thanks, guys, for all that you give. A lot of people are grateful for your companionship through the 'trail-blazing'!)<span style="font-family:Garamond;"> </span></em></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br />In <a href="http://celebratingdesign.blogspot.com/2010/06/puzzling-out-solution.html">a recent post </a>I talked about what we have been observing in how our four-year-old, Caelan, solves jigsaw puzzles. He has continued with his new 500-piece puzzle, working with the same methodology.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br />At the same time as he has been problem-solving a fairly vast territory for a four-year-old, his old man has been trying to solve a puzzle of a different kind.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Without going into too much detail, there has been a business situation which has been both fun and perplexing to navigate. There are multiple parties involved -- many of whom have been unknown -- and a lot of information hidden (or at least unseen). It also involves the interface of several levels of government, the not-for-profit sector, and the business community. Without question, it is the most complex and confusing project I have yet had to navigate.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Caelan's 'puzzling' has become a window on working in a situation fraught with complexity and confusion.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">I note his <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">ability to quickly scope for a solution</span>. When there is a lot of material to get acquainted with, and a vast territory to cover, it is important to identify the major features of the landscape first. Grabbing at random pieces which lack 'chunky' detail provides no context, and attempting to create a boundary (edge pieces) tells you very little of the conversation / features going on within the edges (or beyond). The picture is a lot more than the edges <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">or</span> random noise.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Those in our business who have been puzzling through this situation have had to locate the major features of the puzzle in a fairly short time frame (the scale of the project, the intent, the timing, the places, the specifications; the designers, the clients, the contractors, the project managers, the suppliers). For the benefit of the business, and the benefit of our clients, we have worked to find the right questions and tease out the main connecting features. This gives context to our actions, and intent to our conversations.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Caelan does <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">not get bogged down in secondary detail</span>. Complex and confusing situations can disorient us, and cause us to lose sight of the most important questions and objectives. There are many secondary issues to distract us, and prevent us from seeing what there is to be seen. These secondary issues can also stifle our capacity to scope quickly if we insist on using secondary (or tertiary) information as a means of bridging between the main features of problems and solutions. We can end up dying of thirst trying to reach the next oasis by insisting on counting the grains of sand as we go. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">A ‘map’ (i.e. the lid of the box) is a useful thing to have, but that does not mean it should be followed slavishly. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Sometimes you cover more territory more quickly by working with gut instincts and an eye for patterns. Working from someone else's pre-determined pattern (painting by numbers) also leaves you more inclined to fill in masses of secondary detail <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">simply because you can</span>. Our attempt to scope quickly can thus be stymied. Working instinctively may also lead us along a different, potentially wiser, knowledge pathway to that which is determined when the path is laid out before us in a dogmatic fashion. There is also the benefit of seeing with a fresh set of eyes.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">When you’re small, you sometimes need to get up and walk around the puzzle to ‘see’ what you’re looking for.</span> Not every piece of a conundrum makes sense from one standpoint; things can be hard to locate. Sometimes you need to get up and move, see the whole puzzle from another perspective, view the dislocated pieces from the opposite angle, and with a different play of light. It’s also helpful to stand back occasionally and quickly move your eyes over the whole -- it serves to verify and critique the 'scoping' you undertook / are undertaking. Perhaps (for example) you identifed and pieced together a major puzzle 'fractal', but wrongly located its place in the whole.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">An eye for fine detail can be a blessing.</span> Two shades of black might look the same to one set of eyes, but another set of eyes notes a subtle but important difference (i.e. things that appear to be of similar nature may not be, and they may belong in vastly different sectors of the problem / solution).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The challenge and the solution are both broadly fractal in nature.</span> But not everything we encounter in this project is. The secondary and tertiary ‘noise’ seems to function less as something that can be completely known and named in itself. The puzzle could still be something meaningful (albeit diminished)without the 'stuffing' between the major features, but it would be much less meaningful if all we had was secondary noise and no features / anchors / bases.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt;font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br />Caelan will <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">sometimes begin a puzzle he has done before in a different place, and will ‘build’ it around different features</span>. A sameness of approach to every situation is no virtue. Even having a couple of different heads working over the same problem, probing together for worthy questions, will unearth different points of entry and different knowledge paths to get us to a solution. This is not a linear process, and there is more than one way to scope and navigate successfully. Sometimes there is even redemption in what appears to be a poorly-chosen path, and fresh possibilities are opened to us as we leave the highways and hit the bush tracks.<br /></p></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: georgia"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" face="georgia"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">We persevere because of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">a conviction about the worthiness of the enterprise</span>. There is a reason why we do not and <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">cannot</span> rest content with a mountain of scrambled pieces when there is intelligence and beauty lying latent and ready to reward our efforts. There is creating work to be done, and it is good!<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" face="georgia"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: georgia"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Lastly, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">when you can’t find a piece, it’s okay to ask for help</span>. Problem-solving in a worthy enterprise isn’t about preserving the sanctity / glory of any one ‘problem-solver’. We work together as we see the different parts, and getting to a working vision -- a way forward -- leaves little room for ego.</span></span></p>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-15609239418040556702010-07-06T13:53:00.006+10:002010-07-06T21:22:38.545+10:00Where's the noise?Broad generalisation: organisations which are <span style="font-style: italic;">contentedly discontent</span> don't make much noise. It isn't in their interests to make noise for fear of some sacred sleeping hound being aroused.<br /><br />(Undercurrents of noise may be found among genuinely discontented <span style="font-style: italic;">people</span> within such organisations, whose discontent may be the fruit of caring and longing for things to be different.)<br /><br />With the exception of people who seek out our business because of a result they want to achieve, it is not unusual for us to deal with client organisations that are contentedly discontent. We have pursued them with a view to generating potential business (among other things), and they have fallen squarely within our aim.<br /><br />Just the other day I started to 'map out' a bit of how such an engagement might look. I learned a couple of things doing this exercise, and offer you one such partial window of the map below.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNN6nSEeSQnTO6kTnPrEXlBtaynf57WwioSlvfY9_haPn-oX_iJp1kfk0X3nodBvy5HVQRB7TNpCJ_r3U6RAs-kAKX9FG56m5GVNbVfWFIKUb1wLi9lqPMhCQIdbWOIHJEyTDqc04vykg3/s1600/problem+solving.bmp"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 273px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNN6nSEeSQnTO6kTnPrEXlBtaynf57WwioSlvfY9_haPn-oX_iJp1kfk0X3nodBvy5HVQRB7TNpCJ_r3U6RAs-kAKX9FG56m5GVNbVfWFIKUb1wLi9lqPMhCQIdbWOIHJEyTDqc04vykg3/s400/problem+solving.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490642480624253714" border="0" /></a>Firstly, using Microsoft Paint as a mapping tool is a poor decision. (Recommendations for a PC-based program, anyone?)<br /><br />Secondly, when you actually start to map out conversations which centre around what people value and what it would look like for an organisation to move to 'a better place', you realise these conversational processes are not linear (you're not dealing with a software development-type <a href="http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/Outreach/bmi280/slides/swc/lec/img/dev01/waterfall_model.png">'waterfall model'</a>).<br /><br />Even when the complexity and reality of the to-and-fro, cut-and-thrust, hypothesis-and-testing of a conversation is realised, the dimension is never simply '2D' -- it is 'history' / 'story' and organisational tiering that calls for something more 'topographic' in nature in our mapping. Perhaps the creation of multiple intersecting maps would assist? ( David -- looking forward to <a href="http://justknowledgebydj.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/the-kdp-is-a-topographic-map-for-generative-conversations/">what you have to offer</a> in this space.)<br /><br />Thirdly, trying to trace the lines of such an engagement made me realise how little I understand of the client's world, and how dialogue, discontent-and-content, agitate in their own space. Their own conversation is largely invisible to us. However ...<br /><br />Fourthly, our engagement throughout the course of attempting to build business with them tells me that the urgency which we bring to the situation is not theirs -- and we are talking about <span style="font-style: italic;">contentedly discontent</span> organisations here. While the first dialogue with a client will likely provoke a conversation in our own business, followed by the creation of a fresh hypothesis, and the applying of that hypothesis in the next conversation, there is often the perception that the same process of analysing and creating has not taken place within the client's world.<br /><br />While we may be 'sounding for life, and pushing for movement', the [potential] client organisation may just as open to inaction as to action (though talking about action may be perceived as having almost as much value as action, or may itself be judged to be 'action').<br /><br />The realisation came to me as I looked at my poxy, 2-dimensional map. One thing it tells me is that the dialogue between an agitator, and a <span style="font-style: italic;">contentedly discontent</span> organisation is heavily weighted to one side (unless the 'passive' organisation perceives a real threat to its passivity from the agitator organisation, and animates its own dialogue to shut the conversation down -- self-preservation can be a powerful motivator).<br /><br />I'm still not quite sure what can be entirely deduced from this heavily top-weighted map. Is this the nature of agitator organisations engaging with <span style="font-style: italic;">contentedly discontent </span>organisations? There is no question that locating a caring, genuinely discontented person in the organisation could make the process look quite different (as least as I perceive it, rightly or wrongly).<br /><br />An agitator organisation persists with a pointless exercise if the <span style="font-style: italic;">contentedly discontent</span> organisation perceives it to be nothing more than a noise-making irritation, and a disruption to the status quo.<br /><br />This may, in the end, be as much an indictment on the foolishness of insensitive agitators as it is on the laziness and care-less-ness of passive organisations.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-36036183320535729762010-07-03T21:00:00.011+10:002011-09-26T07:08:51.482+10:00Tools to win favour with a difficult child<div>Perhaps one of the funniest episodes in <span style="font-style: italic;">Blackadder Goes Forth</span> sees Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) awaiting execution for disobeying orders from his superiors.</div><br /><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veoafAdcDq8&feature=related">As Blackadder waits in his cell</a>, he is visited by the cheerful but simple Private Baldrick (Tony Robinson), bearing a sack of goods (disguised as a picnic lunch) and [the usual] 'cunning plan'.</div><br /><div>The sack contains an escape kit, as Baldrick has surmised that Blackadder's appearance before the firing squad in less than 24 hours is otherwise inevitable. Of course, Baldrick's idea of a useful escape kit differs somewhat from Blackadder's. Blackadder begins to rifle through the sack:</div><br /><div>Edmund: Let's see, what have we here? A small painted wooden duck.</div><br /><div>Baldrick: Yeah, I thought if you get caught near water, you can<br />balance it on the top of your head as a brilliant disguise.<br /></div><br /><div>Edmund: Yeeeesss, I would, of course, have to escape first. Ah,<br />but what's this? Unless I'm much mistaken, a hammer and a<br />chisel!</div><br /><div>Baldrick: You ARE much mistaken!<br /></div><br /><div>Edmund: A pencil and a miniature trumpet.</div><br /><div>Baldrick: Yes, a pencil so you can drop me a postcard to tell me<br />how the breakout went, and a small little tiny miniature trumpet<br />in case, during your escape, you have to win favour with a<br />difficult child.</div><br /><div>Baldrick's 'cunning plans' pivot somewhere between the absurd,<br />the insane and the peculiarly plausible. As Blackadder unpacks<br />the remainder of the kit, the 'logic' of Baldrick is further<br />unpacked.</div><br /><div>The inclusion of a Robin Hood outfit is ludicrous to Blackadder<br />but makes perfect sense to Baldrick ("I put in a French peasant's<br />outfit first, but then I thought, 'What if you arrive in a French<br />peasants' village and they're in the middle of a fancy dress<br />party?'").</div><br /><div>There is both madness and brilliance to be found in Baldrick's<br />plan. The obvious tools for a prison breakout won't be found<br />here.</div><br /><div>But what if Blackadder <i>did</i> have to 'win favour with a difficult<br />child'? What if he <i>did</i> turn up in a French peasants' village<br />and they were in the middle of a fancy dress party?</div><br /><div>It got me thinking about organisations and how they problem<br />-solve. There is often a laziness to our problem-solving, an<br />'A or B' / '0 or 1' / 'On / Off' approach. The capacity to be flexible<br />problem-solvers, to walk around a situation and view it from<br />many different angles, to realise that if we can only come up<br />with one way out of a problem then we probably aren't working<br />that smart, leaves space for the Baldricks of our world.</div><br /><div>We may be used to looking for a Swiss passport or a hammer in<br />our escape kit, but difficult children are not charmed by Swiss<br />passports.<br /></div><br /><div>Insanity may lie the way of a Baldrick-style 'cunning plan', but<br />that is not to say there is no logic to it. Sometimes wisdom<br />appears in the garb of foolishness (and, yes, sometimes<br />foolishness appears in the garb of foolishness). </div><br /><div>Sometimes the 'obvious' solution falls short, and it is the painted<br />wooden duck that delivers the goods. </div>Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-75850774317891526882010-06-29T22:09:00.009+10:002010-06-29T22:48:32.475+10:00A little piece of sanitySometimes a little corner of sanity is all that is needed to stay afloat.<br /><br />I don't cope well feeling surrounded by chaos. Life is a bit chaotic at the moment. We've had nearly two months of non-stop sickness in the house, and life gets a little furry around the edges.<br /><br />The front garden has been a saving grace, even in small doses. Most days, that means taking 30 seconds to pull out any little weeds or grass shoots.<br /><br />When we started living here 2 1/2 years ago, it looked like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtnElECqNEOz8uBPcDQw2LaGchXrS8r4D7Zghf9BYWHKM3n_qWQYk2gIJTci9m8NrI3QokmYMgZYllNiqviJcaofQ-6-moe07TujBK599sZYI-gPvjBQn9Q1USxB5B7QgbPKhvssli_Hs/s1600/Image064.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtnElECqNEOz8uBPcDQw2LaGchXrS8r4D7Zghf9BYWHKM3n_qWQYk2gIJTci9m8NrI3QokmYMgZYllNiqviJcaofQ-6-moe07TujBK599sZYI-gPvjBQn9Q1USxB5B7QgbPKhvssli_Hs/s320/Image064.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488169558994479826" border="0" /></a>Now, with a couple of removals (mostly agapanthus and kikuyu!), and some new additions (Grevillea, Kangaroo Paw, Paroo Lily, Gazanias, Dianellas, Emu Bush) over the last few years, it's headed in a fresh direction:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_IdpEjDzA0oYS8hrCttHd_x74fUYBPbegZT9pKuAvlkmcVl49noXgaxGlZp2SRByhKKgMkAZj2L-N5iUYvgUNr-PYPM7PAYlRUSC36mejyYEUQECAg4q3309WEFl-zoWC19pz4HzwrJE/s1600/100629+001+cropped.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_IdpEjDzA0oYS8hrCttHd_x74fUYBPbegZT9pKuAvlkmcVl49noXgaxGlZp2SRByhKKgMkAZj2L-N5iUYvgUNr-PYPM7PAYlRUSC36mejyYEUQECAg4q3309WEFl-zoWC19pz4HzwrJE/s320/100629+001+cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488173410194387090" border="0" /></a><br />Whenever I head outside to take out the garbage or recycling, I seize the opportunity to soak it up. It's a nice little piece of sanity!Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-87369826407405330062010-06-24T14:17:00.008+10:002010-06-25T09:03:56.525+10:00Puzzling out a solution<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVhpYNOTRAjEu5yjJs7XAJXxipoBlRnai9zB_ivOtccTNmWNAv3g6IsTywFLnxZqC3aT70QJRC2GI3J38ZS5cD_DhiAIkToSi40dsbQzbrr2JUwt6XkI-ZjmXn49Yo0gzIelhu0Eh-vpn/s1600/100624+003.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVhpYNOTRAjEu5yjJs7XAJXxipoBlRnai9zB_ivOtccTNmWNAv3g6IsTywFLnxZqC3aT70QJRC2GI3J38ZS5cD_DhiAIkToSi40dsbQzbrr2JUwt6XkI-ZjmXn49Yo0gzIelhu0Eh-vpn/s320/100624+003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486199087458983250" border="0" /></a><br />Most people do jigsaw puzzles the 'normal' way.<br /><br />Not our four-year-old.<br /><br />Most of us pour the pieces out, look at the lid of the box, sort the pieces into little piles (edges and distinct colours / patterns), look at the lid of the box, and assemble the puzzle -- constantly referencing the picture on the lid of the box.<br /><br />Not Caelan.<br /><br />He doesn't seem to believe in the value of an absolute image to aid the assembly process. He will start the puzzle with some concept of what he is aiming for (a world map, a forest scene, a truck), spread the pieces out, and then just start assembling them based around colour / pattern (from what we can tell). All this time, the lid of the box is lying idly who-knows-where.<br /><br />He is also guided by shape. Once he has mastered a puzzle (that is, can assemble it competently picture-side up), one of his little tricks is to reassemble it upside-down -- and he doesn't do this by looking at the pictures on the obverse, but by the shape of the pieces. (This gets a little harder when the puzzles get up past 100 pieces.)<br /><br />It is an intriguing process to watch, and he is generally able to assemble puzzles quite quickly (he has just started the same process again with a new 200-piece puzzle this morning). Where as most of us are essentially using a tightly (slavishly?) self-referenced replication process, he is using an interesting combination of creative and interpretive skills.<br /><br />For him, if the visual cue is right, the next key is shape and fit. If the fit is wrong, then he hunts for another piece.<br /><br />As a friend has expressed it (from within the world of strategic conversations), he appears to be using less a process of building from <span style="font-style: italic;">a set of specifications</span> (though in the end, the whole thing can only go together one way), and more a process of building from <span style="font-style: italic;">within available parameters and intent</span> (aiming for the creation of a tree or a whale or a car).<br /><br />The process is fractal (thanks again, <a href="http://justknowledgebydj.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/a-kdp-has-a-fractal-architecture/">David</a>), as Caelan seeks to solve the puzzle by turning it into a series of mini-puzzles (he will work on a section, find some level of resolution in it, and then begin work on another section, until eventually the completed sections butt into each other).<br /><br />It will be interesting to watch how this way of dealing with puzzling situations is applied in other life circumstances where there is more than one way for a final solution to 'lock together' ...Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7992532828118335848.post-10398319777129348612010-06-20T20:11:00.005+10:002010-06-20T21:02:32.397+10:00Many miles? Or a set of rushing rapids?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXRqHBYOaF7NtlfbdJxi6J8_KuvOziJRAZ7qpiB5VUTCBYsXmV4pZsbo35FvHzzOvLD-sR20NjcrFwboOk0XThh1FOTSUA00WUobZLxgoC-x5H_PIXq8BjoWChhOEeG-IDHDAJjefaBDJp/s1600/road+cropped.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 111px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXRqHBYOaF7NtlfbdJxi6J8_KuvOziJRAZ7qpiB5VUTCBYsXmV4pZsbo35FvHzzOvLD-sR20NjcrFwboOk0XThh1FOTSUA00WUobZLxgoC-x5H_PIXq8BjoWChhOEeG-IDHDAJjefaBDJp/s400/road+cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484809463962389250" border="0" /></a><br />The significance of some friendships is the fruit of many miles on a long road. The significance of other friendships lies in one crossing of a rampaging river in a howling storm.<br /><br />There is a small coterie of clients who forged a friendship with my boss many years ago through some tough circumstances (that I know almost nothing about). If my boss finds out I'm off to see one of them, he will say, "Say to Barry, '[Insert boss' name] says "Don't mention the war."'"<br /><br />I always try to pass those kinds of greetings on. They are simple words that testify to the significance of a friendship forged long ago. The hearer of the words inevitably smiles, and the friendship is, in some odd way, rekindled - however many years it has been since the two friendly parties have actually spoken. And even if it only 6.30am on a frosty morning standing on the 17th tee.<br /><br />It's been about 2 1/2 years since Cara and I embarked on, what seemed to us at the time, a terrifying and bold new direction. The process of coming to the point of making that decision saw new people arrive into the unsettled terrain of our lives. They were, some of them, people we had to learn to trust quickly as we co-navigated unfamiliar space. We did not have many miles on the road with them, but we quickly had a friendship forged through a river crossing. There were also others there through that crossing who had been there all along (you know who you are), and their friendship has meant the more for it.<br /><br />Perhaps some of them would estimate the value of <span style="font-style: italic;">our</span> friendship differently to how we see theirs. All I know is: 3 years since meeting some of these folks, I will still drop them a friendly line every now an again when I'm out-and-about with some time to kill. And I would go to the wall for these people.Adriaanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11715206574171093513noreply@blogger.com0