When dealing with complex tasks the preparation of the key components and the creation of some essential configurations to have a set of building blocks can allow you to speed up the work at a later moment. Having some initial knots unfolded opens up to a higher level of complexity. You buld the final solution step by step, accumulating them in layers growing from sparse foundations up to a more refined artifact. This is the sense of dedicating an initial phase to research, inventory and testing, requiring time and resources, to be able to go faster and iterate quickly once the foundations are solid. There might be a problem in selling this approach when the complexity of the project is not transparent or not easily communicated. That’s another reason why all partially worked pieces and their in progress development should be shared among all collaborators to make them aware of the workflow. If you want to design and develop fast, prepare the components you need going through a careful and dedicated working session, do not rush or improvise, you could risk failing.
Category: Posts
Drive Away to Refresh Your Mind
Changing place helps changing perspective. Although we always can bring our digital world with us when you are on the move you are forced to be more creative. Finding the right route, the right destination or just a place to eat gives you different stimuli than jumping to another hyperlink. Moving should be a recommended activity to become more creative. Turning off the usual thinking patterns when working facilitates ideation and elaboration of our past experiences. While a nice and long walk is a good way to augment your brain, and your health, driving away from home, even for only a couple of days disrupts the lazy old comfortable ways of thinking and gives us a refreshing wave of novelties. Get lost, it’s good.
Value Recognition Improves Your Relationships
If you appreciate somebody’s work, tell them. You’re busy, your time is worth, you are needed in running your business and your life. When you take some of your precious time to have a sincere conversation with your colleague, client, provider, student, teacher, or friend you are doing something valuable to both of you. The other will see their work recognized. Recognition is one of the best reward they can receive for their work. They will get encouraged to do more and better and will be incentivized to grow and improve. You will contribute to build a positive reputation and create a stronger bonding with the other. You will also be more grateful for the great people surrounding you and that will make you satisfied and happy. Take some dedicated time to recognize the good done by somebody else and you’ll live better.
Incremental, Iterative, Collaborative Book Reading and Note-taking
I had a satisfying experience in annotating a book. Although it’s not the first time I am following this process I feel I am, finally, onto something.
I’ve read the first two parts, about 80 pages, in one week, three times.
The first time I quickly made sense of the book’s topic, its structure, the premise and the author’s stance. The second time I highlighted the interesting parts in Google Play Books and I’ve added, not for all notes, a brief statement about their sense. Since the author hints the content of the chapters ahead I make connections between the initial parts and I can see their pespective.
The third time I get my automatically created Google Doc with with all notes exported and I do a summary reading. This time I copy each note and I paste it into a Mural Canvas.
By positioning each note in cluster and connecting them I started to build a concept map of the book enriched by keywords and comments.The first reading was quick, the second took me the longest, while the third iteration was very fast and I felt like moving a familiar ground. The highest point of this learning experience was sharing my notes in a call with another person reading the same pages. In less than one hour we had a stellar co-learning sessions, we exchanged notes, considerations connections with adjacent topics. I’ve annotated and integrated in real-time the concep map and we got really excited about the amount of information we were able to do in such short time.
I adore this format, I want to read book in his way in the future. It’s fun, engaging, active and It makes me learn, connect and remember more.
Backup is Sending Objects To The Future
When you make a backup copy of something you are saving it for your future self. In the present, you want to save your work and keep it safe. But why? When will you need it again, in the future? That’s the intention, the procrastination, you are making a statement, you are giving shape to matter and space to keep a snapshot of your artifacts because they might be needed. What happens when after years or decades you have to access your copies? Are they still intact? Did they keep the slice of your past as you intended? Are you able to retrieve the information you saved? Is it easy to understand what’s inside? Do you have the technologies and the means to physically access it? Making a backup of your data is like sending an object to the future, you need to state a clear intention in your saving and take care of its accessibility when and if needed.
Not Comfortable But Not Quitting
I don’t have my computer with me. Nor my favorite monitor. I don’t even have a connection, right now. I had to borrow it. Sometimes it works, if I move too far, it doesn’t. I don’t have all of my services logged-in, so I am writing directly in WordPress. No spelling checker, no AI assisting me with my grammar and my writing style. I am in a new and not ideal situation. But I am still here, writing.
I want to keep memory of a particularly satisfying working session. When I work with bright minds, quick thinkers, organized brains, I feel good. In about one hour we danced intellectually by iterating a concept, first, by deciding the final goal, then by drafting the key steps and, finally, by refining the story and adding details. All of it by being in he flow, as a group, one adding on top of each other’s contribution.
It all ended with the perceivable shared satisfaction of having done a good job, together. I wish I could have much more codesign and cocreation sessions like this, in the future.
All Life Visible
It’s a concept so fascinating. Imagine seeing lives as stories already told. How would you change your behavior? What would you do? I can’t remember where I read the story about an alien species able to see the entire life of a human being unrolled in front of them from their birth until their death. I don’t remember if that life was seen as certain or ever-changing, branching towards possibilities. I like to think that it was possible to see possible lives in their entirety.
The only way we have to learn about lived lives is to listen to the stories told about them or to look at the evidence produced during their courses. We have the power of looking at an entire life when it has passed. We have half of that power.
How can we cover the other half, the one looking at the to-be-live part? Is knowing the past enough to see the future of our lives? How are the artifacts we’ve been responsible for affecting our future? What kind of evidence shall we collect to learn better about our future?
Consuming vs. Creating
The concept of passing the time or being entertain can be a toxic disease. An infinite quantity of entertaining material is waiting for you to pass the time with. You might be very effective at passing your time by reading books mindlessly, watching films passively, playing videogames skillfully. In the end, what’s the value you got? If it is only “passing the time,” you might have just wasted your time.
We should try to be actively engaged in most, if not all, of our experiences. What’s really interesting about the experience I am having right now? Is it worth remembering? Shall I do something else? And, most of all, do I need to save this piece of content by wasting storing space and hoarding useless material that will pile up indefinitely?
We need to be more critical in our approach to consuming what surrounds us and move to a different mindset, the one of being creators rather than consumers.
Use The Dynamics Force
When planning in uncertainty you could specify as little as possible and let the forces on the systems to do their job.
When you are aware of the problem’s context and you know the interrelationships at play you can dance with the system instead of laying out detailed plans.
In that case you need to work with a solid group of well-tested collaborators. Trust, alignment and synergy become the strongest assets to chart the course while navigating.
Be ready to fail. If you don’t have the capacity and the luck to steer when needed or to abandon when required you might have to try several times to succeed.
That is what usually happen in a continuous innovation environment where you can afford to high efforts and low outcomes.