designcultivation

Sometimes What Falls on the Ground is the Most Precious

2013-05-21T09:32:00.002-04:00

Walking this morning I came upon these fallen blossoms. Like grains of sand individually they may be attractive, intriguing and such as individuals. Collectively laying there they form a pattern of interwoven beauty.
However, it is often what you can not see which is most revealing. The petals together created a wafting sweet spring like aroma on the wet pavement. An interesting juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made.
Spring brings to the forefront senses which lay dormant in the winter as growing things burst onto the scene. This moment is an unlikely example of design cultivation. Do you have ones to share?

Is the Bangladesh Building Collapse Economic Terrorism of the Haves Upon the Have Nots in Disguise?

2013-05-11T09:32:00.000-04:00

So now with more than 1,000 dead from the Bangladesh factory collapse we think it's time we consumers wake up from our collective ignorance of where our products come from, whether they're made within a socially responsible and transparent framework and expect better from ourselves in our buying habits. While the companies themselves may shoulder a great deal of the burden we consumers and the system we willingly participate in are to blame as well.

Retailers are Pressed on Safety in Factories by the New York Times offers an update as the death toll climbs over 1,000 and an overview of what's been happening this week in response to the disaster. There's also an online petition you can sign from Avaaz here.

Is this essentially quiet behind the scenes pervasive economic terrorism by the haves inflicted upon the have nots? I don't like using the word terrorism but I can't think of an adequate alternative. It makes me very uneasy using it but doing so wakes me up in a way I can not ignore. (Are there other words more apt, let me know.)

Here's one of the major reasons the companies are in this country....From this article

"Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest apparel exporter after China, has the lowest minimum wage in the world — $37 US a month — which has helped it attract billions of dollars in orders from the West."
(After checking a variety of sources, this claim appears not true enough. Cuba is $5 US a month, a number of former Soviet republics a little higher, Tajikistan $17 US, India is $47 US, Vietnam $95 US, Mexico $102, China $137 US)

Here's the major kick and challenge to we 'haves' identified at the end of the article.

"Kellie A. McElhaney, an expert on corporate social responsibility at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, predicted that these pressures would hardly sway the companies. “They are feeling a lot of pressure, but it’s not coming from consumers. It’s coming from N.G.O.’s,” she said, referring to nongovernment organizations. “They’re not feeling it in the marketplace. I believe they’re going to do the bare minimum. The N.G.O.’s need to make more consumers aware of this.”

With that statement, the retailers will change their ways only if they feel the pain financially. The only way to do that is we consumers to purposefully take our business elsewhere. Are we ready to wake up and read the labels of the clothes we wear, seek to buy and expect greater transparency from retailers and honesty from ourselves? And for those businesses out there already taking the alternative more socially responsible path trumpet the values you hold dear and the walk you walk everyday in your business.

Perhaps this disaster can act as a wake up call and energize a move towards more socially responsible business practices and greater awareness by consumers about the value of transparency about supply chains behind the products we buy everyday? I don't know. I hope so. What do you think?

Does this building collapse matter to you? Does it make you think twice and look at the labels of the clothes or products you're buying this weekend? Next week? Next month?

A Growing Self Awareness of Technology Overload

2012-11-24T18:02:00.000-05:00

A Word Cloud Explaining How I feel

     This holiday season I am really overloaded by technology, so much so it's making my head hurt and I feel both annoyed, confused and conflicted by the media messaging coming at me from all directions. I see and feel all the beautiful images and implied lifestyle of ultmate media experience. I see families sitting in contemporary styled living rooms watching large flatscreens, heads bent down looking at tablets, laptops. All together they appear it seems, but in actuality so far apart from one another. I don't buy what I'm seeing in the advertising because I'm living in a media overload nightmare. I think it's a tip of a proverbial socio-cultural iceberg.
     I'm surrounded by screens of various sizes and shapes. I'm uncomfortable seeing so many friends and family uncontrollably it seems bent over tablets, itouches, laptops vaguely interacting with one another, not making clear eye, mumbling answers to questions down to the screen but not across the room to the person asking the question. If this is togetherness and family time why does my skin crawl ever so little sometimes when I look across to see a loved one head down on a screen, body in place, mind and focus elsewhere.
     I can't be the only one feeling a little weird about this can I? I know all of this great cool tech at least in the commercials, web and multi-media advertising has us all living in a super happy fantasy world of better lives etc. But is it really making us better people? Do we know how to do things like basic communication, like....talking to one another? I know that after a long day working on my architectural work surrounded by screens at my desk, where I frequently post strategic updates to my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, flitting around doing work related research I feel a bit scattered.
     In the last year or so, have you tried reading a newspaper article or picked up a magazine and tried reading an indepth piece, quickly realizing you can't because you're still scanning the pages like they were on a screen and you can't settle down to actually read like you used to. I have. Often. I feel all of this tech and my unwitting behavior with it has led me to a self-created attention deficit disorder.
     Backing up a little, let's set some context. In our home bookshelves we have an old children's book from the 1950's or so espousing the glamourous miracles of the technology then called television. Looking at its simple colored illustrations showing how the technology worked, explaining the complex and mysterious ideas of programs of various kinds being beamed over airwaves into people's living rooms seems quaint today.  Often books like this or Norman Rockwell paintings depict entire family's sitting around a living room, a barber shop, restuarant or bar looking at a single TV or listening to a radio.

In the early days of television TV's were extremely expensive and families usually had only one and it was a shared experience, not unlike sitting around a radio a generation or so before. Today that shared experience and our basic communication skills are I feel steadily eroding. There was a singularity about it with the tradition or family ritual of gathering around a TV like it was a fireplace to watch weekly Sunday night programs like the Disney hour, the Lawrence Welk show (which I kind of hated but still....) or the Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
      I'm not wishing those days to return but I think we need to become more aware of the unintended consequences of the oh so easy adoption of these screens and media presence in our lives and workplace. I think we should remember to ask yourself are you really talking to one another when both of you are sitting over a separate screen talking about the days' highlights while scanning your facebook pages or LinkedIN home page, Twitter Stream or what not? Is this quality interaction? Can we make different choices of how to use these screens, set limits to when and where they can be used? Do you really need to text someone when you're in a conversation with someone else?
     It's the age old dilemna of which comes first, the genuine need for the innovation or invention or creating new technology no one as yet needs but through the crafty genius of marketing and advertising convincing us we need thus now want this stuff. In the midst of this continous drive towards a tablet and screened filled world I believe it's imperative to firmly and clearly understand how it's changing us, why and what kinds of choices really have in combatting unwitting adoption of new behaviours which I feel are quickly and dangerously reshaping our humanity, our very human nature.
     Equally important and I bet a rising field of oppourtunity businesswise and educationally is providing training whether in schools, the workplace or commercial spaces, on verbal and non-verbal conversation skills in formal and informal settings where students of all ages, professions, backgrounds gain insight on how to effectively communicate to one another while evolving, living and working with this screen technology and devices in everyday life. The one thing I know won't change is the need to effectively communicate between people, one on one, looking each other in the eye. Those who learn how to do this comfortably will become the leaders of tomorrow as they will no doubt have stronger communication skills.
     What will change is how the flat screens, tablets, media devices of today will appear, be designed and operate while remaining embedded in our daily lives. Over the next five, ten, twenty years their technological interface will no doubt shift and evolve in ways I know I cannot forsee. Not knowing how all of this will evolve makes me uncomfortable. However, I feel the more educated, trained and ultimately be prepared to be successful in communicating with one another verbally and non-verbally in the days ahead, the better of we all will be.
     Recongnizing the problem before us and becoming hungry to learn successuful strategies of attention to counter the technology overload can't be anything but a good thing. By learning skills to improve time management, productivity, workflow management, public speaking, debating, crazy simple things like shaking hands or adjusting behaviors to different cultural mores and traditions I think will all continue to be valuable in life and work. What do you think? Are you suffering from technology overload and wondering how to get help? Let me know. I'm curious what's your experience and what you're doing to counter it.

Seven Secrets of Exceptional Customer Service

2012-09-14T11:59:00.001-04:00

While at VtSBDC training with Carrie Gendreau, seminar leader.
(This is just a series of cryptic notes...not a long form post fyi....)

Treat everyone as a guest, seek to connect, pay attention, listen hard

Be ready to help your guest, be ready, be prepared the moment the walk in the door.

It is important to keep and clarify expectations in the process of serving them.

Every single time, how we look, our first impression matters most. However take care not to pre judge or not to be preconceived.

The details matter. It is always about the details. Caring for details show we see the big picture and get it.

4 Ways we have contact with our guests

1. How we look
2, What we do
3. What we say
4. How we say it

Have immediate rapor and connection with your guests.

Say please and thank you at all times.

Develop an attitude of gratitude.

Never put down the competition.

Catch people doing things right and celebrate success.

It's all about what I can do for you, not what I can't.

Engage directly with guests somehow with your interactions. "Welcome to Moe's".

Show genuine interest by listening and show you're listening. Do so by possibly repeating back what you thought you heard. It shows you care and you are focused on them.

Say their name back to them. Of course we need to know their name.

Exceed our guests' expectations, (quotes on walls of restrooms stalls)

Rules of Customer Service:
1. Customer is always right. 2. Go back to number 1.

How can I exceed my customer's expectations?

See our guest's complaints as gifts and learning oppourtunities.

- Handle the challenge first, then the solution or reason.
- Show empathy
- Find a solution
- Offer a gift , coupon

Does your organization have a customer service mission statement and process which all buy-in to and follow? Whether a small services based business like mine, Arocordis Design, a larger retail or manufacturing entity, having a playbook and service ethos is critical.

Design Thinking is Infectious

2012-09-13T20:42:00.001-04:00

Design thinking is a state of mindfulness. Why? This is because so many issues or layers come together when considered during the act of seeking solution. It is a complex one involving synthesis and Ideation.

Ideation? This is the doing of design. Ideation involves making and devising possible solutions, alternatives satisfying the design challenges faced. Picture a big bright blue funnel. You empty the ideas into it and they swirl together forming a new unknown solution. What do you think?

Reviewing "A Foreign Country" by Charles Cumming

2012-05-29T23:00:00.003-04:00

I usually write about design, innovation and many things green but I'd like a timeout for this short post about a spy thriller I read recently. It's named Foreign Country by Charles Cumming, a youngish UK author with a reputation comparing him to a John LeCarre or Grahmn Greene. My advance copy came to me via Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont as a thank you for helping them consider some design options for their children's area help desk. They shared a thank you book in the spy thriller genre with me from their advance copy stack and Foreign Country the one I selected from it didn't disappoint.
The fast pacing, twisted filled plot, middle age ennui of Kell, the protagonist and ultimately the design of the book with its flashbacks and disconnected happenings at first all added up at the end to a superlative redemptive finish. Visually the books design and structure echoed spiraling strands at the outer ends of happenings to the major characters intertwining tighter and tighter closer to the heart of story and its heart-pumping ending.

Here's an excerpt from Cumming's book website which sets the stage:

.....from Chapter 4, A Foreign Country

"Six weeks before she is due to take up her position as the first female head of MI6, Amelia Levene vanishes without a trace. "

"Her disappearance is the gravest crisis MI6 has faced for more than a decade. There has been no ransom demand, no word from foreign intelligence services, no hint of a defection.

Should news of Levene’s disappearance leak out, the consequences would be catastrophic. But for disgraced MI6 officer Thomas Kell, the crisis offers a chance for redemption. He is approached by his former employers and ordered to find her.

Kell’s search takes him first to France, then North Africa, where he discovers an extraordinary secret hidden deep in Levene's past. It is a secret that could fatally compromise Britain’s national security – and for which Kell himself could pay with his life."

The first chapter opens with a vicious double murder in Tunis of a vacationing just retired French couple. It moves on to establish the situation of Thomas Kell, how he was ousted from the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) better known as the British M16, taking the fall for a joint intelligence operation with the Americans gone bad eight months earlier. Adding to Kell's middle aged angst was his crumbling sexless marriage. This sets the tone for the lonely double life of a spy who knows no true identity, only cynical allegiance to long ago ideals and long time friends in the service who at any moment are capable of turning on him. But in the end, Kell misses the action of a life of spy craft and would do anything to return to it while seeking to redeem himself in the eyes of his peers and get back in the 'game'.

A Foreign Country is about Kell's journey searching for his friend Amelia Levene the new soon to be first ever female Chief of M16, while ultimately leading to him rediscovering his courage, faithfulness and true character. My advance copy said it was going onsale August 2012 but apparently it's already for sale in the UK. If you're looking for summer read to take to the beach or on a plane do be careful. Once you pick it up you won't want to put it down. Look for it in August in US booksellers near you!

Let me know what you think? I think this story could easily be made into film. James Bond watch out! Thomas Kell is the seasoned hero of our age for readers like me to identify with and champion. I know I always wanted to be a spy down deep inside and with A Foreign Country I find myself a little closer.

Small Steps to an Energy Independent World, Montpelier's Electric Vehicle Charging Station

2012-04-15T09:08:00.000-04:00

All-Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Montpelier, VT

Yesterday while downtown in Montpelier, I walked behind City Hall and literally ran into something I've never seen before and which given April 22nd and Earth Day is just around the corner it's definitely worth sharing. It's also just another reason why I think Montpelier is the best place to live in Vermont. We do stuff. Seriously good stuff.

In February, the City and Green Mountain Power teamed up to install a free solar powered electric vehicle charging station behind city hall. It's the third one for GMP so far, with one installed in South Burlington and Colchester. Last week I pumped over $4.00/ gallon gas into my cars for the second time in my life, the last being in 2008. I read yesterday how hybrids and all electric vehicles had there best month ever in the Burlington Free Press and here as described in the March 2012 Hybrid Dashboard. I believe it. While the current percentage of the total vehicle sales pie is small at 3.5% or so it's a rapidly growing segment of the market fed by high prices at the gas pumps.

With the current range limitations on all electric cars it's important to scale up the electric vehicle charging infrastructure around the state so it's possible to drive from Alburg to Bellows Falls easily. In Montpelier, being the seat of state government it's good for our credibility to install and run an electric vehicle charging station.

Touting ourselves as national leaders in green thinking, energy efficiency and sustainability it's important to lead the way. We may be a small state but we're leaders with a large following around the country so scaling up our charging infrastructure is essential to moving away from our dependence on oil and shifting use towards more renewable energy sources.

"It's the classic chicken-and-egg problem," Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said earlier this month. "Drivers are hesitant to buy range-limited cars when charging stations are scarce but private investors are reluctant to build charging stations when there are few electric vehicles on the road." Searles also said. "We have to promote the availability of the cars, and make sure people aren't discouraged by a lack of fueling infrastructure."

I read an article in the Rutland Herald by Bruce Edwards about how the State is entering into a partnership with the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, the Rocky Mountain Institute to develop and implement electric vehicle charging stations state wide in Project Get Ready. VEIC is also leading the effort working towards the goal of Burlington, Vermont becoming a Project Get Ready City.

It's a mix of advocating for good policy big picture wise and rubber on the ground implementation in test beds like Burlington, and closer to home here in Montpelier with our charging station already in place. By scaling up the infrastructure we'll make it easier for businesses and consumers to shift behaviors towards all-electric and hybrid vehicles.

And that's a very important effort to undertake...

Sound and Light Sketch, Biophilia and Birds Calling

2012-04-14T22:43:00.000-04:00

This morning walking our five month old puppy I stopped for a minute or two recording the sounds and images of beautiful pond which is part of Montpelier, Vermont's North Branch Nature Center preserve area. While I'm not a birder and a wildlife ecologist I do appreciate the sounds and sights of nature. This is another part of bringing nature near to you who are far away from it. And for those of you viewing this from other parts of the world, climates etc., this might just be a treat!

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Biophilia and Nature Near, The Sounds and Sight of a Stream

2012-04-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

I share this video made recently while walking the hills around Montpelier with our new puppy and family members. This is for those of you near and far who appreciate the sounds of nature and especially this one of spring time in Vermont. I believe in the importance of embracing nature in design, especially well defined by the word biophilia.

Championed by noted biologist E.O. Wilson, it means "an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world." Oxford Online Dictionary. Too often natural elements such as the sounds of water, the oxygenated aroma's of plant and the texture of river stones, other natural materials are absent from our daily experience inside our homes, workplaces, where we shop and worship.

Much of my work as an architect and workplace designer involves bringing the natural back into the everyday experience inside. What better antidote to the cacophony of cell phones, sirens, sounds of everyday cosmopolitan life than soothing sounds of water, smells of plants and textures of materials. Where possible I believe it intrinsically valuable to creating a sense of well being to include water features and ample plantings into interior environments. So many of us spend the majority of our lives inside these days working long weeks whether at the office or as mobile untethered workers at home, coworking spaces, libraries, coffee houses etc.

Smart business people who want to create welcoming environments for work, play, shopping, learning, worship would do well to bring nature near.

An Open Letter to Google's Project Glass and Google [x]

2012-04-06T09:59:00.000-04:00

Prototype Headwear via Google's Project Glass

Dear Project Glass and Google [x];

This is very interesting but be prepared for unintended consequences in regards to our day to day experience with the glass wear computing technology. It's already difficult to talk with people gazing into their smart phones, tablets, iPads etc. and carry on a focused conversation of any kind. With such heads up glass displays imagine talking with someone who has one? I would only think this would be more distracting. Even if they're there in front of you are they really "There"? Maybe halfway there? Or just kinda "There".
I can imagine someone asking a question in the live and the answer popping up on the screen in front of someone's eyes. Or they ask it out loud to the "device" they're wearing in mid conversation and then they "know it" with out really "thinking" and using their own experience any more or for that matter "understanding" the content.
We're just stepping that much closer to being intelligent machines rather and moving away from our humanness. Our intrinsic value at that point lies in the questions we can ask and be able to critically think and reflect about and use the information before us on the heads up screen. It's a slippery slope where being clear about why and how this technology can better humankind trumps developing the cool next killer intelligent eye wear.
Project Glass please take care and focus on answering these larger questions and show us by your field research how these glasses can help further our abilities to communicate and understand one another, solve tough world problems such war, poverty, famine, climate change etc...
A next step is implanting chips into our heads where we just "think" our questions, answers and impulses with our minds. And then at that point we have truly crossed a line into being adaptive human machines. Talking could become more optional.
That said, with all of these caveats your developments are exciting but please take care and think this through completely as you can before releasing it on to our world. If you need help tackling these difficult questions feel free to seek me out. It's really important stuff.

Thanks, Steve

A Leverage Point, An Overflowing Park & Ride

2012-04-05T14:57:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I happened upon an overflowing Park & Ride lot just off of Exit 11 into Richmond, Vermont. I haven't seen this ever in Vermont. Perhaps it's a sign of the times. Everywhere in the US costs at the pump distress drivers and as indicated here at the Park & Ride dramatically shifting behaviors.
We are at another leverage point where economic pressures are shifting consumers and businesses to action towards more energy efficient and conserving practices. Given the turbulence in the energy market, unpredictable prices at the pump can and fuel truck aren't we better off seeking more predictability in operating our homes, offices, schools, public buildings and the buildings where we shop? We can't afford not to.
As an architect I know how helpful to homeowner's bottom line it is to consider weatherizing existing homes with better air-sealing, additional insulation and retrofitting windows with higher performing ones while updating heating and cooling systems and appliances to more energy efficient models. There are numerous federal and state tax incentives renewables and efficiency homeowners and businesses can apply for to soften the costs of taking these steps. There's also incentives to moving to renewable energy sources for homes and businesses, you can learn more here by clicking on this link to Renewable Energy Vermont's website.
Living in Vermont you can't miss the impact of Efficiency Vermont and its many programs assisting Vermonter's in large and small ways. Whether it's helping subsidize the cost of purchasing compact florescent light bulbs at local hardware stores, providing information on weatherization contractors or best practices on green building and energy efficiency this statewide organization is an invaluable resource. Vermonter's through the assistance of this program and others around the state, have lowered overall electrical usage and demand as compared to ten years ago. Vermonter's by our nature are early adopters in green and sustainability strategies. We're known for it.
Over the last ten or so years Vermont building and general contractors along with architects and engineers have developed expertise in best practices in green and sustainable building from the very small scale home renovation to campus wide construction. Green design is mainstream design now. To soften the blow to your monthly finances and ensure greater predictability in managing your household and business in the coming years it pays to consider taking steps now. You can find architects through AIA Vermont's online Architect directory. Check out Efficiency Vermont's link to it's Better Buildings by Design Conference Website award winners by year. It's a great way to find building professionals who are practicing state of the art energy efficient design whether residential or commercial scale.

Notable Workplace Trends

2012-03-30T15:06:00.000-04:00

The high performing workplace, like the complicated world we live, work and play in is isn’t necessarily simple to achieve. Such a workplace reflects the need to soundly integrate work processes, physical settings and furniture along with technology in service to the overall business needs of the organization and its larger mission. It’s also hard work and demands constant organizational engagement over time.
Rather than talk about the workplace of the future, a term routinely used over the last forty years, we believe it’s important to focus on creating and cultivating workplaces which promote collaboration, innovation and a sense of entrepreneurship aligning with an organization’s mission, brand and values.
The following trends are vital to consider in the coming years in the design of the enduring high performing workplace. They are adapted from a number of sources as well as our own experience.

Integrated workplace solutions: Integration of architecture, interiors, operational processes, branding, information technology, furniture and office systems. Bring a comprehensive and collaborative approach to the design challenge.
Sustainability Action: More direct integration of sustainability concerns in workplace design, ongoing operations reinforces employee engagement and brand strength. Also supports lower operational costs through energy efficiency, resource conservation.
Branding & Storytelling: Tell the bigger story! Work to reflect organization wide core values, history and brand promise in physical design of your building, your work space, furniture, finish and color selection along with media and wall graphics. Create a seamless experience from bricks and mortar to online.
Motivation, Opportunity, Inclusiveness: It’s not about carrots and sticks, but motivating employee’s sense of purpose, desire for advancement and organizational engagement, all helping in attracting and retaining quality staff. Workplace design echoes and amplifies the strengths of a diverse workforce in reinforcing employee engagement.
Collaboration: Adapt best practices in collaborative focused space planning, space design and use of technology to workstation design, meeting and teaming spaces appropriate to business needs.
Mobility and Virtual Work: Workplaces support off site workers in alternative work settings, whether home, co-working spaces, telecommuting, collaborative telepresence. Workplaces also support mobile workers by providing spaces for engagement such as hotel spaces, touchdown areas as well as use collaborative technology to connect while off site. Address and non-address spaces will be come more prevalent.
The Built Environment as a Driver of Employee Engagement: High quality high performance work environments attract, retain and engage employees and help organizations be more profitable, effective in getting work done. Recognition employees account for the majority of business expenses and supporting them through well designed workplaces is critical obtaining best performance from employees base.
Evidence & Research Based Space Design: Use best practices from applied research and learning informing space planning and organizational fit, furniture and equipment selection. Become a learning organization dedicated to constant growth and improvement.
Comprehensive Employee Health, Wellness Initiatives: Engage in vigorous and comprehensive programs benefiting the whole organization. A healthy organization is a more effective organization. Design exterior and interior spaces with wellness in mind whether exercise paths, bike parking, showers and lockers, an internal wellness center or gym, a healthy kitchen and cafeteria with farm to table food choices, designing spaces with ample daylight, operable windows and central stairs to reduce elevator usage.
Workplace Flexibility: Includes both flexible hours and work policies, remote telework whether from home, alternative work settings. Focus on performance rather than onsite all the time presence. Organizational openness to changing technologies and adapting to evolving employee needs while getting work done.

These ten or so principles on one hand are trends today but over the long haul we think make plain economic sense. If you take care of your most important asset, your people while seeking to create a impassioned work community through a comprehensive integrated approach in facilities and ongoing operations we believe you will lay the foundation to future organizational success and longevity.

Continually paying attention to them will help cultivate an enduring high performing workplace over the long term.

*Note: Post adapted from a blog post from Arocordis.

Advanced Social Media Workshop Tips and Tricks from the VTSBDC and e-commerce vermont

2012-03-22T11:19:00.001-04:00

Pat Ripley, presenter from e-commerce VT

This morning I'm at an advanced social media workshop presented by Pat Ripley, State Broadband Adviser and e-commerce liason to the VtSBDC. He provides workshops like this around the state to large and small communities helping Vermont businesses with their web presence, social media and media marketing efforts.
We're located in the beautiful TW Wood Gallery at the VCFA on the Vermont College campus. Pat's sharing both basics and best practices for small and large businesses to work with sites such as facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIN, Hootsuite, Google + among many.
Sitting in the audience are business people running retail businesses, service firms, small and large non-profits all seeking to learn and energize their social media activity. I'm here because I'm a self-admitted social media explorer. I tend to try out new services, be an early adopter and spread myself thin with less focus than maybe is helpful. I'm here to find more coherence in my business strategy.
So in the space of the first 45 mins we've done an overview of the social media universe, how old style "Push style" advertising where businesses push out via traditional media with advertising where you're telling people about your business versus "Pull Style" interactions where relationships matter. Pat's mantra is it's all about building and maintaining relationships whatever the media source. He shared data people trust advertising 14% of the time while personal recommendations and referrals garner something like 90% or more of the time. People trust other people's opinions.
For me this resonates with my belief of how I try to work with various social media sites. Rather than blindly voice updates about how cool and great your business is it's a lot more engaging, fun and real if you share information you actually find compelling which other's might enjoy or find useful. It's the cosmic bank, where sharing and giving is intrinsic to success.

So it's all about relationships and creating quality interactions. Not quantity.

We've learned the difference between our personal facebook pages and our business facebook pages and how page formats are transitioning towards timelines rather than the traditional format currently used. The new format focuses on strong visuals and less about words, and also allows visitors to see a chronological timeline of interactions. I like how the up top on the new format easy to see photo albums and other media are located above the timeline area. My business Arocordis Design, I can easily post new project information seamlessly. Sorry Blogger but I'm finding the facebook interface way easier to use in real time. Time effective etc, fluid.
After that Pat covered Twitter and how it's more of real time site where all of the microblogging posts of constantly changing information is really helpful to connect to new information and make connections. Whether you sign up to Twitter with your business name or a personal handle, a great place to start is to seek out Twitter friends who post interesting things and follow them, observing the stream. After a while try posting yourself and sharing content.
Participating with Twitter is really interesting. I've created business opportunities by Tweeting to folks and engaging in conversations back and forth which resulted in face to face meeting and cross my fingers eventual project work. Again, it's all about creating interactions which matter and cultivating relationships. Tweeting is also kind of fun. Life is short. The other thing I've synced my Twitter feed with my LinkedIN profile and my business facebook page easing the confusion of having to post multiple times in multiple sites. Believe me helps reduce social media chaos and optimizes my time online.
Pat shared about using hashtags with keywords in Tweets. It's a way to post information on a specific subject area or topic which may be trending. Or if you live in Vermont you can put #VT or #Vermont or #802 and the tweet will be part of the information stream which will show up with all of the other Tweets on the subject.
From Twitter Pat went to LinkedIn the pre-eminent professional networking site and spoke how it's a great site for Business to Business interactions, seeking new employees and searching for jobs. About three or so years ago Company sites were able to be created allowing businesses to post jobs, company events and activities. For my professional services business LinkedIn is really helpful.
For me a powerful function is LinkedIN Groups. Like company areas, Groups are gatherings of like-minded business people who focus on some particular issue. Some groups are totally open some are invite only. I belong to numerous Vermont based groups like local chambers, business groups. I also belong to ones aligned with my professional interests on a national and international basis. Here a few groups for example; TED (Technology Design and Education), CoreNet Global Workplace, US Green Building Council, Architect Magazine, Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, CIOW (Creativity Innovation and Organization at Work). I've used the Groups function to seek answers to tricky questions relating to products and equipment I specify in my work. This also helps in building professional relationships across timezones and geography. It helps personalize the social media experience.
Pat covered other sites like Hoot Suite, Pinterest and others for added functionality to aggregating information and multiple social media site activities. Tweet Deck is similar to Hoot Suite. They help you manage your social media work across multiple channels. These systems help simplify the work it takes to engage in social media.
In regards to creating social media strategy for your business Pat shared there are busy times of the day in your time zone during the week around the noon hour. One the weekend its early and late in the day. It's helpful to plan your posts throughout the week knowing search engine optimization (SEO) favors content rich posting with pictures, videos, drawings along with text. Share posts which relate to your business whether helpful information from industry articles, tips and tricks, best practices to solve difficult business challenges. For my business it might be about focusing on workplace design, green building, residential design etc. For a car repair shop it might be talking about how to take care of your car, doing preventative maintenance, fun car stories, perhaps business promotions like food shelf or Toys for Tots etc.
Overall, it's important to develop a strategy to follow throughout the days of the week. Maybe it's one post a month, a week or a day. Pat says your posts will be more effective if you're consistent, (perhaps 3 days a week) on Facebook, blogs. For Twitter posting throughout the day is helpful. But spacing them a couple hours apart is better than bunching them up.
Whatever you post should stay within your core marketing and business values. Be careful in retweeting, reposting articles you only read the headline of and not the content. You may be sharing content you don't want to. Take care. If it's not something you'd like to say in person to the other person or business maybe reconsider saying it.
Whenever you interact online realize I say you're building your personal and business brand. Whatever you say, do, where you visit, articles you read, like, comment on, however you interact it all adds up over time. Remember you're building relationships not pushing products.
Some common social media mistakes Pat mentioned are not keeping your content on your sites current, be careful of speciality sites, don't push products and services rather promote rapport and credibility first. People will promote you without being asked if you take that route. He also said, don't overextend giveaways and free advice. After a number of interactions be sure to ask for their business. I really like that!
Pat shared it's important to analyze your interactions through various SEO sites which measure quality, quantity of online activities. On facebook, there's an integral analysis tool you can click on to see your reach and varying aspects of interactions.
However you measure interactions it seems to be about conversions, the kind of desirable behaviors driving business interactions valuable to you are the core metrics for measuring. Whether it's four clicks deep into certain pages on your website, product purchases or clicks to mortar service engagements, or for us a services firm, face to face engagements.
You can use external services like StatCounter to track multiple sites or Google Analytics. These data rich tools help you better understand your most popular posts, most energetic keywords, best times of day for interactions, which search engines direct traffic to your site. For designcultivation.blogspot.com we have viewers from all over the world. With Google Analytics, I can click on various continents and see push pins of where pageviews originated. This also works for the US and here more locally in Vermont. You can drill down to your local region and see cities and towns and IP addresses which viewed your content.
Back to best practices, specifically with facebook, Pat shared some Facebook research which said users who shared photo albums or video content will be 2X more likely to be seen and heard as well as show up in SEO results. You have got to build that 90% trust factor by building rapport and connection. With the new timeline feature you must be careful not to put images which have calls to action such as "Get it Now" or "Tell your Friends". Pat also shared "facebook covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties' intellectual property."
If you want to highlight unique facebook posts you can "pin" your posts signifying that post is more important. You can also "highlight" posts or create "milestones" for your business which allow you to track key posts charting key milestones in your business. Perhaps if you shared slide shows on a post a series of images would show up horizontally making deeper impact. Pat shared Hubspot, located in the Boston area, does a great job with their facebook page, timeline. There's also online facebook video tutorials sharing how to optimize the timeline. I'll find it's link and share it later.

Workplace, Innovation and Technology; A Trio of New York Times Articles

2012-03-21T14:03:00.000-04:00

Two different friends (Thanks Dave and Chris!) involved in creating and cultivating work communities and workplaces here in VT mentioned I would enjoy reading some articles from last Sunday's New York Times.

Sunday's Business section had a big spread on workplace, innovation and grappling with a technology overloaded world. I suggest you find 20 mins of quality away time to peruse them. It'll be well worth your while. You'll learn how Google, DreamWorks and General Electric innovate with their workplaces.

Whether you're considering renovating, adding or building out your workplace, unifying your brand messaging while building a stronger work community or all three and more, this is a must read moment!

Creating choices of workspace and amplifying engagement was a key takeaway for me among many. It'a about providing your work community a wide range of choices of work spaces, moving beyond the 8x8 cube into a range of formal meeting rooms of various sizes, smaller 1-3 person away spaces such as phone booths or just in time rooms, then on to more informal "backyard" areas with a collection of easy chairs or sofas, mobile white boards and places to put coffee cups and snacks the fuel seeding innovation and collaboration.

As these articles so eloquently share and our experiences working with clients show, plan on a lot more informal meeting area, collaboration spaces, away spaces while allocating less square footage for dedicated or non dedicated workstations. Perhaps 50/50 or 60/40 ratios accordingly. 15 years ago it was more like 20/80 or 30/70, but not any more. The new normal is to provide more choices in the workspace, there by cultivating innovation, collaboration and creativity.

Today's tactical everyday business needs shift with evolution of mobile technology, collaborative surfaces, tele-phresence and cloud computing. Adaptive, flexible workspace along with quiet high focus large and small spaces are essential to building effective high performing, engaged work communities. The NBBJ designed Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus in Seattle directly related to the specifics of the business needs of their team and supporting getting the work done as effectively as possible while also supporting vastly different work style and collaboration needs.

Design for flexibility and plan for change from the get go. It means considering using movable architectural wall products which like workstation furniture can adapt to fast changing business and organizational needs where sizes, numbers and types of spaces may rapidly shift over the course of 3-5 years. Investing in metal stud, drywall and glass side lites may be more affordable at move-in but severely diminishes future flexibility for rapid adaption to organizational change.

And that workstation may not need to be as big as it used to be. With digital technologies and paperless transactions more normal than ever workstation storage demands are much less than five or ten years ago. And the sizes of stations are shrinking to fit the reduced paper needs while providing desk space for 1 to 2 additional monitors to facilitate paperless work.

Anyway, I digress away from the big picture the New York Times presents in their suite of Sunday Business articles. Focus on providing choice and flexibility to enhance work community engagement coupled with three dimensional branding which resonates with core company mission, values and messaging.

Light Snowfall

2012-01-13T14:50:00.001-05:00

Early Morning Sun - Dec 2011

Last December I captured a nearby neighbor's tree in early morning light. The sun was coming in and out of the clouds highlighting, then dimming on the spindly branches. A visual treat against the blue sky.

Backyard Sunset

2012-01-13T14:44:00.000-05:00

Backyard Sunset - December 2011

Winter in Vermont brings sunsets such as this bringing our many trees to life. I especially appreciate the subtle gradation of the fiery orange to purplish blue of the twilight sky.

As you know, or don't, I spend a lot of time admiring tree branches and their unplanned figure ground interactions with each other. It continues to fascinate me and inform my design thinking.

What nature gives us I share with you.

Casio G-Shock Watch Design Offers Escapist Fun(ction)

2011-11-21T16:08:00.002-05:00

I have four Casio G-shock watches. I buy them because they are great underwater down to 200 meters. They last a really long time and withstand lots of punishment.

Ok, I'm not a Navy Seal nor am I a deep sea diver. I'm currently wearing a bright red Rescue series watch with moon phases and tides for my location. This along with a myriad of other timekeeping features. I also can look at times adjusted for different world cities in 29 different time zones.

Something about the romance of water and far a way places! And the red color. I'm really a big kid. The red is great fun. I wear this watch everywhere, even when I put on a suit and tie.

Casio G-Shock - G7900A-4

Wearing it reminds me I'm supposed to be having fun and not be so serious. The one thing it lacks (right now) is smart phone capability where I can talk into it like Dick Tracy used to talk into his watch (acutally a two-way wrist radio) I'd imagine it would have to coordinate with a bluetooth ear piece design wise. Is this in the works Casio watch and technology designers? I hope so. Question is can you make a submersible to 200 meters phone watch with a touch screen? Wouldn't that be something?

Keeping Posts Simple

2011-11-20T22:11:00.002-05:00

A Simple Line -Winter's Frosting
copyright Stephen M. Frey, 2011

Is writing a blog post a good idea with an Apple iTouch? Or a similar smart device? I think so.

Here's why.

Maybe it maximizes the reader's experience of whatever I'm sharing and is respectful of their time. Writing from such a device ensures I say only so much as I am not fluent in typing on such a small screen. Yet. Or maybe never. So the device helps focus the writer's attention on saying only what matters most.

The small size also means it's portable so it can go with me wherever I go. Perhaps having it around will make it easier to post more frequently about ideas, trends, people influencing designcultivation.blogspot.com.

The small form factor shapes how you respond to the urge to write about something essentially. Here's a question; what if you adopt this mentality using a laptop or writing an email?

See the recent Email Charter or the movement to keep emails short with voluntary following of the three sentences or five sentences rule (see threesentences.com, foursentences.com, fivesentences.com)? In the interest of promoting quality time away from email you can do your best to adhere to the policy of writing and responding in 3-5 sentences.

Writing in the active rather than passive voice while using simple verbs and adjectives, energizes your text not deadens it. Maybe this will activate the conversation? Can't hurt?

Over the last year I have steadily seen people write emails to me with much simpler language. Usually they have only one or two ideas they're focusing on. Maybe I'm a little slow but I figured out recently they're writing from a smart phone or texting from a cell phone. Detail is out. Brevity in. They don't have a choice. The device drives the communication style.

They also might be using their intuition when they realize they're writing something very detailed and recognize its better to cut to the chase and call someone or visit them face to face about what you're writing about or responding to. Try it, especially before you hit the send button, before you inflict irreversible pain on yourself and others. Life is too short. I have learned the hard way, believe me.

So since I'm not very bright but catch on after a while I'm thinking this is a good idea. So look for simpler communications of all types from designcultivation, Stephen M. Frey on LinkedIN, @designcultivate or @arocordisdesign on Twitter, or arorcordisdesign on Facebook.

I include an image from last Winter in keeping with the spirit of this post. "A Simple Line". That's my mantra for 2012 and beyond. What's yours?

Do you have any communication tips and suggestions balancing the needs of short and long form online media, paper media, especially as it relates to the design fields? Please share!

Some Visual Thoughts about Steve Jobs, the Biography by Walter Isaacson

2011-11-12T13:59:00.000-05:00

What's Your Biggest Workplace Design Challenge in 2011?

2011-11-06T23:17:00.000-05:00

Today I thought it might be interesting to reach out my Twitter Followers and other's I find interesting on the Twitters'phere to find out what's been a challenge to them in workplace design in 2011?

So I did just that.

It's just a kernal of an idea but I thought I'd try to strike up a conversation to those I respect and follow. I tried SurveyMonkey earlier in the year but I thought this time it might be way more fun to try Twitter. Already folks are starting to respond back.

@NickSloggett, a senior visual designer at Photobucket tweeted back what did I mean...Workplace furniture or Design Culture? I replied "As in workplace layout and furniture selection influencing for better or worse a work community's culture, effectiveness and morale."

In other words, in the workplaces you frequent, either your primary workplace, other offices you visit often which may have been renovated or completed recently, what was a big design challenged faced in the process. An example might be a super short time frame, or we were forced to move out of closed private offices into open collaborative workstations or vice versa, or we downsized and had to radically reshape our space or hopefully, we had to hire due to recent growth and we were running out of room....Or we wanted to create a sustainable, eco friendly workspace but that was challenging our budget...

Other examples could be resistance from the work community to change from older style less collaborative spaces to more open spaces? Another could be finding better ways to more effectively integrate technology into your meeting spaces, workstations and exec offices.

Anyway, you tell me what's happening. I'm very curious about the challenges you're facing. Maybe we can crowd source this in a way.

Why Picking Up the Phone Is A Good Thing And So Is Actually Talking

2011-11-02T23:49:00.000-04:00

I saw a link to this HBR article "Don't Send that Email, Pick Up the Phone" by Anthony K. Tjan and read it, then took a look at the dynamic discussion string following it. Wow! The article created quite a stir.

It should.

The article is ultimately about effective communication and learning how to wade through the chaos of our over stimulated information crazy world and remember to well....talk to each other. Not emailing, im'ing or texting your coworker sitting 3 feet away from you or hide behind polished corporatized prose in an email or lengthy voice mails outlining all of the details of what you were hoping to discuss on the call.

Oh, how about those times you've sent an email or a tweet even though your intuition told you to not hit the send button? It's misery right? Often times the after effects take weeks or what seems like an eternity to settle.

I'm guilty of doing this. Alot. I've done all of the above. But I'm seeking to change my ways. It may take time but I'm committing myself to trying to do a few things. Here's some of my response on the discussion thread for the above HBR article and what I hope to practice. Tell me what you think? Do you have any suggestions on communication approaches you find work for you? How do you balance all of the digital overload and still find ways to effectively connect and communicate with others. Please share!

Here goes:

....For me it's not about how you're communicating a certain way but keeping the end goal in mind to achieve a certain outcome, action etc.

An example; In teaching years ago to college age students, a wise teacher shared in order to effectively communicate to students (read coworkers in our context) of all educational, economic and social skill backgrounds its' important to do a few things together, rather than rely on only one teaching approach (read communication approach):

- Know your audience and their communication styles: Adjust accordingly but keep the approach as simple as possible.

- Over communicate to a multiple of senses: Some engage better by hearing and listening, some do better by reading and writing, others need images, still others might need to physically "do" the something your discussing, ie demonstrating, prototyping, visualizing. And most likely, some combination of the above is required.And then I'm challenging myself here to follow the below:

- Be brief in writing, summarizing, requesting. Limit your email writing to three sentences or five as the maximum you'll write. Less is more. It's infectious by the way. Try it!

- Listen to your tummy ( I mean intuition): If you're about to write something and it makes you feel funny, or unsure, take notice! STOP yourself! Consider alternatives such as leaving it in draft to return to later or plain just don't send it. Get a second opinion. Or better yet, make a call or set up a face to face to discuss.

If you fail to heed your own body telling you something you'll only goof things up for you and others. (of course like many, I'm guilty of not listening to my inner voice and I've paid for it dearly personally and professionally)

That's all.

What do you think? How important is a blended communication strategy to you and your team in getting things done? Do you miss talking to people face to face? How effective are you when you're more direct and personal? Do you Skype or use Facetime as an alternative to physical face to face meetings?

Other thoughts? Please share!

Innovating Our Way Through Lunch at Tech Jam VT 2011

2011-10-30T23:30:00.002-04:00

Recently, just this past Saturday I ate my way through the most innovative lunch and learn session I've experienced in years. I sat near the front of a very receptive crowd upstairs in the recently vacated Borders retail space now hosting for two days the fifth annual Tech Jam VT.
While eating we waited for what was soon to become a very unusual and informative learning session to begin. Even though technical difficulties delayed the start, those waiting didn't seem to mind. The added time gave us all extra moments to talk to one another and mingle a bit with nearby exhibitors.
We were there to listen to representatives from Google and Dealer.Com to speak and share insight on "Fostering Innovation in the Workplace"and hopefully learn some things to apply to our businesses and workplaces. Organizers designed the session to be highly interactive with panelists briefly highlighting key aspects of how innovation happens in their workplaces followed by ample time for audience Q&A.
The panel was brought to us by the organizers of the 5th Annual Tech Jam VT. It featured Craig Neville-Manning, engineering director for Google New York and Matt Dunne, head of community affairs for Google (a former Democratic Gubernatorial candidate from Vermont). The panel also featured Luke Dion, senior director of product development and Mike DeCecco, director of business development both from Dealer.Com the major sponsor of TechJam.
Craig couldn't physically be there because of family obligations and the Nor' Easter pounding at that moment the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas. Craig joined us by live audio and video feed. It really didn't matter and actually added to the vibe in the room.
Luke and Mike from Dealer kicked off the session by highlighting how key aspects of their fast growing company culture and workplace supported their work in a "Google Lite" manner. Through a combination of open collaborative work areas, meeting spaces, common areas like cafes, wellness spaces and yes even a full-size indoor tennis court and an open door management style they set the stage for innovative interactions at the core of their innovative work culture.
Through a seemingly extraordinary focus on people, place and process Dealer fosters a spirit of openness, creativity and trust. Bright high intensity colors and a sparse modern feel of the spaces echo the dynamic pulse of the business and cheerfulness of their team based approach to work.
As their space forms the physical backbone of the business their Life program supports the softer side by helping employees eat healthier, exercise more and take care of their minds and bodies in a more holistic people centered approach. Similarly they said "Their work culture is set up so no one is more special than anyone else". They practice an open door management style where management's job is to provide the best inspiration and resources to their teams and quickly "get out of the way and to let them do their jobs".

Matt Dunne from Google followed Luke and Mike. Matt echoed how Google seeks to foster innovation in its work culture by creating similarly designed and tricked out workplaces as Dealer.com. (And since this is amply covered elsewhere I'll focus on other themes ) Matt shared how Google wrote into its corporate bylaws when going through with its IPO years earlier that the company was intentionally going to do things counter to conventional wisdom and short term corporate profits. He also illustrated how Google fosters a company culture grounded in an openness where every employee has a voice.
As Matt said, (I paraphrase here)..." every Friday Google executives hold an all company meeting called TGIF where all of its 31,000 plus employees around the globe participate together. Executives update those watching online on key product developments and news. Googlers from all over write in interactively on a shared team space key questions to discuss and vote on them. Larry, Sergei or others answer the highest voted questions until they run out of time. Executives don't control what questions they answer." This crowd sourcing surely reinforces Google's refreshing corporate openness focused on business issues not personalities or politics.
Matt also shared the seminal Google Ten Things We Know to Be True, more a manifesto than a business philosophy. I came across these a year or so ago and found them refreshing then as I did Saturday when Matt presented them. They are:

Focus on the user and all else will follow.
It's best to one thing really, really well.
Fast is better than slow.
Democracy on the web works.
You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
You can make money without doing evil.
There's always more information out there.
The need for information crosses all borders.
You can be serious without a suit.
Great isn't good enough.

My favorite is number 10. As the last line of 10 says, "Ultimately, our constant dissatisfaction with they way things are becomes the driving force behind everything we do." By not striving for perfection but rather innovation through iteration and getting in the middle of big challenges Google inspires businesses large and small, global and the very local. I know because Number 10 helped focus my business thinking over the last year on mostly one thing, working with inspiring companies to design and help implement extraordinary workplaces.

Craig Neville-Manning, engineering director of Google New York added onto what Matt said by sharing a how a number of years ago he had the "itch" to head back east to New York and Google said fine do it. He started with 15 engineers then and has 1200 today. He also said Google constantly grapples with an issue especially resonant with new hires and seasoned veterans alike. "Google is so large how do I innovate and be creative?"

Speaking to this, Craig spoke about how he hosts Friday Beer 4:30's or something like that. That's where engineers and others have five minutes to demonstrate something they're working on. (Mike from Dealer.com said they do something very similar. They call them Hacker's Fridays ) The point of doing this weekly is to foster creativity, brainstorming and getting ideas out in a down and dirty way. Quick feedback is given allowing for further iterations and refinement to follow.

Doing this creates a near term goal allowing just enough time to rough out ideas and prototype them but not perfect them. It also provides a time and day specific deadline. Successful ideas borne from this process swim their way up the corporate food chain making their way into products and services we see in Google's ecosystem. They move fast in creating new products and are willing to fail early and often.

Audience members at this point were given the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists. A software developer asked how do separate the wheat from the chafe in this kind of process? Luke and Mike from Dealer.com answered by saying they have built a process called Hacker's Fridays similar to what Craig does in New York.

They do work team reviews of ideas bubbling in the minds, work benches and sometimes extracurricular creative activities. Another Dealer.com team member working the audience microphones added "Creativity outside of work fuels creativity at work." Good ideas percolate from this process finding traction with managers and executives working really hard to "get out of the way." Dealer's open door policy really helps here as well.

I asked the panelists how from a workplace design standpoint is there any "secret sauce" to the physical design of their workspaces in supporting innovation for audience members to really hear in regards to how much to focus designing their spaces are certain way over other ways. And also was there more of a focus on collaborative space than personal workspace?

Mike from Dealer.com said "it was really important to take away barriers to collaboration by letting people be themselves completely, lower walls within teams, have bright energetic colors to motivate a dynamic mood." He also said "It's important to have a range of private task areas, spaces for brainstorming and creativity, some more private and others more public."

Matt Dunne said Google works really hard "to provide a mix of open collaborative zones, private personal hi-focus task spaces, adequate meeting and conference spaces as well as great free healthy food coupled with high energy, maybe less good for you food." He also mentioned the Google 15 like freshman 15 in college where new hires put on weight at first with all of the free food and goodies but over time realize they need to strive for a better balance of diet, exercises and taking better care of the whole person. And Google works really hard to support its employees by providing extraordinary resources in its facilities, benefits and building an open and highly responsive company culture.

Matt also said "We used to have more Segways but people started getting creative with them and got hurt. We have lots of scooters, sleeping pods to help Googlers get needed rest." He also mentioned the famous "20% time where engineers work on personal projects they're interested in developing either alone or with others and the other 80% of the time they do their normal jobs. This creative freedom breeds bottom up innovation." A Google is unafraid to prototype its products its also unafraid to try things out in its workplace and be open to different ways of working and thinking about work.

Another audience member asked how Google thought about the state of US education and how to get more young people into technology and engineering and in general up the ante in regards to educational excellence. A big question with no easy answers for sure. Craig from Google New York took this on talked about how Google and others like Computer Science Unplugged.org approached this. "By getting kids away from screens and doing project based learning activities requiring integrated application of science, math, language arts and the arts like holding Trebuchet catapult competitions. They force people to think outside of the box and use a variety of kinds of knowledge."

By doing this kids learn how to make "stuff", get their hands dirty and tackle tough to solve design problems mimicking real world challenges they'll face in the future. Teaching kids skills on problem solving, prototyping solutions to tough questions seeking to make inter-connections would help move the spirit of learning forward.
Thanks for Tech Jam organizers, panelists and all those who turned out to participate in "Fostering Innovation in the Workplace." It really was inspirational for me. As Matt Dunne said, "Google has thousands and thousands of LEGOs all around its buildings across the world. Googler's love to play with LEGOs and its indicative of their culture of always trying new things" and never being satisfied with "Great"." or merely good enough. Neither should we!
Whether its LEGOs or something else which inspire you, be sure to cultivate your creativity, spirit of innovation and your sense of wonder! And I'm so looking forward to next year's Tech Jam. It surely won't rest on its laurels. Hopefully what I shared here with you might be of use to you and your design and innovation journey! Let me know what you think or if you have other stories or insight to share.

Dear Klout, Can You Help Me?

2011-10-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

Dear Klout,

My Klout score algorithms must be out of wack! My badge score has gone from the thirties, forties & now in the teens in the space of days? Should I stay with you if your algorithms create daily changes all over the map? Each day it seems I'm in totally different categories with back histories & trending showing completely different patterns. If the Klout Badge is to be trustworthy this shouldn't happen. Right?

However, if you're a dynamic ever growing social media tool this might be happening. My question is if its unstable like it has been recently will badge holders like me go elsewhere? You might explain on your website more in detail how and why things change so much.

Here's some details.....

A week or so ago my score seemed to really connect to the amount of activity I'm doing with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and my daily checking in reinforced that, it appeared. Then earlier this week my badge number and scoring profile changed substantially I feel for the worse as I don't think it means so much to me in regards to reinforcing my media activities as @designcultivate. The trending and reporting for @designculttivate seems much simpler and basic than it was even a week ago and feels kind of "off".

Then this afternoon it was briefly 18 and then back to 40. Now that's aggravating even to me an even keeled kind of person. If many are disgruntled like I your advertisers and add on networks you use to compile badge scores will get nervous, you don't want your income sources nervous right? One word, Netflix? We don't want to go there.

Best, Steve

What Steve Jobs Means to Me and Us

2011-10-06T11:11:00.000-04:00

Losing Steve Jobs today is sad for so many. I grew up with Apple first as an upstart hip some would say way out of bounds computer company in the early 80's. My dad worked for IBM and was everything Big Blue. So of course when I read about and saw early stuff about Apple, the two Steve's, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack I was all ears.
Steve and Steve inspired me then to think outside the box, that's its ok to innovate, heck you can even start something in your garage. Maybe you didn't know how to run a business but if you had an idea, ingenuity and a whole lot of chutzpah you could imagine and act on making a better world.
Today I am parent of 13 year and 11 year old boys and am so excited to share with them some of the interesting, game changing Apple products and tools so many of us seem unable to live without, our iPods, iTouches, MacBooks. My boys ironically feel the same I did way back when about all of these things. They're inspired as I am only for different reasons I think.
Peering down into our new iTouch screen light lighting up their eyes and faces they see a world of possibilities I never dreamed of when I was their age. As they dance circles around me showing intuitively how the iTouch works, where to find things in the interfaces and such, I say to myself under my breath, what technologies and how will they be living with them as they age and mature?
How will they work? Will there be "offices" as we understand them today? Will their kids when they are the same age as they are now and they're adults seem the same to them as they do to me? Given what I've seen the answer is so far is a resounding yes. Saying so cause the hair on my neck rise in excitement and my pulse quicken.
Reflecting again on the passing of Steve Jobs and thinking about the world of possibilities before us, the sense of invention and inspiration surrounding us I can't think of a more fitting epitaph and legacy for this giant of technology and cultural change. We owe so much to you and your drive to explore. We'll miss your unbounded passion, always surpassing the boundaries of the possible, seeking new places filled with invention, innovation and more gracefulness.

Thanks Steve.

Workplace and Innovation - Some Thoughts

2011-09-30T17:26:00.002-04:00

Fall is upon Vermont in its wondrous glory. We transition from the outward focused time of summer to the more inward reflective moments we experience with the change of seasons. Maybe this is why even in adulthood we're still wired to "back to school time".

A Fiery Maple Tree - Crimson Abundance

Maybe that's why I so much enjoyed a recent seminar on Innovation, Culture and Workplace issues given by Rich Benoit from Steelcase's Applied Research and Consulting group at Business Interiors, their local dealership in Northern Vermont.
Rich started the conversation out by asking us about what innovation, an all too common buzzwords in business circles today meant to us. A participant shared how they thought inventions are things we consumers don't buy while we willingly pay for innovations such as iPads, iPhones, Sony Walkman's from a generation or two ago, IBM personal computer and iMac's. Similarly the Toyota Prius also comes to mind. The phenomena of Google and Facebook were also touched on by our group.
This ice-breaking question led Rich to share findings from Steelcase's research about different innovation types moving from the incremental betterment of an existing product to the reductive, then to the break through to expansive and self-evolving. The earlier examples our group came up with were mostly in the breakthrough and expansive category. These products and services all altered how we live, play and work. In some way they acted as game changers deeply resonating with consumer culture and the marketplace.
What then is the secret sauce for cultivating work cultures which innovate? Everyone talks about innovation being critical to business success but how do leaders make it happen? Surprisingly Rich said effective workplace design done well can help set the stage for work cultures to innovate.
First off, as Rich shared with us and as found in the illuminating white paper published by Steelcase last fall "How the Workplace Fosters Innovation", you must understand the DNA and behavioral tendencies of your organization before proceeding to deeply into workplace design. Essentially you must know how your work culture ticks and why it works your way rather than another. This is critical when designing buildings and interior spaces filled with expensive workplace equipment and furniture. Wishful thinking with miss matched design choices can short circuit best intentions for organizational change and innovation efforts.
So how and where do you and your organization begin? It's simple. Seek to understand what kind of innovative organization you are now and identify the culture of innovation you can realistically become over time. By combining best practices in work process, workplace design and integration of work tools supporting work and the workplace you can build organizational muscle memory expanding capabilities in collaboration, team and individual effectiveness, and enhancing speed of ideas and products to market.

Inspiration in Sky Blue and Yellow

Rich shared an interesting graphic which is also found in the white paper on page 5. It shows the spectrum of Models of Innovation ranging from centralized do it from within efforts to off-site to more decentralized examples relying on outside consultants to provide innovation to the most decentralized of them all, the network model. Wikipedia is a great example of a service and product being built in a peer enabled user community located in the cloud. In this model there is very little physical workspace as the service is dispersed across the internet in a virtual community.
These models of innovation also sync with the developmental age of the business or organization. An early stage do it yourself garage innovator may naturally need to transition to differing models of innovation to stay successful as the company matures, takes on more employees, begins to grow into larger more independent workgroup and expanding its facitilies. As you can imagine matching physical design to ever evolving businesses, their leadership models and work cultures can be very tricky. I believe successful work cultures try new things, are willing to fail and "fail forward", believing in the quality of their ideas, people and their core business offer.
Rich then showed a variety of tantilizing images aligning collaborative workspace with these different Innovation Models. The physical design very clearly depicted the Innovation Model in design of informal, formal meeting spaces, how much openness there was versus closed broken up spaces, how furniture and tables were organized, surface heights, lighting design. For me it was extremely gratifying to see the translation of the Models of Innovation spectrum into physical form.
The presentation led me back to re-examining the white paper more closely as I'm working with a variety of work cultures now located on various parts of the Innovation Model Spectrum. I want to be sure to guide them to workplace and workspace design aligning with where they are today and where they hope to be tomorrow and years to come. This research I believe will help me help them. Maybe it will help you too!
Thanks Rich and the team at Business Interiors, an Office Environments of New England company for this learning opportunity. The experience satisfied my back to school needs for learning and helped to build greater awareness how I can best help our customers in the coming months. I say be sure to focus on understanding how they tick and why and then take this learning to work together to shape appropriate high performing work spaces helping their organizations to soar in years to come!