Archives: Craftsmanship
The Reformation of Capitalism
In June 2014, Clayton Christensen and Derek van Bever wrote in the June 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review (HBR). “The orthodoxies governing finance are so entrenched that we almost need a modern-day Martin Luther to articulate the need for change.” And they are not the only ones signalling we need a change of direction in how we think our economies work. In Vienna this year the Global Peter Drucker Forum gathered together the great and the good to explore what next for Capitalism looks like. We have arrived at a turning point,” says the Forum’s abstract. “Either the world will embark on a route towards long-term growth and prosperity, or we will manage our way to economic decline.” Continue reading
December 15, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged crowdfunding and financial capital, designing for transformation, failure of business schools, need for transformational change, people powered organisations, Peter Drucker conference vienna, Redesigning the banking system, reformation of business, systems design for business, the crisis of trust in business, the high performance business, the high performance organisation, the limits of growth, transforming organisations empowering employees, what next for business?, world economic crisis, zero employment contracts
Yeo Valley Farms, a masterclass in business transformation
The challenge: How do we remove the acute volatility and therefore risk of running a farm? How can we become more resilient and get to a better future? Yeo Valley Farms is the largest organic dairy farm in the UK, and is a great example of how to deal with economic disruption and create lasting transformational change – that delivers better business, without damaging the natural environment. Continue reading
December 11, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged 7 ways organic farms outperfom conventional farms, business strategy, business transformation, conscious capitalism, farming for our future, high performance business, innovation in urban farming, Joel Salatin, Myra Goodman, nonlinear design, nonlinear innovation, organic farming and biodiversity, organic farming systems build rather than deplete soil organic matter, the economics of organic farming, the future of business, yeo valley farms
What can we learn from Shaker design?
William Morris once said, If there was ever a golden rule it was this. Have nothing in your house that was neither useful nor beautiful. These are the words of a Craftsman, dedicated to only bringing the good into the world. This quote came to my mind whilst looking recently at the elegance and craftsmanship of Shaker Design. The Shaker guiding principles were of simplicity, utility and honesty. Shaker design is so purposeful in concept and so economical in execution. That is meets William Morris criteria perfectly. And also I believe we have much to learn from the underlying principles of Shaker design. Continue reading
November 30, 2014
Tagged aesthetics in design, beauty and design, craftsmanship and leadership, cultures of creativity, gransfors bruks, nonlinear innovation, on beauty and organizational design, shaker design innovation, tashi mannox, the crafted organization, the purpose driven organization
NASA shows us our beautifully interconnected planet
Our nonlinear world understands everything is interconnected to everything else. This video is a wonderful demonstration of the interconnectedness of our oceans. We have much to learn from natures design models and understand our own limitations if we believe that organisations or economies work best when they are deconstructed to the point when we can no longer see nor comprehend the whole system. Watch and wonder. Continue reading
November 14, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged designing networked organisations, Lee Smolin, natural capitalism, nonlinear design, nonlinear economies, nonlinear innovation, on beauty, on beauty and organizational design, organisations designed as open systems, perpetual ocean, radical economics, radical redesign business, the interconnected planet, the life and death of nonlinear organisations, the overview effect, the radical redesign of business
Dickson Despommier innovating the vertical farm
This is how Dickson sees our future panning out. By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster? Continue reading
November 12, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged 2007–2008 world food price crisis, Agriculture, arbor house, Black Sea Region, Dickson Despommier, European Union, farming to save the planet, farming tools of innovation, Food and Agriculture Organization, future growing, gotham green, innovation in urban farming, lufa farms, natural capitalism, nonlinear innovation, Palm oil, Price index, restoration of farmland, Rome, rregenerative design model, sustainable urban farming, the failure the traditional farming, the greening of economics, United States, vertical farming
LEGO cultures of creativity
The LEGO Foundation are creating and sharing ground-breaking research on the power of play and creativity in learning, to act as a critical resource for thought leaders, influencers, educators and parents all around the world. Continue reading
October 18, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged cultures of creativity, cultures of innovation, cultures of transformation, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Lego, LEGO Group, Lego Ninjago, Minecraft, nonlinear innovation as play, Ole Kirk Christiansen, play as innovation, play pathways to creativity, transformation through play, United Kingdom, United States
The healthy society and preventative medicine
In recent years, scientific and technological developments have contributed to major progress in the health of individuals and for societies at large. What are the future roads to increased health in the world? How will science, technology and innovation contribute to this development? Where are the major challenges and possibilities? Continue reading
October 16, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged biodiversity+human wellbeing, centre for healthy aging, economic performance+happiness+wellbeing, EuroScience Open Forum 2014 Copenhagen, innovation in health care, lene juel rasmussen, preventative health care, preventative medicine, science and health, technology and the future of health, the future of healthcare, transforming health care, wellbeing and action for happiness
The future of learning from the LEGO Foundation
Curiosity is part and parcel of the creative process, and creativity is a key component of non-linear thinking. Creativity enables us to discover the new, the novel, to examine and evaluate its possibilities. Creativity in a No Straight Lines perspective is the means to also see the world and its context in a broader context, understanding its richer deeper narrative. A short video on the future of learning from the LEGO Foundation. Continue reading
October 15, 2014
Tagged creative learning, curiosity in education, education and creativity, narrative led education, the joy of craftsmanship, the modernday craftsman
Tim Campbell on what makes a smart city
Our urban environments are under strain, whether that be, the birthplace of the Garden City Letchworth, or cities such as Odense in Denmark, larger one like Bristol, or megacities like Seoul (Taking the Seoul Train to the Sharing Economy Part … Continue reading
July 14, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged beyond the smart city, cities of the future, collaborative cultures, collaborative design, Garden City Letchworth, harnessing collective intelligence, IBM, Jane Jacobs, learning cities, Letchworth, Lina Bo Bardi, Marilyn Hamilton, Odense, participatory cutlures, Smart city, the city that learns, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Tim Campbell
Cradling the transformative economy
As we evolve for a linear model of economy. What we make and how we make it, what we do with our waste and how we waste that too. We start to see a new horizon where our obituary won’t be what we have sent to the landfill but something more elegaic and life affirming – as we become part of the circular economy. It has been described as cradle to cradle. Continue reading
July 9, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged adoption of sustainable technologies, Business, business benefits of c2c, c2c certification, c2c design, chemicals kind to the environment, Circular economy, cradle to cradle 101, Cradle-to-cradle design, ecology of economy, flute office, ford motor company green+sustainable, green business, Industrial design, innovative business models, Michael Braungart, natural business, nonlinear economy, nonlinear innovation, the access economy, Wikipedia, William McDonough
Waste to Waves a story from the circular economy
This a story about how we can think differently about material waste, upcycling, ans the circular economy. Sustainable Surf (sustainablesurf.org), and Waste to Waves. Sustainable Surf is a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organization founded by social entrepreneurs, located in the heart of the Southern CA surfing industry. Their Mission: Be the catalyst that transforms surf culture and industry into a powerful community that protects what they call, the ocean playground. Continue reading
July 5, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Business, carbon neutral production, Circular economy, designing for transformation, Environment, European Commission, flute office, green business, green economics, moving towards a circular economy, nonlinear innovation, sustainable surf, systems design in the circular economy, the carbon neutral economy, Upcycling, Vimeo, Waste, Waste Management, whole systems practice
Juliana Rotich on Ushahidi mapping humanitarian needs
Juliana Rotich’s talk on Ushahidi where it came from and where it is going. In talking about innovation Julia says, if it works in Africa it can work anywhere. Out of adversity comes innovation. I am proud to be part of the advisory board for Ushahidi. Continue reading
July 4, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Africa, Big data, creating open innovation, designing for transformation, designing with data, future of ngo's, innovation africa, Kenya, mapping humanitarian crisis, nonlinear innovation, Open innovation, rapid innovation, Technology, transformational design, ushahidi, ushahidi hacking the future, working for the collective good
Tim Jackson on investing for humanity to flourish
Powerful thoughts from Tim Jackson (professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey) on how the role of investment must be reconceptualised not to create more money or cater to a consumption based culture and economy but to instead create conditions for people to flourish. We currently exist in a system that systemically creates privilege says Jackson. Continue reading
July 3, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged beyond capitalism, Environment, ethical economy, ethical investing, green business, investing in humanity, Investment, Jackson, markets without morality, nonlinear innovation, Our Common Future, prosperity without growth, reimagining investment for the whole human, Rio+20, Sustainable Development, sustainable investment, the truth about markets, Tim Jackson, University of Surrey, Vimeo
Humanity's greatest gift, an awesome book of love
Yael Staav’s poignant and emotional interpretation of Dallas Clayton’s celebrated storybook, An Awesome Book of Love, shows us that love is truly humanity’s greatest gift. Continue reading
July 1, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Awesome Book of Love, compassion and the workplace, Dallas Clayton, goddess of selfless love, Lewis Hyde, love, love as wisdom, No Straight Lines, on beauty, Relationships, selfless love, shri radha, simon haas, smlxl, tashi mannox, the book of dharma, the loving organisation, wisdom as love, Yael Staav
Joel Salatin on the potential of large scale organic farming
Joel Salatin is America’s most celebrated pioneer of chemical-free farming. Here Joel gives a powerful talk on why our current industrial way of farming is so wrong in so many ways. Demonstrating the potential of how we can do it differently – better and more in step with the way of the natural world. Salatin says we can feed the world but not by industrial methods. Continue reading
June 22, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged 12 permaculture design principles, 7 ways organic farms outperfom conventional farms, animal welfare, carbon futures, diary farming, economics of food miles, farm hack, future british farming, investing is sustainable agriculture, Joel Salatin, lady eve balfour+organic farming, Myra Goodman, nonlinear innovation, organic farming and biodiversity, organic farming methods, sustainable agriculture, the resilient community, zero budget farming+the lightweight farm
John Mackey CEO of Whole Foods on Conscious Capitalism
What is the purpose of business, or an organisation? In No Straight Lines, I ask this question – How can we create better for our economies, organisations and societies – all at the same time. As currently it seems we always have to make a choice of one over the other, at the expense always to us. John Mackey CEO of Whole Foods demonstrates it does not have to be that way – and that better much better does not have to cost the earth. Continue reading
June 18, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged a better capitalism, better for people and planet, concious capitalism, earthbound farms, future agriculture, future food economies, green business, Green capitalism, John Mackey, Myra Goodman, natural capitalism, nonlinear innovation, organic ilford, polyface farms, purpose in business, regenerative economics, riverford organic farms, Systems thinking, the purpose directed organisation, the theory of moral sentiments+adam smith, Whole Foods Market, whole foods uk
Myra Goodman on organic food systems as common sense
Myra Goodman runs the largest organic food production company in the USA. In this video she explains why organic farming makes sense. Makes sense, economically, for communities, and of course to help build a regenerative society. She makes the point that nature works at scale – so why cant farming? It is more of how we frame the question and what type of world we choose to live in. Continue reading
June 11, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged alice holden, Bangladesh, connecting food to people, diy farming, Earthbound Farm, farmers' markets, farming for the community, innovating food economies, Iowa, Myra Goodman, nonlinear innovation, Organic farming, organid ilford, rebecca hosking, Todmorden, United States, Vietnam, yeo valley farms
De Hogeweyk dementia village
De Hogeweyk or Hogewey is a gated model village setting in Weesp, in The Netherlands. It is notable because it has been designed specifically as a pioneering care facility for elderly people with dementia. The major advances achieved by the approach of all-day reminiscence therapy at Hogewey, compared to traditional nursing homes, is that the residents with dementia are more active and require less medication. Carers, doctors and nurses work around the clock to provide the 152 residents the necessary 24-hour care. Continue reading
June 10, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alzheimer's disease, De Hogeweyk, Dementia, future health care, hacking healthcare, healthcare innovation, Hogewey, Holland, Netherlands, nonlinear innovation, reinventing the NHS, Weesp
Healthcare innovation Integrated Neurological Services
Integrated Neurological Services (INS) was founded in 1999 by Liz Grove and Ellie Kinnear. Its purpose to help patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke and other neurological complaints that affect movement, memory, balance and communication, everything essential to a normal life. The charity works to make a real difference between a life devastated by severe illness and a life that makes the most of the opportunities still available. Continue reading
June 9, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged disease, human centric healthcare, innovation healthcare, INS, Integrated Neurological Services, Multiple sclerosis, National Health Service, nonlinear innovation, Nordic walking, Parkinson, Parkinson's disease, Patient, physical therapy
Shan Williams what do you do when your town is dying?
Up and down the country, our towns are dying. When convenience became the precedent over local, we opened the doors for the conglomerates and they made themselves at home. Our highstreets now consist of the big names, charity shops and abandoned units that reek of recession. You can practically see tumble weeds. In one of the most humbling and emotionally driven DO Lectures, Shan Williams spoke of her organisation 4CG, a group of people that are solely dedicated to the regeneration of their town, and how it all started in a council meeting when a prime site came up for sale in her beloved town of Cardigan. Have some tissues near to hand. Continue reading
May 23, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Cardigan Bay, cocreating culture, collaborative economies, communities and locality, creating vibrant towns and cities, david Hieatt, forced economic migration, forced migration, future local economies, future of towns and cities, local food economies, low carbon economy, nonlinear innovation, Odense, people power, people powered innovation, resilient energy, revitalizing rural economies, shared purcharse agreements, the do lectures, wales
Ani Chudrun, a beautiful walk with integrity
This a beautiful film about life transformation. One of the things I have always believed in is that if you want to create transformation in the world – then you too have to go on a journey of transformation before all the other things happen. In this way one is able to see and perceive the world differently. This is also a story about purpose and meaning. A story about that which fulfills us and sustains us. Continue reading
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged communal identity+meaning+belonging, culture+meaning+identity, Ethics, god+identity, happiness+work+meaning+identity, identity, identity and the workplace, identity as a journey, purpose as transformation, tibetan buddhism, transformation, transformation of self
Tim Smit on beauty and purpose
Tim Smit – is a rare individual in the English landscape. A man born of passion, commitment who can make the impossible – possible. He recreated the gardens of Heligan in Cornwall and then went on to create The Eden Project. If anyone is ever interested in what it takes to make it happen – this talk will inspire you to do so. Continue reading
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Cornwall, creating inward investment, Eden Project, England, Gardens, Heligan estate, Home, Lost Gardens of Heligan, nonlinear innovation, purpose driven organisation, Revitalizing a region, the importance of purpose, Tim Smit
Odense working on an innovative template for civic centric systems
Place and community as social and economic networks: Last week I was in Odense, a municipality of Denmark, working with a team of people who are knee, elbow, neck deep in system change. My task was to help this team of wonderful people explore how they could address that change as it presents significant challenges in how people embrace transformation, and work meaningfully with it. This team had healthcare as a key concern. So we went on a journey exploring how one can create powerful systems change inside an existing organisation and, at the same time explored innovative practices that can reduce the significant financial burden of healthcare and more importantly change its purpose to one that was more preventative inspired by reinvigorating the sources of health. Continue reading
May 21, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged A restorative economy, civilizing the economy, cocreation civic innovation, denmark, Ecuador, healthcare innovation, Helene Bækmark, Innovation Lab Denmark, nonlinear innovation, Odense, peer to peer society, Scotland, six steps to transformation, Stanford Social Innovation Review, the open society
Blitz motorcycles - love the work you do
You have to love the work you do. In our nonlinear world we have to wake up every day and want, really want to do the work we love. It has defined my life, and I always admire people who do the same. The care, the craft, the willingness to share knowledge, and, to give is the way of the craftsman. This is a wonderful film about two French men who are passionate about building bespoke motorcycles. Based in Paris they speak about collaboration, commitment, sacrifice, community and joy. Continue reading
May 11, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged blitz motorcycles, crafting innovation, motorcycle hack, nonlinear design, nonlinear innovation, paris, the craftsman, the craftsmans workshop, the joy of craftsmanship, the purpose of good work
Make your mark as a craftsman
We all have the capacity for creativity. To be able to express ourselves with confidence and believe in our worth makes in my view one of the most important contributions to society. Our dancer is highly gifted – yet his true expression is hard won. I cant imagine how many hours went into his practice to deliver such a powerful performance. How brilliantly he shines, how effortlessly he moves – yet as metaphor for a creative life it is more. The capacity to bring in the new, to imagine the impossible then create and execute it. And to create value. Continue reading
May 9, 2014
Tagged Arts, Craftsman, craftsmanship, dance as metaphor, Filmmaking, hacking the future, lessons in craftsmanship, love your work, Movies, music, Music video, nonlinear innovation, on beauty, Pillar Point Harbor, Polyvinyl Record Co, Short film, Tibetan calligrapher, Vimeo
Lessons from Patagonia's Founder Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia strikes me as a true Craftsman. The civilizing craftsman uses his tools and his labours for the collective good. Chouinard wants us to stop being consumers and start being thoughtful global citizens. His work to make us think more deeply abut the world we inhabit. Continue reading
May 8, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged Business, Consumerism, Craftsman, green economy, nonlinear innovation, Patagonia, regenerative economy, responsible economy, Richard Sennett, South America, Travel, Yvon Chouinard
The human need to transcend
Kenan Malik writing in his excellent article about the sacred in art, explores the capacity of the sacred to go beyond religion to become a necessary part of what makes us human. Continue reading
April 20, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Divine Comedy, God, Holocaust, Human, human centered design, Kenan Malik, nonlinear innovation, Nova Scotia, participatory cultures, participatory leadership, Stanford Social Innovation Review, the sacred in every day life, Transcendence, trust based leadership
The journey to a commons based economy
When astronauts go into space and looking down at the earth, an image we all know, but in another way do not know at all. They find themselves having a deep spiritual connection with the earth, within themselves that is shocking and beautiful. Theirs is a profound moment of epiphany – a realisation, of the inseparable relationship between the cosmos, the Earth and humanity. This is not a ‘oooh woow’ moment, it is in fact a moment of transformation, of catharsis, an irreversible cognitive shift. Continue reading
April 9, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, commons based economy, designing for the collective good, designing for the humanOS, edgar mitchell, humanizing our economy, living systems economy, nonlinear innovation, open government, overview effect, p2p society, participatory leadership, salva corpus amanti, single consciousness, the restorative economy, transformation, transformation economy, transformation society, unity of everything
Lina Bo Bardi shaping the world through a love of humanity
When we design around the the needs of humanity, when we put humanity at the core of our process – we have the potential to create extraordinary things. Not to design humanity an culture out of the process of creation but to weave it in. Sounds obvious does it not? But the truth is we have created too many systems, organisations, buildings that do not acknowledge our humanity. Lina Bo Bardi an Italian who moved to Brazil is an example of someone that believed profoundly in designing and creating buildings around the needs of human beings. Continue reading
March 8, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Bo Bardi, Brazil, commons based economy, Design, designing for the human, future architecture, human directed architecture, Italy, Lina Bo Bardi, Milan, new perspectives on architecture, nonlinear innovation, São Paulo, the human operating system, values based architecture, working with architecture and nature
Farm Hack, hacking the future of agriculture
A short film that explores an alternative approach to agriculture and food economies. The organisation is called Farm Hack. Founded in 2010, by what the narrator calls startup farmers, who were motivated to create a model for resilient agriculture. Continue reading
March 7, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged a farm for the future, code for america, common cause organization, designing for transformation, farm hack, food+supermarkets+agriculture+yeo valley+organic+defra+soil association+do lectures+dan saladino+supermarkets+volatility+complexity, international federation of organic agriculture movements, joel salatin farming innovation, modern organic movement, no straight lines in nature, nonlinear innovation, Open innovation, open source farming, Organic farming, organic farming and biodiversity, organic farming+sustainability, Polyface Farm, power of participatory cultures, resilient agriculture, soil association, the economics of organic farming
Leadership in a commons based economy
the problem of our current economic debate is that we are trying to solve 21st century problems with 19th and 20th century economic thought. That is: our discourse is stuck between “more markets and free enterprise” (2.0) and “more regulation and government” (3.0). In reality, neither of these approaches will suffice. This new philosophy is something that I explore in No Straight Lines -the means by which we can transform. Continue reading
March 4, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A restorative economy, Activism, Alan Moore, American Enterprise Institute, capitalism 4.0, commons based economy, Environment, leadership in a participatory economy, Michael Sandel, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, nonlinear economy, nonlinear innovation, Otto Scharmer, p2p economy, participatory organizations, participatory society, six principles no straight lines, the new civic engagement, the new leadership
Broke
I have been reading David Boyle’s new book Broke. How to survive the middle-class crisis. Gonzalez de Cellerigo was a lawyer and an economist living in 1600 Spain. He writes, the riches which should have brought wealth have brought poverty. Cellerigo understood that the flood of money coming into Spain, over the last 4 decades had caused the value of money to fall. Boyle makes observation that in modern Britain today we have suffered the same, ‘the cascade of wealth into the City of London, instead of financing production, it was frittered away on interest payments for debt, buying luxury goods from abroad, raising prices and, in the case of sixteenth century Spain, on the purchase of Eastern luxuries from the Portuguese Empire’. Continue reading
March 2, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged aston reinvestment trust, boots the chemists and unions, british business bank, david boyle, demise of the middle class, designing for humanity, dorset, economic systems thinking, economics as if it mattered, failure uk public services, fall of spanish economy, future house prices in britain, future local economies, Gonzalez de Cellerigo, Innovation, International Labour organisation, KKR the barbarians at the gate, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, london rebuilding society, new values in new economy, nonlinear innovation, private equity capitalists in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, rethinking uk economy, rise of the p2p society, school dinners and education, school for social entrepreneurs, shareable cities, systems thinking in economics, the reinvention of the middle class, tim crabtree, west dorset food and land trust, west dorset food links, what to do about british economy, why the middle class matters
Rethinking how we build homes in the UK
Here are 10 ways of taking a more humane and commons based approach to how we could live. Continue reading
February 2, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A common sense approach to building, Affordable housing, Alan Moore, Alejandro Aravena, Borneo-Sporenburg Amsterdam, building and the commons economy, community housing innovation, Community land trust, diversity in design, Horsmonden, Ijburg, innovation in architecture, innovation in housing, Iquique, land economy, margaret thatcher, Newton Community Land Trust, No Straight Lines, open commons region, openness is resilience, renewable buildings, restorative economy, self build innovation, self organising communities, Stroud, the cost of land, the low carbon economy, the new economics of building, Torre David Caracas
The revolt against traditional education
Last year I was working with an extraordinary group of people in Salzburg – where we had come together to explore the potential of systemic transformation. In one exercise we worked collaboratively on an idea that each individually intrigued us. Mine was education. After many rounds of questioning – we were asked to write from the heart, intuitively what we felt. This is what I wrote. The Revolt Against Traditional Education: Continue reading
February 1, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, creativity and orginal thinking, educating the reflective practitioner, educating the world, education and values, education frees the world, education innovation, embracing change in our learning landscape, finalnd pioneers in education, Henry Jenkins, learning and poverty, learning and religious education, learning poverty and fundamentalism, learning reimagined, methods and theories of education, mobile education, nonlinear innovation, participatory learning, sir ken robinson, systemic change in education, talent and education, teaching creatively, technology and learning, what is creativity?, world reader
Zaid Hassan: sensing, and connecting to a whole reality
I am came across this lovely insight by Zaid Hassan, in The U: A Language of Regeneration. As Russ Ackoff said a hole is spelt with a W. In my journey this reality that others cannot see the whole, happens 99% of the time in organizations, as Deming points to the 94/6 rule, where 94% of problems can be traced to the process and only 6% to the person – when systems are fixed. Therefore sensing the entire system is key. Continue reading
January 8, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting, chaordic process leadership, collective sensing for collective truth, Deming 94/6 rule, emergent leadership, finding collective truth, human systems of leadership, leadership and deep democracy, Lee Smolin, No Straight Lines, opening the heart of an organization, participatory decision making, participatory leadership, philosophy of logic, practices for regeneration, The U: A Language of Regeneration, the struggle between efficiency and creativity, toke moller, transformation scotland, working with complexity, working with openness, working with power of complexity, Zaid Hassan
Kano: helping make creators of the future not consumers of the past
thought of Lewis Hyde who wrote in The Gift, “we’ve witnessed the steady conversion into private property of the art and ideas that earlier generations thought belonged to their cultural commons”. When reading Miranda Swayers piece on the computing company for kids – Kano. Essentially Kano is plug and play coding making computing and the creation of things via coding and computing accessible to all comers. Hydes observation also resonated, when Alex Klein one of the Kano founders tells a story from an experience from Zuccotti Park when as a journalist he was covering the Occupy Movement, he asked the Occupy-ers why, if they hated big business so much, they all used iPhones and Samsungs. Continue reading
January 5, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Alex Klein, changing the way we think about computing, coding for beginners, coding in education+why every child schould code, coding innovation, coding literacy, coding the future, creative coding, creativity and coding, diy computing made easy, ethics of craftsmanship, future education+raspberry pi+tinkering+play, future of education, future of learning, Hacker ethic, hacking the future, how to build your own computer, Kano, learning to code made easy, lessons in coding, Lewis Hyde, Life as craftsmanship, maker movement uk, miranda sawyer, No Straight Lines, Occupy Movement, principles of craftsmaship, Rewired State, smlxl, teaching coding, Zuccotti Park
The restorative economy
Need to rewrite the foundations of economics: The need for a root and branch rewriting of economics produced a book last year called What’s the Use of Economics? Teaching the Dismal Science after the Crisis. Of course it is much much harder than anyone realises to bring into the world a truly viable alternative economy to an existing dominant model. There are many vested interests, and shifts of power that create vacuums’ generate the necessary conditions where waves of multiple dissonance; social, religious, economic combine to make people fearful of change and reactive to perceived threats real or otherwise. Opportunism trying to outflank those that seek a more ambitious goal. Continue reading
December 30, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, closed loop economics, crafting a new economy, david simon two americas, economic philosophy, economics of nature, economy of the commons, embracing a complex world, john fullerton the capital institute, lessons open commons region, natural capitalism, networked economic theory, new thinking in economic philosophy, new tools for a new economy, nonlinear innovation, open science commons, rise of foodbanks uk economy, systems thinking in economics, teaching the new economics, the carbon neutral economy, the dismal science, the open economy, the p2p economy, the Post-Crash Economics Society, the resilient economy, the shareable economy, what's the use of economics
Time to reimagine and recreate our state says Marianna Mazzucato
“The important thing for government is not to do things which individuals are doing already, and to do them a little better or a little worse; but to do those things which at present are not done at all.” was the advice of John Maynard Keynes. Continue reading
December 15, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, civic innovation, designign for the humanos, east coast train-operating franchise, economy as a system, economy of the commons, eddy izzard for mayor, entrepreneurship the future of the eu, failure privatisation public sector uk, financing the innovative state, how to make britain great, Marianna Mazzucato, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, nuclear economics uk, private equity investment tax breaks, privatising public goods uk, problem with big government, reinventing medicine, reinventing regional government, reinventing the state, religion+identity+spirituality+john stuart mill+charles handy+the hungry spirit, resilient economies, startup britain, startup uk, the furture of britain, UK government subsidises privatised utilities, uk tax expenditures, US National Institutes of Health
Lego's new business model: Pleygo
LEGO has always fascinated me, because of its journey from small to great to almost has been to a company designed for meeting the demands and challenges of a non-linear world. LEGO is launching LEGO The Movie next year and they have also been exploring the idea of building a service / rental style model called Pleygo is like a Netlix-like rental service that allows families to swap Lego sets instead of purchasing new ones and creating more plastic waste in the process. The Lego swap service enables kids to try out and play with lots of different sets. Continue reading
December 12, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged adaptive business models, Alan Moore, business as a service, business as a service+business as a platform, designing the smart organization, history business model innovation, Lego business model innovation, Lego Pleygo business model, Lego the movie, lesson in business model innovation, new tools for a new economy, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, resilient business models, Transformation Labs, transformation workshops, what's next for business
Exploring the future potential of Scotland
This was first posted at the Art of Hosting Scotland What kind of future do we want for Scotland? Today has been a special day. This morning 50 strangers, more or less, came together to begin a journey of, the … Continue reading
December 5, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting, civil society systems transformation, collective intelligence, community of purpose, Crofting, designing people powered organisations, harnessing collective intelligence, innovation eco-systems, innovation in healthcare, jo confino, lasting legacy for civic society, management systems, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, participatory leadership, participatory policing, rural parliament scotland, Scotland, Scottish Government, scottish government white paper independence, tim merry, toke moller, what next for scotland
High performance organizations through respect for people
Openness is resilience, leadership with purpose: Whereas one can see what happens when people exist in an open culture, which is led by purpose rather than a kpi. Two very different stories spring to mind, [1] the organisational systems change that was delivered through a process of participatory leadership in Nova Scotia for public health, [2] in Japan with Toyota. If you start to think about designing for whole systems with real human beings operating in those systems – I believe we see a very different organisational design emerge. Continue reading
November 17, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting scotland, designing for humanity, designing healthcare systems, designing high performance organizations, future healthcare, future manufactuing, higher performing organizations, innovation nova scotia healthcare, innovation people power, innovation systems thinking, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, north staffordshire hospital system failure, Open innovation, Otto Scharmer, radical redesign business, the greatest asset of an organization, theory u, transforming peoples lives
Russ Ackoff, a system is a hole with a W
a talk by Russ Ackoff – which is both funny and profound. His quote that a system is a (w)hole, spelt with a W was fantastic – his insight that a system is not a sum of its parts but a sum if the interactions that take place – genius for its clarity. He made the point that to understand this concept write a note with your writing hand, then cut it off and see what happens. He is known as the father of systems thinking. Continue reading
October 31, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Business, Clare Crawford-Mason, constraints of design, Continual improvement process, Deming, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, effectiveness vs efficiency, John Seddon, Lloyd Dobyns, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, quality as effectiveness, quality of life, stafford beer, systems design, Systems thinking, the vanguard method, toyota way, true knowledge exists in a network, w edwards deming
The engaged organisation outperforms the disengaged organisation
a recent Gallup poll pulled up some interesting insights. Companies with engaged workforces achieve higher earnings than organisations that fail to engage their employees. Engaged organisations have 3.9 times the earnings per share growth rate compared to an organisation with lower engagement in the same industry. Continue reading
October 30, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting, Barbara Ehrenreich, designing the smart organization, employee engagement, Gallup, Generation Y, green business, humanos, Job Growth, John Seddon, lean business, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, participatory leadership, radical redesign business, Richard Sennett, the engaged organization, toyota way, United States
Flute Office business, design and manufacturing innovation
Flute Office is a pioneering company that is producing an entire suite of products along with a ground breaking business model to change the way we think about what we sit on, what we work on, what perhaps we do other things on (Do its all verb). Continue reading
October 14, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Andy wood+adnams, Business model innovation, cradle to cradle, customer centric design, design thinking, future of furniture, future of the office, future of work, green business, human centered design, Hunter Lovins, innovative business models, iterate+design principle, Lean manufacturing, Local Motors, manufacturing innovation, mary dorrington ward, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, renewable fibres, resilient design, rod fountain, service design, systems design, Systems thinking, Work
Lessons in craftsmanship: Tashi Mannox - Tibetan Calligrapher
Tashi Mannox Tibetan Calligrapher, says, it is commitment that gives you freedom, which reminds me of the truth that, the committed craftsman is the engaged craftsman. And that craftsman is always curious and happy to share the work and their knowledge. Continue reading
October 13, 2013
Craftsmanship / Openness / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Beijing, Buddhism, craft+ethics, crafted life, craftsmanship, Dalai Lama, design thinking, hand heart mind, Local Motors, Mike Friton, Nicholas DiChiara, No Straight Lines, poetry of craft, principles of craftsmaship, Seamus Heaney, Systems thinking, ten steps to being a better craftsman, the craftsman+innovation, Tibet, Tibetan, Tibetan alphabet, Tibetan culture, ushahidi
Those Incredible Edibles from Todmorden and further afield
A couple of weeks ago I headed north to a place called Todmorden, or Tod for those in the know. This is the homeland, of a particular beast called Incredible Edible. Incredible Edible has a mission to inspire and educate the world about food, local food, local food systems, locally gown food, local food economies, and how to lead a more resilient life that is also more fun. Continue reading
October 12, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, allotments, business in the community, coherent systems of meaning, communal identity+meaning+belonging, cooperatives and civic community, design thinking, designing resilient food systems, England, Food, food tourism, France, future food economies, gift community+value of gift exchange, green business, Incredible Edible, Jarvis Cocker, Local food, local food economies, localism, narrative+place, New World, No Straight Lines, ordinary+organic+orginiality, organic, Pam Warhurst+incredible edible+defra, participatory cultures+participatory tools+designing for transformation+design+transformation+ambiguity+scenario planning+creativity+openness+adaptiveness+narrative+storytelling, reconnecting capital to place, social innovation, soil association, systems thinikng, Systems thinking, The Life and Death of Democracy, Todmorden, transformational design, urban and town planning, urban farming, West Yorkshire, yeo valley farms
Welcome to the Shoreditch Village Hall
Last night I was invited to the official opening of the Shoreditch Village Hall, accessed via Hoxton Square. Because of my age and my interests, I am very familiar with Hoxton Square, over 25 years I have watched it rise … Continue reading
October 11, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, anthropology+cultural studies+networked identity, community and place, community innovation, crowdfunding, culture+meaning+identity, ferdinand tönnies, gift community+value of gift exchange, heimat, Hoxton Square, human identity+society, lewis hyde and the erotic life of property, London, modern identity+collective identity, narrative+place, No Straight Lines, participatory cultures, politics of place, power of place, Shoreditch, Shoreditch Village Hall, social innovation, tech city, Village Hall
Ecuador planning a commons based economy
They also say that disruption never comes from the centre, it always comes from the edge, from places where thinking and doing differently has greater flexibility. Perhaps it will not be the power houses of the industrial order where real and meaningful change comes from but elsewhere. So it was no surprise that the Government of Ecuador has launched a major strategic research project to “fundamentally re-imagine Ecuador” based on the principles of open networks, peer production and commoning, Continue reading
September 26, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged commons based economy, Creative Commons, David Bollier, design thinking, designing for transformation, Ecuador, FLOK Society, green economy, IAEN, Latin America, Michel Bauwens, Ministry of Human Resource and Knowledge in Ecuador, national plan for good living, National Plans, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, open commons region, open finance, open hardware, open networks, open science, p2p foundation, participatory cultures, peer production, Quito, Systems thinking, the regenerative society, World Bank, world bank+criticism
To the people that 'build stuff'
What makes work meaningful? Why do we go to work? Why should we work? For whom do we work? Is work about meaning and identity more than money? Should our work be meaningful? What fulfills us and what gets us out of bed on a Monday morning? It does not matter whether you are a coder, or a metal fabricator like Nicholas DiChiara, work is something that in my mind has always been about purpose and passion. Continue reading
September 25, 2013
Craftsmanship / Openness / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, American Craftsman, coherent systems of meaning, Craftsman, designing the smart organisation, ethics of craftsmanship, granfors bruks, happiness+work+meaning+identity, human identity+society, identity as a journey, innovation workshop, life of craftsmanship, Master craftsman, modern culture bankruptcy of meaning, moral identity, Nicholas DiChiara, No Straight Lines, principles of craftsmanship, purpose and the organization, purpose and work, Richard Sennett, six principles no straight lines, ten steps to being a better craftsman, the crafted organization, The Meaning of Educational Quality
What happens when organisations no longer fit reality
In my previous post on Scotland exploring a different reality, I wanted to share Tim Merry’s views on the need to create better systems more in tune wit the nature of humanity. Tim talks about meeting change with dignity. In No Straight Lines the core philosophy is we can do better and we need to deschool ourselves from a linear and mechanistic way of thinking and doing. Here is Tim expanding on his philosophy on systems change at a human scale. Continue reading
September 24, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, design thinking, designing for humanity, economic systems thinking, how to create transformational change, innovation at a human scale, No Straight Lines, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, participatory leadership, Scotland, six steps to transformation, Systems thinking, transforming economies, transforming education, transforming health care
Participatory Leadership and transformational change in Scotland
How can we create better, much better? Where we can create better functioning societies, that are regenerative, more resilient. How can we shape the future of a country to be better prepared for a more uncertain and perhaps more challenging world?
An invitation to learn how to lead change at a systemic and human level Continue reading
September 21, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A green deal for Scotland?, Alan Moore, an architecture of participation, art of hosting, Better together?, citizenship+participation, civic humanism+civic virtue, co-creation+open+openness+participatory leadership+language, Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill, community innovation, complexity theory, designing for humanity, designing the smart organization, Edinburgh, Elinor Ostrom, enterprise innovation, future civic society, future local government, future of scotland, future scottish business, future scottish healthcare, Glasgow, healthcare innovation, human capital, human centered design, humanistic psychology, Jim Mather, jim mather minister for enterprise, Ken Cloke, KPMG, Mariana Mazzucato, markets are conversations, No Straight Lines, Nova Scotia, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, p2p society, participatory innovation, participatory leadership, Regeneration Strategy, Scotland, Scottish Government, Scottish green party, Scottish national identity, social capital, Straight Lines, Systems thinking, the ash centre fordemocratic governanc, the support economy, the tragedy of the commons, Up Helly Aa, what makes a healthy civic society?
The lean green business system
The authors argue that things that are good for the planet are also good for business. Studies from the the Economist Intelligence Unit, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and others indicate that organizations that commit to goals of zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of nonrenewable resources clearly outperform their competition. Continue reading
September 15, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Adnams Brewery, Alan Moore, bio engineering, Business model innovation, design thinking, designing for the collective good, designing resilient food systems, Economist Intelligence Unit, environmental management, green business, green economy, green engineering, holistic design, Hunter Lovins, John Seddon, Kanban, Lean manufacturing, Manufacturing, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, organizational design, quality of life, radical redesign business, systems design, theory of constraints, Toyota, toyota global vision, toyota way, United States, value based systems
Love your work
Below is a beautiful simple film about the craft of making sake. Why did I think it to be relevant? Because the ‘engaged’ craftsman brings the full power of humanity to bear upon his work. His hand is guided by his eye, informed by his creative mind; his productivity the act of unique creation. Indeed, the master craftsman is adept in using a values based philosophical framework, as well as tools and materials, to deliver useful things to the world. Continue reading
September 11, 2013
Tagged Alan Moore, antonio genovesi+mark granovetter+guilds, beauty, collective craftsmanship, common good, craft+beauty, craft+craftmanship+meaning+work+identity+hand+heart+mind+open+explore+curious+makie labs+practice+play, craftsmanship+innovation, design thinking, ethics of craftsmanship, future of work, gransfors bruks, How to create an innovative and sustainable company, Japan, key words of craftsmanship, Life as craftsmanship, Local Motors, maker movement, making sake, Master craftsman, No Straight Lines, organisational design, principles of craftsmanship, richard sennet, Seamus Heaney, the crafted organization, the smart organisation, values based system
The Almonte horsemen community and craftsmanship
Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? A short film about the Almonte horsemen. The narration is very simple but eloquent, that talks philosophically about meaning, identity, nature, belonging, ethics, community and the joy that comes from being committed to ones craft. Continue reading
September 8, 2013
Craftsmanship / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, Almonte horsemen, American Craftsman, business ethics, collective craftsmanship, craftman, craftsmanship, design thinking, designing resilient food systems, environmental policy+social science+ethics+biology, ethics+sequence of generations, future of society, human nature, life of craftsmanship, maker movement, natural capitalism, new systems of ethics, No Straight Lines, nonlinear design, openness+resilience, organizational design, Paul Hawken, principles of craftsmanship, Richard Sennett, sustainable communities+sustainable economies, Systems thinking, the crafted organization, the fitness of human nature, the nature and the structure of the self, the nature of the firm, The total, the total+what we take+what we make+what we waste, the wholeness of nature+bortoft, understanding the constructed nature of community, values system
Lone Frank asks big questions around data and genetics
Since genetic information does not determine you, it does not in itself tell you anything really important. It won’t be very important to not have your genetic information in the public domain. It won’t seem very important to people to keep it private. Our sense of privacy is evolving; our pictures, out personal data our views of what needs to be kept private change. So why would our genetic data be different? Continue reading
September 6, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged BigData, biology, consumer genetics, crafting resilient healthcare, data policy+future data policy+future IT policy, deCODEme, designing a lightweight healthcare system, disease risk, Eukaryotic, future genetics, future health, genetic data, Genetics, Genome, genomics+big data, health innovation, health monitoring, Human Genome Project, medicare, My Beautiful Genome, Navigenics, No Straight Lines, Nucleic acid sequence, open health+open data+open data records, personal data, personal identity+modern selfhood, Personally identifiable information, preventative health care, psychology+community+mental health+communication, Public domain
The engaged craftsman is a committed craftsman
A great, short film about a man committed to his craft and how that shapes his life. What can we learn from that? Continue reading
September 3, 2013
Tagged Alan Moore, business ethics, craft+beauty, craft+ethics, craftsmanship, craftsmanship+innovation, firm of the future, green economics, Hephaestus, Life as craftsmanship, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, poetry of craft, principles of craftsmaship, the craft, the crafted organization, the crafted society
Seamus Heaney remembering a great craftsman
It was terribly sad to hear the news of the passing to Seamus Heaney, a craftsman if ever there was one. As not only was he a master craftsman of the English language he embodied the other important characteristics of granite like integrity, and a deep empathy of the world around him and the people in it. A quest for truth is always core to the purpose of a poet, to seek that which others do not see and to express it in a way that we can all understand. Continue reading
September 1, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Art, Bill Clinton, bloody sunday, business ethics, civil rights, Death of a Naturalist, douglas hume, ethics of craftsmanship, good friday agreement, Heaney, Ireland, Irish poetry, life of craftsmanship, new systems of ethics, No Straight Lines, open democracy+civil society+ethics, poerty and culture, Poetry, Poetry Foundation, principles of craftsmaship, Seamus Heaney
The overview effect and a pioneering spirit
Our nonlinear world is about connectedness, our connectedness to each other and in fact to a wider universe. Something I explore in No Straight Lines. I am deeply interested in our humanity and the human spirit. I am interested in humanities capacity for a higher yearning, which inspires us to work towards a greater good. Our pioneering spirit today should be more about the quality of life, and better governance of this planet. When we see the world as a deeper system, we see the world differently as this moving film explains. Continue reading
August 30, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, blue marble, coherent systems of meaning, culture+meaning+identity, design for humanity, Earth, frank white, interconnectedness of life, meta-level systems thinking, modern society frameworks of meaning, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, open systems, overview effect, sharing meaning in a networked world, smlxl, space exploration, Systems thinking, transformational experience
Crafting a new pursuit of happiness: re-ordering work and play
One of my interests is how and why we work, what motivates us, and how can a values based systems help us make meaningful work. Here is an excerpt Chapter 6 of No Straight Lines: Continue reading
August 24, 2013
Tagged Alan Moore, always in beta, Artisan, chaordic design, collaborative design, Craft, Craftsman, creative commons+design, customer centric design, design as process, design innovation, design thinking, designing for the collective good, designing for transformation, designing resilient food systems, designing with data, engineering design centre+cambridge, human centered design, iterate+design principle, Letchworth Garden City, Life as craftsmanship, No Straight Lines, non-linear design, organisational design, pattern language, permaculture+ecological design, Philosophy, principles of craftsmaship, radical re-design of business, Richard Sennett, Sennett, Social Sciences, Straight Lines, systems based design, universal design philosophy
A handcrafted particle accelerator
Patrick Stevenson Keating created a handcrafted glass particle accelerator in what I would describe as an act of true craftsmanship. The piece consists of a series of organically-shaped hand-blown glass bulbs – each attached to a pump via a tube to create a vacuum. When the button is pushed, a voltage of 45,000V is applied across two electrodes. Continue reading
August 22, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Anatoli Bugorski, Doctor of Philosophy, Glass, hacking culture, hacking the future, hacktivism, hand made, Institute for High Energy Physics, Joule, maker movement, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, open hardware, open science, open source+open access, participatory cultures, Particle accelerator, Proton beam, Protvino, science commons, systems hacking, visible light
Monitor me, data, health and technology
This Horizon documentary called ‘Monitor Me’, is an intriguing journey into what the future of medicine may look like, with blends of cutting edge medicine, technology and data that monitors all and everything, we can imagine entirely different ways in which we can manage our daily health like weight to high performance sport to discovering at its very earliest stages serious medical problems. Continue reading
August 17, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Alternative, bbc, better sleep, Brittany Wenger, brittnay wenger, design thinking, digital health apps, england rubgy elite performance, Eric Topol, Fong, future cancer, future healthcare, future medicine, Ginger.io, Health, health apps, health innovation, health monitoring, health+data, healthcare, heart monitoring, Innovation, Kevin Fong, Larry Smarr, london air ambulance, mhealth, mobile health, No Straight Lines, Patients Know Best, preventative health care, self tracking transforming health, top 10 health apps, United States, wearable technology, weight loss
Seeking authenticity and a nonlinear life
I am a big fan of David Boyles work, and this book is one I think is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 2004. In this book he writes about the determined rejection of the fake, the virtual, the spun and the mass-produced, in the search for authenticity. Continue reading
August 9, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged Alan Moore, Charles Handy, david boyle, future agriculture, holistic design, Incredible Edible, localism, Michael Schuman+local living economies, micro breweries, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, p2p economies, p2p society, Paul Hawken, scale, slow food movement, Social science, the ecology of commerce, the new economics, urban farming
Rupert Sheldrake and the dogmas of scientific materialism
TED banned this talk, I wonder what was so controversial? Of particular interest to me was the idea of variations in light-speed and gravity the big G. Sheldrake goes onto talk about the big idea that the laws of nature at an atomic level are never set, are not constant as Newton proposed but are in a permanent state of evolution. Continue reading
August 5, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Openness / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Alternative, cern, Collapse: How societies choose to fail or survive, elementary particles, general relativity, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Graham Hancock, Gravitation, laws of nature, Lee Smolin, light-speed, natures laws, networked identity, networks and disruption of traditional organization, Newton, No Straight Lines, open to new ideas, Phenomenology of Perception, Physics, quantum mechanics, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, rupert sheldrake, smlxl, Speed of light, Ted, the atlantic, The Network Society, the process of evolution, time reborn, variations in light speed
6 steps to transform the way we do business
Published in The Guardian Sustainable Business. Our institutions, organisations and economies were conceived, designed and built for a simpler more linear world. Overwhelmed by complexity, these have become disrupted and unsustainable. There is an urgent need to transform our societies, organisations and economies by better design to thrive in what I call a “non-linear world”. Continue reading
August 3, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged 1010, Alan Moore, Business, Business model innovation, business models, Design, designing for transformation, dynamic adaptive systems, Earth, Economic model, economic systems thinking, enterprise open innovation, firm of the future, Guardian, Math, No Straight Lines, Nonlinear system, Open innovation, Organization, participatory cultures, participatory tools, Systems thinking
Time, space, place, love, reflection, nature, craftsmanship
Sometimes, we need to feel something rather than analyse it. To feel time, to feel space and pace, the feel love and to reflect, to touch and go into nature and revel in the crafting of of something unique. Sometimes we need to be open to a new experience, to take its crooked path to a deeper meaning about who we are, and perhaps where we belong. Sometimes its good to feel humbled by nature and reflect on how we only exist within her nurture, as much as we might abuse it. Sometimes its good to feel the mystical as it as much a part of our non-linear world as our current obsession with technology. We have not harnessed the cosmos. Continue reading
August 1, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Alan Moore, craftsmanship, Creativity, culture, film, hand+heart+mind, identity, jo quail, music, nature, No Straight Lines, smlxl
Where do big ideas come from?
Recently I was participating a workshop that was exploring the question, where do big ideas come from? We were a group of 20 people and asked to bring with us 2 ideas each that we found intriguing, ideas that we were undecided about but wanted to explore. Then through an intense collaborative process over 2 days we explored those ideas, digging deeper into them, exploring their emergence, their context, their potential for good and also disruption. We explored patterns, connections and looked systemically at these ideas. Continue reading
July 30, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged co-creation+open+openness+participatory leadership+language, Copernican heliocentrism, design innovation, Galileo, Galileo Galilei, holistic design, Johannes Kepler, Kepler, learnign as collaborative process, learning process, Lee Smolin, No Straight Lines, organisational learning, participatory cultures, participatory leadership, pattern recognition, Salzburg, Scientific Revolution, smlxl, Systems thinking
True craftsmanship is total commitment to the moment of creation
Principle 5 of No Straight Lines is Craftsmanship. Here artist Miyoko Shida demonstrates the idea of what it means to be fully engaged in an act of creation. Continue reading
July 18, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged 21st Century Enlightenment, Artisan, code academy, collective craftsmanship, Craftsman, Creative Commons, Creativity, designing for complexity, Henry Jenkins, Hephaestus, Knowledge Creation, Knowledge management, Lego, life hacker, life navigational guide, Local Motors, maker movement, makielabs, Miyoko Shida, No Straight Lines, Patients Know Best, pattern recognition, Raspberry Pi, Richard Sennett, smlxl, Systems thinking, transformation lab
Doug Englebart and what world he was trying to create
In No Straight Lines, technology plays an important role, it must do. Because to deny our umbilical relationship with technology is to deny ourselves. But it always seems a struggle to get people to reconcile the important philosophical, anthropological and societal relationships to technology that we indeed have – where it comes from, what drives our longing (on a large scale) which consequently affects what we imagine, create and make. Doug Englebart died recently, Continue reading
July 16, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Bill Bailey, Bret Victor, collective intelligence, design literacy, Douglas Engelbart, Engelbart, Hacker ethic, hacking the future, Hypertext, Innovation, No Straight Lines, philosophy of innovation, smlxl, Straight Lines, Technology
Is it solutions or transformation that we seek?
This where I think organisations need a more nuanced approach to Transformation – being able to describe a new destination, with if necessary new organisational capability. They need innovation to be interwoven into the organisation to deliver business model innovation Continue reading
July 10, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, Business model innovation, business transformation, crowdfunding, Donald Schön, firm of the future, Henry Ford Clinic, leadership, Lego, Local Motors, Organization, Patients Know Best, six principles no straight lines, smlxl, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action
On beauty
In No Straight Lines, I talk about the Human-OS, the human operating system and argue that these are the fundamentals of what we need to think about when we design for the needs of humanity. The last point is beauty. Continue reading
June 16, 2013
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged aesthetics, alan moore+no straight lines, co-creation, complexity, craftsmanship, Design, firm of the future, Health care, human nature, Local Motors, No Straight Lines, nonlinear, Nova Scotia, openness, optimum complexity+beauty, participatory leadership, Philosophy, the human-os, trust, what next for business?
No Straight Lines keynote @PINC
Alan Moore keynote at PINC: Today’s and tomorrow’s executives and leaders face a complex design challenge, in transforming existing organisations and economies from a linear to a non-linear economy. Executives and leaders must be able to thrive in a world of constant change and be able to create and lead agile organisations that deliver higher performance with lower input costs. No Straight Lines has six framing principles that teach the philosophy and practice of how to design organisations and economic models for a non-linear world. Continue reading
May 19, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, antifragile, business innovation, civil society and cultural power, communications innovation, design thinking, designing for humanity, designing organizational platforms, Financial Capital, freedom lab, healthcare innovation, keynote, leadership, LEGO CUUSOO, Local Motors, mobile commerce, networked society, No Straight Lines, Nonlinear system, Open Society, p2p economics, p2p society, participatory leadership, Patients Know Best, Social justice, technological revolution and financial capital, think tank, transformation lab, Worldreader.org, yeo valley farms
I don't see these things as risk, I see them as trust
I came across Amanda Palmer and was compelled by her story. In fact her entire life is non-linear, and through that life she has explored a different way of seeing, and through that a different type of wisdom. It resonated with me and with No Straight Lines. In her words, when we really see each other we help each other – and, Continue reading
May 12, 2013
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, Amanda Palmer, beth noveck+participatory culture+crowdsourcing, collapse of trust in political elites, crisis+hope+faith+trust, crowdfunding, fan community, Grand theft orchestra, leadership in the digital economy, Muhammad Ali, No Straight Lines, nonlinear, organizational culture and leadership, participatory cultures, risk management, rules of participatory culture, transformation+trust, trust, trust+business, trusting connections
una breve introducción sin líneas rectas
En una sociedad mediática, las unidades básicas son las grandes “masas” colectivas. La sociedad red, sin embargo, está formada por individuos que establecen conexiones voluntarias con otros individuos, sea cual sea su ubicación. En una sociedad red, la red se convierte en la unidad básica de organización a todos los niveles (individuos, grupos u organizaciones). Las redes sociales virtuales, las redes de medios de comunicación y las redes tecnológicas actúan como catalizadores de la sociedad red. Continue reading
April 22, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged ¿qué sigue para América Latina, Alan Moore, ciudades inteligentes, comunidad, culturas participativas, de igual a igual la sociedad, economía, economía verde, educación futura, empresa como comunidad, futuros negocios, grandes volúmenes de datos, identidad, medios de comunicación, móvil, natural para los negocios, no lineal, No Straight Lines, organización narrativa, pensamiento de diseño, pensamiento sistémico, red economía, sin líneas rectas, tecnologia
Curiosity and education a non-linear approach (part two)
In 2006, Henry Jenkins produced a report on media literacy for the MacArthur Foundation. It states that it has identified ‘a set of core social skills and cultural competencies that young people should acquire if they are to be full, active, creative, and ethical participants in this emerging participatory culture’ Continue reading
April 13, 2013
Tagged 21st century learning, Alan Moore, appreciative enquiry, coding, coding in education, collective intelligence, Creativity, department education and skills+michael gove, Education, education theory and inspiration, education+politcs, future education, future education+raspberry pi+tinkering+play, MacArthur Foundation, media literacy, No Straight Lines, Participatory culture, Pasi Sahlberg, pattern recognition, play+performance+simulation+appropriation+multitasking+distributed cognition+collective intelligence+judgment+transmedia navigation+networking+negotiation, transformation lab, youth creativity+digital culture
Curiosity and education a non-linear approach
Curiosity is part and parcel of the creative process, and creativity is a key component of non-linear thinking. Creativity enables us to discover the new, the novel, to examine and evaluate its possibilities. Creativity in a No Straight Lines perspective is the means to also see the world and its context in a broader context, understanding its richer deeper narrative. In No Straight Lines the theorem is replace fear of the unknown with curiosity. Continue reading
Tagged Craftsman, creative economy, creative learning, creative process, creativity and culture, creativity+business, hand+heart+mind, language+pattern recognition, No Straight Lines, Nonlinear system, pattern recognition, Richard Sennett, risk: pattern recognition+pattern building, six principles no straight lines, Social Sciences, wellness, youth creativity+digital culture
innovation is really about people
This is a beautiful short essay on non-linear innovation, people and place Continue reading
April 12, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, civic entrepreneurship, collective craftsmanship, community innovation, design literacy, hand+heart+mind, Innovation, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, participatory cultures, participatory leadership, social innovation
Complexity, simplexity, self-assembly
The No Straight Lines challenge: be realistic imagine the impossible, then create it. The Self-Assembly Lab at MIT is a cross-disciplinary research lab Continue reading
April 8, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged 4d printing, Alan Moore, Built environment, cross-disciplinary, dynamic assembly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, No Straight Lines, Printing, red lab, Self-assembly, Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, Vimeo
Marilyn Hamilton on wellness and urban life
In No Straight Lines I investigate the idea of what makes life worth living at a fundamental level. Why do we work, what is work, and more importantly what makes us as complete human beings as it quite clearly is not the current model. What price are we going to pay when we strip ourselves of the qualities that make us what we are? As Arnold Heertje argues we have lived in a quantitative and dehumanizing economic paradigm which has alienated human beings from their labour and social being. Continue reading
April 4, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, Charles Handy, civic progress, civic society, culture+meaning+identity, ecology of economy, Elisabet Sahtouris, gift economy, Human, John Helliwell, Lewis Hyde, local economies, Marilyn Hamilton, No Straight Lines, non-linear thinking, participatory cultures, pattern recognition, qualitative economics, resilient economies, Richard Sennett, Saskatoon, sharing identity, social innovation, Systems thinking, wellness
Celebrating the Craftsman
Principle #5 of No Straight Lines is Craftsmanship Here are two examples of craftsmanship. Why is the idea of craftsmanship significant at this epochal moment in time? Because it is about shaping our future and the ‘engaged’ craftsman brings the … Continue reading
March 18, 2013
Tagged afghan, Alan Moore, Artisan, Kabul, Linux, Local Motors, Master craftsman, nike, No Straight Lines, non-linear design, participatory cultures+participatory tools+designing for transformation+design+transformation+ambiguity+scenario planning+creativity+openness+adaptiveness+narrative+storytelling, Qatar, ushahidi
Urban forests in the sky of Milan
The Bosco Verticale ‘eco-skyscrapers’ in Milan are described as urban forests in the sky, and will house as many trees as people. 50%+ of the world s population now live in cities so HOW DO WE bring the urban environment and nature closer together? Stefano Boeri Architects have been exploring the HOW. Continue reading
March 14, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Bosco Verticale, desiging with nature, eco-architecture, Energy, Innovation, inspired by nature, Milan, No Straight Lines, non-linear design, non-linear thnking, Stefano Boeri, Stefano Boeri Architects, Tower block, transformation, transition, upgrade, Urban area, Urban forest, vertical gardening
Less seed, water, and chemicals equals more food
Kumar, a young farmer in Nalanda district of India’s poorest state Bihar, had – using only farmyard manure and without any herbicides – grown an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice on one hectare of land Continue reading
March 9, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown
Tagged Agriculture, Alan Moore, Anil Verma, Bihar, consciouslifenews, crop yields, diary farming, India, Innovation, Nalanda, Nalanda district, new green grassroots revolution, Nitish Kumar, No Straight Lines, non-linear economy, norman uphoff, Organic farming, Ravindra Kumar, Rice, schumacher college, seed patents, sri, sustainable enterprise, yeo valley
The Gestalt Switch to the Human-OS
In The Life and Death of Democracy, John Keane points out that when democracy takes hold of people’s lives, it gives them a glimpse of the contingency of things. They are, he says: ‘injected with the feeling that the world can be other than it is – that situations can be countered, outcomes altered, people’s lives changed through individual and collective action.’ Do people feel this today? Democracy, says Keane, ‘thrives on humility and a shared sense of equality among citizens needs to be visceral’. Continue reading
February 17, 2013
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Amartya Sen, arab spring, Benjamin Barber, consumer politics, consumer society, Democracy, democracy 2.0, George W. Bush, J. G. Ballard, life and death of democracy, Lizabeth Cohen, No Straight Lines, one nation, open democracy, open democracy+civil society+ethics, political economy, pussy riot, SOCAP, social capital, the joyless economy+tibor scitovsky, Tibor Scitovsky, twitter+democracy, twitter+protest, United States, ushahidi
Competing to innovate in the open society
An aspect of open collaboration literacy which may seem counter intuitive is that of competition. Competitions can attract people passionate about solving real world problems; these need to be open access attracting a true divergence of knowledge, and have a fine pedigree. The Longitude Prize was an act of Parliament (the Longitude Act) of the United Kingdom passed in July 1714 during the reign of Queen Anne. It established the Board of Longitude and offered a monetary reward for anyone who could find a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship’s longitude. Continue reading
February 8, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Board of Longitude, company of the future, Competition, enterprise open innovation, firm of the future, Innovation, innovation performance, innovation platforms, Longitude Prize, NASA, No Straight Lines, Open Society, radical redesign business, Space, stsyems thinking, Technology, technology strategy board, TopCoder
How language shapes our thinking that then shapes us
In my journey of looking at how we create new, invigorating and regenerative ways of being, working, learning, I have increasingly become aware that the way that the language we use shapes our thinking and how we ultimately engage with the world. Continue reading
February 2, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Openness
Tagged Alan Moore, Business, company of the future, Creative Commons, design thinking, enterprise innovation, firm of the future, French Revolution, Language, Linguistics, Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, No Straight Lines, organizations of the future, pattern recognition, Social Sciences, Systems thinking, Vannevar Bush
Henry Jenkins interview No Straight Lines
Henry Jenkins interviews author Alan Moore: Through the years, we have remained in touch. Moore remains one of the most thoughtful people I have met — someone who reads broadly, who asks challenging questions, who is willing to explore alternative perspectives, and who is trying to construct his own theoretical model for the changes that are impacting our contemporary society. Continue reading
January 30, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Cambridge, collective craftsmanship, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, craftsmanship, engagement marketing, hand+heart+mind, Henry Jenkins, human os, identity, Innovation, Marketing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, No Straight Lines, Participatory culture, six principles no straight lines, smlxl, system upgrade, Systems thinking
Hacking the success of the Obama campaign 2012
A compelling story of how a group of very extraordinary people worked together to create transformational change to run a complex campaign to help get Obama re-elected as President. The lessons that present themselves are useful lessons for other organisations. There is a saying that purpose is the hidden leader, it seems clear without common purpose, a higher goal that all had signed up for – the radical re-design of the campaign tech platforms and their enhanced capability would never have happened. Continue reading
January 25, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Atlantic, Barack Obama, Brazil, Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power, EPIC, eric schimdt, harper reed, No Straight Lines, Obama, Patients Know Best, President of the United States, software engineering, Technology, transformation, United States
Ushahidi: a story of non-linear innovation
As described in No Straight Lines – what we face in a complex challenging world is a design challenge. Here is a story of how without spending any money a group of highly motivated people came together from around the world with multiple-design skills and capability, to create what has become the cutting edge in crisis management, and a new radical design of NGO. This organisation is called Ushahidi. Continue reading
January 21, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, complexity, Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power, crisis manangement, design thinking, future ngo, Innovation, inovation workshop, mobile, Mobile Web, No Straight Lines, Open Data, Open innovation, Open Source, participatory cultures, Systems thinking, ushahidi+ngo+networked
How to create an innovative and sustainable company
How do we approach and create an holistic and systemic design of a business? Here is a story from the book that explores a different way of creating greater value – not only in the the product but in fact through the entire organisation, being more lightweight, sustainable, and innovative. Continue reading
January 19, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Business, C. Wright Mills, collective craftsmanship, craftsmanship, Design, Ethics, future of the company, gransfors bruks, Innovation, Master craftsman, No Straight Lines, Philosophy, Sustainability, Sweden, Systems thinking
The No Straight Lines Yearbook 2012
2012 was the year No Straight Lines was launched. It felt like a very hard year after hardly taking a breath between the research, writing and production and then onto bringing an idea into the world. But the sum of the parts adds up to quite an interesting year. Continue reading
January 9, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, complexity, future of business, future of the organization, hacking the future, Innovation, No Straight Lines, Patients Know Best, smlxl, the social enterprise, transformation
Austerity will not get us to the future we deserve, but creative entrepreneurial expression will
Britain socially and culturally has been shaped by our responses to successive technologies, harnessing their potential to enable us to play a significant role on the worlds stage. This moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society. If we want our towns and cities to hum along, if we want to educate our young to be truly part of the 21st Century, if we want to create jobs and meaningful work, create breakthrough science and pharma projects, a healthcare system that really works, if we want factories of the future that can create value globally then is time for us to be as great as our finest engineers, industrialists, innovators who sought ways of getting things done that were transformational for our society and our economy. A mindset of austerity will not get us to that place. It is time for us to use one of our greatest assets creative entrepreneurial expression and design for transformation. Continue reading
January 2, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged alan moore+no straight lines, Andrew Haldane, complexity theory, Eastman Kodak, future britain, future education, future health, future manufacturing, future of business, human os, open innovation+open region+open commons+open data+open society+p2p society+open api's+, participatory cultures+participatory tools+designing for transformation+design+transformation+ambiguity+scenario planning+creativity+openness+adaptiveness+narrative+storytelling, systems design, Systems thinking
A sociedade a e economia no straight lines
An interview with HSM in Brazil about No Straight Lines. It is in Portuguese and you can download it here Continue reading
November 24, 2012
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged adaptatividade, assistência médica, capitalismo moral, co-criação, complexidade, comunicações móveis, concepção da empresa, concepção da empresa do futuro, concorrência e inovação, cultura, democracia aberta, desenho, economia colaborativa, educação, empresa do futuro, espiritualidade, espiritualidade do homem, ética, habilidade, humanidade conduz a tecnologia, identidade, inovação aberta, inovação automotiva, inovação cuidados crônicos de saúde, inovação cuidados de saúde, inovação financeira, movimento criador, mundo complexo, negócio, negócios sociais, negócios sustentáveis, organização, organização em rede, redesenho radical dos negócios, saúde, significado, sistemas de pensamento, sociedade, tecnologia, transformação, transformação de negócios
How to design for business transformation
Speaking at a number of events recently I have been asked, repeatedly whether large existing organisations can truly evolve and adapt sufficiently in volatile business conditions, and whether an organisation needs to be in deep crisis before they take the necessary radical steps. Continue reading
November 21, 2012
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, complexity, design thinking, Detroit, future business, future health, Kodak, Lego, LEGO CUUSOO, Local Motors, No Straight Lines, Nokia, nova scotia public health care, Open innovation, Organization, participatory healthcare, Patients Know Best, systems design, Systems thinking, transformation, ukti
The Radical Re-Design of Business
This week I was invited to Shanghai to speak about the transformational design of businesses at Radical Design Week – Shanghai.
In the Heavy Metal Seminar (heavy industry rather than a debate about Metallica), my topic was car manufacturing and how with state of the art 3D fabrication tools, combined with networked participatory cultures and tools, insights into rapid innovation and build practices, a car company Local Motors can build cars five times faster at one hundred times less the capital cost and sell its first production vehicle The Rally Fighter at $79,000. This is radical transformational business design. Continue reading
November 2, 2012
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged 3D printing, alan moore+no straight lines, Automotive industry, BMW, crowdfunding, DARPA, design thinking, designing transformational organization, Detroit, fabrication, innovation workshops, Local Motors, Nova Scotia, Open innovation, participatory cultures, radical venturing, Rally Fighter, shanghai, the lean organization, transformational design, World Food Programme
Craftsmanship Jim Denevan's way
My good friend Peter Giblin ‘THE’ curator of the most amazing events ever having watched the piece about Pete and his sand drawings sent me this about a guy called Jim Denevan. Continue reading
October 11, 2012
Tagged Alan Moore, Craftsman, design thinking, No Straight Lines, six principles no straight lines, smlxl
Craftsmanship Pete's way
Principle #5 of No Straight Lines is Craftsmanship this is a little journey into one way of looking at it. Listen carefully to Pete’s opening comment about creativity. He is a wise man. He also talks about seeing the bigger picture aka a holistic view of the world. He talks about fun and play, expression and interaction with a temporal form – the sand on a beach and the sea, plus the people that come to watch. Continue reading
October 10, 2012
Tagged Alan Moore, craftsmanship, Creativity, handmade, holistic design, intuition, No Straight Lines, openness, sand dancer
Waterstones Cambridge hosts No Straight Lines
On the 7th November 2012 starting at 5.30pm I shall be giving an introductory talk about No Straight Lines at Waterstones in Cambridge.
Humanity shifts gear when it demands fundamental change to its real world circumstances and this moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society as a whole. So what does humanity want, and, how is this aspiration driving systemic change? Continue reading
October 9, 2012
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Cambridge, complexity, design thinking, designing for humanity, future business, future innovation, future nhs, Innovation, nature of business, networks, No Straight Lines, smlxl, Systems thinking, talks+cambridge, Waterstones+talks
Codeacademy, raspberry pi, makielabs, lego, craftsmanship in the 21st Century
Principle 5 in No Straight Lines is Craftsmanship, it seemed a good idea to bring a few examples together to show how craftsmanship as a philosophy, process and practice is highly relevant to the world we live in today. Continue reading
September 4, 2012
Tagged 3d printing+manufacturing, alan moore+no straight lines, Alice Taylor, co-creation, coding, design thinking, Education, Lego, LEGO CUUSOO, prosumer, Raspberry Pi, systems design, the future of collaborative enterprise+future leadership+the future of work+new business models
No Straight Lines: insanely ambitious?
Insanely ambitious – or as Tony Judt asked why do we experience such difficulty even imaging a different sort of society? Why is it beyond us to conceive a different set of arrangements to our common advantage? Continue reading
August 22, 2012
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged alan moore+no straight lines, book review, designing resilient food systems, Diane Coyle, non-linearity+adaptive systems+complexity+innovation+networked leadership+managing complexity+adaptive management+resilience+maladaptive systems+maximum sustained yield+presistence of relat
Diane Coyle reviews No Straight Lines
I met Alan earlier in the week to talk about the book, which is about redesigning business models taking into account both the dramatic effects of digital technologies and the multiple crises – financial, environmental, social – crashing over western economies at present. It seemed quite an apt choice of reading material, having seen Danny Boyle’s brilliant vision of a Britain socially and culturally shaped by our responses to successive technologies. This moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society. Continue reading
July 29, 2012
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged adapt, alan moore+no straight lines, Alison Hastings, craftsmanship, Danny Boyle, Diane Coyle, Economic, future business, Open Society, systems design