Archive for February, 2009

Posted on February 9, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Reconsidering the Meaning of “New” Technology

A critical piece to technological success in an emerging era of the green (or sustainable) design marketplace is to, not just create cool, cutting edge technologies, but to also define design itself differently so that technology’s underlying processes comply with the new principles of triple bottom line (sustainability) management. That is, we must redesign our underlying methods for designing technologies. To do this, we will have to take a much bigger look at how we define – not just the end-result, but also reconsider the actual design processes themselves by asking questions such as: ‘why’ are we designing a given technology in the first place?, ‘how’ does this technology need to be created with alternative design principles in mind (see Bucky Fuller’s Design Science as an example)?, ‘what’ will be different about the form and function of the end-product?, ‘who’ does the technology affect?, and what is its (w)holistic impact on the greater earth ecology of living systems?

I’d love to hear from you all what you and your teams are doing to make this shift in technology design thinking.

Vic Desotelle

http://DiscoveryFuel.com

Posted on February 13, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

The ‘WE’ Part Hasn’t Worked Because ‘YOU’ Are Making ‘R’ational Decisions

I watched ‘The Colbert Report’ recently (see below video). He had this guy on named Jonah Lehrer who wrote the book “How We Decide”. Ohhhhh, we are so fooled by our own rational mind. You know, that tough guy part of us who thinks its in control when instead its his sister, the emotional/intuitive part of our brain, that is really running the show. “”Pure reason is a disease”, says Lehrer. Ha! It’s certainly done a good job for us so far, hasn’t it? NOT! How naive we are to think that we can conclude from ‘logical evidence’ what decision we need to make. And how different the decision that we end up making is from what we may have needed to make.

I suggest that, in our righteous stance, we have mostly been wrong and completely unaware of the fact that most our decisions are made based on irrational reason. Especially when it comes to making choices on how best to serve the human condition. The planet and our human (or should I say inhuman) state of being is busy tearing down our own life support system (called the planet’s ecosystem). And do you know what is finally making us take a different form of action? It’s the shear panic and fear that we feel from what we maybe have done. Thank God for the weird weather patterns so that we could question the scientists predictions.

Sure the scientists data is rational, but our ability as a collective to act on it is not. We have made our choices based on the emotional baggage that comes with old expectations and assumptions; things we don’t dare hold onto any longer. Our decision to change course is coming from an emotional response that’s way more potent than any logical one could ever consider being. Otherwise, we would have made different decisions, different choices, a long long time ago – wouldn’t you agree? (Beeeee careful! Notice where your decision is coming from as you choose to either agree or disagree with me

So, the next time you “think” that you are making logical choices about hiring or firing, creating or destroying, going to the meeting or not going, loving or hating, etc., know that your emotional state is probably in the drivers seat. The next time you’ve got something to decide about want to make, finish, stop, or start, give yourself permission to see that part of you which you are not in control of. Then practice taking a breath before you respond to your business cohort or your family loved one. What will happen if you do this? What will happen if you allow your rational mind to dance with its non-rational partner? I assure you, that the overall decisions you end up making will be far more supportive of your own well being, of others lives, and of the planet’s sustainability.

Now then, here’s the link to ‘collaboration’.

Once you enter this personal dance between your rational and emotional mind, begin to watch how your relationships with others change. Yes, that’s right. Watch how you relate, how you listen, how you support and encourage, and how you begin to allow others to become a part of ‘YOUR’ decision-making process. It’s at this point that the ‘WE’ emerges. Watch how you come to realize that their level of participation and commitment to getting the work done is directly related to your old unconscious ways of ‘thinking’ that you have to get input from them, make the decisions on your own. As you awaken to this, your unconscious emotional fears will no longer have the power to kill of staff individuality. You will come to recognize that you’ve been missing insights from them, and as a result, deeper levels of participation. All of which feeds your company’s or team’s choices and decisions. When the group begins to choose together, to make decisions together, your organization’s intuition will come alive. It will help to steer you though a maze of (shall we say) irrational logistics that the rational mind just can’t handle. And what will happen when your team is empowered to do come together like this? … Ohhhhh, just you watch.

Posted on February 27, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Online Learning To Reshape Our World ?

I’ve been behind the mark in getting some good material out relating to online collaboration tools because I’m actually formulating new potions back in my personal ‘Colab’oratory. I am continuing my search for KISS (keep it stupid simple) online environments that will allow us all to connect online in amazing ways – no matter where we are in the world. And some cool tools are certainly rising to the top. I’ll admit as well that I’m finding the whole online tools explosion to be very daunting! Whoa, we’ve truly got a tiger by the tail, and no one knows what its head looks like! Anyway, I’ll be writing more in this area. A tools offering will be coming online on my DiscoveryFuel.com online tools page soon as well.

For now, I want to plug George Siemens from eLearnSpace.com (see details below), who is writing some great material on the whole online learning thing (otherwise known as eLearning). He found this article in The Atlantic and it’s worth you giving it a scan. For me, it emphasizes our need to learn learn learn about online tools and begin to use them alot. Why? Becaue it will give us the freedom to self-select what we want to learn in an accelerated, expanded, and deepened way without the limits of travel and location that have restricted our education in the past. It talks about how education (learning) and the bad economy are related, describing how education is ramping up, just as it has in the past during periods of bad economy.

Read up from eLearnSpace blog …

Adhering to the motto “a provocative title will surely increase readership”, Atlantic has an interesting article on How the Crash Will Reshape America :  Economic crises tend to reinforce and accelerate the underlying, long-term trends within an economy. Our economy is in the midst of a fundamental long-term transformation—similar to that of the late 19th century, when people streamed off farms and into new and rising industrial cities. In this case, the economy is shifting away from manufacturing and toward idea-driven creative industries—and that, too, favors America’s talent-rich, fast-metabolizing places.

I find Richard Florida’s “world is spiky” view to be more accurate than Thomas Friedman’s “world is flat”. But, in this article a tension that I’ve felt with Florida’s work is more clearly revealed than previously. Florida has argued – generally quite effectively – that location matters. Cities and regions of creativity and innovation spur growth. To succeed in your career, it’s a good idea to be in areas that are hotspots for your field. But…I am not sure how to reconcile this view with the growth of technology. Now, more than ever, technology has reduced the challenges of distance. Online education and distributed teams reflect this. Video conferencing and online conferences reduce the need for travel. Is location less, not more, important than in the past?

Questions or Comments? Contact Me <mailto:gsiemens@elearnspace.org> Read ERN online at:http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/. Visit www.elearnspace.org <http://www.elearnspace.org/>  for extensive information and resources on elearning Visit my connectivism <http://www.connectivism.ca>  site for resources on the changing nature of learning. His book, Knowing Knowledge is available.

Posted on February 27, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle

Vic on Organizational Learning

Let’s set the stage for what this section of Discovery Fuel’s blog on organizational learning is all about. Companies that fall into this category often describe themselves as learning organizations. It is one of the first recognized concepts that the corporate world has successfully used to bridge the previously huge gap between education and business. Interesting to note that the value of this concept has been increasing as companies have needed to increase their rate of change and adaptivity. More and more it has become necessary for companies to innovate faster and faster in order to keep market share, and this means being to learn quicker and quicker. Otherwise known as complex adaptive systems, popped out of the scientific systems theory platform in order to help companies move more quickly on their feet – to change with the needs of their customers, as well as to stay caught up with the next great idea that competitors were generating.

Another thing that is coming out of all this stuff is learning is being viewed as a dynamic rather than a static process, requiring a broad base of networking with others in order to synthesize knowledge into something often completely unexpected – truly innovative. Another word for what is happening can be simply called collaboration. (This is the basis for Discovery Fuel’s Colab group design process.) Suddenly competitors became collaborators and the new term ‘coopetition‘ arose. And out of this, people began seeing other people as people rather than as cogs in a mechanistic system. Ironically this movement, which what was once believed to be an accurate assessment of an ideal or perfect Universe, began to break down. And out of that, we began to speak of our companies as having an organic nature, and a cultural influence where meaningfulness surfaced as a guiding torch in the search for the ultimate value proposition.

Now, there’s yet another interesting twist (which I think is wonderful!) with the development of the ‘learning organization’ idea. It has got company staff collaborating in ways they never thought was appropriate. Ultimately, I believe it has catalyzed another shift. One that is deflating the level of value and purpose for the nucleic model known as intellectual property (IP). Company directors have begun to see that great insights are often coming, not from the executive nucleus, but from the fringes of the company – the cell membrane, so to speak (see ‘The Biology of Belief‘ by Bruce Lipton). From these people seeing and experiencing need, desire, supply, and demand at a whole different level. Through this new awareness, the hierarchy of companies has been flattening. Not that management is going away, but rather to say it has reversed its thinking of what the role of a manager is. I love that fact that they are shifting from a directing and oversight perspective, to a role where they are facilitating and empowering their staff. This in turn is increasing the level of company (as in people) participation, which in turn is raising their commitment and support for company actions because those actions are THEIR actions. Thus, the acceptance of the sustainability movement began to penetrate the stogy old corporate dinosaur’s belly, which is where we are today – We’re in the belly of the whale (so to speak).

And soooo, the story of organizational learning continues to expand and evolve. That’s why, here in this blog, we will be discussing the new ideas that are emerging around learning – both at an organizational and at a personal level. We will also review implications of these changes as they are applied into practical, real situations. Personally, I believe that a conscious understanding of these concepts deeply influence the next generation of innovation – “sustainable” innovation – to happen.

Let me know your suggestions and insights.