Improving Human-Centered Design: Achieving Resonance

My podcast, An Inquiry into the Meaning of Making this week was with Seung Chan Lim, nicknamed Slim. We discussed his journey and finally his project, Realizing Empathy. Realizing Empathy is a project that asks what it means to make something, how it works as a process, and why it matters to our lives. Slim believe that making is a process that is shared across cultures and disciplines.

Slim’s Overview: Human-Centered Design is good, but it can be better. Design isn't just about fulfilling people's needs, it's also about helping each other get to the heart of who we are as human beings. To do that, design needs to strive for a clear and coherent expression of honesty, of integrity, of dignity in all dimensions. It's time we look at the entire design process as a multi-dimensional conversation. whose goal is to empathize with all the participants in the process, to achieve a sense of profound resonance.

You can help him launch his project by pledging at kck.st/x2GC4I

If you find what Slim says intriguing, please take a look at his websites;
Website: http://realizingempathy.com/

Related Information:
Framing the Act of Innovation, as an Act of Empathizing
Is Lean still on the Wagon or is it Ready to Fly?“.
ARTIC Touch-Point Cards for Service Design
Getting Resistance to Appreciative Inquiry?

The Present and Future of Co-creation

Nick Coates of Promise Communities explains the fundamental rules that make co-creation possible. He shows how an idea that has been around for decades is being put back into the spotlight by communication technologies, and tells the audience what to expect for the future of this re-emerging discipline.

 

I think Nick presents some definitive examples and even a few of the flaws of co-creation. I think your understanding and comfortability with the notion of co-creation  will increase as a result of this video. Still a wide range of interpretation around the subject

Related Information:
Lean Sales and Marketing Cycles are Knowledge Building Tactics
It’s not your Grandmother’s Lean anymore!
A Beginning Step to Co-Creation
Design Thinker exposed as Left Brain Dominant

Why bother with Value Networks?

Verna Allee, M.A., is Co-founder and CEO of Value Networks LLC, located at ValueNetworks.com. Verna was my guest on the Business901 Podcast, What’s behind Collaboration and Value Networks?. We discussed the history of knowledge management and how her work has evolved into value networks. Value Network philosophies also apply to Lean, Agile and into sales and marketing arena. I find this area fascinating as we rid ourselves of hierarchy, positions and titles and delve into that mysterious area of roles!

An excerpt from the transcript:

Verna: What we manage, very simply, are our own roles. So if we look at it from the perspective of "In my role, I manage my inputs and my outputs." When we have a healthy value network, you look at any given role and the number of inputs and outputs are manageable. If it's too much, you've got a problem. You've got a bottleneck; you need to redesign.

There's some kind of a healthy ratio of tangibles and intangibles. When you look at your role, you should be able to say "Oh, that's not so hard. I can do that." If it is overwhelming when you look at it from where you stand in the network, then you probably have some redesigning to do. I always like to say the center of the network is where you are.

You may need to see that larger picture around you. You may need to be able to see out there at the far horizon of the network. But when it comes to practical everyday work, what we manage is simply our own roles. And when people model the network, they negotiate their roles and just what they understand. I don't understand everything about how you play your role, but I can negotiate with you about how you and I interact.

Why bother with Value Networks

View more documents from Joseph Dager.

Value Networks and the true nature of collaboration by Verna Allee with Oliver Schwabe is a digital edition book located at http://www.valuenetworksandcollaboration.com.

Related Information:
It’s not your Grandmother’s Lean anymore!
Using Cynefin for a Lean Transformation
Business Processes as Value Networks
The New Knowledge Management Game eBook

A Future Framework for Understanding your Customers

I think this is an interesting framework that is worth exploring this year. This decision model closely resembles where I think sales and marketing might be headed. Our efforts will not be based on the traditional metrics as we know them now but how our stories, our content is being interpreted by our customers. For example, we will not place them emphasis on traffic to our website but rather the way our content is interacted with and the patterns that are created.

Cynefin, pronounced kuh-nev-in, is a Welsh word that signifies the multiple factors in our environment and our experience that influence us in ways we can never understand. In this video, Dave Snowden introduces the Cynefin Framework with a brief explanation of its origin and evolution and a detailed discussion of its architecture and function.

The Cynefin Framework is central to Cognitive Edge methods and tools. It allows executives to see things from new viewpoints, assimilate complex concepts, and address real-world problems and opportunities. Using the Cynefin framework can help executives sense which context they are in so that they can not only make better decisions but also avoid the problems that arise when their preferred management style causes them to make mistakes.

Related Posts:
Starting with Lean A3 Thinking in Marketing
Introduction to Marketing with A3
The 7 step Lean Process of Marketing to Toyota
Best Marketing Advice Ever, yes Ever!
Lean Marketing is a Problem Centric Discipline
Online collaboration is leading the way for Lean Marketing

Financial crisis simplified (a whiteboard presentation)

6-minute video that is pretty good about the mess we are in, I would like to remind every one though. Einstein said: "Seldom can problems be fixed by the minds that created them."

Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) are investment instruments that are partially to blame for the mortgage crisis. What, you say you don't know what CDOs are or why they matter? Don't worry, almost no one does (maybe that's part of the problem). But not to worry, Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch goes analog to simplify and visualize the problem at the whiteboard in a 6-minute presentation he calls Financial Crisis 101: CDOs explained. I should have paid more attention in my finance class a million years ago; I had to watch this presentation twice, but you'll surely get it the first time. Nothing simplifies and illuminates like a good teacher at the whiteboard (and you don't even have to be an artist). I love whiteboards. Checkout the presentation below. For more information and more simplification of what CDOs are, listen to the Marketplace Radio broadcast and see the transcripts here. Enjoy.

Here's the money quote at the end after a good (albeit very simple) explanation at the whiteboard: "The fact is, we're in a mess of our own making." Indeed.

H/T Adam R.

This is syndicated from Presentation Zen, and written by Garr.

Technorati Tags: Presentation Zen,Garr,Marketplace Radio,Finanacial Crisis

Why can't we find Bin Laden?

GPS is becoming one of the hottest personal tech sectors this year, with more and more cell phones including location capabilties and portable navigation devices for the car hitting that sweet spot intersection of affordability and packed-to-the-gills features.

 

 

 

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Look at this stuff! And you know something, we don't get to see the good stuff, but the government does! So someone tell me, why can't we find him?

A Whole New Mind (Live) Daniel Pink

Just as we were getting used to the Information Age, Daniel Pink tells us that it is ending. With it goes our focus on charts, statistics, and linear thinking. Traditional "left-brain" activities, like logic, analysis, and repetitive production, are being turned over to robots, computers, and offshore labor. The valued skills of the 21st Century will be those of the right brain: empathy, design, synthesis, and contextual thinking. In this live presentation, author and lecturer Daniel Pink tells you:

• How abundance, Asia, and automation are changing the world
• Why "routine" is the scariest word in the English language
• How old-line companies like GM and Proctor & Gamble are responding
• What six abilities matter most in the emerging age

Kind of old news, but worth repeating to see how these items are affecting your business today. but actually using it as an intro to his new book, which I wil discuss tomorrow.

Have you seen our new Contractor blog?