Off again .....

Heading for the EGOS 2010 Colloquium at the Faculdade de Economia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Jack anticipates some serious port wine drinking while I participate in Subtheme 32, Design-Driven Innovation: Linguistic, Semantic and Symbolic Innovations vs. Technological and Functional Innovations. There are 47 subthemes altogether, and each one acts as a self-contained group.

It's hard to leave the beach again so soon, so I'm thinking of it as a change in perspective -- Stonington "faces" Lisbon across the Atlantic Ocean!

And I still have to read the 20 other papers in the stream and think of something interesting/provocative to say about each one before we leave Tuesday at 1 PM.

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Ironic ladies redoux

Celebrating a fun few days with as little work as possible - only a little was possible -- and anticipating the ironies of design thinking in Lisbon next week.

To understand this post, you need to go back to our 2002-2004 intensive work together editing a book on Irony and Organizations, when we were both scholars of organizations, and appreciate that we have now returned to this framework as part of our newer collaboration on design management.

Ulla and Nils left for Sweden this evening.

New (transatlantic) friends

David and his family came this afternoon. Everyone had a good time, but Ulla and Maria

and

Nils and Christopher

really enjoyed each other's company.

New York

Exiting Metro North, we (Ulla and her grandson Nils who is traveling with her, Jack and Jill) walked from Grand Central Station to Times Square, Broadway, Central Park and then to the Carnegie Deli . By now Nils had a large enough appetite to tackle his pastrami sandwich. We rested for 45 minutes during a #15 bus ride down 2nd Avenue through the various neighborhoods and found our way to the Tenement Museum (Deb's daughter Sarah is a curator there). It was very busy and the tours were all booked, so we just looked around and headed for Eileen's New York Cheesecake Cafe for our afternoon fika. Two subways (#6 and#5) took us to Bowling Green Station and the Staten Island Ferry. The ride must be the best bargain of New York -- only $2 to go there and back. We spotted the cranes at the World Trade Center site, and of course waved to Lady Liberty. An express subway took us back to Grand Central, Metro North to Fairfield, and car back to Lord's Point. We were way 12 hours and 12 minutes!

Walk and talk

After yesterday's celebration, we caught up on each other's news. We may have lived and worked in different places, but we all three walk in the same brand of shoes! Now how do we imagine ourselves in each other's shoes?

Celebrating 16 years

Since we met as doctoral students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst -- Ulla, who in the interim has been at Lund University, Malmo University, Halmsted University, Vaxjo University and Gothenburg University; Deb, who has been at Simmons College, University of New Haven, Merrimack College and Bridgewater State University, and Jill, who has been at Central Connecticut State University, Sacred Heart University and Gothenburg University -- all at Lord's Point today! How is "our field" different because of the paths we've travelled?

Tuesday

Time to start stocking the larder for summer guests ... first ones arrive tonight.

Monday

Away with last week's debris - new opportunities beckon!

The first day of summer was glorious! Sunny and warm, with a good south-west breeze perfect for sailing. I made the most of it by not doing much! And my ironic thoughts kept repopulating my head. The task for the next few days is to prepare our (Ulla & Jill's) presentation for the EGOS conference. I pulled out the manuscript with dread -- but was pleasantly surprised, either I'm not as discerning as I was previously, or the gremlins improved the manuscript over the past 20 days;-) Before submitting the full paper on June 1 I was distraught about all that it did not contain; "Just upload it," commanded Ulla, "it's fine." And so it is (more or less.) But enough of complacency - it can, and will, be better. And our presentation will see a return of the "ironic ladies" - by design!

Sunday

I just let the past week's events swirl around in my head while I engaged in "normal" activities -- reading the paper, doing travel laundry, "filing" winter coats in the new dedicated basement area, and the like. I made a peach custard pie as a Father's Day / Pie Quest activity, but it only earned a 5-pie rating ("delicious") from Jack, and I gave it a 4 ("not as good as I remembered"). Maybe I've lost my touch!

I was away for less than 3 days, but during that time our "rock rose" came into full bloom. It's very different from the wild rose we allowed to grow there many years ago to stop the local teenage boys from hanging out on the rock!

Converging, convergence, converencity

I was in Cleveland 3 days - but I need more than 3 photos as reflections because there was both the space and the work for the Convergence: Management + Design Conference.

Thursday - First glimpse of the conference venue - the Peter Lewis building, designed by Frank Gehry, housing the Wetherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.

Friday - all day discussing "the converging of design and management" - and creating mind maps displaying the output.

Saturday - still working and tweeting (posted on screens while we worked on flip charts), resulting in "models of convergence."

And that, my followers, was it. Now you are as wise as I am about this "moment" that "we must not let escape."

From Cleveland

I intended to blog yesterday - but my iPad had a fight between WiFi and G3, and I -- or you -- was/were the loser. So now my first impressions of this city -from derelict manufacturing through gilded age buildings to glassed-in health care delivery through the (umbrella) Cleveland Clinic have been confounded by a day of intense "conversations" at the Convergence Conference. A day of talk and I am still unclear about what. There's only half a day tomorrow to decide. Then I can "process" on the journey home and discover just what I got out of it all, apart from my first visit to Cleveland.

And then I can post my pictures (one for each day - in arrears)!

Courage to experiment

Tomorrow I head to Cleveland with these electronic devices. Yes, you saw correctly -- no laptop! How will I exist in an academic setting with only an iPad? How will my followers exist without photos to liven my blogposts? (I can take them but haven't yet mastered how to upload them.)

I feel withdrawal pains already, but my mind is made up -- and my bags are packed.

No oil here

... yet ...

One photo for the day

but this is the second flag day that I have "celebrated" this month (check my post of June 6). Now there's a theme for travel - visit every country on its national/flag day. Not sure how I would cope with Macedonia with a flag day every 1st and 15th of the month (according to Wikipedia.)

As you might gather my life has degenerated to a crawl - partly by design as a way of shifting gears. I'm doing anything to avoid reading a whole slew of scholarly position papers on the theme of managing + designing in preparation for the Convergence Conference in Cleveland at the end of the week. But after watching the video on the conference website (click on the link above to go there) I think I'd better settle down to my preparation tasks.

Still searching ...

for a metaphor for post-Sweden activity. No wind, so no sailing, and the beach has so much seaweed that the summer pleasure of reading the Sunday paper there is still far in the future. I have identified some necessary reading for two papers I want to write, but that work can proceed slowly for a while. And the jaunt to Cleveland this coming week still seems far in the future - I'm obviously living in a state of suspended animation. Finally I went out with my camera to capture an image to represent my emotions and intent. Here it is -- you can give it your own meaning.

No title, vacuous musings

It's time for another inflection point; the Swedish gig is over till September (although I still have the final stages of the book to supervise), the sailing season is here (although when we went out today we had to motor back :( and I have new drawing tools waiting to be used (although I doubt that they will help with the graphic novel I'm committed to "writing" by November.) And the English goalie's howler today in the World Cup leaves me embarrassed to be a Brit (although I can't bear to think of the alternative).

So tomorrow I move on, get out the camera again, and contemplate my redesign once more.

Small stuff

My morning started with a Skype meeting with the BDL-book editorial team in Gothenburg, then I rapidly dispatched chapters to authors for proofing. The routing doesn't bear contemplating, Pascal in Gothenburg emailed them to me in Stonington, then I sent them back to authors in Gothenburg! Apart from proofing my own chapters, that project is quiet until I get the final proofs from Pascal. I worked a bit on final edits to the Design Management Handbook chapter -- but I'm having some problems with the Harvard style for references. I expect to finish it tomorrow.

We went to Fairfield to check on the condo -- weeded and de-headed dead flowers in the small flower-bed and did a quick dust-through. I saw the new furniture arrangement organized by the relator for the first time. I can see why she did it, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there. A colleague from the university stopped in for lunch - he seemed relaxed, though he said he was very busy before leaving for Europe on Sunday.

Finally, here's the smallest news of all --

zzzzzz

So tired ... heading for bed at 8:30 PM!

Checking out the home territory

In between the laundry and provisioning, I checked out the "vegetable garden" -- Jack has obviously been taking good care of the plants in my absence-- though come to think of it he also takes care of them when I'm here!

I made a quick comparative study

of "beach roses" --

here's Saturday's photo from Ockero, and

today's from Lord's Point.

We had the first sail of the year - Jack was happy!

The wind was from the northeast -- unusual for this time of year, so the Orr flag was a little deceptive.

There were some strong gusts in the channel. We completed our ritual first sail around Latimer light.

And I dealt with final details of two lingering papers. All in all a good day. Long may they last!

Moving towards reflection ...

I've started to slow down -- at least in the head if not in the feet. The flags were flying for Swedish National Day as we left Ockero at noon -- Ulla was heading to Stockholm and I returned to the Hotel Vasa for overnight.

I walked my "regular/frequently travelled" route along the "alley" of Vasagatan to the cobblestones of Kungsportsaveny and back,

and ate at Cyrano's (across from the office) -- just to check if they still make "the best" pizza in their wood-burning oven. They do!

To morrow I'll spend the morning in the office, then head for the airport and a 14:20 flight to Frankfurt, then Boston. I have lots to think about: my "visiting professor" gig, just where I stand as a scholar in design management, and the research stream that Ulla and I are carving out for ourselves. Once the scenery returns to the "normal" of Lord's Point, this medium will be an outlet for some of my deliberations.

Family day

Ulla's son and family ...

From left: Ulla, her son Peter, his step-brother Victor, Mons and Niels, Peter's sons, Ulla's grandsons and Victor's nephews, Metta, Max's girlfriend, and Max, Peter's eldest son, Ulla's oldest grandson, and Victor's oldest nephew

... came to Ockero today with the excuse to launch the catamaran. It sailed well. I was invited to join them, but declined.

My contribution for the day was to be on dishwasher detail ... and to sort my stuff before packing tomorrow. I did manage to sneak in an hour of work on unfinished writing projects, even though"work" is illegal this weekend.

Beginning of endings

I was busy all day with various errands -- coffee with the liaison to the visiting professors this morning (debrief the visit), meeting between the editorial team and the design-production team for the Business & Design Lab anthology,

a quick trip to Ikea so Ulla could buy a table,

then an evening party for the students graduating from the School of Design and Crafts (HDK).The faculty had planned the event, and there were carnival type games (the dean read tarot cards), followed by a meal served by the faculty - here is the dean carrying in a "plate" (round flatbread) with someone's food (mainly cheese.)

It was a pleasant evening, though all in Swedish except when I was talking with individuals.

I'm hoping for a quiet weekend.

Today's Space

I spent today here - giving a workshop on AACSB. After a couple of introductions I was "in charge" from 10:30 AM till 4 PM. First a general overview, then details of assurance of learning and faculty qualifications. And always the push-back of "we don't do it like this in Sweden." And, because no Swedish institutions have received AACSB accreditation, there's no one to ask how AACSB reacts to such claims! It was fun (but exhausting) to be a consultant. I'm glad I'm not in charge! And in one day ( well two, I did spend yesterday preparing) I thought more about AACSB have I have in almost a year!

Details

I spent today at Ockero, working on my ppt for tomorrow's workshop, interrupted by a couple of walks. It was a much-needed quiet day.

Beginning of June

We stayed on the island today - and the day was beautiful.

Events of note included finally opening my bank account at Swedbank (a nice companion to Bank of America!) at the branch by the harbor with these sailing boats,

uploading the EGOS paper,

and receiving an all-school email from Dean Wolf that included,

"Terminsavslutning till trots har vi alla fortfarande mycket arbete som ska göras. På torsdag är flera av er involverade i en workshop om AACSB där vi tar hjälp av Jill Woodilla, en av våra gästprofessorer som har gedigen erfarenhet av AACSB-ackreditering efter att ha lett processen fram till en sådan vid sitt hemmauniversitet, Sacred Heart University, Connecticut, USA."

Ulla and I went for a couple of long walks, including one over the rocks surrounding the harbor

<--Ulla's house is in the cluster of houses on the left