South on I-95

By car to Fairfield, then on to New York by train. I had a bonus with a curbside view of (part of) the Veterans Day Parade up/down Fifth Avenue, and almost stopped in at the New York Public Library to see if they had any books of interest. Then on to Times Square and the 30th floor of the Thomson Reuters Building for The Rotman School Design Thinking Experts Series.

It was an opportunity for Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman Schoolat the University of Toronto to speak about his new book, but to my mind the other speakers, Tim Brown, CEO IDEO, and Will Setliff, VP-Strategy, Insights & Innovation, Target, were more interesting. Bruce Nussbaum - now Professor of Innovation & Design at the Parson's New School of Design, was the moderator for the "conversation."

I don't think I heard anything new, maybe a little more focus on redesigning business education in North America, but that too was a plug for Rotman and its way of equipping MBAs with design thinking tools. One of the more interesting threads was about asking questions, and the power of analytical thinking to ask good questions and how this could help design. But there weren't any specific examples. I didn't hear the words "wicked problems."

I heard two interesting comments during the cocktail hour. One, from a Canadian (graduate of Rotman who had been working for Morgan Stanley in NY for the past four years, he liked Martin's view -- everything was put together in models that mangers could understand. The other from a gallery owner in NY who lamented that no one was doing the sort of art-based design she could display.

Afterwards I did a little window shopping at H&M on Fifth Avenue, then took the train back to Fairfield.

North on I-95

Headed towards Boston and stopped in Newton to work with Deb and Diana on our EAM submission. I was interested in the way in which they both grabbed "wicked problems" and ran with it -- I'd forgotten my fascination with the concept when I first encountered it. We didn't get very far with the actual submission -- we had plenty of tangential talking. But far enough that something will come together. Working title for symposium, Wicked problems: When strategies, models, and tools are not enough (building off the conference theme). It will go to the MED track (management education & development) because we want to have some serious play around teaching and learning dilemmas created by wicked problems.

There's more to design ...

Yesterday I was on a high because I realized that I understood the design experience. Today I came crashing down when I started to read chapter 3 in Tim Brown's new book. He writes, ".. with all epiphanies, that's where the hard work begins. It is one thing to witness the power of design and even to participate in it, quite another to absorb it into one's thinking and patiently build it into the structure of an organization. " (Change by Design, p. 63). Clearly, I have a lot more learning and experiencing to do.

Today's milestone was dumping my cork collection -- patiently

collected one bottle at a time ever

since I made the cork wreath that

hangs in the kitchen. All those interesting designs on corks with little value; even the designer knows they will be discarded - and usually much sooner than I did.

Fragments

The day started with yesterday ... that is, with unpacking Saturday's carful of stuff brought from Fairfield. The condo doesn't look like ours any more -- it's completely depersonalized. And I can't remember when I last slept there -- before Labor Day I think.

Then a sunny morning became late afternoon dusk when I Skyped with Ulla and had a tour of her emerging kitchen. We talked about so many new ideas and projects that my head is still spinning. How can I display a postcard-montage for each of them? What a wicked problem!

And today's purchase of a new camera will really take effect later because charging the battery takes 330 minutes. But I got a better camera than yesterday because the sale had changed. I spent more though - the camera that was on sale yesterday was back to list price which is the same as today's sale price for the more expensive version (12 vs. 10 megapix). Is your head spinning yet?

Here's my very first picture.

One part of my head is clearing. I've been thinking a lot about how I, as a management person, can understand design. As a design thinker I need to be what Tim Brown calls a T-shaped person: the vertical piece of my T is depth in management theory and practice, while the cross-piece is designerly. I realized that my experience working with Ron in the designing of this house was primarily a design process. When Ron came with his first drawings and I tentatively said "yes, ... but could we ..." and Ron overlaid the original with tracing paper and with great enthusiasm started sketching something different - I was dumbfounded. He'd spent a long time making the plan and sketch "just right", and now he was willing to change it -- and keep changing it to meet new challenges -- or should I say constraints, for example, my famous, "Can you do the same thing for half the price?" (and of course he could.) I hadn't conceptualized my own experience in this way until today. It gives me a whole new identity. And with that I'll wait to take it up again tomorrow!

But there is progress. I bought a Swedish-English phrase book, so now I should be able to answer the emails to my U Gothenburg e-dress. (The messages are in English, but all the email commands are in Swedish!) I'm also ready to ask, "Far jag smaka?" which will be good to know at fika time.

How to write a great scholarly article .... ?

A fascinating article in today's Wall Street Journal prompted me to think about the process of scholarly writing. Academics probably have habits much like those of the novelists featured in the article. Me? I set aside two hours to write each morning, then if I work for one and a half hours and actually write for an hour, I've done well. It's after breakfast and after I've scanned my emails for anything important/interesting from the other side of the pond, but I try to be disciplined about not spending too long on the internet. And when I think I've finished for the day, I force myself to write just a bit more -- just a few thoughts, or an outline, or "notes to self", so I have something in process to pick up the next day. If I'm on deadline, or my writing juices are flowing, I'll continue after this mandatory period, or take it up again later in the afternoon. A workday without committing at least a sentence to whatever is in process is a day of shame.

The authors in the wsj article all have strategies for dealing with writer's block. I have my postcard displays. Followers of my sabbatical blog may remember the plastic pocket perpetual calendar from the Tate Modern that I use for themed displays from my ever-growing postcard collection. All last academic year it had the same collection of postcards that grandchildren Alexis and Ethan selected. I had no energy or inspiration to change them

Now it sports a selection for my "front burner" writing on assessment of worldview, and I glance to my left at the various doorways in buildings in different countries when I look up from the keyboard. A few moments reflecting on my visit to a particular spot is sufficient to clear my head and get me back on task.

Because the photo-holders are clear plastic, I can reverse the display for inspiration related to wicked problems and hybrid thinking - the symposium a group of us are developing for the EAM meeting next May

Wicked problems/hybrid thinking was a tough topic for selecting postcards. I imagine I will change cards every day I am working on the project. So for mow I think I'll stick with worldview!

How are YOU inspired to write -- whatever your genre?

And thanks to Jack for lending me his camera.

Guy Fawkes Night

.. and I almost forgot to "remember, remember, the fifth of november, gunpowder, treason and plot ....

Jack and I had a "fire drill" if not fireworks when "we" (my glass, Jack's action) caused a glass of red wine to spill on the white carpet in the TV room. Tried white wine (bother's remedy) and club soda (Google) before deciding that since the carpet was ruined anyway, we might as well take it onto the deck, hose it off, and try a good dose of Spray and Wash. It looks as if the stain is gone, but I imagine it will be back when the carpet dries -- and all sorts of strange things will probably happen to the shape and texture.

I'd take a photo, but my camera died.

I haven't forgotten about design -- registered for an event for Rotman (U. Toronto) alumni on Design Thinking next week in NYC. Amazing what one can do over the internet! I'd just finished reading Roger Martin's book on design thinking so decided I'd better get started on Tim Brown's latest offering on the same topic. I'm enjoying Brown's version much more than Martin's. But it's interesting to compare how two gurus spin the same fad topic.

Other designs

Today I interacted with three very different artifacts from different design processes.

First, a YouTube video of a product of son-in-law Steve's designing. (He's the co-CEO not mentioned in the video)

Second, the W-pie from my quest to prepare a pie for every letter

the alphabet. The W-pie, more formerly known as the "Woodilla indulgence pie" is a completely new design -- the crust prepared from Jack's favorite cookies --Oreos-- and the filling from my mother's famous World War II mocha mousse, prepared from non-rationed ingredients (no cream, butter, or eggs). Photo is of the first prototype, next iteration will be a little different.

Third, a redesign of some of the papers (photo on left) from my archives, including my dissertation research (3 boxes) and teaching notes from courses I taught at Central Connecticut State University more than a decade. From the redesign I have the papers and office supplies below while the rest of the paper, below far right, will be recycled -- much improved design!