Social HR Leadership and Cultural Clues

When I was in Louisiana recently I was fortunate to meet up with Nisha Raghavan, aka Your HR Buddy. Nisha kindly asked if I would be interviewed for her blog and I happily agreed. Her post, including the interview was published this week.

Despite the fact I look a lot like a convict who has just got out of bed (note to self, buy a hairbrush) – I wanted to share the video interview here, which Nisha describes as follows:

Doug talks about using social tools to create opportunities to collaborate and co-create things more innovatively at your workplace. He urges us to share our passion which is really an interesting way to connect with each other and inspire one another. He says ‘With the growing use of social tools we have a chance to re-humanize work and put people back at the heart of work, not the other way around. We can use transparency, systems thinking and even our vulnerability to create powerful places to work’.

In addition if you choose to listen, you’ll hear about my growing interest in art meets work, and my long held belief that we’re all of us capable of much more than we first believe. Experimentation is a vital ingredient in life. There’s also a reference to my New Year’s Evolution and a couple of other things too. The interview lasts sixteen minutes and fifty seven seconds so why not grab a coffee first, and I hope you will find something useful in here. Thanks again Nisha for the opportunity.

Creative Leadership – Sketchcognition

I recently spent a morning at City University exploring creativity and innovation via a series of talks and workshops. The session which most aroused my curiosity was a workshop on Sketchcognition delivered by Illugi Eysteinsson.

About Illugi

Illugi Eysteinsson is an architect/educator with a Masters degree in both Architecture and Fine arts and recently obtained a PgCert in teaching. Illugi has extensive experience facilitating art/architectural community workshops having worked as public art consultant, artist and set designer in the entertainment industry for fifteen years. Currently Illugi is involved in architectural workshops for communities undergoing urban regeneration. He graduated in 1994, one of the last groups of students to do so without computers.

About Sketchcognition

Sketchcognition is very much a work in progress, in fact this workshop (which was fully subscribed within three hours of it becoming available) was the first time the idea had been shared beyond Illugi’s family and close friends. This newness raised my excitement and interest levels and at the same time, any sense of expectation I had was mercifully released. I will now attempt to sketch out what I heard and saw.

Sketchcognition

Sketches are drawings but not all drawings are sketches.

The end product of a sketch is new knowledge not an image.

You sketch to figure stuff out.

Paper to brain to aha!

Ideation, first responses, then design team, then client – you can’t CAD (computer aided design) an idea right here right now, but you can sketch it.

Sketch as a memory device, as an adaptation device.

Draw what you see, in your head, someone else’s head.

Art is representation – creates baggage and pressure. Words are part of visual communication but are national, cultural, offensive possibly. If English is not my first language and you write in English – a barrier is being created.

There is no such thing as a good or bad sketch. Less pressure.

Sketching…curiosity…problem solving…

‘Photo real’ feeds on client insecurity and architect megalomania. Sketching is easier to enter into, requires vulnerability?

I have left my notes deliberately rough – they are as I scribbled them down on the day. As someone who uses drawing in a lot of client work, I think Illugi’s idea has a lot of power and accessibility in it, and I wanted to share what I learned in a basic form to help you think about how sketching can act as an aid to creativity and problem solving.

In early July I’ll be launching ‘I’m Not An Artist’ which is a one day exploration combining basic art and drawing techniques. The workshop is all about creating excitement and progress, accelerating and embracing failure in order to succeed, and seeing work through an artistic lens. We will explore a broad range of techniques designed to help you understand and experience creativity.

Sourcing Inspiration

Back in February 2013, I read ‘You’re Not That Great’ by Dr Daniel Crosby. In his book – the good doctor writes about idea jamming, creation and remixing and suggests:

Choose three books that you’ve always wanted to read (or that would deepen your understanding of some desired content area) and purchase them today. Right now. Seriously….go ahead. Now choose a date three months from now by which you will have read all the books. Determine a reward for reading them in time as well as a punishment for not having read them and and make it known to someone you trust who will hold you to your goal.

My desire for reading had been drifting so I took the challenge, stating that I would read Good to Great by Jim Collins, The No Arsehole Rule by Robert Sutton, and Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

Three months later I have failed the challenge. I read Tipping Point, well most of it – truth is I got completely turned off by Gladwell’s circular repetitive style. The way he continually loops stories back on one another feels patronising to me, so I quit on him at Page 202 and drifted away from the challenge. I wasn’t the only one who failed though. Despite Gladwell’s best efforts to turn me off reading again, he failed too. I had taken just enough value from reading Tipping Point to want to carry on with my renewed interest in reading. The irony of this is not lost on me.

Since abandoning Gladwell I’ve discovered Daniel Kahneman. He’s written Thinking Fast and Slow, a fascinating book about how we reason, how we choose and how we think. It’s quite a heavy read for a simple guy like me – but I’m enjoying the challenge and I’ve gained great material for my talks, and for my stories on this blog, from this valuable book. I’m also reading Adapt, by Tim Harford – recommended to me by Joe Gerstandt. This is a fascinating book on why success always starts with failure, and I’m loving it. I have a small stack of books waiting for me beyond my current read, and I’m excited by what more I will learn and share.

I failed the challenge – but I feel like a winner.

Thank you Daniel Crosby for the challenge. Thank you Malcolm Gladwell for trying your best to put me off. Thank you Daniel Kahneman for stretching me. Thank you Joe Gerstandt for the excellent recommendation.

PS – if anyone wants my copy of Tipping Point – get in touch and I’ll post it to you. You may have more luck with it than me, what have you got to lose?