Spaces in Between – Part One

Sixteen Box Models Nine Box Models
Six Box Models Four Box Models

 

Neatly stacked

Tightly packed

Manageable

Convenient

Easy

Tidy

False

Coercive

Suffocating

‘We are strangers to each other,
Full of sliding panels,
An illusion show.
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It’s hard for one to know.’ N. Peart

Author: Doug Shaw

Artist and Consultant. Embracing uncertainty, sketching myself into existence. Helping people do things differently, through an artistic lens.

3 thoughts on “Spaces in Between – Part One”

  1. I smiled reading this. Much as I am drawn to agreeing with you (my main work I do through a business called Deboxing, so you would expect me to I guess), I struggle more with the intention behind the design of some models that go for neatness.

    And even if the model has some genuine merit and elegance as a catalyst for conversation, the intention of the facilitator can be the coercive and suffocating presence.

    I see any model/frame/lens/tool as a means of starting a conversation, and hold it as lightly as possible as a rule. Then it doesn’t matter as much how many boxes there are.

    Steve

    1. I smiled reading your note – thank you for being in touch so warmly and articulately (is that a word….it is now).

      I agree with your feedback and I would simply add that in addition to any model/frame/lens/tool there is something more. Something wonderfully frighteningly unpredictably necessary. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called – but it’s out there.

      Have a super week Steve and thanks again for your note.

      1. Sounds like we share some beliefs when it comes to the complexity and unpredictability of human systems. One of the quotes I use on my email signature is this – it talks to the thread of our conversation here a wee bit. Her book is worth a read as well.

        “Human beings are complex creatures, and we need simple ways of grasping them to survive. But how we simplify – which shortcuts we take, which approximations we accept – demands close inspection, especially since these approximations so often stand in for the real thing.” – Annie Murphy Paul

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