Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week:
What if our personal & professional life’s challenges were not planning or implementation issues but design opportunities?
“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” — Brian Reed
Good design implicitly sees restrictions as liberators. In other words the very limits that we find imposed upon us, either internally or externally, RIGHTLY CONSIDERED turn limitations into a design benefit! Over the last year, serving on the advisory board of the Agile Strategy Institute and doing a deep dive into strategy as design rather than planning, and most recently through my community engagement with UCSD’s Alumni Board and Division of Social Sciences I have had the opportunity to reframe most issues as “Design issues”!
Last year, UCSD’s Executive Vice Chancellor Suresh Subramani challenged the UCSD campus to identify strategic focus areas for future growth. He asked the faculty to reflect on its interdisciplinary strengths in relation to society’s future needs. Three focus areas were identified and announced for the next 50 years of UCSD’s distinctive contribution to higher education: Quantitative Biology, Advanced Energy Research and Design. The newly developing Design program will center on a core curriculum of basic courses in design as well as practicums in which small groups of students – working under the guidance of UCSD faculty with industry or community partners – work on design solutions to specific problems.
Fast forward the tape to this week, where along with other community and business folk I had the privilege at the Division of Social Sciences Dean’s Luncheon to learn more about the Design Initiative from its interim co-director David Kirsh. Professor Kirsh engaged us by outlining some big ideas with respect to design including:
Designing for Experience– Where one finds opportunities not requirements and design is “embedded, embodied, situated and differentiated”
Designing for Effectiveness– Where doing the right thing is key and it actually works in the way that people want it
Designing for Efficiencies– Where doing it the right way is critical and the right information in the right form, at the right place and the right time at the right pace, duration and rhythm is essential
Rightly considered, design is not a substantive area of inquiry as much as it is a process and way of thinking. Design is exemplified by a practical, problem-oriented focus that aims to develop real solutions. The unique contribution and promise at UCSD will emphasize the “human” element of design, that is, how people interact with objects, institutions, and one another with a particular focus on cognition and will also contribute to the evaluation of design, or how we know whether designs are “working” to solve the problems identified. Here the social sciences, which today still graduates the majority of majors, can play a powerful role in shaping the future both for the university and by extension for higher education.
How might we design our lives for maximum experience, effectiveness and efficiencies in fulfilling our passion and purpose?
Please add your comments and insights…
(Thanks UCSD Team)
Is Wellness Part of Your Life Design? This Woman is Something Else…
http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/international/2012/05/15/pkg-vassileva-yoga-teacher-guinness-record.reuters
You have got to respect her when she told her doctor ‘don’t tell me what I can’t do’!
(Thanks Ruben)
Speaking of Design, Check out this amazing technology from Japan . . .
On the Flip Side, New Designs in the Wrong Hands can be Trouble!
Still leaving valuables in your car? View TWO ways that these thieves are operating…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgK6OWEDI-8
Speaking of the Wrong Hands, This Just In On Identity Theft:
Until I saw this, I did not realize how serious identity theft was becoming…
Pass this on to your loved ones.
Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light!
Finally, Bio mimicry is a great muse for Design
Hope you find these photos inspiring…
Watch this!
(Thanks Larry for these last contributions)
Stay Soul-filled and Design the World You Want to Live In!
Pay it forward!
Love,
Neville
Happy Soul Food Friday! 