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Adam Greenfield, author of Everywhere and new Head of Design at Nokia, brought the recent Royal Society meeting on Ubiquitous Computing to a crescendo on Tuesday with a clean, TED style, ran through on the pervasive nature of contemporary computers and five principles of design. These are taken from my notes (apologies Adam). As Adam spoke I was trying to relate them to soft systems as well, say HR systems.
Once I got back home, I tried to phrase them positively.
1. At the end of the day, will my client, or my employee regard themselves as better off? And am I willing to be accountable for my impact on them?
2. Am I willing to discuss fully with my client or my employee or a knowledgeable person they select, what we are going to do and what might be the consequences?
3. Does my suggestion honor my client or my employee and bring them esteem and status in the minds of people important to them?
4. Am I aware of the time constraints and rhythms important to my clients and employees and have I entered the rhythm of their activity in a way that is pleasing to them?
5. Is my client and employee in effective control of the process and do they feel that? Are they able to terminate at any time freely and without collateral damage?
Why do we find this so hard to do? I have been following a discussion that the Chief Happiness Officer started on customer service. Why do customer service people hate their customers so much? Quite likely because they have not benefited from these design principles and feel disrespected themselves. Until we, the people who design HR and management systems convey genuine respect towards them, they are not likely to feel well and happy themselves
So while customer service people protest their innocence on CHO, what is our best defence? Have you designed systems which violated these principles? Have you had success stories which surprised even you?
Eeee . . ., why do I have empty seats? Where are my students!!!
Much of my life, I’ve taught in Universities. As we all know well, our ability to lecture varies enormously. Some people pack the rooms, and students from other courses are sneaking in the back. Some people empty the rooms, and are never quite sure how they do it!
Most of us are somewhere in between. Delighted when we delight the students and a little curmudgeonly when students are missing because we would just love to know how the stars pack them in.
Oh . . . that’s where my students are!
I was privileged to work alongside someone with theater training, who taught marketing, and who had worked in broadcasting. This was great! She could hold a room AND explain how she did it.
She asked questions about her performance differently. Instead of seeing everything as function of what she did or didn’t do (and also entering a negative emotional spiral when an hour wasn’t too sparkling), she thought about what the class was doing.
She thought about people entering, and taking their seats. What were they feeling and what were they doing? How they changed as she entered? How they reacted when she flicked the microphone switch to green: go. How they listened to her first sentence. How what they felt changed? etc.
She understands classes well enough to choreograph their reactions. Whatever she did was aimed at producing a wonderful collective experience.
Now I have found someone else who can explain charisma!
I am a member of Xing, which is the European equivalent of LinkedIn. It’s worth looking at because it runs on slightly different lines.
Erica Nelson posted this brilliant article in Xing’s group for Global Business Women group. It is about how to write an attractive blog.
It’s also sage advice for thinking about presentations, lectures, meetings, and for that matter, going to a party! Erica also writes here.
Thanks Erica!
I’m hesitant to analyse it lest I detract from its impact. What is interesting is that the “deficit” is conceived as an enemy, not part of his own side. There is a lesson here for managers, I think.
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