Someone has posted up the complete text (PDF) of my all-time favourite design book, “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald A. Norman.
Read it, and you’ll never look at doors the same way again.
The #fidgetspinner of Earthly Delights
…with apologies to Hieronymus Bosch.
Article: Design anthropology and the IT Leader
Another article in the series I wrote for CIO of the Future a few years back. This article enjoyed wide interest as it tapped into a thread that continues today – what is the role of creativity in enterprise systems design, and what is our role, as leaders, to engender and support this?
Link: Design Anthropology and the IT Leader
or click at THIS LINK for a PDF copy.
On cognitive diversity
I’ve been a big fan of diverse teams for a number of years, and have been privileged to develop and lead a number of them.
My Masters studies cured me of perfectionism, and taught me a great deal about collaborating with people of different cognitive and emotional styles. This HBR article by Alison Reynolds and David Lewis summarises it well. I look forward to their broader research.
Key take-outs for me:
- Cognitive diversity is less visible, yet there are cultural barriers which lead to functional bias.
- “When you face a new, uncertain, complex situation, and everyone agrees on what to do, find someone who
disagrees and cherish them.”
You know nothing, John Snow
We were discussing the design and communication of a particularly complex strategic business case today. One of my team members quipped: “So – do you also know how to ‘Sell Snow to the Eskimos…?'”.
And I said, actually…yes.
Gruen Pitch Competition – “Sell ice to the Eskimos” (ABC, 2010)
MBS Today – July 2010 – “Selling ice to the Eskimos has its rewards”