The power of collective cognition

Taken from: http://bit.ly/h6R296

I am almost at the tail-end of Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus and I must say that this is one of the most enlightening books that I have read on the topic of the power of the social media, and what average minds can do and achieve through a social media platform. And no, it is NOT just about Facebook. In fact to my surprise the idea of social and collaborative efforts predates even Facebook, and have been traced to the 17th century, when the idea of 'the Invisible College' was put together by a few of the great minds of that era, who chose to remain independent of any particular (great) institutions in their intellectual pursuits.

Definitely a must-read for those who are serious in delving into the (recent?) phenomena of the social media and what it can (and perhaps can't) do, the book also looks at the emergence of the free and passionate lobbyist, those who are willing and are actually doing a good job, producing good quality works and dedicating themselves to it....and all this without being paid! The examples given such as the Grobanites and the Linux operating system are cases in point. The latter also made it as a special mention due to not only the foresight of the developers of making the original codes freely available, but ALSO dictating the license of how it should be used and distributed by secondary and 3rd party developers afterwards.

And who can miss the emergence of platforms such as blogs and others, that not only allows for the creation of new content from these passionate 'few', but also the game-changing idea that they CAN and did dictate public opinion. One such example was the  People's magazine 1998 online poll for the '50 Most Beautiful People' in the world, and the surprising results that was finally announced.

Indeed it was enlightening to read about the normalcy and evolution of some aspects of human behaviour, and especially so when a few case studies were mentioned.  One  case that I found interesting was the idea of how people with handphones are no longer able to remember their contacts' phone numbers, since the function of memorizing such information has been delegated to the memory-banks of their phones. Hence when such functions are no longer required, our behaviourial pattern would also change to evolve correspondingly.

Lastly, what I do find refreshing is about the possible clash of the digital natives and digital migrants on such issues as intellectual property, and of the idea of sharing. One case in point was that of Napster. Created originally as a platform for sharing music files, her growth has brought along with it a whole slew of legal quagmire, which did contributed to her demise. But is it correct for us to judge that such a platform is illegal? Clay argues that such (sharing) practices was perhaps the default behaviour of these digital natives. They are after all living in an era where the marginal cost of producing  an exact digital copy is zero or almost nothing! Could then the preponderence of these collaborative efforts in itself be a precursor to a society where things are indeed produced for free? My digital immigrant mind goes into hyperdrive mode thinking about these, but then again, that ideal was what makes the Star Trek series interesting...the idea that Man would finally live in an Utopian ideal where they are no longer working for money, but for their own self-satisfaction and self-actualisation.

"The Best I Could"

For my non-FB friends, a review of a book that I just read:

"The Best I Could", by Suhhas Anandan
An interesting read indeed into the minds and early years of Singapore's best criminal lawyer. About what makes him tick; the early years that he experiences that shapes him to what he is today, a brazen, but dedicated defence lawyer that will almost go all out to defend his clients, no matter that most of them are people whom the public have already 'convict'. What sets him apart is not the fact that he defends them for the sake of defending them, but more so in the belief that the system works and that it should and ought to work even for those that the public have already made up their minds. It's about the very ideals that even the worst of criminals do deserve a fair hearing at the courts. And interestingly, his own reflections also mentioned about possibilities, about whether some of the things that he has done are correct, especially so when one hears of criminals returning back to their old ways because they had gotten away in their earlier transgressions. The last chapter about keeping promises also throws a light on his innate character, of one who would keep up to his end of the deal, and seems to me to be the most touching too.

Design Enligtenment

Bill Buxton in his book, 'Sketching User Experiences', has managed to elucidate some aspects of design, and especially so in the areas of user experiences. Many a times, designers have failed to understand the basics, and of the importance of getting the design right, and even having a branding value. Bill has managed to provide examples of how design can be made better, even in its infancy stages, through the use of rudimentary tools like paper and post-its. And what makes it even more interesting is how sometimes good design is something so simple to achieve!

One idea that I would like to highlight, and perhaps draw some parallels to in the areas of design education is in the concept of (n+1). In this section, Bill highlighted about the ever increasing, and sometimes even exponentially increasing costs that companies incur as they move on to produce their (n+1)th iteration of their current line of product. Logically speaking, one would assume that with every new iteration of a mature product, be it software or hardware, one can assume that costs would be cheaper, but the reverse instead holds true. Drawing comparisons to the design education, or in a general sense, the education field that I am in, what interests me is that as we tend to move into this obsession of compiling a list of best-practices, one must not forget that at times, the (n+1)th iteration of this practice might actually be prove to have the negating effect, rather than the intended one. My worry is that at times we are so consumed and concerned with attaining or coming out with list of best practices of our own, that we forget that at times, the early iterations of the thing that we are doing, is in fact THE best practice, and of which further iterations are no longer going to give us the same kind of results, or worst still, the same level of satisfaction.

Perhaps like what Albert Einstein used to say:
'Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.'

Free (and Legal) eBooks

I am a supporter of all things that are open source, legal and especially so if they are Mac-related. Here's two of Leander Kahney's books that he has openly made available, both legal of course, to the masses. Happy Reading.

Cult of Ipod

Cult of Mac

I want to be an Untouchable!

In his book, 'The World is Flat', Thomas Friedman mentioned about how as the world gets flatter, the only way that one is assured of being employable, and staying that way is to be an 'Untouchable'. No, not the kind that one would see in India's caste system as the lowest of the lowest of caste, but ironically, something similar to that effect. It is a term that he uses for those jobs that requires a certain degree of customised individuality skillsets that one perhaps will never ever, if one can certainly ascertain so, be rendered to the cycle of unemployment that pervades the modern day industrialised countries in this age of outsourcing and globalisation. So perhaps being the neighbourhood baker, hair-stylist or laundrymat owner is not that bad after all, because of the sense of familiarity that these positions breeds, plus the fact that one can't really see the above work being outsourced to others in another country, hence these jobs are really relatively safe, and therefore UNTOUCHABLE!

Which is surprisingly ironic when one compared to the original intent of the term itself, because it does describe the lowest of the lowest caste in India, the ones that would do the job that no other caste or people would do! Maybe, when one look at this concept of 'untouchability' in another context, it is NOT that bad after all. I mean, who would want to be out of job right?

Design 3.0 in Globalization 3.0

I'm currently reading Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" and am a little blown away at some of his ideas and findings so far. It's unnerving at times, as he put forth case after cases of what are the qualifying situations that seems to support his theory. In fact, it's not far fetch to say that this could be very well be a continuation of a book that I read as a text, i.e. "Blown to Bits" by Evans and Wurster while I was taking my Masters programme way back in 2001.

One idea that perhaps catches my attention was in the idea that globalization in itself is actually happening at stages over the years! Beginning from Man's early exploits during the British and Dutch colonial heydays of the 18th and 19th century, the idea was that this quest for land masses beyond the immediate regions, done by nations with the necessary wherewithal, is itself Globalization 1.0

What follows with these conquests in many parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, are further 'exploitation' by the companies that are headquartered in these countries of origin, where multi-national companies are moving en masse to these resource-rich countries to further improve their profit margins and source out new markets for their various goods and services. This is Globalization 2.0

But interestingly Friedman (I hope he doesn't 'fry' too much, because the translated version of the word 'fry in Malay, i.e. GORENG, is a slang for talking shit! :) ), also brought forth the idea that there IS a third wave of globalization that is currently happening. Instead of nations and corporate organizations, what we are seeing now is the pervasive promulgation of individual content on a global scale, albeit in the online digital world of the NET, in what one would term as 'user-defined content'. Interestingly enough, this has a much more significant impact so far, as it does not only bring forth limitless possibilities in terms of its potential, but surprisingly, the very significant ripples that it creates are not necessarily being decided upon by financial or capitalist interests!

And hence as I was reading it, it comes to my mind, analogically speaking, whether there is such a thing as a Design 3.0, in a context similar to Globalization 3.0. I think there is indeed. Perhaps I should deal with it in my next post then!

The Peter Principle

I am currently reading Stephen Covey's 'The Speed of Trust', and though some of the principles and ideas that he propounds in this book are rather common-sensical, one thing that really sticks out to me is this idea of the the Peter Principle. In short the basic premise of this principle is that at times, people do get promoted to a state of incompetence! An oxymoronic principle don't you think? In fact, just like you, that was my first initial reaction when I came across it. But upon reading further, and delving further in to Stephen's reasoning, I do foresee some similarities of such a principle in my life, not that it is in a detrimental state or anything.

The basic idea is this: Let's say that a particular person, a Mr X has been particularly good at doing the operational matters in a certain organisation, hmmm and has been in fact an outstanding member and an excellent one at it! When the time comes for a promotion to a higher, more management-oriented position, guess who is the first to be promoted, the Mr X himself. Now in this new position, Mr X might be faced with an array of job specifications that would require him to do lesser of things that he WAS good in, and more of the things that he is NOT trained, or readied for! Since this new promoted position requires him to either learn a new set of skills, and to a certain or large extent, gives him a reduced opportunity to do the things that he was originally good at, what would you think would happen to him. Well the Peter Principle states that at times, Mr X, instead of becoming better at his new job, would in fact be at a state of incompetence, due to his inability to handle and cope with the rigours and demands of the new 'promoted' post! So there you see, there is a logical view to this oxymoronic statement.

Now, I do wonder at times, is this really happening to me? Hmmmm, sometimes I do feel it, but then again, at times, I do feel there is just this need to test and know your limits. And mind you, sometimes the Peter Principle occurs not because there is an inherent flaw in the promoted person's attitude, but I do think, more often than not, this is surely due to the mismatch of skills and expectations that the promotion entails.

But hey, this is the cynic in me blogging...

The rise of the 'Customized Economy'

I'm currently reading "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" by Mark J. Penn. Now I am always in the habit of reading a few books at any one time, and perhaps one of the thing that stuck on me, well I've still yet to finish this book though, is the idea behind 'Customized Economy'.

Now when I was just finishing my post-graduate course way back in 2001, the buzzword then was the 'Knowledge Economy', whereby the commodity that would make or break a nation or society is no longer about how much oil or natural resources you have, but more importantly, is how you would use the abundance of information that was growing at already an exponential rate back then, to your advantage. This growth, as you would have known is partly due to the emergence of web-based technologies, and its preponderance in almost every part of our lives! And then a few years after that, futurists and innovation gurus was advancing the idea of the 'Creative Economy', whereby the constant need to change and evolve, or perhaps the hype that surrounds it, desires the need for one or an organization to be constantly be at the forefront of innovation. Doesn't matter that innovation in itself is sometimes abused to mask shortcomings that perhaps is of no fault to societies or institutions that simply do not want to evolve, but perhaps lets argue that one out on another post then!

Now Mark brought forth the idea that perhaps with the evolution of the Web to version 2, i.e. Web 2.0, there is a possibility that a niched economic approach to how things are sold or marketed might just be something that is viable indeed! No longer are we talking about just the mere selling of products en masse, and reaping the profits just through the sheer volume that is being sold! What we are talking here is customized marketing, selling, advertising..and a whole array of exposure to selling or marketing to you products or services that YOU WILL NEED or WANT! Think 'Minority Report', and you know what I mean. And in fact, when you look at the idea of the rather oxymoronic idea of 'Mass Customization', in effect what our dear leaders have done is to actually put this economic idea already in action! Medical tourism, cheap airlines, nanotechnology, high-value adding industries...i mean the list goes on and on! It does scares me at times, at how fast a pace things are moving, but worries me more is the feeling that somehow somewhere, in the future, I would be made redundant, in more ways than one!

What's next, the 'Network Economy'?! Hmmm...

17 Laws of Teamwork-Part 2

Some comments and learning points; the first THREE laws:

1. The Law of Significance
I just realised that the number ONE is indeed a lonely number, and so insignificant to achieve a great deal. But then again, looking back and rereading 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell, it does make me realise that even though a single person could NOT make the necessary significant change, but then it also take just one person to act as THE catalyst to make that change happen. I hope to be able to be that changing agent, and to get the desired outcomes later on.

2. The Law of the Big Picture
This is another envisioning exercise typical of books like the Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge. I do subscribe to the belief that only by aligning your vision with the rest of the team, and making this vision a shared one, will the rest of the team be able to get on board and make things work to realise that vision. I guess the power of shared ownership, something that I've not come across yet, is something very powerful that teams should never ever underestimate!

3. The Law of the Niche
Using the right tools for the right job - basically assigning each team member to his assigned duties based on his level of experience, expertise, and his passion; this is something that I also truly belief will make or break a team. But how do you ensure that the assignment is optimum? Well the only way is for the team leader to REALLY know his team mates well, to the point that he can make that wise decision (though not 100% fool-proof), that his hunch and objective assessment is correct, right and optimal for the future growth of the team.

17 Laws of Teamwork-Part 1

I'm currently reading "The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork" by John C. Maxwell, and will like to record it in my blog for future references. The following is taken from the following URL: http://www.refresher.com/!bsteamwork.html

The 17 Laws are:
1. The Law of Significance

People try to achieve great things by themselves mainly because of the size of their ego, their level of insecurity, or simple naiveté and temperament. One is too small a number to achieve greatness.

2. The Law of the Big Picture

The goal is more important than the role. Members must be willing to subordinate their roles and personal agendas to support the team vision. By seeing the big picture, effectively communicating the vision to the team, providing the needed resources, and hiring the right players, leaders can create a more unified team.

3. The Law of the Niche

All players have a place where they add the most value. Essentially, when the right team member is in the right place, everyone benefits. To be able to put people in their proper places and fully utilize their talents and maximize potential, you need to know your players and the team situation. Evaluate each person's skills, discipline, strengths, emotions, and potential.

4. The Law of Mount Everest

As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. Focus on the team and the dream should take care of itself. The type of challenge determines the type of team you require: A new challenge requires a creative team. An ever-changing challenge requires a fast, flexible team. An Everest-sized challenge requires an experienced team. See who needs direction, support, coaching, or more responsibility. Add members, change leaders to suit the challenge of the moment, and remove ineffective members.

5. The Law of the Chain

The strength of the team is impacted by its weakest link. When a weak link remains on the team the stronger members identify the weak one, end up having to help him, come to resent him, become less effective, and ultimately question their leader's ability.

6. The Law of the Catalyst

Winning teams have players who make things happen. These are the catalysts, or the get-it-done-and-then-some people who are naturally intuitive, communicative, passionate, talented, creative people who take the initiative, are responsible, generous, and influential.

7. The Law of the Compass

A team that embraces a vision becomes focused, energized, and confident. It knows where it's headed and why it's going there. A team should examine its Moral, Intuitive, Historical, Directional, Strategic, and Visionary Compasses. Does the business practice with integrity? Do members stay? Does the team make positive use of anything contributed by previous teams in the organization? Does the strategy serve the vision? Is there a long-range vision to keep the team from being frustrated by short-range failures?

8. The Law of The Bad Apple

Rotten attitudes ruin a team. The first place to start is with your self. Do you think the team wouldn't be able to get along without you? Do you secretly believe that recent team successes are attributable to your personal efforts, not the work of the whole team? Do you keep score when it comes to the praise and perks handed out to other team members? Do you have a hard time admitting you made a mistake? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to keep your attitude in check.

9. The Law of Countability

Teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts. Is your integrity unquestionable? Do you perform your work with excellence? Are you dedicated to the team's success? Can people depend on you? Do your actions bring the team together or rip it apart?

10. The Law of the Price Tag

The team fails to reach its potential when it fails to pay the price. Sacrifice, time commitment, personal development, and unselfishness are part of the price we pay for team success.

11. The Law of the Scoreboard

The team can make adjustments when it knows where it stands. The scoreboard is essential to evaluating performance at any given time, and is vital to decision-making.

12. The Law of the Bench

Great teams have great depth. Any team that wants to excel must have good substitutes as well as starters. The key to making the most of the law of the bench is to continually improve the team.

13. The Law of Identity

Shared values define the team. The type of values you choose for the team will attract the type of members you need. Values give the team a unique identity to its members, potential recruits, clients, and the public. Values must be constantly stated and restated, practiced, and institutionalized.

14. The Law of Communication

Interaction fuels action. Effective teams have teammates who are constantly talking, and listening to each other. From leader to teammates, teammates to leader, and among teammates, there should be consistency, clarity and courtesy. People should be able to disagree openly but with respect. Between the team and the public, responsiveness and openness is key.

15. The Law of the Edge

The difference between two equally talented teams is leadership. A good leader can bring a team to success, provided values, work ethic and vision are in place. The Myth of the Head Table is the belief that on a team, one person is always in charge in every situation. Understand that in particular situations, maybe another person would be best suited for leading the team. The Myth of the Round Table is the belief that everyone is equal, which is not true. The person with greater skill, experience, and productivity in a given area is more important to the team in that area. Compensate where it is due.

16. The Law of High Morale

When you're winning, nothing hurts. When a team has high morale, it can deal with whatever circumstances are thrown at it.

17. The Law of Dividends

Investing in the team compounds over time. Make the decision to build a team, and decide who among the team are worth developing. Gather the best team possible, pay the price to develop the team, do things together, delegate responsibility and authority, and give credit for success.

I'll be sharing some of the key learning points of this book and hopefully I can draw some personal reflections based on my continued exposure to my working teams.