'Week' Notes ' - 20 September(?!) - 26 October 2024 - It's Very Foodie...

Welcome to another edition of I’ll-post-when-I-want-but-sorry-for-the-delay-week-ish-notes…

In this issue, I cry out for help (again) with two conundrums I’m facing, some observations on writing a blog vs getting ChatGPT to do it and some general life updates.

Holibobs

Since my last, I’ve been on holiday! I spent a wonderful couple of weeks traipsing around Singapore and Malaysia with Kim and my dad, sampling all the food and trying to visit every single mall. I definitely felt the tension of being absolutely enamoured by the hyper-consumerism of cheap clothes, toys and food whilst questioning how this can all be sustained. On food, I am definitely more in the camp of eat to live, but I really felt the increase in quality, range, care and job about the making and consumption of food. I’m sad I am back in a country where I need to pay almost £10 for roti canai…

On the other hand, I am still happy that I was able to buy this giant Magikarp...

Conundrum 1 - Where Do I Begin?

I am in a dilemma/paralysis spot and was hoping you could help…

I am going to be a bit coy about this for now, but at work, we’re about to embark on some exciting new work exploring a problem space that affects business. It’s messy, complex, pervasive, emergent and intractable. 

Knowing what I know about these problem spaces, we can’t approach them in the usual way. The trouble is, there is so much information out there, I am paralysed about where to begin to make sense of the space. 

My hunch is it’s about exploration - speaking to people, making sense, being curious and learning. And then probing, testing, iterating etc.

I suppose my question for those who’ve been in a similar space, what are the first steps you would make in the majority of cases? What tools and methods are you in your kit? I am not necessarily asking for a universal recipe but more the basic things you’d always do e.g. prep your surfaces, check you have all of the ingredients and equipment etc.

I feel something like Three Horizons would be a useful exercise here. Is there anything else that’s a go to?

Conundrum 2 - Craft and Mentorship

I’ve been thinking about craft recently prompted by a recent chat with Katie Treggiden

Craftsmanship is something that appeals to me a creator. It helps to challenge a troubling feedback loop I get into which focuses on attaining absolute perfection first time, rather than a practice of continuous improvement. Usually if I try something for the first time and don’t ace it, I think I’m crap and stop doing it (e.g. parkour!). Treating something as a craft recognises that everyone is a novice and works towards mastery over years and years of practice. 

In this space, one of the useful analogies that came from the Cynefin blogs and the distinction between being a cook and a chef. The cook follows a recipe becomes unstuck if there’s a missing ingredient or utensil (aside: I am totally a cook when it comes to prepping food). On the other hand, the chef is able to work with what they have, combining experience, knowledge, skill and nous to work in a given situation and context and modify accordingly. 

It’s been useful to think about this as I develop across multiple disciplines, be it as a design, event organiser, Lego Serious Play facilitator, painting Warhammer and leathercraft. 

Comparing the facilitator I am today to when I started out, I can definitely see development and improvement. I know with an increasing degree of certainty how long I need to run a Lego Serious Play session, what’s needed to create a good vibe and what doesn’t work so well anymore (my experiments to see if smell improves the experience - it doesn’t). 

Moving closer to the conundrum, I’ve been thinking about the role of mentorship and how important it is to be around people who are further ahead on the path, to learn from them, emulate, challenge and experience. 

I try and cultivate this sense of mentorship with colleagues I work with. Critically the dynamic is relational and not one-sided; the amount I learn from people around me who are gracious enough to challenge me, suggest new ideas and provide a totally awesome new perspective I’ve not seen before is just as important (shout to Hana Kidy and Grace M. who’ve been there for me recently). 

The realisation I’ve come to is that in the areas I work in I need more design mentorship and support. This is especially the case in the regenerative space where a lot of the current established ways to “do design” are being upended as we work in new contexts (climate and nature breakdown, the rise of new technologies, political turmoil, imbalances in power and addressing colonial and extractive practices), but still operate in the existing (collapsing) paradigm which focuses on the icky things like individualism, progression, being confident and “playing the game” and “faking until you make it”. 

So this is an open plea to anyone who’d be kind enough to help me chart this space if you’re feeling the same and/or are navigating this without totally burning out (:S)…  

Blogs

Often times when people talk AI, this is my immediate reaction…

I don’t think I’m a luddite, but I’m just wary of hype trains and false promises (NFTs lol).

I’ve concluded that I’m curious and open-minded for now but with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Why am I talking about this?…

I’ve been asked to write a blog ahead of the (hard) launch of B Lab UK’s intermediate training course and I realised after writing/re-writing for a while that I could have just created a prompt and got ChatGPT to do it and saved myself some time. I’m glad I didn’t, though.

For me, it’s less about the output (a blog), and more about the point of reflection, searching through my memories and creating the story/myth about how we got to where we are and how we communicate this to others. This is so important to me, because it helps to remember, make connections and power through the blocks and dead-ends of thoughts, discovering new paths and experiences. 

Thinking about, this is the classic journey not the destination/it’s the friends you make along the way points. 

Food for thought.

Platformland

I’ve been obsessing over Platformland a bit. This is Richard Pope’s new book on the next generation of digital public services. 

Given that Kim works in a very relevant government department, we’ve both taken to reading the book at the same time and exploring the implications together (please don’t judge how we get our kicks in our relationship…).

I’ve been reading it partially because I like to geek out on public services and democracy, but also to inspire how we, at B Lab UK, might look to the future of product development. To me, the B Impact Assessment is a public service, helping businesses navigate the journey of being a force for good… I’ll endeavour to share more in the future. 

Design for Planet 

It’s Design for Planet on 6 November! Go and get your ticket please.

Agatha All Along

I am totally committed to Marvel but share the general sentiment that the TV output could be better (Secret Invasion lol). I would definitely recommend Agatha All Along. Episodes 6 and 7 are particularly chef’s kiss, especially the latest which actually made me cry a bit.

k. thanks. bye.

Kyle

EDIT: Warm Data Lab!

I totally forgot to add that I went to my first warm data lab hosted at the amazing Kairos by Emily Stewart .

I've been so eager to learn more about Nora Bateson's work here so it was great to experience a session exploring food in a changing world alongside Tasman Papworth , Jane ní Dhulchaointigh , Hannah Temple and Apolline Roger !

It was a really enriching and calming experience, getting over the fear of not having anything to say and moving to the realisation that there is too much to say... I still maintain that there is a law somewhere that many of these conversations end up boiling down to two things: 1) it's capitalism's fault and 2) we should all live in communes.

If you see anything else relating to warm data, please let me know!