FORTY-ONE

I have two children, 32 and 22, and they both say I’m a workaholic. I explain to them that I don’t agree, that I love my job, and I see a continuum between my job and my life, I am a designer. Could they be right? I keep saying I’ll retire as soon as I can, and my wife laughs out loud saying I will work till my company (or life) kicks me out, could she be right?

THIRTY-EIGHT

I have come to believe there are human qualities that supersede any training for people leadership, I believe some people are just more natural at it, and while we can all improve in every domain, I believe natural and organic people leaders have an invisible advantage. When you are lucky to have a good people leader you know it, you feel it, your life improves, you learn and you evolve, you grow and many times you will end up moving on, and those people leaders will be a part of your life.

THIRTY-SIX

But I remember this particular occasion, because one morning after partying night, we were ‘asked’ to be in a meeting space at 8am. Needless to say, we were all still heavy headed and in need of plenty of water, a gentleman who by the tone of his voice had not been partying the previous night, had 4 different newspapers taped to the walls, several pages of different newspapers, with large red markings on them, all in all it must have been 20 newspaper pages, and we were afraid he’d make us read out loud!

THIRTY-FOUR

I’m staying at a beach I call ‘my beach’, my grandmother used to come here, my mother used to come here, and now I try to come every year. I did so with everyone that is important to me, both my kids have photos here since they were born, and I just had a couple of old friends over for a couple of days. Does that qualify as my beach, beyond an expression?

What are the main conclusions of your research?

This research, the findings and insights, combined with experience has led to a framework of needs to be addressed, by designers and non-designers. This framework is focused on the underlying biases and assumptions each side has of each other, unspoken but yet prominent and present in such a way that it prevents companies from making […]

10. Ethos – What makes a designer a designer is at the same time seen as an asset and a liability.

We have used Ethos to describe what makes a designer a designer, an association of values that generically characterize designers, and though some attitudes and behaviors observed in designers might correlate with their ethos, there is no implicit or explicit causation. We have described these as a balance between two sides of the continuum, tensions […]

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