Creativity and Mise en Place – Pastry Edition

a dessert by Jordi Roca My introduction to the execution side of creativity was in my mother's catering business that she ran out of our home when I was a kid. She called the business Gorgeous Food and the vision for the business was true to its name. The focus was on presenting fresh, seasonal ingredients in … Continue reading Creativity and Mise en Place – Pastry Edition

How to Run a Process Critique

A process critique is a short meeting in which you present your work-in-progress with the goal of gathering feedback. It's a tricky thing to navigate because many of us feel more comfortable presenting finished work where we sell every decision we've made with confidence. But a process crit requires us to be vulnerable. And that's … Continue reading How to Run a Process Critique

Too Many Lamps

I used to teach industrial design. A standard industrial design assignment is to ask students to design a lamp. It's a great assignment because lamps aren't just art--they need to function--but they are technically simple enough to give students room and freedom to explore interesting concepts. (We have a silly joke in design education, "Practice … Continue reading Too Many Lamps

Who Do You Serve?

"What you do is the promise you make to the people you serve." I think this is a quote from Seth Godin. It's meaningful because so often we focus on the thing we make--a gadget, an app, a class--rather than the people that the thing aims to serve. What we need to be more clear … Continue reading Who Do You Serve?

Decision-Making and Trade-Offs

Sometimes when we are having trouble making a decision, we will be advised to go with our gut. While this can be a good way to make a decision, it’s often not enough--especially when we are making decisions that affect other people or are unique to specific situations.If we want to be more intentional with … Continue reading Decision-Making and Trade-Offs

Our Lives Are Full – Martin Short’s 9 Categories

Our brains are wired to focus on negative thoughts. This is why we wake up in the middle of the night and ruminate on that awkward conversation that happened months ago. It's why we zoom in on that one bad grade or that one negative comment.While this wiring used to serve us when we were … Continue reading Our Lives Are Full – Martin Short’s 9 Categories

Businesses and Complex Adaptive Systems

trillium in an old-growth forest Can businesses be designed like complex adaptive systems? This is the question that Roger L. Martin explores in his new book When More Isn't Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency. The book opens much like Mariana Mazzucato's The Value of Everything--it opens with a long critique of our current … Continue reading Businesses and Complex Adaptive Systems

Solving the Wrong Problem

I once had a figure drawing instructor who would playfully swat my drawing hand if I were working on a detail of a figure without first mapping out the entire body. Zoom in too soon and you might be drawing a perfect hand but in the wrong place. I love it that she did that.

Coda: The TUNING Toolkit

The TUNING Toolkit is a set of tools that helps people turn their ideas into B.Corps, NonProfits, and DIY/Open Source projects that make the world better. It’s designed specifically for projects sparked by a desire to help people. The TUNING Toolkit is kicked off with a Prelude and ends in a Coda. In between the … Continue reading Coda: The TUNING Toolkit

ORGANIZE: The Expansion

This post is part of a series on creativity and project management. REVIEW You started this workbook by articulating a high-level goal of helping a group of people solve a specific problem using a specific set of tools.Then you developed an idea for a project that could help realize that goal. You gathered feedback from … Continue reading ORGANIZE: The Expansion