Straight Line Thinking Stops Here. Designing business success in a non-linear world

No Straight Lines: Making sense of our

non-linear world

Alan Moore smlxl@

sxsw | 2010

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alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

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Requiem for Detroit alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10359714@N03/3056979962

Designed by legendary industrial architect Albert Kahn and built in 1907, the plant produced Packards into the mid-1950’s, by which time stagnant design concepts, executive mis-management, and an ill-advised acquisition of the Studebaker company led to the demise of the company.

The Packard plant a metaphor as what happens when we fail to adjust to world that changes around us. We no longer live in a linear world.


Remote Area Medical (RAM) founded to help people in far flung and hard to get to places for medical care, now does much of its work in the United States of America.


Asocietythatdoesnotrecognisethemoralityof‘enough’willseeexcessesrisewhichvergeontheobscene

Capitalists,arecapitalism'sworstenemy‐andparticularlythemarketfundamentalisttendencywhichhasbeenintheascendantforthelast20years.

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A society that does not recognise the morality of ‘enough’ will see excesses rise which verge on the obscene…


“You judge a modern society, not by what it consumes but – by what

it throws away” zygmunt bauman


“Capitalists, are capitalism’s worst enemy - and particularly the market fundamentalist tendency which has been in the ascendant for the last 20 years” – John Kay.


http://www.woostercollective.com/2009/03/fresh_stuff_from_ludo_in_paris_the_boomb.html

This presents many dangers for humanity, but the for me the key one relates to human identity.


Our industrial world has deconstructed humanity almost to the point of deconstruction


What we are encountering is a panicky, an almost hysterical attempt to escape from the deadly anonymity of modern life… and the prime cause is not vanity… but the craving of people who feel their personality sinking lower and lower in the whirl of indistinguishable atoms to be lost in a mass civilisation.

Mass urbanisation, social mobility etc., means that we cannot construct our identities as we did for millennia and so we go on a quest for identity, because if we don’t, we suffer deep pyschological problems

henry candy 1926


In contrast, nowadays, a great many phobias and depressions are linked to fearfulness of how to be in the world and whether one is

acceptable or not.

The symptoms include not knowing how to operate in the world and consequently

increasing numbers become a ghost army living a vicarious existence in the

machine called life. alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

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The hungry Spirit

In Africa, they say there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life, the goods and the services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need, The greater hunger is for an answer to the question “why?”, for some some understanding of what that life is for… Charles Handy wrote, to think that better bread, and a bit of cake to go with it, would make us all content, because governments and business together might be able to deliver on that contract. The consequence of that thinking is that money ultimately becomes the measure of all things. We can measure our lives in pound notes, deutschmarks or dollar bills and then compare our scores. we have all become Hungry Spirits.


Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/camil_t/82015664/

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model and set to do the work exactly proscribed for it. But should be seen as a tree that should be allowed to grow on lall sides depending on the

inward forces that make it a living thing.

john stuart mill


Humanity is in A&E


It’s saying please check the engine


We are at the toxic tail end of the industrial revolution and the mass consumer society - we are faced with some serious challenges

The fight for economic survival The fight for resources The fight for talent – and for the best-educated young The fight for the space of mind of your audience


We cannot afford business as usual, materially, physically and emotionally


the SR-71 Blackbird designed to fly at Mach 5 - consistently

be realistic – imagine the impossible

it’s a design problem

The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of free people. woodrow wilson

Convergent forces that require us to think differently about the world we live in. The Romantics among us focus on the human condition, and the true nature of humanity. The cynical among you might be more interested in the cost to serve your customers revenues + profits – the reality is they both count. alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

The story of Local Motors: founder Jay Rogers is compelled to tackle a great design challenge, the design, engineering and manufacture of cars that must meet certain criteria…


what if…

we build the car of your dreams?

it was green?

we made it in your town?

we listened

we did it?


A community of practice


Make sure you listen to the podcast http://smlxtralarge.com/2010/04/20/alan-speaking-sxsw-podcast/


A blended Reality of R&D, engineering, marketing and sales – there is no offline of online – there is only blended reality

When you buy a local motors car you become part of the build process. It bonds the owner with their vehicle.

Lessons


Fundamentally changes the relationship to supply and demand by rethinking and redesigning the process from conception to production

economics


Fundamentally changes the relationship to supply and demand

Distributed knowledge network both Hyperlocal & Superglobal

knowledge


Open Source & Creative Commons Inoneyear44,000designsweresubmittedtoLocalMotors,and3600innovatorshavesharedtheirknowledgeandinsights.

legal & innovation


In one year 44,000 designs were submitted to Local Motors, and 3600 innovators have shared their knowledge and insights.

community


5X faster than traditional methodologies, and with more than 100X less capital From $200m development costs to $1.5

velocity and cost


Micro-Factories Locally which provide an engaged experience for customers

economics & people


C

Constant Feedback loop

aka: the learning organization

learning


“The real voyage of discovery is not to seek new landscapes but to look upon the

world with fresh eyes”

the proust

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This is the century where we learn to help each other, the technologies we are evolving reflect that


HOS Human Operating System

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/05/erika-larsen-for-the-past.php

George Soros worried deeply that unfettered capitalism was creating a closed society which only one thing counted – material success. He argued for an open society a new type of operating system that was not built upon market fundamentalism, dogma and avarice. I would argue this is what we might call a Human Operating System. This social operating system looks beyond materialism to something greater - to liberate us from closed systems so that we can all re-engage with the world to feel and be accountable to each other and experience and enjoy the richness of life

Interface without interference

interactive + connected + human

We need to create technologies, businesses and process that enable us to interface with companies, organisations and each other without interference


We need a new language to help us articulate this No Straight Lines (NSL) approach to what we make and who we make it with


blendedrealityBlended reality


http://www.Nlickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/2723981272/

Everyday creativity is no longer either trivial or quaintly authentic, but instead occupies central stage in discussions of the media industries and their future in the context of digital culture

Participatory culture


shared collective joy


Wooden pews introduced in Northern Europe to enforce a seated and therefore compliant congregation


read & write

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where we demand the right to participate,

create and co-create commerce

and culture


Co-creation Co-created narrative matters

People embrace what they create.


“I” Needs “We”

to truly be “I”

carl jung


Craftmanship Inspiring people to

work better, to commit to their craft, to be

‘engaged’


craftmanship We seek a return to the spirit of the enlightenment

but on terms appropriate to the age we live in richard sennett


People embrace

what they

create

Technologies of co-operation Technology does not come out of nowhere it is a human invention in the first place and it succeeds or not to the extent that it meets fundamental human needs alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

Embedded Sociability

http://www.Nlickr.com/photos/an_untrained_eye/1195966967/


Economies of scope

hyper-local & superglobal


Velocity


NSL = Velocity Lightweight

Flexible Adaptive

Enabling platforms


creative commons & open source

Nine Inch Nails release their latest album under a Creative Commons

License


mashable


The organisation as a village

http://www.flickr.com/photos/krustysplodge/898377791/

People have lived and worked in villages since the dawn of civilization. The corporation, argues Charles Handy, is a youthful concept, little more than a century old. One could argue, too, that the notion of a lively village — with its unabashed humanity — is a more appropriate way to look at what the corporation should be in the 21st century than the constrained and impersonal entity it has been.

Villages are small and personal, and their inhabitants have names, characters, and personalities. What more appropriate concept on which to base our institutions of the future than the ancient organic social unit whose flexibility and strength sustained human society through millennia? – Charles Handy

Conversational: markets are conversations, business is a social science!

Thriving markets are conversations


Summary watch the video

http://smlxtralarge.com/2009/08/04/no-straight-lines-why-no-straight-lines/


How will a NSL world look like for your organisation?

Alan runs workshops, offers mentoring, and undertakes keynote speaking to help and inspire companies and organisations to join up the dots of our non-linear world and make sense of what those dots mean.

Contact: [email protected]

www.smlxtralarge.com Workshops: http://ht.ly/3dEZP


Straight Line Thinking Stops Here. Designing business success in a non-linear world

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Transcript of Straight Line Thinking Stops Here. Designing business success in a non-linear world