My friend and fellow Bowen Islander John Dumbrille is beginning to engage with issues of accessibility for Web sites. He has some recent posts on his blog which look to me to be the beginning of a white paper. It will be interesting to see how his thinking evolves along these questions:
�Simple� or �common� does not make for great design � �appropriate� does. A person who has had a brain injury that affects her cognitive functioning, and a person who was born blind both have “disability” in common, as well as some legal or social disconnect issues. But their lives and needs are very different� so why serve them the same experience?
The question is an interesting one from a web design point of view, but my curiosity is piqued a little more in thinking about these same questions applied to organizational structures. Connecting people, all people, in common endeavours requires attention to diversity AND functionality. It’s not a question of one size fits all, as John also points out, but many sizes serving many.
At the very least it’s given me some nice food for thought for our regular coffee breaks together.
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Good luck to my friends in Te Tau Ihu as they continue with their hikoi to protect Maori rights along the foreshore and seabed in New Zealand. This is a busy week upcoming in Maoridom. Follow all the news through Google.
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Ten or so pieces of notable linkage:
- Healing the Impact of Colonization, Genocide, Missionization, and Racism on Indigenous Populations via Jeff Aitken
- Indigenous Environmental Network: “”A network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions.”
- Creativity resources from Martin Leith, Charles Cave and mycoted.
- Culture and Commerce: Traditional Arts in Economic Development (big .pdf) via The Urban Institute and The Fund for Folk Culture
- Online Papers in Philosophy via wood s lot
- Noosphere Evolution and Value Metabolism: An examination of the nature of behaviousr and the structure of culture and consciouness (.pdf)
- Metamorphic Change: Leadership as Strategic Introspection and Serious Play (.pdf) from Resilient Systems
- Sensing and Shaping your Future: Practices for revealing an growing what is essential, soulful and most alive (.pdf) also from Resilient Systems
- Maori Proverbs, because e Koekoe te tui, e ketekete te Kaka e kuku te kereru. Via Apothacary’s Drawer.
- Movement as Network: Connecting People and Organizations in the Environmental Movement (.pdf) via Gifthub
More links at my de.licio.us
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In response to my post on the Emergent Organizations paper, Anne Stadler sent me a James Broughton poem which captures the essence of her thinking at the moment on emergence, responsibility and action:
The is really It.
This is ALL there is,
And it’s perfect as it is.
There is nowhere to go
But Here.
There is nothing here
But Now.
There is nothing now
But This.
And this is it.
This is really It.
This is All there is,
And it’s perfect as It is.
Broughton, by the way, had a wonderful aphorism that reminds me of Anne’s longtime collaborator, and one of my mentors, Harrison Owen:
Otherwise young men have no suitable models.
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My office at the moment
There is something interesting happening. As I write, my office is being torn apart as the local plumber replaces our home’s hot water tank. There is a lot of chaos, with the washer and dryer moved out of the bathroom and into my office proper, and the plumber and his little Jack Russel darting around the place. The more we get past the hot water tank, the more little problems we find, like the fact that my main water shut-off valve isn’t working anymore. So we’ll replace that too…if we can find the shut off from the municipal water system.
My kids are completley underfoot, asking questions, talking non-stop, curious about the repair work, the nature of the dog, the main water shut-off valve, and a million other things. They have an insatiable curiosity in the midst of all this chaos.
And that got me thinking…
My kids are sparking around the chaos, unable to stay away and wanting to know everything that is happening. The plumber is a really good-natured guy and he’s letting them help, which is just increasing their learning about plumbing by leaps and bounds.
Think about this analogy in organizations. Most adults I know flee from chaos. When something goes really wrong, most people seize up. There is a low tolerance for watching things come apart, and in some cases, a complete fear of the uncertainty.
But the lesson that my kids are sharing with me today is this: chaos gives us a chance to tear everything down and see how it works. Sometimes we have to put it right back together again (I mean in this case, it IS a hot water tank…) but there is always an opportunity to do something new, to learn about what is really going on, to improve important things at a deeper level that maybe needed care before but suffered from being buried under habit and routine.
Chaos’ costs are recovered by the resulting order’s benefits, the deeper engagement with how things work and the comfort that comes from knowing that the short term pain has given us some longer term security.
And hot water.