What happens when the global pandemic gets forgotten, and our organizations, communities and bodies still remember? How might we design institutions that help us recover from what’s happened and thrive in what’s to come? The World Health Organization is meeting this week to discuss whether the emergency phase of the global COVID-19 pandemic response is …
Design has its own distinct language, which is tied to how it’s organized. What does it mean to talk about design, do design, and speak about design products? In today’s post, we speak to the language of design. Every field of practice has its own language. Within the field are disciplines and sub-disciplines, and they …
Design is a field that brings together creation, imagination, and thinking about people and situations. When we learn how this field is organized, we’re better prepared for making things better. Design’s a funny word. As a verb, it describes an action of planning and creation. As a noun, it points to an entire field of …
The word design is all over the place; what does it mean? In this new series, I walk you through what design is, how it works, how to do it, and explain why you’re already a designer and how to become better at it. My mother recently told me that every time she hears the …
I might be writing this near the holidays in 2022, but the message I want to send is timeless. In times of disruption — which seems to be all the time — these are the lessons that my clients, friends, and family did best when they were heeded. They certainly worked for me. I love …
Four Holiday R’s: Rest, Reflection, Recovery, Reinvigorate Read More »
Disruption is often described in abstract terms with time horizons that look long enough to act on. What we see now is far different from that — faster and more intense. You might have had relatively few ideas of what artificial intelligence looked like until last week. That was when the news of ChatGPT made …
We can reflect on gender-based violence and the victims of it and take action, but we must do both if we want change. Today is a day of National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada. (You can read more about it here). This is a theme that’s rarely — if …
Remembrance and Action for Gender-Based Violence (And All of Us) Read More »
If you design or evaluate things, why not share what you know with people who design and evaluate things for a living? I believe designers and evaluators need to talk more. I’ve argued that the conversation between design and evaluation is worth having. As both a professional designer and evaluator, my work is a reflection …
My first in-person conference in almost three years yielded surprises, disappointments, and the expected awkwardness. This time of year is usually conference season. October and November are typically big for conferences (much like May and June). This year I ventured out and attended my first in-person conference since 2019: The American Evaluation Association conference in …
The story of learning through conferences and Twitter intertwines in a story that might be coming to an end for both. To say there’s a lot of change in the air is both cliche and an understatement in November 2022. Of the many notable changes, two of them are of particular importance to me this …
