Small Revolutions

Reading Steve Portigal’s article in Appliance magazine and watching Stephen Anderson’s talk from MX2008 got me thinking…UX people seem to be interested in culture primarily because we have to try to change it all the time, in little ways. Steve says “Driving these kinds of cultural changes isn’t trivial, but it isn’t impossible, either” while Stephen points out that good ideas are, by nature, revolutionary.

And getting new things to happen usually incites a push-back of inertia: That is not the way we’ve done things. Stephen points out out that the struggle looks different from the inside of an organization (as an “innie”) or as an outside consultant…but either way, we have to use intelligence and patience to make change happen.

Again, it all comes down to empathy!

“Fomenting a revolution isn’t always possible or appropriate, but starting from your locus of control and pushing outward can produce steady results. Understand how customers make sense of the world, and make all your small and big decisions with that understanding clearly in mind. Show colleagues and superiors how that understanding manifests itself in product decisions and track the outcomes. Being mindful of your own successes will help others see the impact this approach can have on the bottom line.

“We need empathetic individuals to make empathetic organizations, which will in turn make more empathetic individuals.””

Being Ecumenical: Dell Hymes

I read Dell Hymes’ Obit today.

What strikes me about his approach to Linguistics was that it was all about context. Language took place in a cultural context, not in a mathematical wonderland, as Chomsky would have you believe.

Not to harsh on Noam, or anything.

But the word ecumenical came up in the obit…meaning general in extent or application.

Merriam-Webster tells us it comes from the Greek oikoumenē ,meaning the inhabited world.

The first step to solving a problem is to look at where it happens. To go where the problem is. Have Empathy, as @whitneyhess said here. And using an ecumenical approach, use whatever tools you need.

Steve Portigal on Improv and Creativity

Yesterday I hit an IXDA free event at RGA. Steve Portigal gave an awesome talk on Improv and its implications/applications to UX design and research.

He generously put up his slides here…which, had I known he was going to do, Maalik and I might not have taken such furious notes!

One idea from his talk that blew me away was this diagram. Everyone defines the norm in relation to themselves. I don’t know if everyone considers themselves in the center of their bell-curve reality…but everyone thinks of their behavior in relation to others. “I am more _____ than my friends” is a great thing to walk away with. When people describe their behavior, make sure you get the context they see themselves in.

His performance was really the big take-home for me. Steve created an environment where people shared, we unafraid to fail and were open. A lot of questions centered around this. How can we create a culture (or cultural moment) for ourselves or our clients where people can share ideas unhindered by fear or the “editor” that stops good (and bad) ideas? A great message was: Come up with bad ideas. Try that out. “what if we made poisonous cereal?”

I think once you relax into the possibility of failure, success is easier. There’s less fear. Getting up to do the “one word story” exercise I was, at first, nervous. I wanted to do well. And then I said to myself “screw it up. fail spectacularly.” And then I could relax and participate in the game, fully.

I’m looking forward to doing more of that.

The Uncanny valley in Monkey Land

Apparently the Uncanny Valley is for Monkeys, too:

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/uncanny_valley/

I’ve been trying to find the 30 Rock episode wherein Tracy Jordan designs a pornographic video game, defying the uncanny valley…but the media lords have made it hard.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, first of all, I like the idea that telling the difference between reality and fiction is innate, even in our primate ancestors. Secondly, it is always a reminder to me that keeping systems simple and straightforward makes them more pleasurable and more believable. Restraint and symbolism is better than spending our energy on full-blown simulation and actualization.