The Curiosity Chronicles

Curious About..Interdependence 关于相互依存的好奇心

(The next installment of the Chinese version of this column, presented as always in its original Mandarin and English.)

I’m writing this as I fly across the Atlantic to the USA after a hectic set of conversations and meetings at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.

I have lived on and off in America for over 20 years and one of the things that has always fascinated me about America is how it manages to be both diverse and unified at the same time - 50 states, each with their own unique geographies, climates, accents, economies and mindsets, but at the same time, still joined by a common purpose, shared beliefs and values. While nobody could argue that the USA faces unique challenges due to its diversity and scale, I have always found that the interdependence of the parts and the unity as a whole admirable.

It was my first time at Boao, and listening to speech after speech, one thought swam through my mind the entire time I was there: that perhaps, it is time for another USA to emerge - The United States of Asia. Let me explain.

The concept of interdependence is age-old when it comes to the nature. Interdependence in the natural world means that each species relies on others as part of its natural ecosystem, that by supporting one another each creates value for themselves and the others. Essentially, interdependence is a system where, by celebrating their differences and each realizing that their unique contribution creates mutual value, every species contributes to the good of the whole.

I’m lucky in that my work takes me all over the world and to different cultures and places – I grew up in Singapore which in many ways feels like home to me, but I have also spent a good deal of my life in both Europe and America, so I feel pretty well-equipped to make this statement: countries need to learn how to become more interdependent, like our animal friends.

In the last few weeks, I have worked on projects in four completely different Asian cultures, all of which taught me something and made me realize how those learnings could be so beneficial spread across the region.

First Japan, where we witnessed the resilience and dignity that emerged from the Japanese people in the wake of last year’s 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent economic problems, teaching us about the value of a collective sense of purpose and how each individual’s contribution can really matter. Then Singapore, where we see a society, where a well-designed and thoughtful infrastructure underpins and supports its citizenship, now looking to balance that infrastructure with an equally vibrant creative economy. Then India, where the natural resourcefulness and entrepreneurial bravery of the Indian mindset is creating new businesses at remarkable speed and with tremendous potential. Then finally to China, where I sat on a panel at Boao to discuss the manufacturing industry’s pressing need and imperative to shift itself from manufacturing meaningless products to creating meaningful and valuable products that meet the needs of the Chinese citizen.

That’s just four countries, and I can only imagine what Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and others have to offer, teach and contribute to the Asian ecosystem.

In our work at IDEO, we are often asked to help disparate parts of an organization work together around solving a common problem. We find that design is a great unifier; that by putting the user in the center of the process, we make sure that everyone is aligned around creating value for them, and that each individual’s contribution can be seen as driving towards the same end goal. As our work increases in its scale and complexity, we are finding that the stakeholders we are managing are often large, complex organizations in themselves. We find that giving business units a common problem to work together towards solving is an effective and constructive way to break down boundaries and show them that they can, in essence, go from being independent entities to becoming interdependent, each contributing their own expertise to the ecosystem.

In this same vein, I’d love to see The United States of Asia start to work together towards a common purpose – the happiness, wellbeing and prosperity of the Asian citizen. Each country has unique learning and insights, I have no doubt that each is working towards this goal, but often individually. I’m sure that by sharing the load and by realizing that each has its own unique piece to play in the system that each and all can benefit. Perhaps design can play the role of helping bring everyone together and work towards a common purpose and a more harmonious future.

To interdependence. To unity.

 

在忙碌完博鳌亚洲论坛2012年年会的一系列对话和会议之后，我踏上了返美的航班，在大西洋的上空写下了这篇文章。

我在美国断断续续生活了20多年，一直以来给我的一个最深的感触就是，这个国家既有多元化的一面，又能保持高度的统一。尽管全国50个州的地形、气候、口音、经济结构乃至观念模式都不尽相同，但各州都有一个共同的目标以及相同的信仰和价值观。不可否认的是，这种多样性和发展规模的确给美国造成了各种独特的挑战，但我始终认为，整个国家团结一心、互依互存的精神仍然值得钦佩。

此次是我头一回参加博鳌论坛，听着一场又一场的演讲，我脑海中时不时闪过这样一个念头：也许，另一个“USA”崛起的时刻已经到来——“亚洲联邦”（the United States of Asia)。且听我解释。

自然界中的相互依存这个概念已经由来已久。自然环境下的互依互存意味着每一种生物都是自然生态系统中的一部分，它们都有赖于这个系统中的其他生物，各种生物在相互扶持中为自己及其他生物创造价值。从本质上说，相互依存就是一个系统，系统里的每一个物种通过发挥各自的差异性，进而认识到自己的独特力量会创造出相互间的共同价值，并同心协力地致力于整个系统的正常运作。

因为工作的关系，我有幸走访了世界各地，亲历不同的文化和地方特色。我从小在新加坡长大，很大程度上新加坡就像是我的家，而同时我在欧洲和美国生活过很长时间，所以我有足够的理由表明这一主张：所有国家都需要学会如何相互依存，就像我们动物界的朋友那样。

过去几周以来，我先后在四个截然不同的亚洲国家做过项目，每一次经历都给了我一些启发，也让我认识到，如果这些启发能扩展到整个亚洲地区，这将会产生无穷的效益。

首先是日本，在那里我们见证了日本人民面对去年3.11大地震、海啸及随之而来的经济问题时所表现出的顽强的适应力和尊严，这让我们体会到了共同目标的价值以及不容忽视的个体力量。其次是新加坡，这个以健全完善的基础设施为公民造就福祉的国家，目前正寻求平衡，打造与其基础设施具有同样活力的创新经济。之后是印度，这个民族正以其丰富的自然资源和勇于开拓的创业精神，快速地打造出一个个潜力巨大的新型商业模式。最后是中国，我参加了博鳌论坛的一个专家小组会，探讨了制造业转型的紧迫性，即从机械化地生产无意义的产品，转而去创造富有意义和价值、能够切实满足中国人民需求的产品。

当然除了以上四个国家，还有泰国、马来西亚、印度尼西亚、越南等其他国家都将为亚洲生态系统贡献力量并带来借鉴意义。

在IDEO，我们经常需要帮助企业的各个部门开展相互协作、解决某个共同的问题。我们发现，设计是一股强大的结合力，它通过将用户置于流程的中心，以此确保每一位参与者的工作都是围绕为用户创造价值，每一个个体的努力都直接指向一个共同的目标。随着工作日益复杂且规模不断扩大，我们发现其实许多关键的利益相关方往往本身就是庞大复杂的组织。我们认为，给各业务部门分派一个共同的任务目标能有效打破组织间的距离，让他们从根本上体会到，他们可以从独立存在的个体转变为相互依存的伙伴，每个人都能为企业的生态系统贡献自己的专长。

同样地，我也希望看到“亚洲联邦”的各个国家开始同心协力地朝着一个共同目标迈进——即亚洲人民的幸福、健康和繁荣。虽然每个国家都拥有独特的经验和洞察，而且无疑都在朝着这个目标努力，但结果往往只是各干各的。我相信，若能相互分担这一使命，认识到系统中的每一个个体都有各自独特的作用，那么所有人都能从中受益。或许，设计的作用就是把人们连结在一起，让他们为了共同的目标以及更加和谐的未来而奋斗。

为相互依存喝彩。为团结一致喝彩。

Curious About…Boao. 关于博鳌的好奇心

(The next installment of the Chinese version of this column, presented as always in its original Mandarin and English.)

So I have been invited to speak at this years Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference. It’s a huge honor and I am very flattered. Looking at the guest list, I find myself somewhat intimidated – everyone on there has very serious titles: CEO of Something, President of Something, Executive Chairman of Something, all…except me. I’m a designer.

A journalist asked to interview me before the event, and the first question they asked was the most pertinent: “As the only designer invited to the panel, what do you think about your presence at the forum? What are the main things you are going to talk about?”

The answer is actually quite simple, and in fact represents my hope not just for Boao but for China at this moment in time, and hopefully, without sounding too grandiose, the world in general: that design clearly has a place to play in the Big Conversations right now. These are conversations about change; about taking intractable problems and breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks, about bringing disparate groups people of together and orienting them towards collective problem solving and action rather than endless discussion and debate.

As an example, we recently worked on a growing problem that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US has grappled with for years – that one out of every three children in America today is overweight or obese. While the CDC deftly handles sudden health crises of global proportions (such as flu pandemics) the agency’s efforts to control more insidious “lifestyle” diseases, such as childhood obesity and related chronic illnesses, receive fewer headlines and are less familiar to the public.

The CDC expanded its efforts to support America’s youth by launching Project Carrot, a program aimed at exploring how environmental changes, health policies, and marketing/communication efforts could be better integrated to deter childhood obesity. To narrow the scope, the main emphasis was on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.

The CDC wanted to try a new problem-solving approach. They turned to us because our human-centered design methodology contrasted with the CDC’s traditional means of gathering and disseminating scientific data. They believed that IDEO’s new perspective and innovative practices would help the adults who were running Project Carrot get inside tween minds - to understand their worlds, needs, and desires - in an inclusive and non-threatening way.

We spoke with tweens and a wide range of adults, from a senior director of grocery at WalMart to an elementary school district’s “renegade lunch lady,” about healthy eating. The interviews yielded some important information, including: parents tend to care more about their children’s safety and grades in school than whether they eat vegetables; “social marketing” is now dismissed by public health sector, where officials have tried it for 30 years and it hasn’t worked; and translating the CDC’s wealth of knowledge to the language of policymakers is difficult.

After sharing these insights with the CDC, IDEO helped the organization reframe Project Carrot’s objective. The final three prototypes worked together to make food environments less “toxic” by promoting environmental, policy, and social change.

This is what I mean by design’s ability to contribute by bringing together citizens and governments; by creating mechanisms for them to speak to each other and connect, by making intangible campaign promises tangible and individuals engaged. I am hoping that Boao can provide a forum for us all to think about how we can facilitate these kinds of conversations and have everyone benefit in the process.

Another space I think design has a huge role to play in is in education, one of our fastest-growing practice areas and one that our designers are most passionate about. Building the next generation of Asian leaders is something we are excited about in all our offices in this region, and I think a great topic for a forum like Boao is: “How does this generation of leaders help enable the next?”

Education is the means by which we thrive, individually and collectively. In recent times, the growing complexity and interconnectedness of our now global society has challenged the effectiveness of traditional education systems, which were designed for the needs of the industrial era. The old model was built upon the idea that a worker’s job was to apply the basic skills they’d learned in school to specific tasks. To thrive in the 21st century, however, we need to go beyond that—and teach people how to learn, engage, and create. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” The new model is about the constant creation of knowledge and empowering individuals to participate, communicate, and innovate.

This is the spirit that drives our Designs For Learning practice. Whether it’s about developing tools, environments, or curricula that enable more engaging learning experiences; transforming schools, programs, and organizations; or addressing systemic challenges that affect education-at-large, our human-centered methodologies and multi-disciplinary teams bring innovation solutions to education.

One goal I have for Boao is to identify people who are as passionate as we are about going on the journey of creating new types of leaders with new skills, hopefully designers in their own right, but in this case designers of our collective future.

So, we shall see. I’m excited to learn as always, to see and listen to the pulse of a event such as this. I’m assuming that my voice has something to add to the conversations, and that what I am proposing - that designing actual change, together - is a message that resonates. I’m planning on writing a series of reactions to the event in my next column, so am hoping that I am as optimistic coming out as I am going in.

我最近被邀请在即将举行的博鳌亚洲论坛年会上发言。我觉得非常荣幸。不过扫一眼嘉宾名单，我还真有点吓住了——名单上的每个人都有着隆重的头衔，CEO啊，总裁啊，执行董事长啊——就除了我。我只是一个设计师。

前一阵儿一家杂志因为准备博鳌专刊采访了我。他们问的最后一个问题是我最为关注的：“作为唯一一位设计界精英，您对此次参会作何感想？你的发言将涉及哪些要点？”

要回答这个问题其实很简单，因为它表达的是我的希望，不仅是关于当下中国的希望，也是关于整个世界的希望——但愿这听起来不是太夸大其词：我希望设计在当前的宏观对话中有一席之地。这些宏观对话关乎改变；关乎如何把难以解决的问题打碎成较小的、较为可操作的局部；关乎如何把分散的团体聚拢到一起采取集体行动解决问题而不要陷入无休止的讨论和争议。

举个例子，我们最近和美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）一起着手解决一个纠结多年的问题——目前美国三分之一的孩子体重超标或者患有肥胖症。CDC处理一些突发的全球性健康危机（比如流感）非常敏捷高效，但是对于一些隐藏于表象之下的“生活方式病”，例如儿童肥胖症以及相关的慢性病，CDC所做的努力并没有引起足够的重视，也不那么为公众所熟悉。

因此CDC发起了一个叫做“胡萝卜计划”的项目。这个项目针对美国的青少年，旨在探索如何更好地整合环境变化、健康政策和传播措施以缓解儿童肥胖问题。把范围再缩小一些，主要的重点是增加水果和蔬菜的摄入。

CDC希望尝试一种新的方法。他们来找我们，因为IDEO以人为本的设计方法与CDC传统的科学数据收集与解析恰恰构成一种反差。他们相信IDEO新的视角和创新手法可以帮助那些执行“胡萝卜计划”的成年人走进青少年的世界——理解他们的思路、需要和愿望——以一种包容的、不带威胁感的方式。

我们就健康饮食走访了许多青少年和成年人，从沃尔玛超市的资深总监到小学校区的午餐管理员。这些访谈产生了一些重要的信息，包括：相比于是否吃蔬菜，父母倾向于更重视孩子在学校的安全和成绩；在官员们尝试了30多年却未有收效的情况下，公共健康部门目前已经基本抛弃了“社会传播”的做法；要把CDC所掌握的渊博专业知识转化成政策制定者可用的语言很困难。

IDEO首先和CDC分享了这些洞察，然后帮助CDC重新设置了“胡萝卜计划”的目标框架。最后建了三个协同发挥作用的模型，通过推动环境、政策和社会转变减少饮食环境中的“毒素”。

 这就是我所说的设计的贡献力——把民众与政府聚合到一起；创造机制让他们可以对话和联系；把无形的愿景变得有形可见，让个人可以参与。我希望博鳌能够提供一个平台，让我们思考如何进行这种类型的对话，让每个人在过程中都受益。

 另一个我认为设计可以发挥重大作用的领域是教育，也是IDEO发展最快、设计师们最有热情投入的业务领域之一。新一代亚洲领导者的成长是我们在亚洲各地非常关注的话题。我认为像博鳌这样的论坛非常适合讨论的一个话题是：这一代的领导者如何帮助下一代成长？

教育是我们不管作为个人还是集体能够成功发展的必经途径。近年来，全球社会的结构越发复杂并且相互隔绝，为个体化时代而设计的传统教育体系面临挑战。老教育模式所基于的设想是工人把他们在学校里所学到的基础技能运用于特定的任务。而21世纪的成功需要超越这个模式，需要教会人们怎样学习、怎样建立联系、怎样创造。就像爱因斯坦说的：“我们不能用我们当初制造问题时同样的思路来解决问题。”新的模式关乎如何持续创造知识，如何让个体获得参与、沟通和创新的能力。

这是驱动IDEO开辟“学习设计”（Designs For Learning）业务的初衷。我们凭借人为本的设计方法和跨专业的设计团队为教育领域带来了创新——无论是开发可以使学习体验更具吸引力的工具、环境或者是课程；学校、课程和组织的转型；或是解决影响整个教育体系的系统性问题。

我去博鳌的目标之一是找到和我们一样对新型领导者的成长之旅充满热情的人。可能他们本身就是设计师，是我们共同未来的设计者。

让我们拭目以待。我一如既往地充满了学习的兴奋感，我将目睹和感受这一盛会的脉搏。我想我的声音能为此间的对话带去一些内容，而我所建议的让设计带来改变的想法可以得到共鸣。在接下来的专栏文章中我还会写一些参会的反响。希望我归来和我前往时都是一样的充满乐观。

Curious About…T-Shapes/关于T型人才的好奇心

(The next installment of the Chinese version of this column, presented again in both its original Mandarin and English.)

One of the questions I am most often asked as I give talks around the world on behalf of IDEO is: “What kind of people do you look for when you hire?” (usually followed quickly by: “…and am I one of them?”) Many people assume that as we are a design consultancy they need to simply demonstrate design excellence and that’s it. While we certainly look for that and expect our designers to excel in their chosen craft, what we actually look for is more complex and nuanced. We call it being “T-Shaped,” and I’ll attempt to explain what that is and why it matters today more than ever.

Let me start by telling you about my own experience. Ever since I was a child I was artistic – always sketching, painting, making things. I followed this path as I went through school, eventually going to college and getting a degree in graphic design. To this day I love and fundamentally understand typography, composition and language and was trained to be able to story-tell and communicate my ideas simply, clearly and hopefully with enough visual flair to allow people to be moved by them emotionally. I would not call myself an expert, but I do excel in it. Over the last twenty years or so of working, I have expanded my skills to encompass multiple things – branding, strategy, packaging design, store design, advertising and interactive design. Drawing on my core skills, but flexing my creative muscles into other spaces. Not claiming by any means to be an expert in everything, but, and this is the key idea, having empathy for them, understanding what it takes to do them, and feeling like I have something to contribute to them from my viewpoint. My realm has continued to expand into topics and domains over which I have relatively little knowledge and certainly no formal training such as industrial design or complex systems engineering, but again, I feel I can offer an opinion, or at the very least , listen to my colleagues that are experts and trust that they can teach me new skills and that we can have an informed conversation. I did not know this at the time, but my career journey has made me a T-shaped person: broadly empathic towards multiple disciplines (the cross stroke of the T, if you like) but at the same time, deeply embedded in one type of craft that I specialize in (the down stroke of the T.)

So, at IDEO, our designers come not only from industrial, interaction, communication or business design backgrounds, but from as diverse walks of life as macroeconomics; cognitive science; food science; anthropology; applied linguistics; genetics engineering, and so on, each of us a craftsperson in our own right.

The kind of complex problems we find ourselves being asked to solve today by our clients require a different way of working, a different way to assemble groups of people around solving them, and most importantly, an open-eared, empathic and expansive mindset applied to the solutions themselves. For example, one of the problems we recently tackled for a client was: “How Might We Create Ways to Reduce Water Consumption in Today’s Home?” It would be hard, not to mention unrealistic, for us to have four deeply-knowledgeable hydro-mechanical engineers on staff and throw them on a problem like that, plus one would assume that the ideas that they would generate would most likely be very focused on, well, the hydro-mechanical.

We would most likely hand-select a team from our own group of T-Shaped people, which might include: an engineer, perhaps well-versed in hydro-mechanics but broad in their interests, a human factors specialist to look at people’s latent needs around the water usage in their home, designers with no knowledge of the topic to design solutions from outside the traditional realm, and perhaps someone like me to help tell great stories, bring the problem to life for a client and help them see and feel things that are less obvious.

A T-shaped team, each bringing their own craft to bear when required but broadly engaging and problem-solving as a unit. They work at all stages together, and ideas are created and shared from day one, by all. There is no going into respective corners and coming out when you have solved the problem alone. One sign of success for me is when I get asked to review a project and everyone enthusiastically talks about all the ideas as “theirs” and ownership and authorship is shared - I frankly can’t tell who contributed what. That, is T-Shaped design at its best.

So why is this relevant? Well, I guess most simply we find that the end-result of this approach is better ideas for our clients, ideas that are created from multiple viewpoints, often the result of deep knowledge being challenged and built upon by the novice outsider. The result of our work for our client I just mentioned is a case in point. Their feedback was “We’ve been thinking about this topic for years, and still you guys came up with ideas that we never ever considered.” The business value of thinking in T-Shapes.

And its not just us that value this approach – many modern organizations are seeing the value in multidisciplinary teams, “fluent in one language but literate in many” as the saying goes. Pixar, the award-winning film studio based in Emeryville, California, talks often about the value of having a “fluid, empathic workforce” such as this.

A good T-Shaped idea is broad and deep - empathic and expansive, yet nuanced and crafted - both aspects reflected rather than one or the other. Deeper collaboration builds greater trust, respect and empathy between colleagues. It also allows you to get to solutions that you might not have thought of yourself, but frankly to me, it allows you, as an adult, to continue to enjoy one of life’s greatest gifts: the continued ability to learn – surrounding yourself with people like yourself, expanding your down-stroke, is less likely to teach you new things, whereas surrounding yourself with folks who round out your cross-stroke allows you to see things from a different perspective and hopefully learn and create something that you never thought of in the process.

To being T-Shaped!

在我代表IDEO进行全球演讲的过程中，经常会有人问我这样一个问题：“你们招聘的是怎样的人才？”（而且往往紧接着又问：“⋯⋯那我适不适合呢？”）许多人以为，作为一家设计咨询公司，我们看重的除了优异的设计能力，就没别的了。当然，我们要求设计师在自己的技能领域有出色的表现，但这只是一部分。事实上，我们所找的人才要比这更加多元和细化，我们把它叫做“T型人才”。接下来我会具体解释它的定义，以及为什么当今社会比以往更需要这类人才。

首先讲讲我自己的经历。我从小就很有艺术天份，总是喜欢这里涂涂，那里画画，要不就是制作小玩意儿。这种习惯一直伴随着我的学生时代，直到我考上大学，拿到平面设计的学位证书。如今，我非常热爱排版、构图和语言文字，而且对此颇有研究。我曾接受过故事讲述方面的训练，知道如何用简单明了的方法去表达自己的想法，最好还能用上足够的视觉效果，从情感层面感染听者。我不会说自己是专家，但我确实在这方面有过人之处。过去二十多年来，我在工作中积累了丰富多样的技能经验：品牌塑造、战略、包装设计、门店设计、广告创意和交互设计。在发挥核心技能优势的同时，将自己的创意触角伸向更广泛的领域。虽然这远不足以称得上是万能专家，但关键是懂得换位思考，了解各个领域的要求，感觉自己能用观点做出某种贡献。一直以来，我所在的行业不断地向各种主题和领域拓展，面对这些新的领域，我的知识非常有限，更何况我没有接受过工业设计或复杂的工程学方面的专业训练。尽管如此，我还是感觉自己可以贡献观点，或至少可以倾听其他更专业的同事的讲解，而且相信他们能教给我新的技能，以便我们更好地沟通交流。职业生涯把我造就成了一名“T型人才”，虽然当时我并没有意识到这一点：跨专业领域的换位思考能力（即T字上的横轴），同时具备一项深度的专业技能（即T字上的纵轴）。

因此，在IDEO，我们的设计师不仅拥有工业设计、交互设计、沟通设计或商业设计的专业背景，而且还广泛涉足宏观经济学、认知科学、食品科学、人类学、应用语言学、基因工程等领域，每个人在拥有一技之长的同时，还能博采众长。

如今，客户经常会找我们解决各种复杂的问题，而这就要求有不一样的工作方式，把人们聚集起来共同解决问题，但最重要的是，要懂得聆听，富于同理心，对解决方案持开放态度。比如，最近有客户找我们解决这样一个问题：“有什么方法能减少当前家用水的消耗？”要为这个项目找到四名造诣很深的水力学工程师，这会变得非常困难，更别说这不切实际了，况且会让人觉得最后设计出来的很可能仅仅只是一些和水力学相关的创意。

相较之下，我们的做法是精心挑选一组T型人才，其中可能包括：一名工程师，也许精通水力学，但同时兴趣广泛；一名人因调研专家，负责揭示人们在家用水使用方面的潜在需求；还有多名完全没有任何相关专业背景的设计师，或像我一样的人员，帮助讲述精彩的故事，为客户生动呈现问题所在，使其能够看见和感受较为抽象的事物。

在T型团队中，每个成员都带来必要的专业特长，同时与其他成员整体协作，广泛参与，共同解决问题。他们整个过程都在一起工作，从合作的第一天开始，大家就一起创造和分享各种创意，而不是各自埋头苦干，找到解决办法后再出来分享。对我来说，成功意味着我在评审某个项目、听取大家的讲解时，每个成员都乐于把所有的创意都称作是“他们的”创意，分享所有权和著作权，而我无法辨别出哪个点子是谁的主意。这就是T型设计最为理想的境界。

那么，为什么这很重要呢？我想，最直接的原因就是这会为我们的客户带来更好的创意，这些创意结合了不同角度的观点，而且往往是外行新手挑战深度知识和发挥创造的结果。我们为以上提到的客户所交付的工作成果就是最好的见证。他们给出的反馈是：“我们多年来一直在研究这个问题，但最终还是你们想出了我们从未想过的创意。”这就是T型思维的商业价值。

推崇这种做法的不止我们，许多现代企业组织也正在注意到跨专业团队合作的价值，有关通才与专才的一说也一度成为商业界的热议话题。位于加州爱莫利维尔市（Emeryville）的、屡获殊荣的皮克斯电影工作室就常主张要组建像这样的“能产生情感共鸣的、融洽的工作团队”。

一个好的T型创意是广泛而深刻的，既能引起情感共鸣、有丰富的扩展空间，又能做到细致周到、精心设计。这两方面必须同时具备。深入式的合作有助于加强同事间的相互信任、尊重和情感共鸣，也能让你找到自己可能从未想过的解决方案。但说真的，对于像我这样的成人来说，它的意义更多地是让你能够一直享受生活赋予我们的最伟大的礼物之一：不断学习的能力。和自己志同道合的人们在一起，可以加深你的“纵轴”，但不会教给你新的技能；而只有和能够扩展你的“横轴”的人们在一起，才能让你拥有不同的思维视角，学习并创造出你从未想到过的事物。

为“T型”喝彩！

Curious About…Our Inner Dragons.

An experiment…

The blog seems to have caught on in China, and I’ve been commissioned to write a special version for China Business News, addressing some of the themes that I see here. So here is the latest story, presented in both its original Mandarin and English, that is running right now. Huge thanks to my colleague Elyssa He for translating. 

So finally, it’s the famed Year of the Dragon. Believing as I do that all things happen for a reason, I though it might be exciting to explore if this unique astrological moment has any bearing on our collective destiny at this particular moment in time.

万众瞩目的龙年终于到来了。我一直相信，凡事都有前因后果，不妨借这个特别的生肖之年，研究一下我们的共同命运是否也会乘龙之运，遇上转机。

 

Examining dragons, I came across the following definition: “Occupying the 5th position in the Chinese Zodiac, the Dragon is the mightiest of the signs. Dragons symbolize such character traits as dominance and ambition. Dragons prefer to live by their own rules and if left on their own, are usually successful. They’re driven, unafraid of challenges, and willing to take risks. They’re passionate in all they do and they do things in grand fashion. Dragons prefer leading to being led. Jobs that allow them to express their creativity are good choices. Some good careers include: inventor, manager, computer analyst, lawyer, engineer, architect, broker, and sales person.”

有关龙的属相特质，我看到过这样的说法：“龙在中国传统的十二生肖中排列第五位，是所有生肖中最强大的。属龙的人有着统治和野心等性格特征，喜欢按照自己的规则生活，哪怕是独闯，也往往能取得成功。他们有一股冲劲，不怕挑战，并愿意承担风险。他们做任何事都充满激情、喜欢宏大的场面和规模。龙年生的人喜欢领导他人，而不是被领导。能让他们发挥创造性的工作是不错的选择。此类职业包括：发明家、经理、计算机分析师、律师、工程师、建筑师、经纪人和销售员。”

Reading this, I suddenly realized why dragons feel so familiar to me. Not only am I clearly surrounded by them, working as I do in a dynamic, creative environment, but these attributes also apply to many of our clients, who tend to be bold, curious and risk-taking, as well as the people out in the world that inspire us: people that are passionate, fearless and driven. For the other signs (I am a rabbit, in case you were wondering), keeping up with and supporting the Dragon is a very important thing to do. Wikipedia states: “The Rabbit possesses great powers of compassion and perception and can understand the truth of the Dragon’s heart better than could most other signs,” which probably explains why I spend so much of my time calming the dragons around me –our team of global designers -down and making sure they are being focused and productive.

读到这，我恍然明白了为什么龙给我的感觉如此熟悉。不仅仅是因为我工作在一个充满活力和创意的环境，周围有不少具备龙型特质的同行，而且这些特质还体现在我们接触到的很多客户身上。他们勇敢、好奇心强、不畏风险。当然还有带给我们启发的现实生活中的普通人，他们也同样满怀热情、不怕困难、干劲充沛。对于龙而言，其他生肖（我属兔，如果你想知道的话）的跟随和支持是非常重要的。维基百科给出的解释是：“生肖兔富于同情心和感知力，比其他大多数生肖都能更了解龙的真实内心，”这大概就是为什么我会花那么多的时间来引导我身边那些“龙”（我在全球的设计师团队），确保他们能全情投入、富有成效地工作。

Entrepreneurs are, to me, the dragons of the modern business world. Entrepreneurs without a doubt prefer leading to being led. Entrepreneurs follow their own rhythm, make (and often break) their own rules, and define what success means to them on their own terms. One of my Chinese business heroes, Jack Ma, is not surprisingly, a dragon. Small in stature, humble in tone of voice but firm in his opinions and viewpoints, he has built an empire that is the envy of many around the world, a business with strong beliefs and passionate values, successful both economically and emotionally. Refusing to settle for the status quo, if something does not work or meet the needs of the consumers he values so dearly, he creates his own, often superior version. Having repeatedly challenged China’s lagging state-owned banks for not being flexible enough in the space of internet transaction, in 2004 he developed his own online payment system, Alipay, to help consumers easily buy products on his sites and across the Web. In 2009, he developed a service called Ali-loan, a lending partnership with banks to help small businesses access more loans. “If banks don’t change, we will change banks,” he said at his internal employee conference. In 2011, Mr Ma acted rapidly and fundamentally to investigate the accusations of fake Taobao storefronts to stamp out any tendency towards a pursuit of short-term financial gain at any cost. He fired those directly involved, and in a principled move, he also removed Alibaba’s CEO and COO even though the two executives were not personally implicated in the scam. In the same year, he controversially transferred all of Alipay’s shares into domestic ownership in line with Chinese government regulation in spite of severe criticism for dishonouring the spirit of contract with Yahoo. Thinking like a dragon, creating a dragon business, behaving like a dragon.

我认为，企业家是现代商业界的龙。企业家无疑更喜欢扮演领导角色，而不是被领导。他们追随自己的节奏，制定（而且常常打破）自己的规则，对于成功的意义，他们有一套自己的解释和看法。马云是我心目中的一位中国商业英雄，果不其然，他也属龙。身材瘦小的他，即便谈吐谦逊，也掩盖不住他坚定的主见。他一手打造了一个令全世界许多人忌羡不已的“帝国”，一家秉持着强大的信念和热忱的企业，它的成功不仅是商业层面上的，还有精神层面上的。马云拒绝安于现状，如果不能满足对他来说最为重要的消费者的需求，他就自主开创一套新的模式，而这套模式往往更为先进。在多次指出国有银行在网络交易上的迟滞与僵化后，马云在2004年推出了自主研发的在线支付系统支付宝，方便消费者在其网站及整个网络上购买产品。2009年，他又开发了一项名为阿里贷款的服务，采用与银行合作的方式，为小企业提供融资服务。他曾在公司内部的员工大会上说：“如果银行不改变，我们就去改变银行。”2011年，马云迅速彻查涉嫌欺诈的阿里巴巴商户，坚决驱逐为追求短期盈利而不择手段的商家。他开除了事件的直接参与者，并直接导致阿里巴巴当时的首席执行官和首席运营官去职，虽然这两位并没有亲身参与欺诈。同年，马云在一片争议和指责声中，不顾违背与雅虎的契约精神，将阿里巴巴的所有股份转为全内资架构，以符合中国的政策规定。可谓格局如龙之举目千里，事业如龙之气势磅礴，行事如龙之雷厉风行。

This is an important moment for the dragons inside all of us to come to the forefront of business, as the collective desire for new ideas, new ways of working and new ways to communicate those ideas becomes ever more important. Chinese business in 2012 needs to become more entrepreneurial as well as significant, fearless as well as responsible, grand as well as original. In other words, become more dragon-like; use this astrological moment in time to create a new future for yourselves - embrace risk, failure and learning, challenge traditional ways of working and behaving, create new products, services and ways to engage your consumers. We are lucky in that our clients in China (MNC’s, local and international) are definitely looking for this and collectively going on the journey of learning, discovering, creating and implementing new ideas together is equally exciting and challenging.

随着人们求新的共同意愿日益强烈，是时候释放出我们每个人心中的那条“龙”，让其腾云驾雾在商业的最前沿。2012年的中国企业既需要强健的企业家精神，也需要追求自身的产业和社会意义；既要勇敢无畏，也要担负应有的责任；既要追求宏大效应，也要追求原创精神。也就是说，传承更多龙的特质，不避风险，直面失败，不断学习，敢于向传统的工作和行为方式发出挑战，创造出新的产品、服务和消费者互动方式，在龙年为自己谱写崭新的未来。值得庆幸的是，这种精神也正是我们在中国的客户（本土及国际型的跨国公司）所追求的。共同学习、探索、创造和实施创意的过程本身同样令人兴奋且充满挑战。

Whatever sign they are -  a snake, a monkey or a rooster - it is important to us that our clients bring out their inner dragon – their boldest, bravest and most entrepreneurial side – and help that drive their passion, ambition and ultimately their business. Dragons don’t abide by the rules but create their own; here at IDEO we live by the phrase “Don’t ask for permission. Ask for forgiveness,” which drives our own entrepreneurial culture forward. I am not for a second suggesting that everyone comes into work and breaks rules without care of consequence, but this is clearly astrologically designated as a year for bold moves and bravery. Jack Ma is leading the way, my hope is that many others follow.

不论客户是哪种属相，蛇、猴或鸡，对我们来说，重要的是他们能唤起自己心中的那条“龙”，展现出最为大胆、勇敢和开拓进取的一面，让这条“龙”驱动他们的热情和抱负，并最终成就他们事业的新高峰。拥有龙的特质的人，他们不会甘于墨守成规，而是敢于另辟蹊径。在IDEO，我们提倡“与其事前获得许可，不如事后寻求宽恕”，这种信念驱动着我们自己内部的创业文化不断发展。当然，我不是鼓励每个人在工作中都可以不计后果地违反规定，而是我认为从生肖定义上看，龙年确实本身就有勇往无前的意味。马云是一个榜样，我希望更多人能紧随其后。

With that notion in mind, I am therefore unofficially rechristening the year not just as The Year of The Dragon, but also as the year of the dragon inside us all, The Year of The Entrepreneur.

这么看来，我可以给今年起个非官方的新名字。这一年不仅仅是生肖意义上的龙年，而是唤起我们每个人心中的“龙”的一年——企业家之年。

Curious About…Dignity

(This is the second of a series of Curiosities first featured in Metropolis Magazine.) 

It first hit me in Fuxing Park last spring.

I was being interviewed by a journalist from Beijing. She was keen for us to get out of the office to walk and talk, to have ‘culturally immersive’ experiences together, to both react to these experiences and discuss the implications.

Fuxing Park (复兴公园) lies at the corner of Shanghai’s former French Concession and is where many older Chinese people gather early every morning to do their exercises, gossip, and start their day. On this particular day, the cool spring mist gave everything a slightly surreal, otherworldly air. There were all kinds of activities going on: a strange form of choreographed badminton done to music that had a very stylized, almost balletic feel to it; various singing groups singing traditional folk songs; a laughing class that had to be seen to be believed; a particularly bizarre hair-pulling exercise group; top spinning; kiting; and interwoven through out the park, various dance troupes—samba, marimba, jive.

But it was the waltzing that really got to me.

I was standing watching with two colleagues and the journalist (and unfortunately her photographer as I later found out). We heard a slow, very evocative Chinese vocal (from the 1930’s or 40’s, I assume) and a lilting, waltz rhythm. Suddenly, out of the blue, at least 150 Chinese people glided by us in a perfect, synchronized waltz, pairs of people I later found out did not necessarily know each other before that day, many with their eyes closed. Most were in their sixties, some older; they were beautifully dressed—women in skirts and heels, men in suits. The joyous simplicity and honesty in this moment was pure perfection. Something welled up in me and almost without realizing it I found myself in tears. Turning around I saw that my colleague Alice was also crying. Alice is originally from Hong Kong, has lived in the UK for many years, and is slowly rediscovering her Chinese roots. Neither of us spoke, but we were both moved by the same thing.

It was their dignity.

I know it’s an odd construct, to connect old people waltzing in a Chinese park to dignity. But watching them drift by me, I could not help but wonder what they had seen, what struggles they had overcome, but see only their incredible calm mixed with tangible joie de vivre. They were SO in the moment. All I can say is that it showed. Although I’m a Brit I consider myself a New Yorker, having lived on and off in New York for over 20 years. I could not help but imagine the same scene played out in, say, Washington Square Park or Battery Park. Would it have had the same inherent lack of judgment, joyous abandon or simplicity of emotion? Or would people have been more self-conscious, ‘shown-off’ more, wanted people to notice and ‘see’ them? More to the point, would it have moved me to tears, or would I have shuffled past, ever the New Yorker, slightly annoyed and a bit embarrassed by it all?

In Tohoku in Japan a few months later I was moved again by something altogether more serious. Doing research for a TEDx talk on post 3-11 earthquake-stricken Japan, I started looking at images of disasters around the world, both natural and man-made. Three image in succession disturbed me—first, National Geographic’s images of The Superdome in New Orleans’ being wrecked by looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; second, the sheer raw violence of the clash between rioters and police in London’s riots this last summer, and thirdly, in stark contrast to the other two, an image of the Fukishima baseball teams in Japan one month after the earthquake and tsunami, standing in perfect lines facing each other and deeply bowing. I later found out that this team was in fact a hybrid of several teams, as many had lost team members in the disaster, and that they had cleared the baseball pitch of debris themselves as a community. The quiet dignity of them, of the scene, of the collective respect, moved me to say on stage: “Seeing these images, I would be proud to call myself Japanese.”

Finally, Bangladesh. I went to see Grameen Bank in action a couple of years ago, to meet Muhammad Yunus and understand how microfinancing really worked. One particular fact struck me: Grameen gives out small, collateral-free loans to beggars, except that they are called strugglers, as everyone struggles, some more than others. The interesting thing was that almost nobody, less than 1%, defaulted on their loan payments. The fact that they were treated as equals with everyone else made the social contact of belief in them come alive, and they paid on time. I remember thinking to myself as I talked with people who had overcome tremendous adversity through the loans that they had been given and the trust that had been engendered: “This thing is not a bank. It is a dignity engine.”

What Of It? As I approach middle-age, I wonder if dignity is a byproduct of getting older, or if that is too simplistic a way to see it. Watching pairs of people who just met waltz in perfect unison in a public park in Shanghai, seeing young women calmly carry water in Bangladesh and people quietly lining up to sell milk by the jug to the local Danone village dairy in Bogra, I am beginning to think it is a mindset, one that we seem to have forgotten. I am not for a minute saying that people in certain geographies, or only poor people or victims are dignified, but I am beginning to think that dignity is cultural, and that we in the West seem to be losing it, trading as we do on the insanity of reality-show newsfeeds and endless streams of crazy and undignified acts, appealing to and manipulating our basest instincts. If dignity is inherent in us, does modern life somehow push it out?

I Am Curious about understanding how to design more dignity into the work my colleagues and I do. We’re lucky in that IDEO looks for opportunities to explore domains and problems where this kind of human emotion is central—and in many cases, we can help amplify that. People need spaces left for trust, mechanisms for human expression, compassion, and honesty to shine, ways to inherently allow their better selves to come to the forefront, to be in the moment. I am looking, as I was in China, Japan, and Bangladesh, to be moved by dignity and to help it thrive.

Curious About…Shanzhai Pets.

The Chinese have an um, complicated relationship with their canine friends. While in some provinces dog is still an acceptable food group, at the other end of the spectrum we have high-end dogs treated as the ultimate fashion accessory with thousands of dollars lavished on dyeing, grooming and transforming them into fantasy hybrid animals. For the record, all of the dogs in these pictures are real, none of this is Photoshopped.

Shanzhai (山寨) refers to Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics. Literally “mountain village” or “mountain stronghold”, the term refers to the mountain stockades of regional warlords or bandits, far away from official control. “Shanzhai” can also be stretched to refer to people who are lookalikes, low-quality or improved goods, as well as things done in parody. The frequent reference to shanzhai cell phones on the internet and in traditional media made people start labeling low-cost imitation cultural activities as shanzhai as well. Some of the most well-known events include the shanzhai National Spring Gala, the shanzhai Lecture Room, the shanzhai Olympic Torch Relay and even the shanzhai Nobel Prize. One thing these events have in common is that they all imitate high-end, popular yet authoritative events in which grass-roots power usually has no participating role. Some low-end performing agencies have made a business out of hiring people who look like pop stars to perform in rural areas, where people cannot afford to watch the performance of the actual stars. Thus shanzhai Jay Chou (“山寨周杰伦”), shanzhai Andy Lau (“山寨刘德华”) and shanzhai Faye Wong (“山寨王菲”) can be seen performing in many underdeveloped places in China.

The trend for the last couple of years here has been to trim and dye dogs to resemble shanzhai versions of other animals - pandas being top of the list of course, but also tigers, bison, lions, even camels. Wildly popular with locals, especially children, shanzhai pets are a huge phenomena here and there are frequent pet fairs, shows and events to showcase them and their owners.

What Of It? I’m certainly not condoning dyeing animals with toxic chemicals or even shaving their coats (you only have to look at the bison dog’s face above to see how unhappy he is) but there is something interesting to me behind shanzhai - it’s a uniquely Chinese way of not having to compromise. You want a dog that’s also a tiger? Why choose? Have both! Shanzhai is, for me, moving beyond fakery and into something else - uniquely ground-up and Chinese way to somewhat cheekily and innocently create something new from found resources.

I Am Curious about culturally-relevant approaches towards innovation, how one mans fake is another’s original creation, how concepts such as shanzhai can be perceived less as stealing and more as an original process of creation in its own right.

Curious About…Firecrackers.

Curious About…Chinese Cricket Matches.

(Huge thank you to my colleague Greg Perez for suggesting this topic.)

I haven’t been to Shanghai’s legendary Insect Market yet, but am planning on plucking up the courage to do so. I am a huge entemophobe so the challenge is vast, but I am curious to see the fighting cricket matches that everyone here talks about. (Worth pointing out upfront that unlike many blood sports such as bullfighting and cockfighting, cricket fighting rarely causes injuries to the animals.)

Cricket fighting was nurtured by Tang Dynasty emperors more than 1,000 years ago and was later popularized by everyday Chinese people. In the 13th century, the Southern Song Dynasty prime minister Jia Sidao wrote a how-to guide for the blood sport. Jia’s obsession with cricket fighting is believed to have contributed to the fall of the empire. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) China’s Communist government banned cricket fighting as a bourgeois predilection, but it is now undergoing a revival among a younger generation eager to embrace genuinely Chinese pastimes. 

Cricket season begins in summer and the championships take place after the autumn equinox in late September. In Beijing, the Association for Cricket Fighting organizes cricket fighting events and championships. Chongming Island, off the coast of Shanghai, hosts a six-day national cricket-fighting competition, drawing hundreds of fans and their combative insects from all over the country. While it is illegal in China to gamble on cricket fights, the fights themselves are legal and occur in most big cities in China. Crickets are sold openly in street markets, with more than a dozen cricket markets in Shanghai alone. Staggeringly, In 2010, more than 400 million yuan (US$63 million) were spent in China on crickets.

The best crickets are from a few counties in northeastern Shandong Province. Crickets have pedigrees and are carefully bred by knowledgeable keepers. Each cricket is kept in its own clay pot and their diets include ground shrimp, red beans, goat liver, and maggots. Before fight night, female crickets are dropped in the pot to amp up the male’s fighting spirit.

What Of It? What interests me here is the renaissance of a Chinese traditional pastime and the notion of a generation reclaiming their ancient sports and making them their own. I’m certainly not condoning animal fighting, but there is something strangely poetic about the idea of two humble insects invoking such vivid patriotism. And of course the paraphernalia, endless discussion online about cricket diets and lineage, breeders criticizing one another and the rabid loyalty that ensues is fascinating.

I Am Curious about the journey of any cultural tradition, about sports in those cultures and the idea of a new generation carrying on the legacy of a previous one.

Curious About…Ping Pong.

Most of our offices have some form of lightly competitive communal sport going on - in many cases there is a central foosball table where folks break in the mid-afternoon; fueled by cookies and Red Bull, they gather round and raucously egg one another on. In our Shanghai office, naturally, it’s ping pong.

Ping Pong (乒乓) is the official name for the sport of table tennis in China. The game originated as a sport in Britain during the 1880s where it was played among the upper-class as an after-dinner parlour game, then commonly known as “wiff-waff”. A row of books were to be stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball from one end of the table to the other. Later, table tennis was played with paddles made of cigar box lids and balls made of champagne corks. The popularity of the game led game manufacturers to sell the equipment commercially. Early rackets were often pieces of parchment stretched upon a frame, and the sound generated in play gave the game its first nicknames of “wiff-waff” and “ping-pong”. A number of sources indicate that the game was first brought to the attention of Hamley’s of Regent Street under the name “Gossima”. The name “ping-pong” was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name “ping-pong” then came to be used for the game played by the rather expensive Jaques equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the “ping-pong” name to Parker Brothers.

In the 1950s, rackets that used a rubber sheet combined with an underlying sponge layer changed the game dramatically, introducing greater spin and speed. These were introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. The use of speed glue increased the spin and speed even further, resulting in changes to the equipment to “slow the game down”. Table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in 1988.

After the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the International Table Tennis Federation instituted several rules changes aimed at making table tennis more viable as a televised spectator sport. First, the older 38 mm balls were officially replaced by 40 mm balls. This increased the ball’s air resistance and effectively slowed down the game. By that time, players had begun increasing the thickness of the fast sponge layer on their rackets, which made the game excessively fast and difficult to watch on television. Second, the ITTF changed from a 21-point to an 11-point scoring system in 2001. This was intended to make games more fast-paced and exciting. The ITTF also changed the rules on service to prevent a player from hiding the ball during service, in order to increase the average length of rallies and to reduce the server’s advantage.

Deng Yaping (鄧亞萍) is a Chinese table tennis player who won six world championships and four Olympic championships between 1989 and 1997. She is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. She began playing table tennis at age five, and four years later she won her provincial junior championship. She was age 13 when she won her first national championship. When she retired at the age of 24, she had won more titles than any other player in the sport. From 1990 to 1997, she retained the title of world No. 1 ranked female table tennis player for 8 years. She was voted Chinese female athlete of the century, and joined the International Table Tennis Federation Hall of Fame in 2003.

What Of It? It’s always fascinating to see one culture wholeheartedly embrace something from another; the fact that Indians love cricket so devotedly or that China has made ping pong their own, almost a national sport here, is fantastic. And the evolution from a simple parlor game played with books to an Olympic sport is also quite a journey: I have to say, I also love the concept of modifying the speed and rhythm of a game to make it more spectator-friendly. 

I Am Curious about the cornerstones of any culture - the food, dance, traditions, clothes and in this case, sports that are carried through generations, and occasionally, as with ping pong, imported from elsewhere to become a treasured national icon. 

Curious Inspiration. Yin Ts’ang (隐藏, 隱藏) is a highly influential, multi-national Chinese hip-hop group from Beijing, China that originally consisted of MC Webber (PRC), 老郑XIV (USA), Sbazzo (CAN) and Dirty Heff (USA). They are frequently referred to as the originators of the modern mainland Chinese hip-hop movement and are recognized for releasing the first Chinese hip-hop album that has met with any critical acclaim. Here they are performing their 2010 hit “Don’t Worry.” Enjoy.

Curious about…老百姓 Laobaixing.

Lao baixing (老百姓; lit. “old hundred surnames”) in Chinese means “ordinary folks”, “the people”, or “commoners.” The word Lao (Chinese:老) is used here as an adjective, which give it a warm and friendly touch. To me it meant “everyday people” and was evident everywhere as simple, human touches that were added to things: a lid for your tea to keep it warm, the raucous wet markets with the haggling and ensuing laughter that went on there, the ballroom dancing in Fuxing Park, everyone swaying together, their eyes closed, dreaming of better times. Design has mainly forgotten the laobaixing, preferring to design seemingly sophisticated products for elite people, but I wondered the entire time I was in China who was designing laobaixing: everyday products for everyday people. a billion of them. I want us to. 

What of It? There are a billion consumers in China who need products, services and experiences designed by, with and for them. To not engage with Loabaixing is not not engage in the real China, or the possibility of being a small part of a billion people’s everyday lives.

Curious about…Innocent Innovation.

What Of It? Everywhere you go in China there is abundant Innocent Innovation. People using, adapting, co-opting and collectively redesigning their immediate surroundings. And the logic of it is fantastic: of course you should dry a coat like this.

Curious about…Chinese Maslow’s Hierarchy.

“The ancient people who desired to have a clear moral harmony in the world would first order their national life; those who desired to order their national life would first regulate their home life; those who desired to regulate their home life would first cultivate their personal lives; those who desired to cultivate their personal lives would first set their hearts right; those who desired to set their hearts right, would first make their wills sincere; those who desired to make their wills sincere would first arrive at understanding; understanding comes from the exploration of the knowledge of things. When the knowledge of things is gained, then understanding is reached; when understanding is reached, then the will is sincere; when the will is sincere, then the heart is set right; when the heart is set right, then the personal life is cultivated; when the personal life is cultivated, then the home life is regulated; when the home life is regulated, then the national life is orderly; and when the national life is orderly, then the world is at peace. From the Emperor down to the common man, the cultivation of the personal life is the foundation of all. It is impossible that when the foundation is disorderly, the superstructure can be orderly. There has never been a tree whose trunk is slender and whose top branches are heavy and strong. There is a cause and a sequence in things, and a beginning and end in human affairs. To know the order of precedence is to have the beginning of wisdom.”

Confucius

What Of It? China is a culture deeply rooted in philosophy. Confucius, Mao, Taoism. People freely refer to their collective past and where ideas come from. It is interesting to ponder the notion of moving past strategy and into creating philosophy for brands in China, connecting them more deeply to the culture.

Curious about…Chinese Wabi-Sabi.

Wabi-sabi (侘寂^?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete”.^[1] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist assertion of the Three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin^?), specifically impermanence (無常 mujō^?)

What Of It? In modern progressive society, we seem to shun the old in favor of the radically new. All over China and Japan, decay is celebrated as much as modernity, a delicate balance of aged patina and glossy sheen.