Heroes Not Zombies

I stumbled upon this the other day – from the designer, Bruce Mau. There are 43 items on his list. Take a look, they’re inspiring. Here are three which jumped out at me –

Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.This might be good advice for designers, but it’s even better advice for doctors! An awful lot of contemporary medical practice ignores this. In Medicine we seem to be obsessed with the idea of outcomes, yet life isn’t made up of end points, it’s a continuous flow right through to death. It’s better to focus on processes.

Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

I know it’s often said that human beings are social animals and that we gain much more from working together than we do by trying to do things all by ourselves, but what I liked about this point, was that the recognition that working together isn’t always easy, and even when it isn’t, it still contains vast potential for creativity and solutions.

Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls “the waiting place.” Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

What a great idea! Holding a conference without any of the speeches, presentations or “plenaries”!