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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Monday 24 March 2014

Thinking Design Gardening Society




Precisely.  This is how the system works - expand, contract, solidify, grow outwards once more.  Add new layers, but then network those layers in systematic ways to ensure clarity, efficiency and sustainability of action.

Design has twigged on because it's a sexy term, but because so many things are lumped under that one frame, it doesn't really mean anything, or at least the same thing to everyone.  It's like the term "social entrepreneur" that way.

Or better yet, how about Master Builder?  If you've seen the recent Lego Movie you'll be familiar with the term - geniuses that know how to create, but not necessarily how to engineer and definitely not how to collaborate.

But don't worry - that movement is already underway.  Planning, consultation and co-design might be a bit less flash, but you can't build a vision without the underlying infrastructure, can you?  You don't want everyone to think the same, work the same, focus on the same tasks - that's a recipe for collapse.

If you try, your vision grows wild and unsustainable, eventually being consumed by something else.

To grow something that will last requires a diversity of skills, resources, tools, approaches.  It's like the thumb and the fingers; one isn't more important than the other because of where it's positioned or how it moves - you need all of 'em if you're to lift something up.

Which, naturally, is why the best model for sustainable growth isn't a tower, but a garden.




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