More to follow..
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| There is someone behind that santa mask |
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| gingerbread elephants |
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| Cotton garland |
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Gingerbread elephants and mulled wine
So much can happen in a week. I went from a state of overwhelming uncertainty to a place of more comfort and resolution with the chaos. It was a great week. Don't get me wrong, I am still navigating through waves of confusion and fear, but I feel much better about it somehow.
I focused this week on getting to know my coworkers. I set up hour long interviews with everyone to get a grasp on who they are, what they are looking for in life, and where they see the company going. All of this is to help me best see where I can fit in. It's a little complicated though, because I am not designing a 6 month project just for me, but a longer engagement that another fellow would pick up with wherever I leave off. So it gets tricky. I need to choose something with research, design and a series of iterations, but know that I will probably only make it to the design phase while I am here. After the interviews, I felt way more in tune with the team. I know more about their experiences and more importantly, their aspirations for the future. It was good to just listen and be, it was an exercise I found a lot of appreciation for and will probably use in future new engagements.
This week the team went to visit a program that is sponsored by Cisco, HP, Intel, MIT and the Boston Children's Museum. It is called Children's Lovecastles Trust. These guys have been doing distance learning for 10 years, they have their system mostly worked out and it is impressive to see. The teachers translate state regulated subject curriculum into 30 minute lessons. Each lesson contains a digital presentation that the teacher creates with supplementary learning videos if necessary. All communication is done through Webex. Each classroom is outfitted with a camera, screen, and internet cable. One teacher uses video conferencing to go through a lesson with an average of 5 different classrooms at the same time. The teacher skillfully pairs classes against each other and facilitates interactions between the students across different classes. This approach obviously relies on a lot of donated technology and a stable internet connection to the schools, so it isn't completely scalable, but it is an amazing case study for distance learning.
There is also an afterschool program attached to the facility that allows students to play at different workstations. Each station has a different set of programs installed on the computers. The kids are then free to play at whatever station they like. There are no rules, no defined structure, just a playspace for creativity and fun. It was impressive to see the soft skills they were learning- collaboration, trial and error, pride for the artifacts they created. It was inspiring to say the least.
On the non-work front, I decided the best way to people's hearts is through food. And, since I will be celebrating Christmas this year without the usual triggers of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, I decided to bring it to me. The most Christmas of all objects, besides a pine tree, is gingerbread. So I organized a gingerbread making event with my coworkers, but who knew how difficult it is to find brown sugar in these parts. Everyone pitched in and brought different ingredients, while I was assigned to the more difficult ones... the gumdrops, decorations, molasses (which doesn't exist here) and the mysterious brown sugar. I ended up going to three different stores searching for brown sugar to no avail and decided the best approach was thievery.
Karnataka grows coffee beans, and makes pretty good coffee actually, so there has been a rise of local coffeeshops in Bangalore. There are also a few expat shops, like Costa Coffee, Au Bon Pain, and Starbucks. So I devised my plan of thievery around 1 section of Koramangala. There is a loop that inlcude 3 different cafes. 3 cafes with copious amounts of brown sugar packets for the taking. I went out one evening, did my job and hustled the neighboorhood, successfully procurring enough packets to fill 3/4 cup. Success!
The other success was in the making and baking. The girls loved it. I was so happy. Everyone got involved in the process, from grinding the spices to pounding the dough and cutting out shapes. It was great. Even better was their faces after tasting the batter and the final product. I fully support food as a conduit to friendship. It works.
My other big win for the weekend was going to Hannah's house for a Christmas party. I met a lot of people from different design and engineering companies in the area. It is interesting being on the India side of international work. In San Francisco, I took for granted the amount of hard work and dedication that our Indian counterparts were doing for us. I didn't realize the consistently late nights and early days they agreed to put in just to talk with us. I thought we were sacrificing a lot of our personal selves and lives for communication but I realize now how naive that thinking was. These guys travel atleast an hour each day in miserable traffic to just get to work. If there is a late night call, which is consistent and frequent, they either have to travel back to work or arrange for connectivity in their home and hope that there are no blackouts and nothing goes wrong. It is much more difficult here than I ever realized.
But I digress from the warm and cozy feeling I was previously reflecting on. Hannah's was rad. I made mulled wine and cooked a dish of paneer, dates and mint. It turned out well and felt so nice to have a kitchen again. We all had an art swap, under the rules of a white elephant, and I ended up with a beautiful hand carved block print. One of the designers at the party had been working with some local craftsmen to see if there was a potential business model for using these craftsmen in commercially produced goods. Rahul spoke for a while of his learnings in this space, mostly that there is a delicate balance in this eco-system. Disrupting one piece affects many, and mandating craft, or regulating it through government grants, may be stifling creativity and growth. The artists are not allowed to veer from traditional product. No use of non-traditional tools, and no incentive to explore. Not that many of these want to do that, but some do. And for them, there is tension. Rahul no longer works with his group of craftsmen, he says he needs time to digest what he has learned, but I commend his attitude for trying and failing and learning from it.
So yea... 1 week until Christmas. I am in short sleeves and a skirt and loving every minute of it.
I focused this week on getting to know my coworkers. I set up hour long interviews with everyone to get a grasp on who they are, what they are looking for in life, and where they see the company going. All of this is to help me best see where I can fit in. It's a little complicated though, because I am not designing a 6 month project just for me, but a longer engagement that another fellow would pick up with wherever I leave off. So it gets tricky. I need to choose something with research, design and a series of iterations, but know that I will probably only make it to the design phase while I am here. After the interviews, I felt way more in tune with the team. I know more about their experiences and more importantly, their aspirations for the future. It was good to just listen and be, it was an exercise I found a lot of appreciation for and will probably use in future new engagements.
This week the team went to visit a program that is sponsored by Cisco, HP, Intel, MIT and the Boston Children's Museum. It is called Children's Lovecastles Trust. These guys have been doing distance learning for 10 years, they have their system mostly worked out and it is impressive to see. The teachers translate state regulated subject curriculum into 30 minute lessons. Each lesson contains a digital presentation that the teacher creates with supplementary learning videos if necessary. All communication is done through Webex. Each classroom is outfitted with a camera, screen, and internet cable. One teacher uses video conferencing to go through a lesson with an average of 5 different classrooms at the same time. The teacher skillfully pairs classes against each other and facilitates interactions between the students across different classes. This approach obviously relies on a lot of donated technology and a stable internet connection to the schools, so it isn't completely scalable, but it is an amazing case study for distance learning.
There is also an afterschool program attached to the facility that allows students to play at different workstations. Each station has a different set of programs installed on the computers. The kids are then free to play at whatever station they like. There are no rules, no defined structure, just a playspace for creativity and fun. It was impressive to see the soft skills they were learning- collaboration, trial and error, pride for the artifacts they created. It was inspiring to say the least.
On the non-work front, I decided the best way to people's hearts is through food. And, since I will be celebrating Christmas this year without the usual triggers of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, I decided to bring it to me. The most Christmas of all objects, besides a pine tree, is gingerbread. So I organized a gingerbread making event with my coworkers, but who knew how difficult it is to find brown sugar in these parts. Everyone pitched in and brought different ingredients, while I was assigned to the more difficult ones... the gumdrops, decorations, molasses (which doesn't exist here) and the mysterious brown sugar. I ended up going to three different stores searching for brown sugar to no avail and decided the best approach was thievery.
Karnataka grows coffee beans, and makes pretty good coffee actually, so there has been a rise of local coffeeshops in Bangalore. There are also a few expat shops, like Costa Coffee, Au Bon Pain, and Starbucks. So I devised my plan of thievery around 1 section of Koramangala. There is a loop that inlcude 3 different cafes. 3 cafes with copious amounts of brown sugar packets for the taking. I went out one evening, did my job and hustled the neighboorhood, successfully procurring enough packets to fill 3/4 cup. Success!
The other success was in the making and baking. The girls loved it. I was so happy. Everyone got involved in the process, from grinding the spices to pounding the dough and cutting out shapes. It was great. Even better was their faces after tasting the batter and the final product. I fully support food as a conduit to friendship. It works.
My other big win for the weekend was going to Hannah's house for a Christmas party. I met a lot of people from different design and engineering companies in the area. It is interesting being on the India side of international work. In San Francisco, I took for granted the amount of hard work and dedication that our Indian counterparts were doing for us. I didn't realize the consistently late nights and early days they agreed to put in just to talk with us. I thought we were sacrificing a lot of our personal selves and lives for communication but I realize now how naive that thinking was. These guys travel atleast an hour each day in miserable traffic to just get to work. If there is a late night call, which is consistent and frequent, they either have to travel back to work or arrange for connectivity in their home and hope that there are no blackouts and nothing goes wrong. It is much more difficult here than I ever realized.
But I digress from the warm and cozy feeling I was previously reflecting on. Hannah's was rad. I made mulled wine and cooked a dish of paneer, dates and mint. It turned out well and felt so nice to have a kitchen again. We all had an art swap, under the rules of a white elephant, and I ended up with a beautiful hand carved block print. One of the designers at the party had been working with some local craftsmen to see if there was a potential business model for using these craftsmen in commercially produced goods. Rahul spoke for a while of his learnings in this space, mostly that there is a delicate balance in this eco-system. Disrupting one piece affects many, and mandating craft, or regulating it through government grants, may be stifling creativity and growth. The artists are not allowed to veer from traditional product. No use of non-traditional tools, and no incentive to explore. Not that many of these want to do that, but some do. And for them, there is tension. Rahul no longer works with his group of craftsmen, he says he needs time to digest what he has learned, but I commend his attitude for trying and failing and learning from it.
So yea... 1 week until Christmas. I am in short sleeves and a skirt and loving every minute of it.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Testing the waters
When I am out of my element, I find comfort in the strangest things, the logic of a well organized bag, the memories associated with a favorite mug, or the familiarity of a frequented website. A friend who used to go on tour a lot called it his OCD moment. He would run through a list of things he shouldn't forget multiple times throughout the day. Keys, wallet, cellphone, gear. He described it as similar to Nomar's nervous twitches before he got up to bat.
I found myself straddling between two worlds this past week, one of newness, hope and risk. The other consisted of the past, all the warm memories and comfort in recalling what has come before. It is a strange place to be. There is an unfettered amount of hope and change, but I find I need something that grounds me to my identity. A definition of who I am in a place that I have no real history with.
I started this week so nervous about the project. It is still very vague and ambiguous as to what I will be doing. And it is only for 6 months, which seems like a long time especially after my last job, but the average NGO moves slower than the corporate world. The need for patience is something I am actively harnessing. I told the guys at Quest that I just want to listen and absorb the first week. I want to talk to everyone in the office, organize some structured interview sessions and just read content. I want to understand the culture and ultimately fit into it, but I also am weary of tainting the pot. I don't want to bring the corporate world sprint to an organization that seems productive enough and happy to boot. If anything, that is my big lesson to learn, how to manage a healthy work environment.
The key to this work is relationship building. Much of what I will be testing is my ability to open up to my coworkers. It takes courage and is something I am not wholly comfortable with. I have always thought of myself as a worker bee, dedicated to a project, knowing that it probably isn't balanced but never having a name for the problem. But now I am starting to understand. Brian, one of the fellows, passed along some advice, he said I should step forward as me first and designer second. He's right, I have never done it that way. I have always tried to prove to myself or to others that I can get shit done, that adding me to a team was a good choice. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.
I like this NGO space I have found myself in. It is a space of open source and collaboration. Competition is seen as opportunity for partnerships. Learnings are learnings for everyone and should be shared to benefit the greater good. There is no IP and no overarching ego. Collaboration is the elbow grease and empathy is the engine. It may not be as productive as what I have been apart of in the past and challenges will surely unfold, but the tone seems healthier, more manageable.
I don't know what to expect really. As I get into it, all this could change. So far, I have been met with friendly and accommodating people. Coworkers that always remember me at lunch, who bought me a plastic Christmas tree so I don't get homesick, and are simply fun to be around. Between them and my friend Hannah, who toured me through her neighborhood this first weekend, I don't feel so alone.
I have also started using rickshaws. On my first attempt, the driver stopped for gas and overshot the destination by about 10 minutes. Not the best start, but atleast he used the meter. I had to haggle with the second guy and he charged me the same amount that another guy drove for double the distance the next day. Ha, I guess you win some and lose some. As long as I get home, I am ok with everything. One thing to always remember is a scarf to cover your face from the dust and pollution. But it has to be colorfast! I don't want to look like Josh when we went into town during training. His face was covered with red towel dye. See the group pic in the previous post... Josh is the dude in the back with the rosy appearance. Poor guy looked like he had a gnarly rash. That was him after scrubbing his face for 5 mins. Ha.
I found myself straddling between two worlds this past week, one of newness, hope and risk. The other consisted of the past, all the warm memories and comfort in recalling what has come before. It is a strange place to be. There is an unfettered amount of hope and change, but I find I need something that grounds me to my identity. A definition of who I am in a place that I have no real history with.
I started this week so nervous about the project. It is still very vague and ambiguous as to what I will be doing. And it is only for 6 months, which seems like a long time especially after my last job, but the average NGO moves slower than the corporate world. The need for patience is something I am actively harnessing. I told the guys at Quest that I just want to listen and absorb the first week. I want to talk to everyone in the office, organize some structured interview sessions and just read content. I want to understand the culture and ultimately fit into it, but I also am weary of tainting the pot. I don't want to bring the corporate world sprint to an organization that seems productive enough and happy to boot. If anything, that is my big lesson to learn, how to manage a healthy work environment.
The key to this work is relationship building. Much of what I will be testing is my ability to open up to my coworkers. It takes courage and is something I am not wholly comfortable with. I have always thought of myself as a worker bee, dedicated to a project, knowing that it probably isn't balanced but never having a name for the problem. But now I am starting to understand. Brian, one of the fellows, passed along some advice, he said I should step forward as me first and designer second. He's right, I have never done it that way. I have always tried to prove to myself or to others that I can get shit done, that adding me to a team was a good choice. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.
I like this NGO space I have found myself in. It is a space of open source and collaboration. Competition is seen as opportunity for partnerships. Learnings are learnings for everyone and should be shared to benefit the greater good. There is no IP and no overarching ego. Collaboration is the elbow grease and empathy is the engine. It may not be as productive as what I have been apart of in the past and challenges will surely unfold, but the tone seems healthier, more manageable.
I don't know what to expect really. As I get into it, all this could change. So far, I have been met with friendly and accommodating people. Coworkers that always remember me at lunch, who bought me a plastic Christmas tree so I don't get homesick, and are simply fun to be around. Between them and my friend Hannah, who toured me through her neighborhood this first weekend, I don't feel so alone.
I have also started using rickshaws. On my first attempt, the driver stopped for gas and overshot the destination by about 10 minutes. Not the best start, but atleast he used the meter. I had to haggle with the second guy and he charged me the same amount that another guy drove for double the distance the next day. Ha, I guess you win some and lose some. As long as I get home, I am ok with everything. One thing to always remember is a scarf to cover your face from the dust and pollution. But it has to be colorfast! I don't want to look like Josh when we went into town during training. His face was covered with red towel dye. See the group pic in the previous post... Josh is the dude in the back with the rosy appearance. Poor guy looked like he had a gnarly rash. That was him after scrubbing his face for 5 mins. Ha.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
'Round every corner
Humility and release. The two feelings I have experienced most over the course of this week. The fellows met last Sunday at a guest house in Bangalore and we began our journey to the ashram for training. There are six of us in total. One Colombian, one Irishman, one Indian, and three Americans. We fumbled through introductions and organized ourselves and luggage into a Tata, an Indian built 4 wheeler. We were two hours away from the ashram and the level of interest, knowledge, and authenticity was felt immediately. Those first few hours were a great indication of the speed of which we would all become friends.
The team is impressive. There is a deep knowledge of design and community building. Everyone has different experiences and are dedicated to the idea of improving the lives of people who need it the most. Part of me would love to just work with them over the next 6 months and pick their brains.
We have had a series of guest lecturers during training. The first was Hari Natrajan, an expert on rural energy needs and microfinance. He has worked with Harish Hande at Selco and is currently working at Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Fund. He was a wealth of knowledge, speaking for 7 hours straight, without notes, without prompts and had the ability to go broad, narrow into a single concept and go back broad again. He was an inspiration to meet. One of the key insights I gained was that social entrepreneur projects for the poor should embody three things:
1. the alternative must be at equal cost to the current offering
2. systems should be customizable to multiple user needs
3. the design must show an understanding of actual customer behavior
This may seem commonsense, but so many design solutions for the bottom of the pyramid miss these basic tenets. Companies have attempted to push expensive technology on people by relying on subsidies, making an unsustainable business model OR a solution is cost effective but not designed with the end user in mind, making the design useless. The process of design should not change for low income needs.
Another guest lecturer was Ayush Chauhan, co-founder of Quicksand, a design+ firm in India. He spoke about designing with non-profits and the challenges associated with doing research in India, most specifically on how to immerse yourself in the culture you are seeking to learn from. He was great, a wealth of real world examples and techniques. More impressive was the business model his firm is built on. The founders are a group of friends with a diverse background in film, toy design, and business. They created a model of using the funds from corporate work to support their work with NGOs in the social sector. They also support a range of projects in their personal interest areas of music, multimedia, and the arts. Quicksand is putting on a conference in February that all the fellows are invited to called Unboxed. It is a mashup of cultural events, dancing, live music, interactive multimedia, design, food, and film. I am so excited to go.
In general, there is just so much innovation happening in India. People are creating sustainable business plans that support the unique ideas they want to accomplish rather than taking what is being offered. Whether it is creating an art collective on the backs of corporate design, building solar solutions for the poor or starting a cooperative craft business to enhance the livelihood of cut off communities. There is so much opportunity if you choose to really dig in.
It has been an incredibly inspiring week. I am blessed to be here. It’s funny the understandings you come to when you get out of your comfort zone. I already see the barriers and limits I have built for myself. The path I have been going down isn’t necessarily my own. Maybe because I have felt the need to learn more, to become a true expert in something, or maybe because the path has always been somewhat safe and clearly defined. But I don't want to follow forever, it doesn't have to be that way. I don't know what the next step is, but I do realize that distance and time is a wonderful thing to have.
The team is impressive. There is a deep knowledge of design and community building. Everyone has different experiences and are dedicated to the idea of improving the lives of people who need it the most. Part of me would love to just work with them over the next 6 months and pick their brains.
We have had a series of guest lecturers during training. The first was Hari Natrajan, an expert on rural energy needs and microfinance. He has worked with Harish Hande at Selco and is currently working at Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Fund. He was a wealth of knowledge, speaking for 7 hours straight, without notes, without prompts and had the ability to go broad, narrow into a single concept and go back broad again. He was an inspiration to meet. One of the key insights I gained was that social entrepreneur projects for the poor should embody three things:
1. the alternative must be at equal cost to the current offering
2. systems should be customizable to multiple user needs
3. the design must show an understanding of actual customer behavior
This may seem commonsense, but so many design solutions for the bottom of the pyramid miss these basic tenets. Companies have attempted to push expensive technology on people by relying on subsidies, making an unsustainable business model OR a solution is cost effective but not designed with the end user in mind, making the design useless. The process of design should not change for low income needs.
Another guest lecturer was Ayush Chauhan, co-founder of Quicksand, a design+ firm in India. He spoke about designing with non-profits and the challenges associated with doing research in India, most specifically on how to immerse yourself in the culture you are seeking to learn from. He was great, a wealth of real world examples and techniques. More impressive was the business model his firm is built on. The founders are a group of friends with a diverse background in film, toy design, and business. They created a model of using the funds from corporate work to support their work with NGOs in the social sector. They also support a range of projects in their personal interest areas of music, multimedia, and the arts. Quicksand is putting on a conference in February that all the fellows are invited to called Unboxed. It is a mashup of cultural events, dancing, live music, interactive multimedia, design, food, and film. I am so excited to go.
In general, there is just so much innovation happening in India. People are creating sustainable business plans that support the unique ideas they want to accomplish rather than taking what is being offered. Whether it is creating an art collective on the backs of corporate design, building solar solutions for the poor or starting a cooperative craft business to enhance the livelihood of cut off communities. There is so much opportunity if you choose to really dig in.
It has been an incredibly inspiring week. I am blessed to be here. It’s funny the understandings you come to when you get out of your comfort zone. I already see the barriers and limits I have built for myself. The path I have been going down isn’t necessarily my own. Maybe because I have felt the need to learn more, to become a true expert in something, or maybe because the path has always been somewhat safe and clearly defined. But I don't want to follow forever, it doesn't have to be that way. I don't know what the next step is, but I do realize that distance and time is a wonderful thing to have.
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