My current work lives here: Oddball Empire - Rock on.
This blog is my own small, adorable identity crisis. With a name like “Project Shrink” you would assume it’s about “projects”. Well, it is, and it isn’t.
I have my internal idea about what it is I’m about. My “blog identity” if you want.
Blogger-Me.
Blogger-Me is about sociology, psychology, complexity and stuff. The cool human stuff. In a project context.
Last year at a PM congress I found out that I was “the video guy”. Just because I was weird enough to walk around in a suit with a cheap flip cam.
So. My internal representation of Blogger-Me, my perception of that part of my identity, doesn’t have to be in line with my external expression of Blogger-Me. People picked up different cues than “wow. cool stuff about humans.” They picked up “ha. cheap video recorder.”
Identity is about inward reflection and outward presentation.
I tried to come up with one sentence describing my topic. You know.
A pitch.
Yuk.
Well. That didn’t go well. It only resulted in a post called “I Hate Elevator Pitches.”
Yes. I know. Identity crisis.
This Blogging Identity Crisis is ironic, because “identity” is a central part of the topic. Again. I know.
So. I left it there. For a while.
But every year in December, I look back and have to summarize the blog posts I wrote in that year.
Ok. Here I go.
“Project Shrink is about the role “identity” plays in communication and collaboration in virtual and global spaces.”
If you have no idea what I am talking about, I suggest you start here.
Now. I need a hug.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bas de Baar and Cornelius Fichtner, Dr Edward Wallington. Dr Edward Wallington said: RT @projectshrink: Blogger-Me. A Small Adorable Identity Crisis. Every Year. http://fb.me/QnCmlGxz [...]
Hello Bas,
Just to tell you you deserve a hug.
I liked your statement”Identity is about inward reflection and outward presentation”. This is a great statement.
Haha. Thanks!
Sometimes it is just amazing how the answer is staring you in the face.
”Identity is about inward reflection and outward presentation”
Explains what we discussed three years ago about mental models, metaphores and your own perception. It explains communication, and it explains how social groups emerge.
(see http://www.shrinkonia.com/no-more-dharmas-3671.html )
So, all we need in projects and other forms of (online) collaboration.
It also takes care of the need of homogeneity and diversity for resilience. The “group identity” creates the sameness, and letting people express their own identity creates the diversity.
I wrote
”
If the surroundings are comfortable and safe enough (that is the cohesion/homogeneous part) we are more likely to express our identity and embrace our identity, and that takes care of the cognitive diversity part.”
here http://www.gantthead.com/blog/The-Project-Shrink/2598/
I think I am almost full cycle, and have a unifying idea/concept!
Yay!
Hello Bas,
Amazing how old ideas fit in place. I wonder if you would marry my last presentation with your post what you shall come up with!
Surely, you have almost completed the circle. I am sure you wonder why it took so much time to go through this cycle. My answer is because it is simple rule that interact to give complex emergence. The complexity bases itself on simple rules, but it is not always simple to identify them.
Cheers
If people are interested, the presentation can be found here:
http://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/blue-ocean-strategy-balanced-scorecard-strategy-and-team-forming-a-shared-perspective
For me it is about the balance between homogeneity and diversity, the balance between mainstream and deviant identity, the balance between feeling safe to express your own idenity and feeling “forced” to comply to one in your expressions.
The panarchy cycle describes how one cylces through these balances (it’s in eternal flux as circumstances change).
So I don’t use a 2 dimisional grid, but a cube
That’s how I view it at this moment. If this makes sense.
Hello Bas again,
I could not agree more with you
If you would find the time to read the last comments on my presentation (post to your comment) you would find how valuable to readers if you would expand on this post. It is not a post; it is a treasure as it establishes new perspective to not only PM, but also to many other business field.
There is a genuine need to expand on this idea, Bas. Please do it
Thanks ali. I will. The more I think about it, it would be an awesome way to explain things and visualize.
Will work on it this weekend.
Just a note for self: the adaptive cycle basically explains a balance between opposites by means of episodes of growth, statis, breakdown and a new reordening.
So, for example on the balance between “express your own idenity and feeling “forced” to comply to one in your expressions” there has to be a breakdown first before you swing back to another side.
And all dimensions influence each other.
Complying means less diversity for e.g.
Hi Bas,
Bear with me as your comments warm me up
Coming back to your initial statement
inward reflection and outward presentation
You see the embedded balance between “Inward and Outward”. The dimensions that you refer to in your previous comment determine the capacity of the system
Ahhhh. Great insight. So the adaptive cycle should be a cycle of inward-outward / reflection-expression? right?
Yes, this is what I meant. You define a new dimension Inward Vs. Outward. Surely, this is a new insight
So. Four dimensions. Right?
The main one is inward-outward. Other ones are secondary, dimensions describing the environment/capacity of the system.
Or is this inward/outward the cylce that a person goes through?
Not sure.
bas, you got me in the trap
If you go back to my presentation, I have the four looping forces contained within a cube. The opposing forces do not fill the universe. They are bounded by the dimensions of the cube. So, Inward vs. outware must have attributes that define the X, Y, Z dimensions of the cube
Thanks. I get it. Will be a challenge this weekend
But one I gladly take on.
I start with just a descriptive gird: describing the inward/outward balance at over the 3 dimensions.
Yes, Bas
That is precisely what I meant. Now, you have what is inside the cube. What is left is defining suitable dimensions
Have a great luck
Interesting discussion between you guys. I clicked through from the reader to comment thus;
Bas, you ate back at ‘projects are about people’ but with much more depth.
Hello Bas,
While writing my part on our joint forthcoming publication an idea crossed my mind. If we inspect the change curve we find it has dips. In other words, we do not change linearly or from the starting position to the en position by what we call “Tarzan Jump”. Rather, we go into dips. This agrees well with what you said above in the comment you made for yourself “Just a note for self: the adaptive cycle basically explains a balance between opposites by means of episodes of growth, statis, breakdown and a new reordering.
So, for example on the balance between “express your own identity and feeling “forced” to comply to one in your expressions” there has to be a breakdown first before you swing back to another side”.
In fact we might go into successive dips that put us each time on a higher fitness peak. See for example this great reference
http://knol.google.com/k/cognition-affect-and-learning#
I want you in particular to see the slide entitled “Non-Monotonic Learning”
Eagles do it the same way. They break parts of their body to revive.
It seems that disruptive processes are more common than what we may think
@Craig: glad you enjoy this discussion. I hope it is interesting to others to see how we get from one point to another. Of course, Ali being an excellent discussion partner.
So, please join in if you have time
And yes, it appears so.
Hopefully now I’m able to tell you how to get a diverse team and will be going beyond the Maslow pyramid. 
@Ali, thanks for the amazing reference. It really fills in some missing links for me. I’ll need to include emotions into the mix. Explicit, instead of implicit.
Yes, disruption and breakdown, it really seems necessary. It reminds me of the concept of Creative Breakthrough
http://www.shrinkonia.com/creative-breakthroughs-and-project-management-129.html
Same idea.
I’ll think I need to get some definitions straight first
You see, the issue I have with the identity inward outward balance is that it is not a balance: these things happen simultaneously. What is a balance is your mental focus, your attention: focus inward or outward. I’ll think I’ll work with that one first. A little easier
Yes, I chickened out
Two samples of the Tarzan dip
Blogging As An Adaptive Cycle
When I read it the first time it reminded me of my blogging. First I set out to explore all kinds of knowledge that could be beneficial to Project Management. The first couple of weeks I felt like a kid in a toy store: sociology, criminology, complexity, and even sociolinguistics. How cool! After a while you just start to focus on one or two topics that begin to dominate your time and effort. After a longer period of diving in the depths of these topics, I tend to get frustrated and demotivated. I hate not being able to explore the other subjects. This state ruins my motivation and has a negative impact on blogging. After the “breakdown” I reorganize my thoughts, close the subjects in some way or another, and start happily on a new cycle.
Projects In An Adaptive Cycle
Looking at projects the first example that comes to mind is this pattern that I have witnessed almost every time in projects that take longer (minimally a year). At first the resources are almost limitless: the real serious deadlines are not even on the horizon, budgets are fresh and hardly depleted, solutions aren’t fixed yet so technicians can run wild exploring the possibilities. When the project is well on its way, certain stakeholders are starting to dominate the field, certain project team members are becoming more in demand than others (think “single point of failures”) and a couple of topics are becoming “hot topics”, and are therefor dominating the agenda. This is the phase that last the longest.
But at a given moment, people burn out or leave, power struggles between stakeholders escalate, the deadlines are appearing on the horizon and the bottom of the budget well is becoming visible. A large breakdown shakes up the whole project. This is the real project crises. And sometimes a crisis is needed to get a project going again, to get new blood, to get innovation. After new people are brought in, stakeholders removed, deadlines moved and money poured in its like an r phase all over again.
from http://www.shrinkonia.com/panarchy-analyzing-complexity-projects-312.html
Bas,
Your Tarzan jump examples are illuminating. Truly, a shake-up means a new begginning and new cycle.
As for the emotional part, people say that emotions contribute 67% and technology only 37% to the success of works. If so, emotions should be part of any solution
Sorry, I meant 33% in the previous comment
Let me first thank Craig for his kind comment.
Bas, I want to discuss your statement above, and I quote “You see, the issue I have with the identity inward outward balance is that it is not a balance: these things happen simultaneously. What is a balance is your mental focus, your attention: focus inward or outward. I’ll think I’ll work with that one first. A little easier”
If we imagine Inward and Outward forces each at one end of a rope and I stand in the center. Id Inward thinking prevails I tend to move towards inward thinking. As long as Inward is greater than outward I shall keep moving towards inward. However; if the two alternate rapidly being pulled to one end this minute and to the other end the next minute then nothing moves, or I get stressed. If we have two opposing forces with me standing at their intersection I might rotate either in the same direction, or in different directions like the chaotic barrel. Only disruptive reorganization shall get me out of trouble.
Dear Readers,
Just to alert you that Bas has very ably uploaded a presentation on slideshare that deserves your time reading it. Surely, it is one of his best publications
The link is
http://www.slideshare.net/projectshrink/the-adaptive-cycle-in-social-systems