Alla Zollers recommended that I read the book Linchpins, Seth Godin’s latest book, noting the central ideas shared by Mr. Godin were the cornerstone of many of the things I have been writing, interviewing, and debating about within the UX community for the past several years.

As Seth Godin notes:

Do you remember the old American Dream? It struck a chord with millions of people (in the United States and in the rest of the world, too.) Here’s how it goes: Keep your head down. Follow instructions. Show up on time. Work hard. Suck it up. …you will be rewarded.

As we’ve seen the dream is over. The new American Dream, though, the one that markets around the world are embracing as fast as they can, is this: Be remarkable. Be generous. Create art. Make judgment calls. Connect people and ideas…and we have no choice but to reward you.

In short, be indispensable!

I’d like to offer a framework comprised of five central ideas I have used in a leadership position in every environment I’ve worked in for over a decade; while drawing a direct correlation to the five points shared by Mr. Godin.

* Everyone experiences a sense of individuality and self expression (Connect people and ideas.) – Ensure all team members understand their role and how they are contributing value to each project. Creativity is not born from a Groupthink. Differing ideas and passionate debate amongst team members should be encouraged.

* There is a capacity to express compassion to develop close relationships (Be generous.) – We are social animals. We need one another and rely on the respect and encouragement from our peers to stay motivated, ensuring we feel like a valued member of the team. Encourage the team to lean on one another and offer support whenever possible.

* A way of reacting with spontaneity, integrity, and integration exists. (Make judgment calls.) – Imagine a workplace where people could act on inspiration with team members who respect differing ideas with the ultimate goal of integrating the best of the best into new product or service offerings?

Policy and procedure is fine for coding and documenting; even a necessity one could argue. But how many innovative products or designs can you point to that came from following the exact same process again and again?

* There is a drive towards self-expression and creative experiences (Create art.) – Though it has been written about many times, we tend to lose the artist in each of us as we grow into adults. Yet children have this creative capacity in spades! As Ken Robinson outlined in one of the most popular TED talks ever given:

I heard a great story recently of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson, she was six…the teacher said she hardly ever paid attention but in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was facinated so she went over to her. The teacher said “What are you drawing?” The little girl said “I’m drawing a picture of God!” The teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” The little girl said, “They will in a minute!”

Dave Gray and Dan Roam have noted several times at conferences around the world that you don’t need to be an artist to draw, whether you can paint like Van Gogh or not.

* There is an ability to reason and exchange ideas with others (Be remarkable.) – This idea is remarkable as many corporate cultures make it incredibly difficult to reason and exchange ideas with others.

Are you in an open office environment or is it “closed off” by cubicles? Does sending an email equate to being accountable in clearly communicating ideas or next steps in a project? Is there a respect amongst all team members, regardless of title, for ideas generated when solving problems?

Your physical work environment; relying on technology to communicate effectively; and a general lack of respect for others’ experiences and insights are three of the greatest barriers to be able to reason and exchange ideas with others, in my experience.

Would you rather work for a company that insists on creating a corporate culture of control and limited creative thinking…

Keep your head down. Follow instructions. Show up on time. Work hard. Suck it up.

…or would you prefer to wake up every day driven to create, inspire, and lead by modeling the behavior of…

Be remarkable. Be generous. Create art. Make judgment calls. Connect people and ideas.

It’s your choice.

* Perpetually evaluating our understanding of the tools and processes that make up our respective (and very similar) industries. (UX, IA, IxD, HCI, etc.)
* Move the conversation away from the merits of a specific set of tools or processes
* Ask better questions of users and the answers we capture beyond the data points
* Come together and recognize, as Jesse James Garrett pointed out at last years’ IA Summit, that engagement is our collective objective or end state.

Evolving the UX Conversation from Jeff Parks on Vimeo.

We need to look at solutions that foster conversations beyond the antiquated mailing list in a manner that recognizes the impact different cultures have on what we collectively consider to be “good design”.

In workshops I conducted on Information Architecture in Kingston Jamaica, I asked people to brainstorm and sort products and services they would expect to find within a specific industry. Interestingly, they chose terms such as “Parish” to describe counties (in Jamaica) – though in North America this same term would delineate a community of worship – and “Deli” to describe the Vegetarian section of a grocery store.

Daniel Szuc, Principal at Apogee Ltd in Hong Kong, made a similar observation during the Interaction Design conference this year, outlining that one needs to fully immerse themselves in a culture to truly understand the values and lifestyles of its people.

Eric Reiss, Principle of the User Experience firm FatDUX, in Copenhagen Denmark recently blogged about the European community in his Johnny Holland article, The Man Without a Country.

Within each nation, there are incredible regional differences – a Dane from Himmerland sees the world differently than a Dane from Djursland. A Swede from Halland is different from one from Blekinge. Is Galacia part of Poland, the Ukraine, Austria – or Spain? In Zagreb, Croatia, they’ll tell you “The Balkans start on the other side of the river”. Dalmatia and Istra are Balkan; Slavonia is not. Most folks have never heard of these places. But that’s what makes Europe so exciting, right?

In an effort to illustrate this notion of a global community, I asked colleagues in South Africa, India, and Germany to describe what community means to them based on their experiences living and working within his/her respective culture. [Note: This was originally to be part of an effort for The UX Workshop, an effort that never came to fruition.]

Werner Perhchert ~ South Africa

Werner Puchert from Jeff Parks on Vimeo.

Afshan Kirmani ~ India

Afshan Kirmani from Jeff Parks on Vimeo.

Jan Jursa ~ Germany

Jan Jursa from Jeff Parks on Vimeo.

Based on all of these shared experiences from colleagues in the User Experience discipline from around the world, the following are suggestions for creating a truly global community of practice:

Dismantle Board of Directors This is an opportunity to gain trust by giving up control. In certain contexts it appears almost arrogant that a North American-centric Board of Directors, for example, would claim to know what was in the best interests of those in countries they have never experienced.

I don’t believe we need a small group of people to instruct the future of any discipline. In many instances this creates a myopic clique of individuals who, perhaps unknowingly, dominate conversations and the opportunity to share. Invariably, this empowers the few to determine what is most important for the many.

Lead with Passion and Purpose The only way for a community to grow is to provide people within a specific country the opportunity to meet and connect. People are the foundation of every successful venture. Imagine a global community of practice led by Werner in South Africa, Afshan in India, and Jan in Germany with the single purpose of conveying value behind the UX discipline regardless of title.

Share the Wealth Imagine a global community of practice that acknowledges and recognizes the unique needs, requirements, and expectations of different cultures. Practitioners in South Africa would undoubtedly have different requirements than those in New York City. Membership fees in most communities of practice is minimal. What if the global community of practice took the time to understand the needs of people in different cultures, countries, economic environments and provided money, resources, time, and mentors to those in developing nations?

In the 100+ people I’ve mentored over the past few years every single person, regardless of where they were located, talked about wanting to do meaningful work that would help other people. Who would not want to join a global community of practice under this model …knowing that their small contribution could help others learn from their experiences?

The workshops I led in Jamaica didn’t net me a large contract, but it did afford me the opportunity to learn from a culture who models the behavior of community in ways like no other community I’ve seen.

Leverage Current Technologies Skype, Facebook, Twitter, iChat, GTalk, Podcasting, Video…and the list goes on and on! Connecting and communicating with all nations is no longer an issue of cost. We can connect for free on Skype; with the ability to have meaningful conversations with people from around the world. We can share ideas on video and upload to search engines like YouTube to engage, collaborate and inspire.

Membership Fees This cannot be universal! Membership fees must be predicated upon the socio-economic status of each country, and its citizens. Who better to determine this membership rate than those living in that specific country? In countries where the economy is not as wealthy as developed nations, ensure that 100% of their membership fees stay within that community …and a small percentage of the global community’s fees goes towards helping that nation build their own local community of practice.

There is no questioning the value of a community of practice. These organizations have brought researchers, designers, thought leaders in government and business together who would not have otherwise had such an opportunity.

That said, I believe it’s time for radical change! We need to start “walking the walk” within every discipline. We need to understand that we can have a far greater impact on not just our own discipline, but the world we live in!

We can’t evolve the conversation beyond the tools that make up any discipline, or worse, cling to a belief that the processes that worked even five years ago are still relevant to the way others are communicating both online and off.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is continuing to try and control the messaging within Canada, in spite of harsh criticism by Canadians. Now this should not come as a galloping shock that professional politicians are hiding the truth or trying to shape the message! #CallingOutTheElephantInTheRoom

However living in an era where people can share ideas with the click of a button, or upload videos in a matter of minutes to YouTube – next to Google, the second largest search engine in the world – such obsession with control is quite frankly, laughable.

The measure of a man is what he does with power. ~ Plato

A brilliant example of this new world, from a Canadian perspective, was shared by a good friend and colleague in Toronto Renée Warren: “Next is Now!”

Another great example of how connected we are, and how control is truly an illusion, is this presentation by Tom Scott (@tomscott). The story is both entertaining and disturbing – illustrating the speed at which we can share information, and the necessity to know who we can trust.

Mob (a near-future science fiction story) by Tom Scott from hurryonhome on Vimeo.

Two years ago that would have been implausible. Five years ago that would have been impossible. But if that happened in the news tomorrow would any of you be shocked? The world turns upside down in ten years and you turn upside down right along with it.

We need to strike a balance between the latest generations’ enthusiasm to share, with the wisdom of business and government officials who have worked in the same sector for 30 plus years.

It is imperative that both sides work towards a greater understanding of the others’ processes rather than argue over who has the better approach. Equilibrium can only be achieved if both sides make this effort; otherwise history WILL repeat itself.

This feedback has come from business leaders in fortune 100 companies; senior directors in the public sector; developers; and designers from around the world.

The common theme of my talk was summarized quite well by User Experience Designer Alla Zollers on Twitter:

It’s about communication, not deliverables. It’s about understanding, not compromise!

This lead me to thinking about one of the most common practices in the development of any product or service, the meeting!

The idea is simple enough – get everyone together in a room to talk about the project and work together towards a specific end state.

And even though there are few who manage productive meetings, it is still one of the most common practices in both business and government.

The larger impact this has on any organization, beyond the delivery of a lesser product or service, is the impact it has on the corporate culture. In one of the funniest quotes from the movie Office Space, Peter quips:

It’s not that I’m lazy…it’s that I just don’t care!

Having worked in, and consulted to, “Office Space” like environments I wanted to share a “Meeting Manifesto” that I use to run productive meetings.

The purpose is to ensure the interdisciplinary teams that make up every sector today, are able to convey their ideas while respecting the experiences and ideas of others:

How we need to work together to effectively accomplish our purpose…

* Since everyone here has a valid perspective, say what you think. We need your open and honest inputs.

* Since it is difficult to tell how others see things, if something does not make sense to you, ask about it.

* Since being judgmental can impair the openness necessary for teamwork and understanding, try not to attack others’ ideas. Questioning for clarity is OK.

* Since it is easy to get off on tangents in a meeting, work to ensure that issues discussed relate to the topic at hand.

* Since developing our best thinking about the designated task is our primary goal, work to upgrade thoughts not words.

* Work together towards consensus.

* Expect from others professionalism through your demonstration of it.

This Manifesto is especially useful in corporate cultures where people are afraid to share ideas / experiences for fear of being ridiculed.

The rules apply to everyone at every level in the corporate hierarchy, very much including the leader of the meeting.