Learning Craft

What does it mean to learn Craft?

My career has been focused on two things: building products that would present new user paradigms and cultivating data-driven systems to determine what to do with those products. In the 90s and early 00s, building products was an electric experience because we were reaching and interacting with the first online audience—ever. The internet enabled unprecedented creativity in rethinking and redefining communication, productivity, personal information management, marketing and advertising, and community (to name a few things) as we knew it. Then, we were tasked with figuring out how to drive revenue from those ideas. Data was needed, and a lot of it. Attitudes clashed about innovation, ethics, and basic economics. What information could we ethically maintain and utilize in our systems and for what purpose? How should the “user” be “managed” during a “transaction?” What were the core elements of loyalty, and role would that play? Eventually, the market stabilized. A few products business models rose to the surface. Businesses grew more predictably. Creativity started to decline. Risk taking was discouraged in favor of efficiency, productivity, and scale. The the first conversations of artificial intelligence and machine learning were just getting off the ground.

It was in that climate I decided to move in another direction, earning degrees in applied behavioral science and psychology to gain more perspective on intuitive knowledge and subjective intelligence. The innovative, creative thinking that had laid the foundation for e-commerce, personalization, and communication had begun to spark some ideas about innate human knowledge (subjective intelligence), and the kinds of decision making we engage particularly when we are in under pressure. I wasn’t finding AI to be that creative. Leaders had developed such a heavy dependency on “data-driven decisions” that they stopped relying on other ways of knowing. They denied their own experience and that of others. They ignored insights from other disciplines. When developing core corporate strategy leaders too often asked, “What does the data say?” instead of synthesizing analysis with a grounded value system and seasoned perspective. If the quality of our thinking was potentially declining in favor of being told what to do by machine output—what was our state of mind when we were engineering these solutions? or making big decisions about what these machines would do? My fear was: if AI develops the abilities beyond humans (e.g., playing chess, surgery, law, etc.) how would humans maintain an adequate partnership?

These questions both excited and terrified me. And if I’m being honest, they still do. We get offended at the thought of losing jobs to machines, yet we have an ever-increasing reliance on them.

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Where are the people living and working with Craft?

As each wave of technology passes over us, we go through phases of emotions. There was an infectious enthusiasm that took over when the iPhone, iPod and iPad launched. iPhone adoption was unprecedented and the iPod changed how we listen to music almost over night. There is a lot of anxiety and deep fear about technology replacing humans at work. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is quickly and seamlessly becoming involved in every aspect of our lives. It assists us in our schedules, helps us through our days, finds us a mate, keeps track of us while driving, remembers our fitness levels, and it answers questions as our partner in getting things done. It has shown up as a servant (AskJeeves) and now it shows up as a virtual assistant (typically female) keeping track of our behaviors. Artificial intelligence is the GPS for our lives. This slow “invasion” of our human experience shapes our expectations of what role technology could and should be in our lives.

As data advances more and more into our lives and decision making, however, it’s important to remind ourselves that we have the capability to chart our own course. AI (for now) is there to enhance our abilities and experiences. This knowledge can, quite literally, confirm we are on the right path. If we change our direction, our GPS can respond to us with an alternate route, another series of choices. “I’ll remember the grocery list; I’ll get this ready for you; You like these items, maybe you’ll like these recipes; I’ll make this reservation; I see you’re out of this item, I’ll buy this thing. No problem, you changed your mind; I’ll send it back, no worries.” Slowly, we are training an other, more efficient version of our presence to anticipate and help us manage our life.

People who live and work with Craft—engage in the struggle for individual agency in a world telling us to fit in. They use their work as a medium for personal expression and they know something that top analytic minds still need to learn: how to solve the problems when no predetermined plan, no template, and no quick fix will save the day. They cultivate, inhabit, and maintain a state of mind capable of holding paradoxical tensions:

• Subjective reasoning: the ability to arrive at a conclusion based on intuition and/or experience. Craftsman are analytical, and they also reason.

• Flexible purposefulness: The ability to have an over-arching view and remain flexible enough to allow for adaptations as the experience unfolds.

• Cognitive emotions: The ability to be involved emotionally to one’s work, and also very thoughtful and perceptive.

Craftsmen take risk. Their very character influences the outcome of their work. They display a level of insight in their respective mediums due to a deep fascination with the idiosyncrasies and nuances of their medium that borders obsession. They subject their humanity to the market’s scrutiny, demanding exponential growth and scale as a primary value. While craftsmen are very adaptable in terms of their improvisational problem solving, they are unwavering in their values and ethical boundaries.

It is here we can benefit from learning to think with Craft. We must learn to understand ourselves on a fundamental level. We need profound insight, not just annual feedback. We need work that is worthwhile, not a mere transaction. When we lack true alignment with the work we were meant to do, we live our lives 6-degrees off course. We ameliorate versus resolve problems, failing to gain and therefore missing the opportunity for the kind of proximity needed true, creative solutions.

Craftsmanship is a set of principles that apply to the modern world—to us as potential craftsmen. We can learn about ourselves through our approach to life and work. I’ve experienced this myself, and I’ve witnessed it in my clients.

It is my hope that my work about living and working with Craft can help us navigate this period of change, where the pull for ever more data requires us to dig deeper into ourselves for knowledge and insight, giving us new ways to think about the problems we are confronting. These themes remind us that there are multiple forms of knowledge innate in each of us—but we must mine it and synthesize it in order to more deeply understand it.

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Robot priest: the future of funerals?

Developers in Japan are offering a robot "priest" to conduct Buddhist funeral rites complete with chanted sutras and drum tapping - all at a fraction of the cost of a human.

It is the latest use of Softbank's humanoid robot Pepper.

Joint Economic Committee Hearing on the Decline of Economic Opportunity in the United States: Causes and Consequences

[ from the Economic Innovation Group ]

Dynamism in Retreat

The economy today is suffering from too little change, not too much. I realize this is a provocative claim in the age of the gig economy, automation, and the dawn of artificial intelligence. But the fact is Americans are less likely to start a business, move to another region, or switch jobs now than at any other time on record. Indeed, the U.S. economy is quickly becoming less dynamic in nearly every measurable respect.

Why does this matter? If we believe the problem is too much change, it follows that policy priorities will be oriented around mitigating disruptions and hedging against risk. On the other hand, if we understand the economy has grown too static and too risk averse in too many areas, the logical response is a dynamism-boosting policy agenda — precisely what I believe is urgently needed.

Dynamism can be understood, in essence, as the rate and scale of economic churn. It fuels an economy’s process of creative destruction, enhancing our ability to adapt and allocate resources in a more efficient manner. Historically, the high-churn nature of the U.S. economy acted as a kind of shock absorber in times of economic change or trauma.

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Guideposts for an Opportunity Agenda

Before discussing potential solutions, let’s play devil’s advocate and ask if declining dynamism is really a problem that can or should be solved. If the decline is inevitable, why bother with useless policy prescriptions? Or, if there are hidden benefits to declining dynamism, why be worried at all?

Dynamism is only worth restoring to the extent that its decline corresponds with downstream negative outcomes. If, for example, we were seeing strong GDP growth, robust labor force participation, increased upward mobility, and strong wage growth, declining dynamism would be a moot point. Unfortunately, we see just the opposite. Furthermore, we can be certain that much of the current dilemma is due to policy choices and thus totally within our control. Nevertheless, our solutions should not fundamentally be aimed at making the economy look more like the past, but rather at ensuring that the benefits of tomorrow’s economy are broadly shared.

Here are five guideposts for a future-oriented opportunity agenda:

1. Focus on new firm creation and competition. Access to opportunity suffers when incumbents are too powerful, markets are too concentrated, and entrepreneurs are an endangered species. Policymakers should rebalance the playing field with lower barriers to entry and greater emphasis on the unique needs of new companies. This includes, among other things, reforming exceedingly complex tax and regulatory regimes, which serve to protect incumbents from competition, and boosting access to capital and talent for new ventures. It also includes accelerating the pipeline of high-skilled workers into the labor market — both through better skills training and by fixing the truly self-defeating U.S. immigration system.

2. Enhance geographic mobility and labor market fluidity. Central to any opportunity agenda should be empowering people to move to places of opportunity and efficiently develop and deploy their skills in the marketplace. Among other things, this means getting rid of onerous occupational licensing requirements, designing a safety net that does not discourage mobility, and revamping local zoning and land use regulations so that high-opportunity areas can accommodate more people.

3. Invest in the future. The United States has benefitted enormously from previous decades of massive public sector investments in infrastructure and basic research, but we often forget why such investments are critical to private sector innovation and dynamism. As we renew our commitment to smart public sector investments, we should also abandon 13 traditional economic development incentives, which too often amount to giveaways that mortgage the future of local communities. New approaches are needed.

4. Growth is still key. The United States is in desperate need of stronger GDP growth, which itself would go a long way to addressing concerns about access to opportunity and upward mobility. A broad pro-growth agenda is necessary, but we should also be bold in incorporating ideas aimed at helping struggling regions regain their footing. Meanwhile, let’s resist the temptation to feel complacent given our relatively strong post-crisis performance in comparison to other developed economies. Their present struggles are a glimpse into our economic future unless we take action soon.

5. We need data. It is hard enough to diagnose complex problems when data are available. Without sound data, we are left with little more than faith-based policymaking. The federal government should protect and expand its investment in the economic statistical agencies and allow for improvements that will make their work even more useful in the years to come.  But that is not enough. In light of how little we know about solving long-standing problems (especially related to upward mobility), federal policies should aggressively support novel approaches and reward state and local policy innovation. A more experimental approach to policymaking alongside existing legacy programs could provide a wealth of new data on what works and what should be discarded.

Conclusion

The decline of dynamism poses a threat to economic opportunity and upward mobility for future generations. A country as prosperous as the United States has a moral obligation to devote serious resources and brainpower to ensuring that everyone — especially children from poor backgrounds — has a shot at a better life. This is by no means the job of government alone, but the public sector has a crucial role to play in organizing the necessary attention and resources. The good news is that we retain enormous advantages and resources as a nation — more than enough to meet this challenge if we choose.

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Christine Haskell, PHD has built her practice on credible, published research and data. In the Research Series, you’ll find highlights, shareable statistics, and links to the full source material.

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Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women? | The Atlantic

[From theatlantic.com] 

“…Such undermining is one reason women today hold only about a quarter of U.S. computing and mathematical jobs—a fraction that has actually fallen slightly over the past 15 years, even as women have made big strides in other fields. Women not only are hired in lower numbers than men are; they also leave tech at more than twice the rate men do. It’s not hard to see why. Studies show that women who work in tech are interrupted in meetings more often than men. They are evaluated on their personality in a way that men are not. They are less likely to get funding from venture capitalists, who, studies also show, find pitches delivered by men—especially handsome men—more persuasive. And in a particularly cruel irony, women’s contributions to open-source software are accepted more often than men’s are, but only if their gender is unknown.”

“For women of color, the cumulative effect of these slights is compounded by a striking lack of racial diversity—and all that attends it. Stephanie Lampkin, who was a full-stack developer (meaning she had mastered both front-end and back-end systems) by age 15 and majored in engineering at Stanford, has been told when applying for a job that she’s “not technical enough” and should consider sales or marketing—an experience many white women in the field can relate to. But she has also, for instance, been told by a white woman at a conference that her name ought to be Ebony because of the color of her skin…”

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Christine Haskell, PHD has built her practice on credible, published research and data. In the Research Series, you’ll find highlights, shareable statistics, and links to the full source material.

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Profile in Craft: Kelly Sakaki moving from academia to industry

To tackle the wicked problems of our present and future, we need to embrace a strange, counter-intuitive irony: as organizations across all sectors continue to create and adopt technologies like artificial intelligence, employees need to stay relevant by increasing their subjective intelligence. My research on master craftsmen and how they gain mastery helps connect the dots on this new dilemma, and might be the place to seek initial solutions.

When it comes to open ended problem solving and learning to improvise with what we are given; master craftsmen have something to teach us. Having to work with a material where they cannot be sure what will happen is something they are used to. Combined with the more structured training and education offered to us today, improvisational thinking in the face of uncertainty is useful to leaders in any sector. Even in the face of countless books and articles about how important it is, most traditional business school programs and organizational training fail to address sophisticated thinking about ambiguous problems.

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Image credit: Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health.

[from scientifica.uk.com] Always taking things apart and not always able to get them back together again, Kelly Sakaki never lacked confidence to try.

Now Kelly is an engineer and post-doc fellow at the Center for Brain Health. His job focuses on developing instrumentation for scanning cells in brains. He works as a scientist, biologist, engineer—to name a few disciplines! Kelly is developing cures for autism.

There are a lot of toys to play with, but ultimately the goal is to help people. Kelly’s passion is designing instrumentation. It’s an art, and rarely works the first time. It’s a process of iteration. There’s no rule book to tell him what to do.

“I’ve found my passion. I know this is where I want to be.”

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Christine Haskell’s research focuses on individuals dedicated to the craft of their professions, in pursuit of excellence, sustainability and integrity. Craftsmen and women use those principles to raise standards toward a better world. Her current work is featured in Look To Craftsmen Project. featuring the Profiles in Craft Series. You’ll find a trove of profiles of intriguing artisans and innovators spanning a wide variety of professions across the globe that illustrate her research with links to the full articles. Christine’s book The Future of Work Will Require Craftsmanship is due in late 2019. To understand more about Christine’s work, check out Our Current Problem.

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The pole dancing robots of CES

[ From recode ]

Pole dancing robots are giving erotic dancers a run for their money in Las Vegas. The robots showcased their skills performing at a Las Vegas gentleman's club. The Managing Partner of Sapphire Gentlemen's Club said they are trying to appeal to a different audience.

“I’m here to see the robot strippers?”

That was me, Monday night, walking into a Las Vegas strip club in hopes of finding one of the more bizarre forms of entertainment near the Strip: A pair of pole-dancing robots I’d read about in an International Business Times article earlier that day.

The robots were an obvious gimmick during one of Las Vegas’s busiest weeks of the year — the 50th Consumer Electronics Show, a massive annual tech trade show full of geeky gadgets and gizmos, from touchscreens to cars to fancy electric trashcans. The Sapphire Gentleman’s Club, a strip club right off Vegas’ main drag, paid to showcase the robots as a way to drum up interest from press and customers.

As a first-time CES attendee, the gimmick worked on me: What could be more CES than pole-dancing robots?

The robots were as advertised: They gyrated on a stripper pole to music from 50 Cent and Pharrell, with dollar bills scattered on the stage and the floor. A half-dozen human dancers, most of whom were dressed in tight, shiny robot costumes, repeatedly took pics in front of their metallic colleagues. (The woman greeting guests as I walked in told me that I missed a skit where the human dancers unveiled the robot dancers to “Star Wars” music, and then joked about them stealing their jobs.)

Contracting Is The New Normal: NPR/Marist Poll

The U.S. economy is posting solid growth and the stock market is booming. The unemployment rate is approaching historic lows. And yet many in the American workforce are not seeing the benefits of it, according to a new NPR/Marist Poll. The new poll finds that while jobs are plentiful, they are increasingly unstable for many Americans who say they receive fewer benefits, work with less permanency, and earn uneven pay from month to month.

Key Findings:

• 20% of all American workers are contract workers (Those who are hired to work on a specific project or for a fixed period of time.)

• 51% of contract workers don't receive benefits from their jobs.

• 49% of contract workers have income that varies greatly from month to month or seasonally.

• 65% of contract workers are male and 62% are under 45 years of age.

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Christine Haskell, PHD has built her practice on credible, published research and data. In the Research Series, you’ll find highlights, shareable statistics, and links to the full source material.

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Craft Quotes: Wisdom applying craft principles in the modern world

Thinking with Craft is not about woodworking or ceramics—though it can be. It’s about learning to observe with focus, build skill, and experiment in order to solve problems for which there is no book, template, or operational excellence department.

Find below a selection of my favorite quotes applying Craft principles in the modern world. I’ll post more quotes from leaders, thinkers, and master craftsmen and women here, so check back. If you are new to the idea of Craft-thinking, I invite you to look at the Look To Craftsmen Project overview and read my introduction to Craft article.

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I wanted to be considered a good craftsman. I wanted my dresses to be constructed like buildings, molded to the curves of the female form, stylizing its shape. Christian Dior, a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.

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“The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” Martin Luther, German professor of theology, composer, priest, and monk, and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. 

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“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” Johannes Brahms, German composer and pianist of the Romantic period.

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“Craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake.” Richard Sennett, Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Author of The Craftsman.

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“How can we make sure we wind up behind the right door when the going gets tough? The answer is: craftsmanship.” Robert C. Martin, American software engineer and author. He is a co-author of the Agile Manifesto and the Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship.

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“I'm against the picture of the artist as a starry-eyed visionary not really in control or knowing what he does. I'd almost prefer the word 'craftsman'. He's like one of those old-fashioned ship builders who conceived the build of the boat in their mind and after that touched every single piece that went into the boat.”  William Golding, British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his novel Lord of the Flies, he won a Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Real craftsmanship, regardless of the skill involved, reflects real caring, and real caring reflects our attitude about ourselves, about our fellowmen, and about life. Spencer W. Kimball, American business, civic, and religious leader, and was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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It's the disease of thinking that a having a great idea is really 90% of the work. And if you just tell people, 'here's this great idea,' then of course they can go off and make it happen. The problem with that is that there's a tremendous amount of craftsmanship between a having a great idea and having a great product. Steve Jobs, American entrepreneur, business magnate, inventor, and industrial designer.

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What the church should be telling the worker is that the first demand religion makes on him is that he should be a good workman. If he is a carpenter he should be a competent carpenter. Church by all means on Sundays-but what is the use of church if at the very center of life a man defrauds his neighbor and insults God by poor craftsmanship. Dwight D. Eisenhower, American Army general and statesman who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.

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Profile In Craft: Lesley Holm Art Therapist

To tackle the wicked problems of our present and future, we need to embrace a strange, counter-intuitive irony: as organizations across all sectors continue to create and adopt technologies like artificial intelligence, employees need to stay relevant by increasing their subjective intelligence. My research on master craftsmen and how they gain mastery helps connect the dots on this new dilemma, and might be the place to seek initial solutions.

When it comes to open ended problem solving and learning to improvise with what we are given; master craftsmen have something to teach us. Having to work with a material where they cannot be sure what will happen is something they are used to. Combined with the more structured training and education offered to us today, improvisational thinking in the face of uncertainty is useful to leaders in any sector. Even in the face of countless books and articles about how important it is, most traditional business school programs and organizational training fail to address sophisticated thinking about ambiguous problems.

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Craftsmanship refers to something made with the highest quality. It requires a distinct mindset and approach. Values like durability, integrity, and calling are often associated with craftsmanship. But it’s more than that. Craftsmanship—to live a life and perform work with craft—is the struggle for individual agency in a world telling us to fit in. More than finding a calling, it is about understanding how to fully utilize ourselves and our unique ability to solve problems of every kind. My goal is build a bridge between the principles of craftsmanship in the traditional sense and apply it to our own lives and work.

Vancouver Psychology Centre http://www.vancouverpsychologycentre.ca

For Lesley Holm the dream was to work creatively with children in a way that would make a difference in their lives. Today she fulfills that dream in her career as an Art Therapist. 

She didn’t initially know that art, creativity and working with children would look like in terms of a career. Most people don’t know what that is; she didn’t either. Art therapy is more than analyzing pictures. It is a blend of psychotherapy and art where art is incorporated as part of the regular counseling process. Art isn’t the end goal. Art is an illustration of a client’s process and what sense they make of their image.

When Lesley was young, her parents separated. She remembers that being a chaotic, confusing and scary time. Art was a comfort to her.

Now, Lesley specializes in helping children of divorce and helping them through that process. The drawings don’t have to be great, they just have to be expressive.

“There isn’t any better reward in life than a child who knows that I’m really there for them.”

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Christine Haskell’s research focuses on individuals dedicated to the craft of their professions, in pursuit of excellence, sustainability and integrity. Craftsmen and women use those principles to raise standards toward a better world. Her current work is featured in Look To Craftsmen Project. featuring the Profiles in Craft Series. You’ll find a trove of profiles of intriguing artisans and innovators spanning a wide variety of professions across the globe that illustrate her research with links to the full articles. Christine’s book The Future of Work Will Require Craftsmanship is due in late 2019. To understand more about Christine’s work, check out Our Current Problem.

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