Studio Launch

In my backyard

I often end up passing this power plant on the way to quiet county roads. Cycling that is.  Exercising... breathing deep.  The power plant above, the one I cycle by, was ranked as the 11th dirtiest coal plant in the nation.

And just last week, I read this headline, "Huge Drop in Chinese Birth Defects After Local Coal Plant Closes." Kenny Luna wrote in the article "...Chinese children born after the closure of a local coal plant have found themselves with 60% less development problems such as motor skill coordination than those born prior to the closing."  Anecdotal connection, for sure.  But, wow, that's pretty good.  I think most people would take those results any day.

Arguments against addressing global warming echo in my head...thanks Fritz. Coal plants are obviously polluters in more locations than China and Lawrence. Such plants are the target for many of the suggested actions attempting to deal with global warming.  The famous case of the denied coal plants in our state of Kansas is only one famous example.  Many people are outraged.

Outraged about what?  Those kids in China are the recipients of a coal plant closure that it appears will improve, sorry, already has improved their health and quality of life; and will for years to come.  And likewise, if we, in Lawrence, Kansas could be so lucky to find our air, water and environment healthier for our children would we not find that a good thing as well?

I know what the outcomes of fighting global warming can be: clean air, clean water, healthy environment. Better lives for our children. Even if we are wrong about global warming in the end...wow, the outcome still seems pretty good. I wonder, what outcomes the anti-global warming folks see as a result of their efforts to fight against taking action. What qualities of life on earth are they finding desirable in a world where they are right?

What we say about ourselves

Nathan Speck began his first day as part of our studio...today. And on the walk home from work I was pondering what to tell him about our studio; what to tell him, specifically, to enable him in maximizing his success as a contributer to moving "us" forward.

Last Thursday, I was spending some time with Jack Brittain, the Dean of the School of Business at the University of Utah. He's a student of organizational behavior, among other things. During the conversation we touched on how organizational change seldom finds its power [or its origin?] in the descriptions of organizational purpose derived from folks at the "middle" of the organization. Many people "in" the organization simply can't see out of it, or see the direction of it. Yet, for the folks who can see out, what they tell us about themselves is a complicated mix of who they are, and more importantly, who they aspire to be.

And as we talk with clients, we have to do the same thing. We talk to many of the people in the organization from helmsman to engine room. Each carries with them a different lens through which to see the organization and through which to describe it. And their statements about themselves are varyingly optimistic and pessimistic, far reaching and minutia focused, accurate and flawed, reality and dream. Some folks are simply more communicative than others, just to make it interesting. Its a tough social science we are asked to employ in designing for a crowd that has difficulty in simply asking for what they want. [Just see Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert]

So it remains up to Nathan, to decipher what I say, and what all the other members of the studio tell him, to determine which is description, which is conjecture and reality, and which is aspiration. Good luck with that, Nathan, it will be good practice for...well, the practice of architecture.