Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
You've heard me say it more than once, there are four great reasons to live in New England: May, June, September and October.
And here we are.
Happy Friday.
Hope
"A masterplan is an act of confidence in the future for generations still to come."
Masterplan of La Fábrica in Santiago, Chile, by Norman Foster + Partners
Last month renowned British architect Norman Foster agreed to help plan Ukraine's reconstruction of the city of Kharkiv, the country's second-biggest city, from the devastation caused by Russia's invasion. In doing so he wrote a manifesto that could be repurposed for any large scale project.
THE KHARKIV MANIFESTO
"I undertake to assemble the best minds with the best planning, architectural, design, and engineering skills in the world to bear on the rebirth of the city of Kharkiv. In the spirit of combining a planetary awareness with local action, I would seek to bring together the top Ukrainian talents with worldwide expertise and advice.
"The first step would be a city masterplan linked to the region, with the ambition to combine the most loved and revered heritage from the past with the most desirable and greenest elements of infrastructure and buildings – in other words to deliver the city of the future now and to plan for its life decades ahead.
"At the height of the pandemic, London updated a masterplan, the roots of which was a plan commissioned in the darkest days of World War II. A masterplan is an act of confidence in the future for generations still to come." - Sir Norman Foster
Announcement: Architect Norman Foster Will Help Redesign and Rebuild Ukraine City
Citizenship
Citizens’ assemblies can help us better address societal challenges, overcome polarization and strengthen trust.
Asako Masunouchi for Noema Magazine
"Imagine you receive an invitation one day from your mayor, inviting you to serve as a member of your city’s newly established permanent Citizens’ Assembly. You will be one of 100 others like you — people who are not politicians or even necessarily party members. All of you were drawn by lot through a fair and random process called a civic lottery. Together, you are broadly representative of the community — a mix of bakers, doctors, students, accountants, shopkeepers and more. You are young and old and from many backgrounds — everybody living in the city over age 16 is eligible, and anyone can take part regardless of citizenship status. Essentially, this group of 100 people is a microcosm of the wider public. Your mandate lasts for one year, after which a new group of people will be drawn by lot.
"This is not just a thought experiment. Since the 1980s, a wave of such citizens’ assemblies has been building, and it has been gaining momentum since 2010. Over the past four decades, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have received invitations from heads of state, ministers, mayors and other public authorities to serve as members of over 500 citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative processes to inform policy making. Important decisions have been shaped by everyday people about 10-year, $5 billion strategic plans, 30-year infrastructure investment strategies, tackling online hate speech and harassment, taking preventative action against increased flood risks, improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and many other issues.
"As governance systems are failing to address some of society’s most pressing issues and trust between citizens and government is faltering, these new institutions embody the potential of democratic renewal. They create the democratic spaces for everyday people to grapple with the complexity of policy issues, listen to one another and find common ground. In doing so, they create the conditions to overcome polarization and strengthen societal cohesion. They bring out the collective intelligence of society — the principle that many diverse people will come to better decisions than more homogeneous groups." - Claudia Chwalisz
Article: A Movement That’s Quietly Reshaping Democracy For The Better
Design, Teaching
“The beautiful thing about children is it doesn’t take much for them to understand how to operate as a designer, because they’ve been able to leverage make-believe, which is essentially the same tool we use as designers when putting together mood boards and customer journeys.”
"Over the course of 62 pages, (designer Jason) Mayden uses bright typography to tell his own story, starting with his childhood when he was fighting a blood infection in the hospital. He leveraged that terrible moment to dive into his own imagination. From there, the story slowly unrolls into an explainer on design, breaking down tricky concepts like inclusive design, while giving an overview of all the ways design impacts everything from education to policy. In this sense, the children’s book treatment works very well in outlining the scope of design while explaining concepts 'like I’m five.' It’s the perfect short read for adults, even if the story is written for kids." - Mark Wilson
Article: This Children’s Book About Design Should be Required Reading for CEOs
Inspiration
"The definitive career-spanning, multi-platform documentary about visionary musician and artist Brian Eno."
One of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategy cards
Cool news. Gary Hustwit, the filmmaker who brought us films about Helvetica and Dieter Rams, is working on a film about Brian Eno. It will be released in 2023.
"For the past 50 years, Brian Eno has been at the forefront of musical creativity, technology, and artistic innovation. The hugely influential British musician, producer, activist, visual artist and self-described “sonic landscaper” began his career as an original member of the legendary Roxy Music in the early 1970s. He left the band to release a series of solo records and later pioneered the genre of ambient music with his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports. As a producer, Brian Eno has helped define and reinvent the sound of some of the most important artists in music, including David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Coldplay, and dozens of others. He also composed what may be the most heard piece of music in the world: the startup sound for Microsoft Windows. Undeniably, Eno has changed the way modern music is made."
Webpage: Gary Hustwit
Cooperation
The right mood music can influence how well people work together.
"Many retail establishments carefully select the music they play in order to influence consumer behavior, such as encouraging shoppers to buy more, the authors write. But employees hear the same music and its effect on them hasn’t been studied.
“'In our case, the new article focuses attention on the role of music in relation to management questions,' said lead author Kevin M. Kniffin of Cornell University in New York.
"In the first of two studies, 78 participants were randomly divided into two groups: a 'happy music' group that heard songs like 'Yellow Submarine' by The Beatles and the theme from the television show 'Happy Days,' and an 'unhappy music' group that heard less familiar heavy metal songs like 'Smokahontas' by Attack Attack!
"The participants in each group used a computer application in which they played a sort of economics game with other unidentified participants in the same room, but players didn’t speak to one another.
"In the application, each person was given 10 tokens corresponding to monetary value and was paired with two other people. Over 20 rounds of decision-making, each person was prompted to either keep their tokens or allocate them to a group pool which would be split among the participants at the end. Tokens in the group pool were valued 1.5 times as much as those held individually.
"Consistently, people listening to happy music contributed more to the group pool." - Kathryn Doyle
Article: People May Be More Cooperative after Listening to Upbeat Music
Futures Thinking
What we thought that our homes would look like in 2020 in 1982
Trying to predict the future is a fool's errand. We simply have no way to anticipate scenarios that involve the undiscovered. This short video is fun in that it does suggest the use of tiny video screens and giant monitors, while suggesting that both might be "too futuristic". It also anticipates the need for more energy efficiency, while completely missing the technologies that make furnaces obsolete. Net-zero? In 1982 it was simply not on the radar yet.
Video: 1989 Thought Houses Would Look Like This by 2020 | Tomorrow's World | Past Predictions | BBC Archive
Packaging, Circular Economy
Pentagram helped Verizon reduce the carbon footprint, eliminate the plastic and improve the user experience of it's packaging
"In 2021 Verizon launched a new range of own-brand mobile phone accessories which can be purchased online or in Verizon stores. The products feature upgraded materials with improved sustainability and the range includes phone cases, chargers, wireless chargers, cables, car adapters and screen protectors. Pentagram developed the packaging for the new range, responding to a brief which was to improve the packaging structures to provide better product protection as well as to develop an enhanced unboxing experience for customers. The new packaging also needed to demonstrate sustainability and accessibility improvements.
"Improving the packaging structure and unboxing experience whilst reducing environmental impact is challenging, so the design team worked with Giraffe Innovation to establish the carbon footprint of each component of each existing package, covering materials, design, manufacture and shipping. This analysis highlighted the opportunity to make carbon footprint savings if the package sizes were reduced significantly and all plastic components were removed."
Case Study: Packaging Sustainability and User Experience Improvements for Verizon’s Accessories Range
One-liners
Article: How Procter & Gamble and Unilever are extending LGBTQ+ efforts well beyond pride month
Article: Volvo's entire 2023 lineup Is electrified
Article: Forget Burning Man — psychedelic shamans now heading to Davos
Article: Ovolo is the world’s first hotel group to go vegetarian
Playlist
"The conflicts between Russia and Ukraine reach far and wide, even deep into this Tiny Desk (home) concert performed by the ARC Ensemble — artists from Canada's Royal Conservatory in Toronto. They offer music by the neglected composer Dmitri Klebanov, a Ukrainian Jew whose career was sidelined by the Stalin regime when his First Symphony was denounced in 1949.
Klebanov wrote his Fourth String Quartet — from which the ensemble plays excerpts — three years earlier. He dedicated it to his compatriot, the composer Mykola Leontovych who, as a Ukrainian separatist, was murdered by the Soviet secret police in 1921." - Tom Huizenga
Article/Video: ARC Ensemble: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
Image of the Week
A snapshot of wildflowers growing in a neighbor's yard. We, and many of our neighbors, are participating in No Mow May, a movement that encourages homeowners to allow their grass to grow un-mown for the month of May, creating habitat and forage for early season pollinators.
Our side yard, this morning. A five-fold increase in pollinator counts has been reported when mowing is delayed one month.
What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
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