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Glossary
of Terms
[A-M]
[N-Z]
December
6, 1996
Process
Facilitator
An individual who facilitates the work of the KreW and the Facilitator during
the DesignShop® event. See roles and duties here.
Production
The subset of the KreW of a DesignShop® event charged with keeping track
of all of the documentation generated by the DesignShop process and assembling
it into paper and electronic Journals for distribution to the participants,
usually within a few days of the end of the event. Journals may be 500 or more
pages in length. The new documentation process
allows the Journal to be captured in a database for ease of use in an electronic
format.
Project
Status Map
A project management tool that employs a matrix of projects listed down one
side and days or weeks listed across the top. There are two ways to use a project
status map: (1) for each sub task within a project, place a tag along the project's
line under the date when the sub task is due. Then track the progress of work
on each sub task through a system of visual indicators (green for go, red for
holding, blue for completed, etc.); (2) if you're tracking a number of identical
projects, advance a single tag along each project's line to indicate the status
of the project. Project status maps are most appropriate for projects whose
scale and complexity tend to make them linear progressions of tasks. If there
are many parallel tasks or the duration of the project runs for many quarters
or years, an ANDMap® system or similar project management tool is more appropriate.
Radiant
Room
This is the name we give to the large space in a Management Center® environment
where the participants gather together as one body to hear reports or have synthesis
discussions of some sort. The focus of the Radiant Room is a long WorkWall®
unit called the Radiant Wall that may be straight, folding or curving depending
on the design of the individual center. Some Radiant Walls stretch to over 40
feet in length. The back side of the Radiant Wall is frequently covered with
an adhesive material made by 3M to which paper can be adhered and removed many
times over. This is called the KnowledgeWall™ display, although you may
hear it called the Sticky Wall by old timers in the network.
The term Radiant Wall comes
from Isaac Asimov's idea of a Radiant Cube that he introduces in the third volume
of his Foundation Trilogy. The cube is a device that holds the plans for the
rebirth of an entire galactic civilization, yet sits unobtrusively on a table
top. When a Speaker from the Second Foundation focuses his mind on the cube,
it projects the plan on the walls of the room. With further mental effort the
Speaker can navigate the plan from start to finish, zoom in to more detail or
pull out to a more general landscape, and see the record of all the changes
that have been made to the plan and all of the contingencies built into it as
well.
RDS™
Environment
Rapid Deployment Solution. Also called Rapid Deployment System. Also called
the Transportable Management Center. An entire kit of WorkWall® units, Work
Stations, Break-out Tables, lighting, computers, network, video cameras, video
technical direction equipment, video editing equipment, supplies, library, games
and toys sufficient to support a multiple day DesignShop® event for a group
varying from five to one hundred participants and up to thirty or so KreW. The
RDS environment is shipped in trucks and takes a day or two to assemble and
tear down depending on the size of the event.
Read
Ahead
A collection of materials delivered to participants up to a week or so in advance
of a DesignShop® event. The articles and books chosen for a Read Ahead will
serve one of two purposes: provide more information concerning the problem to
be created and solved during the DesignShop process, and to stretch thinking
and introduce new ideas that challenge preconceptions. The Facilitator, Process
Facilitator, Sponsor and perhaps one or two KreW members handle the selection,
assembly and distribution.
Report
Out
After participants have spent some time in Breakout Teams they are often invited
to reassemble as a large group to hear each team report their work. To prepare
for this report, the teams are asked to recreate (not copy) their work onto
paper covered magnetic Hypertile™ palette (11x17 inches) which will adhere
to the porcelain steel WorkWall® units. The group reassembles in a large
room that usually has a very large, curving WorkWall systems called the Radiant
Wall (some are over 40 feet long). The teams group their Hypertile palette on
this wall either by team or by some other sorting category, or they place them
on the wall as they are being discussed. The tiles can be moved about and drawn
around to sort, connect and emphasize ideas.
Rules
of Engagement
A list of boundaries that must be set on a DesignShop® process, session,
Management Center® environment or NavCenter™ System in order to secure
success. The requirement of having no observers or visitors during a DesignShop
event is an example (everyone either participates or they are on KreW). Another
example is the limitation on the conduct of other business by the participants
during the DesignShop process (it destroys breakout team integrity and compromises
the product to have individuals constantly conducting other business away from
the team on the phone).
Scenario
Exercise
A module of a DesignShop® event that is frequently employed to uncover assumptions
among the participants regarding how they think about trends, the past and the
future. It's usually done in large group on the Radiant Wall. The Radiant Wall
is divided horizontally into time frames. Sometimes the Scenario considers the
distant past--up to 30,000 years ago, passes through the present (usually the
current year plus or minus 5-10 years) and ends sometime in the future. Participants
stand before the wall one at a time and state an event they wish to place on
the timeline (sometimes further defined by the facilitator's instructions) and
perhaps its significance. Then they write that event on the wall under the year
it occurred. Then the next participant places their event on the wall. This
may continue through all of the participants and through several rounds. The
exercise is very flexible in terms of how the wall is laid out, what types of
events the participants are asked to place on the wall, and how Sketch Hogs
are employed to augment and synthesize the visual display. A good synthesist
on the KreW can predict much of the outcome of the DesignShop event and the
solution to the problem simply by studying a well-executed scenario.
Share-A-Panel
A module of a DesignShop® event usually preceded by a Take-A-Panel®
exercise wherein participants assemble into teams and visit each team member's
panel--or WorkWall® unit--in succession to hear a report of the work scribed
on that panel. After each team member has reported their individual work, the
team usually assembles in a Breakout Area to either synthesize what they've
heard, or begin work on another exercise. If the total number of participants
in a DesignShop event is small, they may all participate in the exercise, which
is then called a "Walk-About". After each participant has had an opportunity
to share their panel, the entire group may assemble for a synthesis discussion
or may be divided into Breakout Teams to begin another round of work.
Sketch
Hog
Also called a scribe. A KreW member skilled in listening to a conversation or
presentation and capturing its essence and significance in illustrated and annotated
diagrams on WorkWall® units, paper, computer, or in a 3D physical model.
Sketch Hogs are called upon to support participants in Breakout Teams to illustrate
their ideas, work before the large group during synthesis discussions, create
finished art and icons to support the production of the Journal, and to create
finished art and diagrams to support any follow-on work products.
Sponsor
(Client)
(See also DesignShop Sponsor.)
An individual or small group who hold primary responsibility or a principal
stake in the outcome of a DesignShop® event, NavCenter™ System, Management
Center™ environment, or session. Often the sponsor is the champion of the
idea which the shop or center is designed to address. The sponsor may also be
a manager or executive. Often a sponsor team is assembled made up of representatives
from various constituents who comprise the participants in the DesignShop.
Sponsor
(Knowledge Worker)
An experienced individual (usually of Journeyman level) who assists and supports
another Knowledge Worker through the transition into, through, and out of the
MG Taylor ValueWeb™ system. The sponsor is not necessarily a mentor, and
is usually chosen my mutual agreement--never assigned. Assigning sponsors would
violate the pattern of "Stepping Up" or self-selecting tasks and projects
from the work to be done. Sponsors are literally individual transition managers.
Sponsor
(NavCenter™ Environment)
An individual, or most commonly a team who champions the purpose, mission and
existence of a NavCenter Environmemt.
Since NavCenter Systems are established to support a particular project or purpose,
the Sponsor may also be the project manager. Because a NavCenter System represents
a way of work which radically departs from the behavior of the rest of the organization,
the Sponsor should have a position of authority within the organization as well.
Sponsor
Session
Usually a three or four hour session attended by the client sponsor (individual
or team), the key facilitator, the process facilitator, and supported by one
or more KreW. The purpose of this session is to develop clear objectives for
the DesignShop® event, work on assembling the right participant list, decide
on general logistics arrangements, take a first cut at the design of the DesignShop
process, and get a general idea of what sort of products should be generated
during and after the DesignShop event.
Strawdog
Before each DesignShop, the Event Facilitator (Key Facilitator) and/or the Process
Facilitator generates a first cut at the design of the event. Sometimes this
process is completed formally in a Sponsor Session with the DesignShop®
Sponsor, the Facilitator and Process Facilitator. These sessions are documented.
The Strawdog summarizes the planners' thinking in terms of the purpose of the
DesignShop event, the desired outcomes and the individual modules that comprise
the design. Usually the first half of the shop is outlined in detail; the rest
cannot be designed until the event is underway.
Take-A-Panel®
Exercise
A module of a DesignShop® event wherein the participants take one panel
of a WorkWall® unit (about 6' tall by 4' wide) each and compose on it answers
to an assignment. The exercise allows all of the participants to be heard, to
express their ideas in whatever visual fashion they wish, and have their ideas
available to be viewed by other participants and captured by the DesignShop
KreW. This exercise is usually succeeded by a Share-A-Panel exercise.
WalkThru
A session during which the DesignShop® event is designed, including all
of the modules, assignments, and team configurations. Day one is rigorously
designed, day two a little less so, and day three may be rather sketchy at this
point. The Client Sponsors, Facilitators, Process Facilitators and KreW participate
in the WalkThru. Usually a "straw dog" design of the shop is presented
at the beginning, but sometimes the design proceeds from scratch (no pun intended--dog,
scratch,.... get it??).
WAWD
Team
An acronymn coined by Robert Heinlein in a science fiction short story: We
Also Walk Dogs. It was the slogan of a large network of "knowledge
workers" which could be galvanized to accomplish nearly any task imaginable
for any client whatsoever, from the largest engineering project to simply walking
someone's dog. The concept of a WAWD team in MG Taylor is a consortium of knowledge
workers, or enterprises of one, who are linked together in a vast value web,
and whose expertise, skills, and passions can be focused on helping clients
imagine visions and then implement them anywhere on the globe.
Writing
Team
A subset of the KreW and Sponsors of a DesignShop® event charged with crafting
the assignments that participants will work on in their Breakout Teams. The
term "craft" is key here. Assignments are not composed without considerable
thought. When you consider that a single assignment will consume perhaps 1/6
of the duration of a DesignShop process and that the reports from such an assignment
will steer the entire content and tone of the DesignShop event, it's easy to
understand their importance.
Work
Product
A synthesis or evolutionary product of the DesignShop whose purpose is to either
crystallize some concept, detail and illustrate some plan, or take the participants
beyond the information of the DesignShop into new realms they may not have considered
yet. Its purpose is not to simplify, but to present the complicated
and obtuse in a way that is merely very complex--so that it may be understood,
but not watered down. [see articles on types
of Work Products and how to create them.]
WorkWall®
Units
Panels of light colored porcelain steel which accept a variety of marking materials
such as chalks, dry erase markers, water colors, India ink, pastels, and water
based markers. They are used by participants and KreW as a tool to support collaboration.
A typical Management Center® environment may have more than 3,000 square
feet of this surface available. Large or small groups can illustrate complex
issues and detailed plans all within plain view of the entire group, and all
easily editable. The amount of information that can be manipulated on these
wall systems and the flexibility of erasing or adding to it, dwarfs the capabilities
of butcher paper, flip charts, or projection systems. The walls are typically
six or more feet high and may be any length. Rolling walls come in lengths from
four to sixteen feet in length, some of which are folding. WorkWall units may
also be permanently installed within the environment. The walls are manufactured
by Athenaeum International.
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© 1996 - 2000, MG Taylor Corporation. All rights reserved
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