Art and music spoke where technology failed. Social media connects us but plugged a generation to a numbing vanity feed for self validation. When young tech still a tool, we made the best of it to stay tuned to our favourite tunes. The music industry was the first victims to bear the rampaging race for disruption where its business-as-usual with technology as a means to accelerate profits by commoditising the art as merely audio on subscription. Yet, if there’s an industry we can learn from through this crisis would be the arts and music.

To understand why, these industries aren’t made only as a functional utility for society , but also social and emotional. Art & music help weave our social fabric that has bind communities for decades. Such creative pursuits paved our cultures to share and express, from the grim reality of death to the beauty we marvel daily, not just in product posters and video advert. Try take that out and mine all the big data you can from you social networks and still you’re left with merely artificial tin cans lacking of any intelligence to make any sense to humanity.

It baffles me how we’ve came to disrespect the artist just based on the merit to how much it contributes to our economic growth. We bow to the creative genius of the “smart” phone but became culturally dumb what makes it smart in the first place. And through this crisis, i’m concerned we might again overlook this fact, that not everything has to be digitize or be financially scalable. To be honest, most of the dedicated and passionate people I’ve met in my life never gave a shit on that but scores sheets instead. That joy when you finally sync up to records, performing at that a dingy gig sweaty or that lame party as an excuse to meetup spurred some of the best social experience I’ve shared with others than any social networking group. We spoke a common language in music and art despite going to any part of the world, we connected much closer that any fan today could attest to their trending idol.

The point is this. If you want to learn about resilience for your brand or business, pay attention to the creative and cultural sectors. Technology’s great if we’re pushing new boundaries to these endeavours but our user-centric fascination on solutions to pursue better living through circuitry must extend beyond your next myopic platform. In music, we had great potential from previous start ups set to build the next big thing for the scene but what we’re left with today is similar to McDonald’s on demand; commoditising music to audio streaming to every hungry listener “preference”. Even noise was appreciated more tastefully when it was blasting live with passion as a performance art.

There’s an underlying force that will always continue to push the arts and music and its’s nothing financial nor technological. It’s the essence to why we express and create; to perform and communicate; to live and be free. The sauce lies in the craft and community.

There’s much we can learn from our artists on moving digital. Even in a global pandemic, they’ve dedicated their hearts at right places and kept the community together. I’m certain nothing can replace our social bonds in congregations but for now, we’ll settle for fuzzy video streams and cringy online shows. When the world’s a stage, we’ve got far better lined up to show.

With a third of our lives spent at work, its no wonder many hold on to work as part of their identity, a piece of who they are. It does help when in search of work to name-drop affiliations with notables in your industry or a steady and curated portfolio on your ascension of the ladder. And as much as we liked to craft that ladder high, standing perfectly planned en route to where we want to be, most of the time we don't have a clue. And if you, just like many, who seek to find meaning in our work, most of the time have to just because we needed the money.

Everyone’s a jack of all trades to an extent but we’re definitely never a master of none. Mastery, so it seems, has been reduced to navigating through petty politics instead of deliberate actions on making anything better. It’s puzzling we’ve accepted this despite knowing that we’re more than just the jobs we hold and the work we do. Yet, we now observe the world’s largest experiment into remote working as an ongoing pandemic takes the global stage. As businesses race to move operations online to stay afloat, those fortunate to work carry on with video calls and messaging platforms to remain connected. In a lockdown, our identities collide as we blend into different roles from a parent to a spouse, while trying to make work, work.

Despite digitalization being nothing new, this time there’s a difference. Prior to the 21st century, it seems we were more bedazzled by the medium while losing the message. Global news often scrolled by as just information before we get swarmed up in our daily struggle. Now, we got your attention to the glaring cracks of the systems our society was built upon. Work, as we know it, no longer works for us and the world we live in.

My own pursuit, over the last decade, was built upon varying roles with conflicting identities to a society used to identify people based on their profession. And there were of plenty of vicious bitches ready to claw at each other just to survive in our urban jungle, both men & women. This has been something that bothered me my entire career if I can call it one. With change looming, we’ve become increasingly disengaged at work and began to speak out in our reflection during our isolation. Lol, such is how we are as men.

Work used to be a noble pursuit in securing a livelihood to provide for our family. Now, it’s a battle amongst competitions and a race to the top with Sun Tzu-styled guides in a dog-eat-dog world. As unemployment rises, many talented people are left without work while the market braces for recession. And from climate change to displaced refugees, it seems the world is in a dire state as it appeals for a revival of our stewardship.

Despite it’s truth, it’s still set on a lens that revolves around us at its axis. The earth we live in is in no need of our intervention. As we stay in, the world is actually doing quite well and each day, the sun still sets into the night. As our planet heals, how might we do it differently?

How we frame these questions now will determine how we may answer it. And as essential work strives on the frontline, there’s a place for creativity amid the madness. At the cusp of change, the artist help strings the chaos into melodies of meaning strung in order to make sense of our rhythm in life. Work doesn’t have to be all hustling with no heart. Or should it all passion but not smart. It's a bit of both — the chaos and order in its proper places.

In pursuit of what’s next, I’m opening up our practice to reimagine exactly that - What’s next for us to make work, actually work? That physical or mental activity that is done with effort in order to achieve a purpose or result. The pursuit of something beyond the status we hold or the wealth we seek. Extraordinary things begin to happen when we bring all of who we are at work but for many, it’s a tough world but when given a chance, I choose not to turn to the monster I’m up against. And I truly believe we now we have a chance to make work, work.

Under-current is an innovation practice that’s focused on leadership, design, strategy and culture in response to change. There’s no roadmap set yet but if this resonates with you, do reach out at work@under-current.io to be part of our creative undercurrent rising up to future swells. Special mention to Undercurrent, once notable agency in NYC that closed and re-launched recently to take on capitalism. As their past work still inspires us, we’ve chosen to stick to sharing the name under current circumstances. ;p

Circuit breaker

Singapore’s very own version of a city lockdown to flatten the curve from an ongoing global pandemic labelled CoVid19. Similar to how we were living through circuitry, a switch was placed to interrupt the current flow of things when a fault is detected. While the virus went public just before the turn of the century, we only took notice when it hit our shores.

What used to be just another news headline we normally swipe over, now became the only message that mattered as the whole world goes into social isolation. Words that carry no weight that’s not insta-worthy of our social media now demands the attention of humanity. The irony of an age where information has become readily accessible yet the medium overshadows the message and the meaning in language are lost in circuitry.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. Only looking backwards, so you must have faith that it will all play out.” — Steve Jobs

From one of the pioneers in our modern age, let’s look back almost a decade ago when he introduced the first iPhone in 2007. What now seems like ancient machines that once sat in our houses as we patiently wait for the dial, the world wide web was made accessible to everyone as the computer fit in our pockets. Since then, the industrial age was left to dust as the world became a giant network fuelled by technological innovations. A technological change that enabled radically new ways to deliver value to customers, altering competitive landscapes and changing the underlying economics of our markets. What’s different was the ever-increasing rate of change as it grew exponentially to the point where singularity between humans and technology may even be possible. Stand the risk of being disrupted or embrace a digital transformation as we leap into a global marketplace.

Adapt or be disrupted as change became the only constant.

This was the common narrative before the turn of the century yet the only exponential growth we’re charting is the growing disparity in wealth by the compounding interests on debts and the viral outbreak spreading across the globe. While we were anticipating an imminent change, most of us ignored the signs of the fragile state of our own systems. It is as if we’ve stopped to marvel at the sun but we stared too long and now we’re blinded; forgotten of where we were heading. Although, this wasn’t a spectacle such as our sun but a product of our own creation. Conceived and made real beyond our imagination yet we’re still entrapped within the boundaries of where our sense and logic could ever go. We even foretold the robots were coming yet we were the ones left empty and lifeless as we left behind pieces of what made us human in the first place. These realities were just a mirror of our own self as we reflect sitting in our homes.

By now, the world has started to shrug off the shock from the outbreak. The narrative has now moved from a shared reflection towards making sense of what happened to an optimistic forecast, hopeful of a new beginning as our world heals. And with change imminent, let’s try not to let history repeat itself. While we’ve always started based on good intentions, we often forget as we progress. Many are ready to lead that change but are we truly ready transform ourselves?

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein

In response to a world in transition, it begins by rediscovering what it means for us to be human; and in the context of the world that we live in. We’ve understood that how we frame our question will lead towards different answers. In order to rise above deeply fundamental yet varyingly nuanced issues of modern society, we must reframe our worldview moving forward. Only through the change of circumstances, the mettle of men is known.

Disruption at its best. was originally published in undercurrent_hq on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today the world start to see a glimpse of what keeps us a live. A heart that brings the pulse of our life alive. The simultenous order working as a unit to power a fully functional body that we often wake up to each day.

What we take for granted is seemingly distant to finding a solution to reviving a motionless heart. Something so simple yet profoundly important in our very existence of what it means to be human.

How then many can claim immunity to power in thing he invincible. But at any moment, he can cease to exist in a heart beat. The fragile intricacies that continues to work even if our conscience awareness choose to focus away from it.

As a unit, they seamlessly work in rhythm to power our body. How then can people collaborate more harmoniously when they organise?

Today, the world can see a glimpse of a miracle that’s keeping us a live. A heart that brings the pulse of our life alive. The simultenous order working as a unit to power a fully functional body that we often wake up to each day.

What we take for granted is seemingly distant to finding a solution to reviving a motionless heart. Something so simple yet profoundly important in our very existence of what it means to be human.

How then many can claim immunity to power in thing he invincible. But at any moment, he can cease to exist in a heart beat. The fragile intricacies that continues to work even if our conscience awareness choose to focus away from it.

As a unit, they seamlessly work in rhythm to power our body. How then can people collaborate more harmoniously when they organise?

A better blend of humanity & technology

The world is changing and with it, comes a new set of wicked challenges that’s deeply complex yet fundamentally questions our very existence of what it means to be human . And within this space lies the pursuit of my work to understand this new world we live in. A rapidly-evolving world fuelled by technological innovations yet more than ever, relies on the power of meaningful human connections.

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human. — John Naisbitt

My purpose is to learn a living while working around the intersection of creativity, strategy and technology. A sense-making pursuit that’s set up to value the journey, not it’s destination, into understanding human and group behaviours in a digital age. An inquiry that’s rooted in understanding the liberal arts of living in an age where the sciences powers the logic for most.

My intent is to help people rediscover what makes us human in our new reality with technology by:

While seeking a better blend of humanity and technology, I’m open to help you with your wicked problems by applying my experience and expertise around these topic areas; but not limited to:

• Creative direction & brand strategy
• Experience design
• Marketing & Communications
• Organizational Learning & Development
• Disruptive innovation

What’s your wicked problem?

Let me try to simplify it further. Take a specific complex challenge that you have and begin by scoping it down into just one sentence. In essence, what is that one critical problem that you are trying to solve? Frame the question as a “How can we…? statement.

How can you break down a complex challenge into a succinct problem statement? Try using the First Principles Thinking which is practised by one of today’s boldest entrepreneur Elon Musk in his pursuit to revolutionize space exploration and sustainable energy. A mental model that forces you to focus on the fundamental facts of your challenge with reasoning by first principles.

“I think it is important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [When reasoning by analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done or it is like what other people are doing — slight iterations on a theme.

First principles is kind of a physics way of looking at the world. You boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, “What are we sure is true?” … and then reason up from there.” — Elon Musk

How can I help?

Share with me your wicked challenge and if we can align set both our expectations and availabilities, I will help solve your wicked problem, with no financial obligations upfront, using a 5 day sprint.

While some problems can get really wicked and may take more than a sprint, I believe that the design sprint is the fastest and most practical approach to start. In 5 days, we can diagnose your challenge deeper and deliver a tangible action to take the initial step to solving your wicked challenge. If the outcome for the sprint adds any value or meaningful progress, we can then discuss more on the details including any remunerations, if you decide to pursue it further. To give you a better idea on how this may work, here are some of the wicked problems that I’ve worked on previously.

Why am I doing this?

As of now, my expectations are only your commitment for this partnership which provides us both with the an opportunity to learn. From re-iterations from the process to building more cases of change from the collection of these planned experiments; especially with individuals and teams that are working together for a meaningful causes.

It does not matter what titles we hold nor what our resumes are made of. I believe in working together with people who’s genuinely open to learn with a bias for action. What matters is a shared intent to collaborate and co-create. A desire to design for humans, based on a shared purpose.

I value working on projects that mirrors bits of our reflection to bring meaningful change and as such, I’m always looking for the next exploratory conversation and opportunity; for the chance to chat with someone and learn from each other.

Think we can create something together?

Please reach out and we’ll schedule time to know each other! Drop me a line at rizalyatim@gmail.com

Design for humans was originally published in Rizal Yatim on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Humans too

Our brief existence have been consumed with the desires of material gains propagated in a society that has moved so far from what it truly means to be human. We have become so disconnected to our true purpose since the commoditization of our needs has taken us further to what simply is providing us for sustenance. The challenges we face as a society has become increasingly complex through the systems that we’ve created in our selfish pursuit for economic progress.

In my pursuit to make sense of this new world we live in with the advent of technology, I begin to take interest in understanding how we can work better with each other in a time where information is open and easily accessed by everyone. I became fascinated by human and group behaviours in a digital age where everyone has an opinion. And in my pursuit to learn, a recurring pattern that is evidently clear in order to navigate through the complexity is to define a meaningful purpose.

In his concept of the Golden Circle, Simon Sinek shared the need for leaders and organizations to start with why in order to create a compelling value proposition and inspire action. Why you do what you do? The purpose, cause, or belief that inspires you to do what you do.

The Responsive Org movement calls for us to rethink how we work and organize in an unpredictable landscape by valuing purpose over profit. A new reality that shares similar sentiments with Frederic Laloux views on the future of management as organizations move forward along an evolutionary spectrum towards self-management, wholeness and ultimately having a deeper sense of purpose. And what’s amazing in this evolutionary shift is that in order to navigate in today’s complexity, he describes it with a simple guiding metaphor of a living organism.

Fluid, responsive and adaptable. Independent as each cell operate with a specific function yet in perfect harmony, they serve a bigger purpose. Something that we’ve taken for granted within nature itself that might be the answer to how we can rise to today’s global challenges together. These are few of the many examples that sets the imperative to rethink how collaborate, co-create and even co-exist.

It might be a no-brainer to begin with the very intent in each of our pursuits but it just shows how far we have grown apart from our real purpose. Even though led by good intentions, the systems that we’ve created with the rise of the industrial age has dehumanized our society to become by-products of an operating model that we blindly accept as it is. It’s time we clarify our true intent and take action.

“The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology, but because of an expanded concept of what it means to be human.” – John Naisbitt

So what does it really mean to be human?

21 Dec 2016

Everything shall perish was originally published in Rizal Yatim on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A pursuit in electronic music & media arts

2016 marks a decade since I started promoting electronic music in 2006. Back in an unused attic of a small cafe called Kaki 5, I started Silentt with the hopes to have “electronic music” artists a platform to share their music. There wasn’t much opportunities previously to hear music that was born out of genuine curiosity through experimentation with technology. I gathered some of my best mates together and we took a chance at our first gig.

“Everything we do is music” — John Cage

I became fascinated by it and what started purely to share electronic music, it became my only drive to do something that I really was passionate about. From music gigs to art exhibitions, I moved across different projects across electronic music and “new media” arts. I’ve never hold a full time job then because I believe that someday this project can make me a decent living. That was the only thing I knew. That was the only thing I did.

Silentt became 433, inspired by John Cage’s piece which highlights what I believe is the essence of music, silence. The whole universe is a musical instrument strung by everything that live in it. However, that didn’t stay long and soon after, I renamed it to Perspektif. Although the name kept changing, what I stood for didn’t. It has always been to let electronic music be heard by creating opportunities to share them. I didn’t had a plan on how it would pan out but my goal then was only to make each project come to life.

Since then, electronic music has evolved. Previously, I simply define the use of technology in the music making process as electronic music. It isn’t bounded by any genre and that is what fuel my motivation for each gig with the opportunity to experience their work live. Now, technology has enable artists to create works that is beyond musical constraints. The community was small and staying together was the only way we knew to keep the scene alive.

Today, great genre-defying music are made popular with the mainstream media catching up on it. Together with the coverage it got, the independent music scene grew massively to only became more saturated and commoditised. Sponsors flock in to put their name on gigs in support of creative community. While it did help artists have more platforms to share their music, we lost the heart of the true music community.

If everyone is already taken, then who will be you?

We then started Bootlg to start host our gigs at unusual spots in the city, free from sponsors. Techno was our music and DIY was the modus operandi. Besides Dualtone’s EP CD release and the Cityscapes publication with Silentt and Perspektif respectively, we wanted to launch a label again to release music under B on vinyls. Unfortunately, that did pan out as we expected as our production was placed on hold since we were unable to commit to paying it. I wouldn’t say its impossible but it was challenging. I sincerely salute those who manage to produce vinyl releases to Asia.

When Bootlg became B, I got sick of having an imprint or a name to lead these projects. I wanted it to be as obsolete as possible. I didn’t want to join in the hypocrisy in order to make things work. Maybe the last few years of trying to have a brand annoys me while I caved in to joining back to the corporate jungle.

10 years on, I reflected on this journey and while sustaining these pursuit was tough, I knew exactly what I was in for. Most times we will be covering our losses, only to be excited by the next artist we’re hosting. We were crazily overoptimistic as we gambled our luck even when the numbers didn’t add up well. We never broke even but no one really cared how we made it, just as long they get to see their favourite artists live on stage.

I am fortunate to fail earlier and take the journey as a learning experience. Although money was never our goal, we need money to keep our pursuits afloat. It sure was tough love but those who were really into it knew that the satisfaction wasn’t from the profits or recognition but the joy in coming together and making it happen.

Thank you for the epic memories together!

Stormfield, Clash the Disko Kids, Electro Killer Corps, DJ Marin, Softer, Souldelay, Mylean Sheath, Deicoz, Dean & Kaye, Dyko, Frontline Soundsystem, Elektone, The Karl Maka, Plus Nueva, Breakbeat Theory, Kulturkampf, wyxmm, Amberhaze, Airfields, Ikuma, uan, Sonicbrat, Jodi Rose, Micheal Fakesch, taprik Sweezee, Randolf Arriola, Eswandy Sarip, Johnson Zhang, Mark Wong, Mux, Kamal Lufti, Mix Architekt, Andy Rigby, Pollux #13, Thomer Surria, Perc, Headline, Loopinmotion, Tommy Four Seven, EBE02, Sirhindi, Barals, Yadin, Oscar Mulero, Kavan, Irfan Kamal, WXIV, Gerald Ang, Cdrik, Dualtone, Decrypt, Mxndkrft, Awool, Fauxe, Imr/n, Zero The Memory Thief, Sarah Cheng De Winne, Oake

A decade on was originally published in Rizal Yatim on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Life as one big road trip

I once imagined life to be one long road trip. Just like driving, we need to keep our eyes on the road ahead. Find a route to get where we want to go but always move forward. The road is long and bumpy but we’ll get by. What lies ahead is never certain but once in a while we need look behind through our rear view mirror and make some sense of where we passed. We might have people joining us for the ride but at some point, they will leave.

Through a limited perception of life itself that we can make out from our 5 senses, each experience is only defined to how we perceive it. What we might think is a bad experience, might have some blessing to it but maybe only presented to us on a later time. And for me to be here synthesizing my thoughts, being able to articulate and write using my sense of sight and touch is a miracle in itself which we sometimes take for granted.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” — Steve Jobs

As I look back through my rear view mirror to all my past pursuits, I’ve never really had a straight career path when I first started working. The ideal scenario was always to graduate from a top university and slowly climb your way up the corporate ladder in a specific industry. Although it might have been great to follow that route, mine was never linear but that doesn’t mean I gained nothing through these experiences.

I was lucky to start my career at a time when the government wanted to push the creative industries within Singapore. As part of it, i received a seed fund to start my own “creative” business. Fresh from school, it was liberating swimming with the sharks without any idea what I was in for. And to make ends meet, I worked my ass off on different odd jobs while running my business. From a cook to a valet driver, a designer to a seamstress, whatever came my way, i took it on.

How did the business went, you may ask? Not really as how I wish it could be. Although I achieved the desired outcomes to the funds, the business never really took off. I was left with my random work experience in search of a “job”. My education background was in engineering informatics but I was determined to work in the creative industries. At that time, the two was completely from two different worlds for me. From then, I started finding my place in a market of hopeful graduates looking to climb their own ladder. Once, i was designer working with Flash and the next moment, I was liaising with designers on SEO but mainly, most of my work was in the arts or media industry. Alongside, I was still running as a promoter and an artist for electronic music in Singapore. From exhibitions to parties, we setup many side projects to fuel this passion.

Seemingly random, my past experience does link up when i connected the dots backwards. Always trusting my guts, these pursuits are instinctively led by 3 common drivers.

— I’m fascinated on the impact of technology.

It really started with my passion for music. The echoing snares of an old Dub classic paved the way to my love for electronic music. I’ve always been fascinated to how a purely analogue sound wave through can transform through circuitry with layers of effects upon design.

And upon the new millennium, I was introduced to new media arts. Although the arts has given me a deeper purpose for my works, the struggles are true. It was hard to earn a living as a practitioner.

Although my background in informatics helped built the foundations to understand how the digital world works, I was never really a software engineer nor was I an arts practitioner.

— I’m obsessed with creativity.

The arts opened my world to appreciate beauty and to think conceptually. Just like how the artist go into a state of flow and gets lost in their work, I too can easily get lost into the process of looking through different views while we find patterns to set a narrative.

Instead of practicing on a craft, I begin to curate more and more projects that gave me a chance to work with many creative practitioners, from artists to musicians. Whenever an opportunities come knocking, I’ll push myself to design a project around it. I’ve always believe creativity as the art of creating, not only limited to aesthetic value but the process of designing. However, I was never really a curator nor was I a designer.

— I live by collaboration.

While working odd jobs, it showed me different perspectives on how people actually work with each other which then help build my sense of empathy. Some of my best work was developed through working with people. While I slowly left practising my own craft, I learned to develop my leadership style of bringing the best out of people by motivating and enabling them by giving them a platform to do their best work.

Great work comes only in isolation or collaboration. — Tim Walter

Constantly finding a balance, I’ve learned the joy of letting go of your own creative expectations and witness the beauty that lie in the process when people collaborate. From an initial seed of an idea, the output is moulded as we collaborate and feed off the energy of everyone’s contribution.

Life’s meaning is presented to us in moving visuals.

In my pursuit to find work that resonates to me, I began to appreciate the incidents from my past and how it has mould me today. We need to trust our instinct and stay hungry in our pursuits. We all get lost sometimes but our drivers will always be there as a guiding compass.

Always seen as a jack of all trades but master of none, now I begin to see how I got here. As the line between creativity and technology starts to blur, the business landscape demands more generalists, instead of specialists in a shifting multi-faceted world.

Through the years, despite the different types of work I do, I’m most passionate in enabling people to take a positive experience to their lives. Since our stay here in life is definitely temporary, I want to inspire the people around me to appreciate the world around them by designing positive experiences in a meaningful way.

Checking the rear-view mirror, but focusing on road ahead was originally published in Rizal Yatim on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rethink the way we learn as a community

When building a city, schools were built to be the center of learning for communities. A source of collective wisdom, schools once inspired communities to learn and share knowledge to prosper and progress. However, with steep competition to drive better value for learners, education has now been commoditized and has since, lost its purpose from which its foundations were built upon.

Even the system in which schools were designed for, were meant for the challenges and opportunities of the industrial age. Education was designed to produce top executives when they graduate and fit into a business landscape that relied on predictability and efficiency to support routine and static jobs.

Meanwhile, the world as we know it is changing. Fuelled by relentless technological innovation, the world has become a giant network where instantly accessible information is shared rapidly. This accelerating connectivity has created an increasing rate of change with the future becoming more difficult to predict.

As we move into the digital age, this paradigm shift brings to us a new set of global challenges that demand us to find new ways to overcome it. New skill sets are necessary with one-third of the world’s jobs becoming obsolete by 2025.

The tension between how we learn as a community and the demands of the changing landscape has reached a breaking point. We need to rethink how communities learn and frame a new perspective on how we learn together to rise to the challenges of tomorrow.

Singapore as a Smart Nation

In order to tackle the challenges of tomorrow, Singapore understands the need to relook at how we progress as a nation. As a result, Singapore recently shared its vision to be a Smart Nation to support better living, create more opportunities and support stronger communities. While the infrastructures and policies are set into play, how can the community progress cohesively together?

As a community, Singapore offers diversity with a growing multicultural society, a melting pot of different races and religion which attracts some of the brightest minds in the world. A blend of a modern metropolis with Asian heritage, Singapore is an energetic city that shares many spaces to work, live and play. However, with the speed of growth in which Singapore is developing, there is a disconnect to the progress of the community and the Smart Nation vision. Beyond the “hard” infrastructures of Singapore’s recent developments, we need to enable the community to cultivate the “soft” aspects of progress by reframing a change of mindsets on adaptability.

What’s the problem?

Learning has become exclusive to educational institutions.

The value in formal education has become diluted with the digital age.

There is no easy way to navigate through personal learning.

Purpose: Start with Why

Our purpose is to enable communities to foster lifelong learning. Instead of earning a living, we believe to learn a living. We are obsessed with how the world learns and we want to inspire the value of learning as a social currency for communities to progress.

A platform that enables communities to learn a living.

We believe that communities offer a wealth of knowledge and experience that provides an abundant resource to enable learning. Everyone can contribute and be part of learning, not only exclusive to educational institutions. As each community has a unique set of challenges different from the other, how each community learns and grow has to scale cohesively within a sustainable learning environment. Rethink how your learn with Knowble.

www.joinknowble.com

Learning from a super campus was originally published in Rizal Yatim on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the first key concepts thats inspired me to look into how we can organize better in this new reality was from Frederick Laloux. In his book, Reinventing Organizations, he shared 3 new breakthroughs and common cultural traits as we move into the next stage evolutionary stage of organizations.

Self-Management
Operate on a basis of peer relationship rather than hierarchy or consensus. Everyone follows their interests and passion.

Common cultural traits: Trust, Information & decision making, Responsibility

Wholeness
Members come to the workplace as a whole and not just their professional self. Everyone feels comfortable bringing their whole self to work.

Common cultural traits: Equal worth, Safe and caring workplace, Overcoming separation, Learning

Evolutionary Purpose
In essence, the organization has a sense of direction and a reason for living. Invites members to listen in and understand what the organization wants to become and what purpose it serves. The organization grows organically in the direction that it is meant to.

Common cultural traits: Collective purpose, Individual purpose, Planning the future, Profit

Ideally, I would be great to be able to test this on an organizational level but it would definitely be a challenge to have everyone to buy-in. Not only from a management who are used to having a more hierarchical approach, but also to members to understand about the need to try and rethink the way we work.

The management understood the need for change as shared during our year end retreat but while five-year plans are quite convincing when shared as a vision to move forward, I wanted to learn faster especially when we’re moving in an increasingly fast and unpredictable landscape. While I felt like sharing everything from what I learned at Hyper Island, the challenge was to actually make it relevant for everyone.

Why should we do this in the first place?

Instead of going big, I start from a space that I have some control with, within my team. As a team, we usually start the year with our usual planning to align with the organization’s annual mission, from setting our team annual priorities and key measurables to meet for the year.

S.L.A.M teams

Bursting with enthusiasm, I went right in to introduce my team to SLAM. A concept shared by now defunct org design consultancy, Undercurrent. I discovered more about SLAM from their public GDrive folder. A noble effort where they shared most of their tools and methodologies in order to stay true to their purpose on helping organizations to rethink the way we work.

One of their tools was the SLAM Team Charter. A tool to align team and explore responsive ways of working. In order for teams to be designed for agility, alignment, collaboration, and speed, the Charter helps you to organize your team to be Self-organizing, Lean, Autonomous, and Multi-disciplinary.

Bursting with enthusiasm, I went right into it and introduced my team to SLAM. I gathered everyone and shared with them my intent on trying to experiment a different way to work together for the year ahead. Blending a some key learning from the Hyper Island Way Week & the SLAM Team Charter as a guide, here are the key items that I’ve shared with the team.

— Defining the team’s mission

A crucial step to define us a team was for the group to work towards a shared mission. Starting from the agency’s purpose and mission, I open up to the team on what this means to them and as a team, how can we work towards achieving that mission.

Key Observations: Members were curious to how this will this affect them and, rather skeptical on whether it will work after being through several changes they faced with the agency. As the team is uncertain on what to contribute, I begin by proposing the team with a shared team mission then, asked about how they feel about it. This way, we get the ball rolling but a key learning point for me is to frame the team for change with as much relevance to their immediate needs as possible. By defining a mission that resonates to the team members, it serves as an anchor to navigate through other pursuits later.

— Setting team expectations

I wanted to add an underlying understanding as we aim to distribute authority within the team. So I started by asking everyone,

What do you expect out of your team members?

And individually, write down 5 key values each after which we shared them by placing on the table for everyone to see. Members were then asked to remove repeats and cluster those that are similar. Finally, the team decides on the 5 main values that everyone agrees to work by.

Key Observation: It’s great to see many similar values within the team. The team chose Empathy, Curiosity, Openness, Supportive, Integrity.

While we were optimistic to to work by these values, what I’ve learned as the months past, was that these expectations did not whole much value to influence our daily interactions with everyone. While it was an ideal to have every member to live by it, it needed everyone’s effort to enforce it. When setting these expectations, we could clarify further on it implications if a member were to break it.

— Distributing authority

In order to be self-organizing and autonomous, we need to distribute the tasks needed to achieve the desired outcomes. Here are the step proposed by the SLAM team charter to design a more responsive team.

1. Set the Team’s Mission
2. Define Roles
3. Fill those roles with People
4. Determine Decision Rights
5. Define Strategies and Policies
6. Write the Charter

In order to break down the roles for every member of the team, I began by asking everyone to write down the different tasks that the team needs to get done, from routine operations to development responsibilities. Everyone wrote the tasks on Post Its and share it on a board where everyone to see. From there, we cluster the tasks based on scope of work needed. Instead of delegating the task, the final switch was that the team has to choose amongst themselves which tasks they want to be accountable for.

Key Observation: After the distribution, members appear more passionate as they get excited to see how they can contribute. However, some members understand the why and the what but am not sure how to contribute on each role. Hence, we ensured that we have a senior member to guide the new team members on the tasks they were unfamiliar with.

As the months past, the team understood more on how they can contribute for each role but occasionally, they were unclear on how much they can implement for the roles that they chose. Some anxiously seek approval before doing anything while some just waited until it was asked of the to do something. It’s not because of their lack of motivations but they were used to work on a hierarchical model and they fear that they might over-ride decisions that once was suppose to be made by the team lead. One of the key principle that I shared with the team after expressing their uncertainty was Consent before Consensus.

Aimed to empower them in their roles, I re-affirm with the team that whatever initiative they want to set within their accountabilities and is aligned to the team’s mission, they have full consent before getting everyone to agree to it. While each initiative might not be perfect, I learned that it is important to ensure a safe environment for the team, in order for members to make informed decisions to approach their desired initiatives. They can seek advice, not approval, from the seniors but ultimately, they need to feel safe in trying new thing as small experiments which the team can all learn from.

Key Learnings

While it started off great, executing the pursuit for change is an ongoing and continuous process. I’ve learned to adapt into different leadership styles throughout the journey, from taking assertive actions to take steps forward to letting go and when the members need to take charge in their roles. Keeping a safe and learning environment is important when you start on a team level since the organization still operates on a command and control mindset. When I begin to see the team members sharing key principles on how we organize to their project teams, I can see how change can spread from a ground up approach. While we all aspire to change the world, sometime influencing the close people can inspire a movement much bigger than yourself.