I recently told members of the American Society for Quality how social media-style communications can help reduce a company’s COQ and engage its stakeholders. Many weren’t sure how the Marketing Mantra process actually works. Here’s an overview of this tool’s function, along with a mini case study.

A Mantra is intended to enhance communications, as well as the effectiveness of existing business plans or methodologies. It can help reduce costs, streamline operations, and improve morale and teamwork in a sustainable new culture of quality. It has been proven effective with any individual, team and company that’s ready to move their communications into the social media age.

A Marketing Mantra isn’t a tagline. It never describes professional operations like a resume or organization chart. The fact is, most employees are self-educated experts who gain their expertise by spending lots of time on social media and the internet. No successful blogger or online expert would alienate them by asking them to slog through operation or job descriptions. Neither should their CEO.

A Mantra is not about operations. Its focus is the intuitive side of science, technique and process. That’s how it encourages inclusive leadership and full engagement.

It helps communicate new information: innate value, changing perceptions of ownership, or our need for recognition. Such new content identifies the firm as an industry leader with confidence and poise. It never promotes ego and empty generalities because these always sabotage content. Business messages must be clear, concise and compelling; written or spoken in a conversational, relaxed and informative style.

Bringing the CEO’s vision to life will be the job of every deeply engaged stakeholder. Within the company’s organization, each can bring abundant new value to his or her “silo-less” Mantra team. Then he or she will naturally become a leader. And the company’s recognition of that new leadership role will help intensify the stakeholder’s sense of commitment to the company’s long-term goals.

For the case study, let’s follow a workshop organized for a local IT startup. Its CEO and executive team wanted more authentic engagement with each other, as well as with their prospects or customers.

Step 1: Intangibles Participants began by writing down a number of their unique values or qualities on the Mantra worksheet. Each word expressed an attitude, approach, intent etc. These intangibles, more than procedural or technical skills, represent the real impetus for anyone’s past successes and future growth.

This company’s intangibles, for example, included “innovation,” “nurturing,” “discernment,” “fun,” and “bonding.”

Step 2: Grouping Then they organized the 20 intangibles into four or five groups of words with shared characteristics–groups that we labeled “collaboration,” “passion,”  “synthesize,” etc.

Step 3: Instill rare meaning and relevance Next they chose the words from each group that really resonated, combining them into a new set of words or a phrase just three words long. This raw “mantra” would be polished and refined until it could become a word platform strong enough to support any new business, team, community or “tribe.”

Step 4:  Content Finally, the participants began making a plan for content that would be good enough to attract and persuade a new audience of coworkers, prospects or customers. These people are prime candidates to become steadfast members of the team, or of the company’s new quality-driven community.

And every piece of successful content will be rich with relevance, proof and value.

Of course, the ultimate power of communications is still hidden from us in the future. But one thing is certain: our old comfort zones have evaporated. New business models await the most evolved companies. And in your workplace, the individuals who can reduce your cost of quality are standing around you now. Begin building the quality culture, and they will come.

Clearly, strategic planning is no panacea. Strategic planning is simply a set of concepts, procedures, and tools designed to help leaders, managers, and planners think and act strategically. Used in wise and skillful ways by a “coalition of the willing,” strategic planning can help organizations focus on producing effective decisions and actions that further the organization’s mission, meet in mandates, and satisfy key stakeholders. But strategic planning is not a substitute for strategic thinking and acting. Only caring and committed people can do that. And when used thoughtlessly, strategic planning can actually drive out precisely the kind of strategic thought and action it is supposed to promote.

Furthermore, strategic planning is not a substitute for leadership. There is simply no substitute for leadership when it comes to using strategic planning to enhance organizational performance. At least some key decision makers and process champions must be committed to the strategic planning process, or any attempts to use it are bound to fail.

In addition, strategic planning is not synonymous with creating an organizational strategy. Organizational strategies have numerous sources, both planned and unplanned. Strategic planning is likely to result in statement of organizational intentions, but what is realized in practice will be some combination of what is intended and what emerges along the way. Strategic planning can help organizations develop and implement effective strategies, but they should also remain open to unforeseen opportunities. Too much attention to strategic planning and excessive reverence for strategic plans can build organizations to other unplanned and unexpected—yet incredibly useful—sources of information, insight, and action.

The discipline necessary for strategic planning can be of two sorts. The first harkens back to Latin root of the word “discipline,” emphasizing instruction, training, education, and learning. The second embodies later interpretations of the word, emphasizing order, control, and punishment. Emphasis should be placed on education and learning, although there clearly are occasions when imposing order, taking control, and enforcing appropriate sanctions are appropriate. Certainly, key leaders, managers, and planners can best use strategic planning as an educational and learning tool, to help them figure out what is really important and what should be done about it. Sometimes this means following a particular sequence of steps and preparing formal strategic plans, but not necessarily. The ultimate goal of strategic planning should not be a rigid adherence to a particular process or an instance on the production of plans. Instead, strategic planning should promote wise strategic thought and action on behalf of an organization and its key stakeholders. What steps to follow, in what sequence, and whether or not to prepare formal plans are subsidiary concerns.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

I often take on the role of Business Architect for my clients to design for them front-to-back enterprises that embody future state visions, innovation, and sustainable competitive advantage. Business architecting is a blend of science and art with the role of the Business Architect requiring the integration of multiple perspectives and multiple disciplines to create a tight package for the client. Some call this “Design Thinking”.

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, and Roger Martin, Dean at the Rotman School of Management, currently evangelize the application of Design Thinking in the context of entire businesses, going well beyond traditional product development role of designers. Brown and Martin have both developed powerful frameworks that drive mindset change for interdisciplinary teams as those teams develop creative solutions to business and social problems. Brown and Martin have authored books on Design Thinking (among them, “Change By Design” by Brown and “The Design of Business” by Martin) which I highly recommend.

Multi-Layer Business Architecture

Here is a Multi-layer Business Architecture framework that I have used successfully on consulting engagements with numerous senior executives over the years. Layers and “plumbing” comprise the architecture model, which provides an executive a means to envision the transformed business. The framework also gives interdisciplinary, cross-functional teams a hard deliverable to create as they formulate the right, insightful problem statement and develop innovative solutions to tackle the complexities of transformation.

By design, the framework sets up detailed planning, management of business impact, mitigation of risks, establishment of implementation teams, integrated execution, and comprehensive transformation management. Business architecting applies Design Thinking to an entire enterprise. The Multi-layer Business Architecture helps business design teams organize work, provides structured play areas for creativity, and serves as an integrated rendering of a senior executive team’s vision.

Substructures of the Architecture Serve to Both Inform and to Define the Outputs of the Business Architecture Process

The Layers and Example Substructures

• Macro-economic environment
  • Trends and forecasts
  • Growth or decline
  • Globalization
  • Deep and prolonged recession
  • Slow recovery to the new normal
• Context of the industry or industries
  • Industry constructs and constraints
  • Eco-systems and sub-systems
  • Influencer maps
  • Porter’s 5 forces
  • Disruptive innovations and chasms
• Business strategy
  • Chosen markets
  • Unique, attractive, and defensible value propositions
  • Portfolio of companies and products
  • Growth scenarios
  • Long term vision and short term objectives
• Financial model
  • Revenue generation processes
  • Internal strategic costs
  • Capital structure
• Interactions with the Enterprise
  • Interaction design
  • Empathy and insight
  • Customers’ experiences with the enterprise’s products and services
  • Ease of doing business with the enterprise: channel partners, suppliers, service providers, financial capital providers
• Organization and process
  • Organizing principles
  • Facilitation of strategy execution
  • Core processes along the value chain
  • Inter-organization coordination
  • Support processes
  • Key performance measures
• Information technology
  • Information strategy
  • Technology and systems architecture
  • Competencies
  • Right-sourcing
• Business integration
  • Frameworks
  • Connections
  • Dependencies
  • Communities
  • Performance measures and performance management

The  Plumbing and Example Substructures

• Leadership
  • Decision process
  • Leadership style
  • Management changes
• People
  • Human capital strategy
  • Staffing levels
  • Skills and development
  • Organization knowledge and learning
  • Rewarded behaviors and cultural alignment

Change Spectrum

Change is not an absolute. Degrees of change reside along a spectrum ranging from incremental change to larger scale, strategic change to upheaving, fundamental change. As a Business Architect, I map the change occurring or required along each layer of the Multi-layer Business Architecture. The end goal is to aid an executive to achieve or sustain competitive advantage and other measures of business improvement for the executive’s firm. The leadership of a firm might choose to lead change in certain layers, follow a leader in others, and do nothing for the rest. Senior executives pick their spots. Map it out. Select a change strategy. Manage it. Beat the competition.

Reverse Architecting and Forward Implementation

For implementation, an executive team cannot simply jump in and start transforming an enterprise into the vision captured by a Business Architecture. The team must know enough about the current state to know where to begin the transformation. Here, a process of Reverse Architecting lays out the current state of an enterprise in the same framework as the future-state vision. With this construct, leadership and implementation teams have detailed blueprints and plans for transformation. Consider the remodeling of a kitchen. It is best to know where the plumbing and wiring are behind the walls before beginning to tear down, re-plumb, re-wire, and re-build.

Become a Draftsman

Consider adopting the role of Business Architect when your enterprise is challenged with the need to transform. Use the mindset, techniques, and tools of design thinking to create a vision for the transformed business. Develop a Multi-layer Business Architecture to provide detailed blueprints and plans to implement the vision. Do not neglect the Reverse Architecture to know what you are changing, where to start, and how to direct implementation teams.

The next time you need
● note cards for a presentation
● a pocket-sized list
● a handy planner
● quick reference material
● a diary
try this fun organizer http://pocketmod.com/v2/.

If your home is anything like mine, we need a professional organizer to come in and get us organized before school starts.  There really is an organization for finding professional organizers (www.napo.net), but if you aren’t ready for that level here are a few functional furniture pieces and accessories to get you thinking.

Stylish letter holders from Global Views make a statement and provide a convenient storage area for the envelopes and paper products that can easily clutter up a home or office. 

Some of my personal favorite storage pieces are made by Howard Miller and designed by TY PENNINGTON.  Fully customizable, change the finish, change the arrangement.

By TY Pennington
http://www.howardmiller.com/Category/ProductListing.aspx?CategoryID=334&IsViewAll=true

This EVERYTHING CART is fully functional with makeup storage, magazine storage, and more storage!  Ideal for a guest bathroom or small space.

The HOME ORGANIZER CABINET works for the mini-office.  Space for a laptop, notes, mail and plug-in areas to charge cell phones and ipods.

True to it’s name, the EVERYTHING CABINET, is as the name implies. Wonderful for a small home, guest room or large bathroom. Smart features include a flip-up ironing board, towel rack, storage areas, and full-length mirror.

Find more functional furniture storage pieces at www.howardmiller.com.

Now, I have one more problem.  I need a professional decision maker to select the most functional pieces for me.  Do they have a professional decision making organization?

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China’s foreign-exchange regulator tightened rules on individuals making cross-border money transfers, stepping up efforts to quell inflows of funds on speculation that the yuan is undervalued.

Dollar Falls Under Y88 For First Time 10 Months

The dollar fell under Y88 for the first time in 10 months and could continue to fall as US real yields decline, Japanese risk appetite wanes and the country’s current account surplus grows once again.

Under the new regulations, individuals are limited in the number of transfers they can make from overseas to onshore Chinese accounts, according to wire reports that cited a statement on the State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s Web site. The statement was dated Nov. 19.

Specifically, an individual cannot send foreign currencies to five or more onshore accounts in a single day. The restrictions will also apply to transfers made to multiple accounts made on consecutive days payday loan companies.

The measure appears aimed at tackling a practice growing increasingly common — namely, investors pooling the quotas of several people during a single day as a way of getting around official limits on cross-border money flows.

Analysts say Chinese authorities are increasingly worried about speculative inflows attracted to the Chinese currency in the belief the yuan will strengthen.

Outflows of capital from the mainland to Hong Kong have been blamed for a rapid rise in property prices, elicting warnings from the city’s central banker about the potential for a bubble in asset prices next year.

China tightens rules on cross-border money flows

Hot News: Idaho joins fight against foreclosure fraud

Um whoops? I am averaging about a blog post a month. lol

K here’s proof of us still alive in our pajamas after an exciting session of eyebrow plucking.

God my camera is just a little too good at taking sharp photos, so I made it real small. ha ha ha

So we’ve been pretty busy with M now in preschool. She is doing great there and loves it. I’m all for homeschooling correctly but let’s face it, I DO NOT have the patience to give her what she needs in terms of interaction with other kids, and well…just patience in general. Plus, I went to public school so I’m a fan.

M’s preschool is a co-op so I have to work there once a week. I was catching every germ for a while but now it seems to be ok so it’s a lot more fun. We also have these “jobs” that are supposed to be done and one of my jobs was to make the December name tags. I made penguins–aren’t they cute? Sort of winterish, rite? I tried to make them pc and not just Christmasy. lol The important pieces are sewn on so hopefully they won’t lose too many body parts. Used E6000 (yeah baby) for the eyeballs and felt glue (yes this exists!!) for the shapes.

The names of the kids in M’s class are kind of crazy! There are 2 Jacks, 2 Dominics, 2 Aidens, and 2 sets of twins. ?? So weird.

Micah took it upon herself to make her own rendition of a penguin. So cute!!

So M’s off of school today so we are going to try and figure out what to do for decorations this year. Also, I have to work on this class quilt that I somehow agreed to make for the school auction. Yikes, I better get to cutting. Ok hope to be back to post more soon. ♥

Oh wait! I almost forgot. We have been getting ready for M’s school days by packaging up her outfits–she can choose which bag she wants to wear that day. The ziplock has everything she needs–shirt, pants, socks, and underwear. It is working! So if you have trouble with getting your kids dressed, you might try doing this on Sundays. Also on my very LONG to-do list is to make cute drawstring bags with the day of the week on them so we can hang them on the wall. Let me know how it works out and I may try to make some for my Etsy shop!

Even though our homeschooling organizational system is already fairly well organized, I am always looking to improve upon it.   Many other homeschoolers have raved about the workbox system which looks like a wonderful organizational method regardless of the type of homeschooling style you carry out. 

The only downfall that I could find to this system was the extra space that the boxes would require especially for a large family without any spare room to store these boxes. Every square inch of our house is already being used nor do we have a separate “school” room.  So, I adapted this set up to fit our needs and space, masha Allah.  

Five 4" three-ring binders on the bookshelf

I decided to stick with the three-ring binder system which I was already using to organize their educational materials.  We were fortunate enough to have been freecycled enough 4″ binders for  the children, alhamdulillah.  I kept the same organization within the binders as well, by using dividers to separate the subjects.  In addition to the dividers,  I inserted plastic paper protectors.  The page protectors store their daily activities.

They were also allowed to personalize their binders by decorating a page to slip in the front of the binders, masha Allah.  It was also enjoyable for them to transfer all of their work to the new binders. 

Now instead of having them retrieve all their books/activities down from the shelves each time they need their supplies, everything is already in the binder.  I have  torn out the consumable workbook pages, copied the current page being worked on in a textbook, prepared all the materials needed for hands-on activities, and inserted all of this into the respective plastic page protectors.  Each day  the binders are prepared using the weekly schedule that I created for each one before the week began.  The weekly schedule is placed inside a plastic page protector at the front of the binder.

Inside a three-ring binder

The following pictures are some examples of the materials that I set inside the page protectors.

Books

History coloring sheet

Hands-on math activity

Phonics work

 Just in the last few days that we have implemented this system,  I have found extreme benefits in planning and organizing the younger children’s activities.  Before this new method, I would struggle to prepare my preschoolers activities for each day and end up not using many of the wonderful materials I have stored away in the learning hutch.   Now, all the activities and materials are prepared ahead of time. 

My older children also enjoy not having to gather their books/supplies for each lesson.  They are ecstatic that everything is layed out in front of them in one binder. 

As a result of our success so far, I am also planning to put together a binder for my soon to be two-year old with age appropriate activities, insha Allah.

Earlier this week I was invited by TPI to participate in a small discussion group for a feature in CIO magazine. The conversation was based around recent research conducted by TPI that looked at today’s major challenges for IT service management and governance.

I am not about to reveal the details of the research or of the very interesting discussion that took place. What I am going to comment on are the remarks made by CIO Magazine editor Martin Veitch.

Martin started the meeting by outlining the ‘top of mind’ issues that he is hearing from his extensive CIO contact base. He briefly discussed the old ‘image issue’, of CIOs as techies who fail to appreciate business goals and the need for technology alignment. This he dismissed as no longer valid. CIOs are well aware of the need for business alignment – and they are increasingly focused on some of the issues that make this hard to achieve.

Among those issues are the dramatic changes going on in technology.  For example, the impacts of Cloud Computing are only now being grasped and it will raise a wide variety of strategic and governance challenges, as well as opportunities. Among the implications is the need to review existing and future contracts. Emerging technologies will revolutionize the relationships with some existing suppliers; in other cases, it will mean forming relationships with brand new suppliers. Terminating, renegotoating and new sourcing will be a major effort and fundamental in its impact – especially with regard to getting good alignment with business needs.

So the role of Procurement will be critical to the CIO’s success, but so will the way that suppliers respond and offer creative new commitments. The dependence on contracting and commercial competence goes much deeper than in the past – and many CIOs have realised that it is a core dependency for their performance (echoing the views recently expressed by Professor Leslie Willcocks of the London School of Economics).

At last, CIOs are looking at a world where the latest technologies and the methods of service delivery allow them to re-think budgets and operate with dramatically reduced up-front costs. They can begin to move IT expenditure from a capital expense to operating expense. They can ‘gain revenge’ on many of the suppliers who they feel have ‘for years, taken advantage of them’ (in particular some of the major software suppliers).

CIO thinking is that they increasingly need to multi-source and to enter into either shorter term or more readily terminable agreements. Again, this has massive implications to the resources they need at their disposal – and it will also have major impact on suppliers and their business economics, plus the way they interface with and manage customer relationships. Not in itself new news – but potentially revolutionary for the world of contracting and contract / relationship management.

At this point, many CIOs apparently despair of obtaining the right resources within the business and take the view that they must develop commercial and contract skills within the IT department. They see a need for core skills in negotiation; they know that they must raise legal and financial awareness within  their staff. They must become ‘masters of outsourcing and offshoring’, understanding the impacts of culture and business practices on their projects and deliverables. Governance is another major issue, requiring appropriate contractual protections and the ability to oversee supplier performance.

So with technology now becoming the great business enabler, contracts and commercial professionals must step up to the challenges and opportunities that are being created. This new world calls for more creative relationships, supported by commitments and performance metrics that safeguard contractual outcomes. And the message from CIOs is clear – our community on both buy-side and sell-side must either step up to the plate and deliver against business needs, or the CIO community will acquire for themselves the skills needed to safeguard their success.

I have had this blog for a while, and I haven’t really done anything with it. I feel like I have blogs scattered all over the internet with a few (or none at all) entries. I have two old LiveJournals, a few blogger-er things, and a tumblr. I haven’t really bonded with any of them aside from my ancient LJ accounts. So I am going to try to be committed to this one. I miss blogging! It’s been years since I faithfully wrote and posted photos and things every day or every other day. So here’s to yet another new blog… and please feel free to add me on Myspace, check out my Etsy store, and watch my ridiculously awkward and amateur YouTube channel!

Anyway… it’s the day before Thanksgiving and I’m desperately trying to help organize and tidy up the house because my family is coming over tomorrow, which I’m excited about. I made butternut squash and sweet potato soup yesterday, it turned out deliciously.

I am so stressed out with college… which is almost over for the semester, but I have a presentation and paper, a lab report, my thesis, two history papers, a lab practical, two more lab tests, my biology final, a final in Psych 22 and some other things to finish/get done/study for.

Y I K E S

I am pretty excited for tomorrow, for Christmas (I celebrate this)/Hanukkah (my boyfriend’s family celebrates this, and I enjoy going over around that time, their house always smells good). I can’t wait to start Christmas shopping, having more time to myself and being able to start taking more photos.

I feel as though I’m trying to cram so much into this first blog. I’m not good at them at all.

I’m a makeup fiend… I just thought I’d put it out there. I don’t wear a lot of makeup all the time, but I am somewhat of a makeup collector and junkie. When I graduated from drug store brands (only because they BREAK my skin out and irritate my eyes because my skin is so, so, too, too sensitive) I was definitely a MAC person… now I am sort of over them, aside from their lipsticks. I am definitely a Sephora frequenter. I thought you should know.

I love wearing red lipstick even though it doesn’t flatter me.

I have so many pairs of beautiful high heels that I am in love with but rarely wear because I am self-conscious of the sound they make on the floor in the hallways of my college. I also talk softly because I dislike my voice, I think they have something to do with one another. I tend to wear flats and boots.

Maybe I’ll start wearing my heels… and getting over thinking I’m making too much noise.

I’m also afraid of the sound cotton balls make when you rip them apart or drag them along the surface of something. It’s an absolutely repulsive and disgusting sound that is 100,000,000 times worse than nails on  chalk board to me.

That is all.

This entry was scattered, but oh well it’s the first. As I said I’m bad at these!

my feet

I organized my closet and desk. I moved away papers that had lost their importance, and brought out pens flowing fresh ink and blank post-its. I tacked colored unicorns and drawn memorabilia to my bulletin board. I moved books I had read to the top shelf of my closet, and filled the left corner of my desk with new books I plan on reading sometime soon.

All for what? The holiday season is approaching and with that, coming gifts from loving family members and friends. All come appreciated and appear to be hand selected. Mine; generally come in the form of books, they are the quickest way to my heart no matter what genre or author. Books, books, books to add to my plethora of books.

With all the classics that have been on shelves for years, and the new books that are virgins to my reading eyes, I cannot help but think which books would please me best.

In the latest months, I have found myself venturing in to the philosophy section of bookstores. My latest purchase: The Symposium by the thinker Plato. Now, in somewhat of a switch, I think I would like to take a journey through some Charles Darwin, or Greek plays, maybe something more religious and controversial or possibly something more recent such as Under the Dome.

Every title I see provokes my interest in one way or another, I could argue any which one to the death of whether or not I would actually read it. It may sit, but the sitting and being unread is still a comfort in my heart. At least I have another book, I say to myself, and I love the gift thoroughly.

As I shuffled through my books, my two young cats wrestled beneath my feet with no idea of the compromises I was making in my head. I made choices of what books I was most likely not going to read anytime soon; these books feel to the deepest but still very fluorescently lit part of my closet. Other books built the foundation for mediocre piles of books I thought I might read soon. Through each decision, Oscar and Char continued to bicker.

I’m a bit groggy this morning. Last night my three year old daughter smacked her forehead against the coffee table and we had to take a trip to the emergency room. Seven stitches and five hours later we finally got home around one thirty in the morning and then didn’t get asleep until four or four thirty. I’m amazed at how well she handled everything. She was a real trooper. After the initial shock of all the blood– and boy do heads ever bleed! –she was rather nonchalant about the whole thing, making offhand remarks like “I bumped my head a little! I hit my head on table. Blood was everywhere! Sometimes that happens!” in an amused voice and, while calmly playing before leaving for the ER, “I don’t need to see a doctor and we don’t have any bandaids”. We danced in the hospital room and she charmed all the nurses and doctors. After everything was over she actually didn’t want to leave as she was having so much fun. That’s my girl! What a ham and little attention addict. At any rate, hopefully I’ll make some sense in this post.

Responding to a couple of my posts from earlier this week on translation, Nate over at Un-canny Ontology writes:

What is translation? And why do some things get translated and others do not?

Translation is more than a simple replication. Translation always involves a certain degree of interpretation in which what is inputted is always changed or transformed – from photons of light to complex sugars. Objects translate each other, they change each other without encountering each other directly, which means that objects first and foremost recognize each other.

I am pretty uncomfortable with Nate’s talk of objects “knowing” each other and “recognizing” each other as I think this implies a degree of intentionality (in the phenomenological sense) that only belongs to a subset of objects (humans, many animals, certain computer systems perhaps, social systems), not all objects. In my view, it’s necessary to distinguish between reflexive objects capable of registering their own states and relations to other entities like social systems or cognitive systems, and non-reflexive objects that do not have this characteristic. In other words, where non-reflexive objects are in question it’s important to emphasize that intentionality is not required for translation to take place and be operative in relations between objects.

read on!

Nonetheless, when this qualification is made, I do think Nate is asking a good question. I’m of two minds about this question. On the one hand, my initial thought is that it is not for philosophy to answer how translation takes place in any specific relation between objects. Initially this response might look like a dodge; however, it is premised on a distinction between the sort of thing philosophy does and the sort of thing other disciplines do.

Since I am on a Bhaskar kick lately, this point can be illustrated by analogy to Bhaskar’s ontology. Bhaskar asks the transcendental question “what must the world be like in order for our sciences to be possible?” Among his answers is the thesis that things must be structured and differentiated, they must be capable of acting without us knowing them or being aware of them (his generative mechanisms), they must be capable of acting without producing effects in all cases, they must have powers or capabilities, it must be possible to form more or less closed systems (for experiment to be possible and significant), and in open systems these generative mechanisms must be capable of acting without producing the sorts of effects we encounter when triggering a generative mechanism in the closed system of an experimental setting.

Bhaskar’s thesis is that the world must be this way for our science to be possible and for our practice of experimentation to be intelligible; however, his ontological claims about what the world must be like do not tell us what generative mechanisms actually exist, how they are structured, what powers or capabilities they have, and so on. What generative mechanisms exist is a task for direct inquiry in various disciplines, not something that philosophy can answer a priori. The case is similar with respect to translation. Philosophy can tell us that objects must translate one another when they interact and therefore draw our attention to the differences produced in interaction, but it has nothing of its own to say about what translation machines or mechanisms actually exist and how they are structured. This is the job of inquiry in other disciplines. Thus, for example, it falls to the biologist to investigate how leaves translate light into energy. Likewise, it falls to folks like Nate in the field of rhetoric to investigate how audiences are selectively open to certain speech-performances and how these performances on the part of a rhetor are translated by audiences into something else.

Nonetheless, and this is my second point, we can make some very general ontological claims about what objects must be like for translation to be possible. Hopefully these theses somewhat address Nate’s question. My tendency at present is to think of translation in terms of information theory. This should come as no surprise as the ontic principle is, in many respects, adapted from Bateson’s definition of information as “the difference that makes a difference.” So how should this be understood?

First, the concept of information is to be distinguished from that of noise. Information, as a difference that makes a difference, is something that stands out in contrast to noise. If, for example, a student in an introductory philosophy course has great difficulty reading Derrida’s essay “Differance”, this is not because the text is difficult or poorly written, but because the student, having just come to philosophy for the first time, lacks the background in philosophy that would allow the student to encounter the elements of the text as information. Everything in the essay seems significant and as a result it all becomes noise insofar as nothing can be distinguished in the essay by the student. Information can thus be thought in Gestalt terms as a relation between what leaps into the foreground (information) and what passes into the background (noise).

It’s important to note that for self-reflexive intentional objects like students, this relationship between foreground is a dynamic, not fixed, relation. Not only can these systems evolve such that elements that before were mere noise can take on the status of information, but also relations between foreground and background can shift back and forth, such that something that a moment ago belonged to the domain of noise now comes to the fore as information or a difference that makes a difference.

Second, and of great importance, it should be noted that information and noise are not ontological properties of the world, but are object-specific properties. There is no information “out there” in and of itself. Rather, objects “constitute” information for themselves. The idea that information exists “out there” and not simply for an object constitutes a sort of transcendental illusion within ontology that I’ll have to write about in the future. To put this point differently, information is only information for an object. Likewise, noise is only noise for an object. It is not the world that is disordered or chaotic, but rather the world for an object that is disordered or chaotic. Here I am drawing on the manner in which information is thought by systems theory and autopoietic theory.

Third, objects are only selectively open to other objects in the world. Take the example of sitting at a coffee shop with friends. All sorts of things recede into the background in this situation: the actions of the staff, the conversations of other people, the traffic that could be discerned through the window, the talking head babbling away on the television, the music playing in the background, etc. In this scenario we only share selective relations to the world about us. The rest largely disappears until another shift takes place in relations between foreground and background.

It now becomes possible to say a few very general things about the ontology of translation and what must be the case in order for translation to be possible. First, there must be an ontological distinction between stimuli and information. The term “stimulus” is not the happiest term as it still implies a reference to a receiving object. However, I would like to stipulate this term not as a reference to a receiving object, but rather treat it as a difference transmitted by another object. At any given time there are all sorts of stimuli flying about in the world that are not information for various objects. Thus, for example, at this very moment there are all sorts of radio signals pulsing through the air about me. These signals are real things that are out there. However, for me they scarcely exist and are not information as I have no way of receiving them. In order to receive them I need an additional black box– my nifty new iPhone or my computer –that can function as a mediator allowing me to relate to these stimuli.

Second, if there is a difference between information and stimuli, and if stimuli exist in all sorts of ways without being information, it follows that information is not something that is already out there, but rather is constituted by objects receiving these stimuli. This, I think, approaches Nate’s initial question. For information to be possible, certain things have to be true of objects. On the one hand, it is necessary that objects (generative mechanisms) exist that emit stimuli. On the other hand, objects must have channels and an internal structure (endo-relational structure) that organizes these stimuli into differences that make a difference. Channels are modes of openness to other objects in the world, while endo-relational structure, in part, is the mechanism by which stimuli are transformed into differences that make a difference.

Thus, for example, no matter how much I talk to a rock, I cannot compel that rock to get out of my way. While the sound-waves of my voice might indeed affect the rock in a variety of ways because the rock has channels for receiving differences in this sort of causal way, the rock cannot encounter those sound-waves as speech because it does not possess channels or an endo-relational structure for constituting sound-waves (stimuli) as speech (information) in the manner of other reflexive objects. Likewise, last night I could not heal my daughter’s wound through speech; however, when I function as a psychoanalyst for someone else, it is possible to cure a psychoanalytic symptom through the intervention of speech. The channels and endo-relational structure that constitute openness to different forms of difference are something that must be surveyed in every instance and that cannot be determined by philosophy a priori.

This point can be further illustrated with respect to the periodic table of elements. The periodic table is not simply a summary of what we’ve discovered about the endo-relational structure of various elements, but also, for those who know how to read us, tells the chemist, biologist, and physicist all sorts of things about channels or different possibilities of relation that can take place between elements. On the one hand, each element is a generative mechanism capable of producing a variety of actualities. On the other hand, elements are only capable of selectively relating to one another according to very precise laws and these relations generate new properties or actualizations when they take place.

A couple of further points. Over at the Pinnochio Theory, Shaviro riffs on Nate’s post and my own, writing:

I think that the source of this problem, in Nathan’s account, is the following. He says that ” objects first and foremost recognize each other,” precisely because — here paraphrasing Levi, and also to an extent Graham Harman — “objects translate each other, they change each other without encountering each other directly.” But as I’ve said before, my biggest disagreement with both Levi and Graham is that, for me, objects do encounter each other directly.

There’s a lot more in Steven’s post, but I wanted to zero in on this particular remark as I think it conflates my position with Harman’s. For Harman objects are absolutely independent or withdrawn from one another such that you get the question of how they can enter into relations with one another. Within my proposed ontology, objects do touch one another. What that don’t do is represent one another in the manner of a mirror representing an object. Rather, every relation between objects is a translation and every translation involves transformation. In certain respects, this places me closer to Latour and Whitehead in the sense that I do not place objects behind absolute “firewalls” as Graham does. Where I differ from Latour and Whitehead, is in holding that objects have a being that is not reducible to their relations to other objects (their endo-relational structure), and that the relations objects do entertain to other objects are selective. Where Whitehead and Latour hold that each actual occasion holds a definite relation to every other actual occasion in the entire universe, I hold that 1) objects only share relations to other particular objects and are unrelated to a number of other objects in the universe, and 2) that even if all other objects in the universe were to cease existing a particular object could continue to exist (something that is impossible in Whitehead’s and Latour’s universe). In part I believe this must be the case as inquiry would become impossible were objects to be related to all other objects as it would no longer be possible to form more or less closed systems within which inquiry takes place. Insofar as inquiry clearly does take place it follows that this thesis cannot be true.

My gloss on the “occasional” in Latour is thus somewhat different than Harman’s. Discussing Latour’s reference to occasions in Prince of Networks, Harman writes, “A thing is not separate from its relations [for Latour], and in fact ‘each element is to be defined by its associations and is an event created at the occasion of each of those associations’ (Pandora’s Hope, 165, emphasis added by Harman)” (80). Where Harman reads this as a reference to the philosophical doctrine of occasionalism, I read the reference to occasions in temporal terms as in the case of referring to things like “on this great occasion…” To speak of objects entering into relations with one another in occasions is thus to refer to the selective and limited nature of those relations, along with the fact that objects contingently encounter one another or encounter one another in an aleatory fashion. I would differ from Latour here in hold that it is not the occasion or the relations that make the object the object. The occasions can modify the manner in which the object actualizes itself, but this is quite different from suggesting that the object is its relations.

Despite these ontological differences, Harman and I do arrive at similar conclusions. If I am comfortable talking about objects “withdrawing” from one another then this is because translations that take place within an object always differ from the other object that instigates the translation or provides the input for the process of translation. The other day I came across this comment over at Another Heidegger Blog:

Why do you not address the most obvious problem of why vicar’s (representations) are central to the mechanism of causation between two inanimate objects?

Do you read as coherent that when a baseball hurls into a windshield it must FIRST send a representation of itself INTO the glass, and then it must brush this “vicar” into a state of phenomenenal breakdown, a breakdown which THEN results in the baseball cracking the glass? Does this make any sense to you? Aside from projecting a human caricature of experience and cognition, in what way does this actually seem to reveal how objects interact without human beings?

This is an example of what I would call an uncharitable interpretation of Harman’s position. It is important that we understand just what I have in mind by the “principle of charity”. The principle of charity does not consist in passively endorsing another position or refraining from criticism. Rather, the principle of charity is a necessary condition for philosophical discourse, requiring that we present the positions of other thinkers in the most reasonable and plausible light before proceeding to criticism of that position. Working on the premise that our interlocutor is a reasonable and intelligent person that genuinely wants to get at the truth, explain features of the world, and understand things– a premise that should be granted at the beginning of dialogue and revoked only when proven otherwise –we should ask ourselves, with respect to our interpretations of the positions of others, “is this a position that a reasonable person would endorse or advocate?” If our impression of another’s position is that it is batshit crazy insane, then it is likely we have misinterpreted the other person’s position, not that the author is making the absurd claim. Note, that the claim that a position is reasonable or a position that a rational agent could hold is not equivalent to the claim that the position is true. Of course, it comes as no surprise that this person’s reading of Harman would be so uncharitable, given that he confesses he’s only read of Harman’s theory of causality as developed in his early work presented at the speculative realism conference, and that he has not actually read Tool Being, Guerilla Metaphysics, or Prince of Networks.

The characterization of Harman’s position above is clearly absurd. Harman’s thesis is not that objects must first encounter other objects under the form of a “sensuous vicar” and then relate to them. Nor is it an anthropomorphization of relations between objects. Rather, Harman’s thesis is that objects only relate to one another selectively with respect to particular qualities, never exhaustively in terms of all the qualities that an object might possess or be capable of. Austin over at Complete Lies drives this point home nicely in his recent post on Harman’s theory of vicarious causation:

In Aristotle’s Categories he distinguishes between subjects and predicates. The Greek word for “subject” is hypokeimenon (ὑποκείμενον) meaning “underlying thing.” Essentially, it is that which is predicated but remains beneath the layers of predicates. We can also understand this through substance and accidents. The substance of the thing is that which the accidents adhere to without itself becoming anything fundamentally new. My car is still a car even if I have it painted a new colour for instance. The predicate “silver” does not alter the substance “car” in any substantial way. So there are substances and there are accidents. Great. The chief occasionalist insight to be made here is through the chain of causality. The position is one that says substances don’t touch each other. Let’s use an example. When I have a relationship with a person, there is more to that person than our interactions. Let us assume it is a romantic relationship between lover and beloved. Does this relation exhaust the other’s being? Is it not the case that there is far more to the person than their relation to me? While we would likely share much of our lives with each other, there remains a fundamental gap between the two of us. Don’t we interact on the level of accidents and not substance? When I talk to or touch my girlfriend, there is always more to her than these interactions. This is also the case for my interactions with non-human objects, for instance the relationship I have to the laptop I am writing this on. There are infinite possibilities for relations within a thing, it can interact with practically anything else in the universe in any number of ways, none of which could exhaust its possibilities. This is the point of the fire and cotton example. Cotton can do a lot more than burn, and the fire only engages the cotton on that level and not on the part of the cotton (to use improper language) that could become denim or a Q-Tip. While the fire destroys the cotton, this does not mean it has exhausted those potentialities, it has simply destroyed them.

The point is that there is always more possibilities open to any object than those actualized in any particular relation the object enters into. In many respects, then, Harman’s claim can be understood in counterfactual terms. One of his key points regarding the inexhaustibility of objects pertains to the inexhaustibility of their possible relations. If objects are always in excess of or more than their relations, if they only relate to one another under particular aspects or in terms of “sensuous vicars”, then this is because there is always an excess of other relations they could enter into under different aspects. I hope to expand on this a bit in the near future in terms of the sorts of transcendental illusions generated through the process of translation, giving transcendental illusion not an epistemological grounding restricted to thought or the human-world gap, but an ontological grounding.

I have been keeping a Christmas notebook since the year my husband and I got married. It is always a big help when I’m planning the next Christmas. Well, this year I can’t find my Christmas notebook and it is driving me crazy. Hubby and I both looked through all the unpacked boxes in the basement and we have not been able to find it. I’m sure it’s around here somewhere and it will probably turn up a month or so after Christmas. Grrr!

To prevent this problem in the future I’ve decided to start keeping my Christmas notebook digitally. Now I just need to decide on a format. I prefer something that I can view either from my iPhone or my computer. And I definitely need to be able to back it up. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Here are some of the things I track in my Christmas Notebook:

• Gifts given and received
• Christmas card list
• Menu from any events we hosted
• General notes on things we liked and didn’t like
• Thoughts and ideas for the next year

Do you keep a Christmas notebook? If so, what other information so you keep in it?

Every household has many, many manuals for everything we own (washer/dryer, Xbox 360, TV’s, electronic devices).  Put every manual in alphabetical order filed by what you call it. If you call your TV a television or a SONY television, file it by what the first thing that comes to mind when you think of that item.  The reason behind this theory is: when the dishwasher is flooding the kitchen floor, you don’t want to have to search for the name of the (Kenmore) dishwasher, you need that manual fast!  I keep the receipt attached to the manual, for big ticket items.  You will have it available to prove your purchase date.

I have a wonderful story to tell you about manuals and receipts. I had bought a recliner with a 10 year spot warranty included with it. The recliner was 9 1/2 years old when it got a spot that I could not remove. I knew that the warrantee and the receipt for this recliner were in my manual folder, filed under the name recliner. I went to my file, retrieved the paperwork, and called the company. Since I had the receipt, the proof of purchase and the warrantee, I was given a brand-new recliner to replace my 9 1/2-year-old recliner. It was as easy as that.

The one thing you do need to remember about your manual folders is that they need to be gone through and old manuals for items you no longer own, should be purged. I normally go through mine once a year, just to keep it current.

Chapter 4 Pg’s 110-112   Lead With Love By: Gerry Czarnecki

In order to be a great teacher, a leader must first know how to share. Sharing means being willing to give up exclusive knowledge to associates. For many leaders, knowledge is power. By not sharing with their associates, they figure, they protect their own position and assure continued job security. However, as a leader you are the key to the organization’s ability to replicate itself. You hold the detailed knowledge about the organization.

Your work unit is, by my definition, where the work gets out. It is where the parts are made, the assembly is completed, the research is accomplished, and the breakthrough in new products occurs. Someday you may move on, but if your unit does not have a leader, it will fail the enterprise’s core mission.

 Indeed, the inevitable result of successful development is that the mentee will no longer need the mentor. Do your job well and you will not be needed. Your entire concept of leadership must include the willingness—indeed the commitment—to train your associates to eventually become leaders. This transfer of leadership is essential for an organization’s survival.

 Your ability to transfer knowledge to your associates is the true measure of your ability to lead. When they have learned and can function without you, you have liberated them and yourself. You will be free to focus on your own success. However, if you continue to guard your knowledge jealously, you will thwart your own development. This is because only when your organization can succeed without you can you expect to move on to your next assignment.

 If you do your job well, you will be growing leaders, not followers. This means as you develop your associates, you are developing your organization’s future management. Many leaders fail to develop staff to replace them. The two tragedies of that are (1) we never have anybody to replace us as we look toward our next promotion; (2) they never have the staff to grow their existing responsibilities. A leader who is threatened by followers who become leaders is not a leader for the future. Always be prepared to groom not only your successor but also your boss’s successor. Hire and develop people who are better than you think you are. What happens is remarkable. They will bloom, and you will get even better. That is a win-win-win situation. They win, you win, and the organization wins!

Beware of santas bearing bad news.

If you aren’t one of the 3% of shoppers who are actually done with the Christmas shopaganza, welcome to the club. My friend, you need a strategy. Timing is everything, and what you’re in the market for should determine where you go. Here are some things to consider when drawing up the Black Friday shopping game plan.

Monday, 30th of November, Lichthof 1, Angewandte Old Building, 5 pm

Montag,30. 11. Lichthof1, Altbau 17 Uhr