problemsolving Tag
Sajory_Illustrations_2-02

Trees remember

Trees “remember” that they were shaken in the past.

Plants grown outdoors grow thicker and sturdier than those in greenhouses, even in the same amount of light. They face strong winds, heavy snow and other natural and man-made accidents.

In the example of a Larch tree, it even re-designs itself if it was attacked by caterpillars.

In the year after an assault, the tree remembers its experience and produces leaves that are shorter and stouter than usual. Their new design does not photosynthesize as efficiently as the original thinner & longer one, but it’s better at repelling pests. In the following years, the caterpillars, later becoming moths, will no longer find it a tasty environment and leave, and the tree will revert to normal foliage.

And then there’s the Aspen tree.

At first appearance, the aspen doesn’t look tough.

With its ghostly smooth and greenish-white trunks, long flat stalks that turns melancholic yellow in the autumn. It seems the furthest example from resilience a tree could be. Yet it flourishes where other trees, seemingly stronger and more equipped for resilience, perish.

Those unassuming cloning machines are one of nature’s most resourceful trees. Apart from their ability to bounce back after fire, they reproduce by asexual cloning. They generate copies of themselves and shoot up suckers through their lateral roots. This vast established root system proves itself effective in case of a forest fire. If the fire occurs in winter when the ground is frozen, or in spring when it is still wet, the roots survive and they can reproduce a grove of aspens within months.   

In Emulating nature, we need to up our game if we are to think in such agile and creative manner. Faced with challenges, we need to learn methods of self-renewal as well as self-restructuring, as well as find ways to connect our systems with that of the environment we belong to. We need to need to seem strong and powerful, we just need to trust our design that it will persist in face of disturbances.

(This is a short passage from a chapter I’m writing, in an edited book, about biomimicry.

Hang in there Cornelia, it’s coming 😉)

Finding our way through the chaos

I was trying to find my way in this new world. We all go through phases when earth shifts under us and we try to find a solid landing to be our creative selves again. Some people call it mid-life crisis. Others call it the second coming of age.

I disappeared for 2 weeks. No diary posts and limited linkedin shares. You noticed.

I’ll try to make up for it with a diary post that helps design a more creative mindset in your workspace, even if you’re not quite settled yet. I’m sharing advice while trying them out myself. So far so good.   

Here are 3 things we can start doing to get our foot planted in a creative shifting ground.

  1. Find an anchor to remind you of what makes you strong and creative. This would be a physical object that you place in front of you on the desk, hang on the wall or keep in your pocket or bag to continuously touch through-out the day. The idea is to anchor your goal or remind to stay in the moment throughout the day. For me, a framed calligraphic sentence of a phrase my dad used to say to me: “You are up to it, and you can do it”. In Arabic,  “انت قدها و قدود”. I’m also searching for another symbolic item to keep in my bag and place on my work station wherever I go. Do you have suggestions?  
  • Keep your creative fluency sharpened. Ideation helps the dopamine kick in your brain making you, not only happy, but also ready to solve problems. The important part is to fire up those ideas rigorously and in the shortest amount of time. No hesitation to judge an idea good or bad. To practice ideation, start with a 10-ideas quota per day and set the timer for 7 minutes. Come up with ideas that save the world or save your lunch. The intention here is purely ideational. You can increase the intensity with additional number of ideas or less time frame. My plan today is to come up with a list of 15 unusual things my family can experience in a summer vacation. What does your list look like?
  • Bring music along. There’s nothing fun about running errands, doing chores, or for some of us, completing a workout. Yet adding a musical element to it, and an internal challenge to finish the task before the song finishes, can kick the boredom out of it, or intensifies its effect. We gain an unfair advantage when we put aside our doubtful thoughts and instead turn them into a home-made dramady or action movie. I’ve started working out on classical music (unexpected, but somehow intriguing), and found laser focused energy doing strategy work while standing in front of a table with a huge world map and a surrounding fast-paced instrumental music. Whatever you listen to, try listening to it in a different context or experiment with new tones to complete unrelated tasks. Be ready to be surprised. What music can you suggest I explore?  

Remember what Confucius once said: “wheresoever you go, go with all your heart”.

I can’t wait to hear about all your experimental stories.

Good luck mavericks,

Randah Taher

Play With Me sajory

No promises

We promise ourselves goals each year. And we reiterate many of them every month. Sometimes a weekly reminder pops up on our phones.

Yet we don’t complete them.

We feel disappointment. Ashamed sometimes. Mostly sad.

It might not be the sense of losing our goal accomplishment that wears us out, maybe it is the promise that we make each time, and each time we break.

So let’s not make promises we can’t keep. Let’s conduct experiments.

For the remainder of this week, pick an item from the list of things you’ve wanted to complete this year.

One thing only.

First, break it down so little that you have the first step sorted into getting things ready, or setting the space, or following up on with someone. This could be a habit to start, an action to close a project, or a relationship you wish to reconnect with. Just one thing. Write it down.

Next, create an anchor. This is a physical item that sits or stands or hangs in front of you. It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you. It’s meant to be in front you where you see, smell or sense it daily.

Finally, for the next three days, make an effort to either start or continue this one little step towards the goal at the beginning or end of your day (the middle is always lost to chaos).  Promise yourself, that when the weekend comes, you remove the anchor and no sense of shame will remain if you’ve not completed the task.

This is an experiment, not a goal in itself.

See if it works. Let me know. I’m curious.

Randah

imaginess compass

Daily magic

“Look for magic in the daily routine”, said Lou Barlow.

The small tasks at work that help us reach our big goals.

The few minutes we take to move around that help us stay fit.

The bookend routines of the day that helps us start and end on a high note.  

Day in and day out. We play with small pieces of the puzzle that will eventually complete a beautiful well-lived frame.

If we want to truly enjoy our lives, it’s the journey that counts.

The simplest rituals that we build intentionally. The daily creative moments.

This is where magic lives.

Your magician,

Randah

Sajory_Illustrations_2-01

Small wins

It is sometimes hard for us to celebrate our accomplishments.

Even small wins are overlooked by the promise that, if we keep going steady, we will arrive to our goals sooner than later. Yet, when it comes to our friends, we insist they take a break and enjoy the fruits of their hard work. For some strange reason, we think it’s better for us to freeze our fruits for later. And later comes with its own surprises.

Don’t miss the chance to pause and cheer. Take a deep breath. You’ve reached so far and have done so much.

Well done.

May this time bring much needed chance to rejoice. Happy Eid everyone.

Find the others

No matter what stage in your career life you’re in, finding other people who think like you is a great way to build your community at work.

People who are interested in similar challenges, have some wild ideas do bounce off, or don’t mind working tirelessly for hours digging through material to find the right piece of the puzzle to your mutual challenge.

Those people can come from other departments or from other organizations entirely. They share a similar cause or are driven by the sense of “we’re all in this together”.

A wise man once said to his son, “Build yourself a house in every country”.
Where am I to get such money? Asked his son.
Find a friend in every country, and you will have yourself all those homes.

Find the others. Build your houses.

Your ex-architect,
Randah Taher

This is not your day

A story by Kat Fernandes-Kinsella

I was drowning in trouble but I looked fabulous. I even wore a hat.

“Come on!  Come on!” 

I clung on to the railing, holding myself upright against a screaming and jumping crowd.  I was doing my fair share of screaming and jumping. 

“Come on!  Come on!”

Hooves and colours thundered past us in a million-dollar flat-race.    My eyes were fixing on a bay racehorse, the favourite to win, then losing her in the blur of motion. 

“Come on!  Come on!”

The jockey was a beloved acquaintance and a national treasure.  Strange that you can love an acquaintance who you simply haven’t had time to become friends with.

“Come on!  Come on!”

The excitement of the race was my short respite from going under, but…

“Come on!  Come …come….ooooohhh…awwwww………”

Sixth place.  How?  The horse was at her peak, the jockey skilled and trusted.  While other spectators celebrated their win, I walked round to the stables, dispirited but ready to comfort the jockey.

There he stood, still wearing his helmet, saddle in hand: a lot poorer in both money and prestige than he could have been, if ONLY he’d been in first place. 

He smiled.  Not a trace of sadness or humiliation (my predicted emotions for him), and said:

“Today wasn’t our day.  You can’t push the river.  We’ll have another day. ” 

You can’t push the river.  There I was, open-mouthed, taking that in.  My life was boiling over with difficulty.   And yet here was a just-beaten sage in jodhpurs, handing down wisdom from pretty much every culture who had faced tribulations, failed, learned, survived and thrived. 

My troubled-mind eased: today is not my day.  I couldn’t fix or control anything: I can’t push the river. But I could breathe and let go.  And wait it out: I’ll have another day.

And there. 

Just like that.

Things did not get better. 

But I did.

And slowly, in the time it takes for a river to flow its course, life turned out…alright (…perhaps better than alright)

Was this kismet?  Fate?  Chance? Free will?  I have no bloody idea: go find your own philosophical jockey and get his opinion.  But I do know that the bad times come and go.  And so do the good times.  It passes.  It all passes.  How I respond to the comings and goings, and whether I seek calm in the thrills, and hope in the spills, is up to me.

Dramatic communication

What’s your word for the day?

A single word can build and preserve your creative momentum for the day.

A word like “confidence” could represent the meaning of…

“empowerment”,

“elegance”, or

“respect”.

Which one do you associate with the most?

What if the word-of-the-day becomes the criterion for making those random decisions?

A word like “adventure” will guide you in picking lunch, planning a work-related project, engaging in a team exercise or clearing up space. Compare that to a word like “prosperity”. What changes will that make on how you go through the day?

Now try it yourself. Pick a random word. Write it down & keep the note in front of you for the day. Choose with intention. What feelings does it evoke?

What if it works?

The fear that most employees share is the risk to their pride, status, and what others think of them if they fail at a task.

 
This fear has stopped so many great ideas from being shared. “What if they thought it was a stupid idea?”, “ What if it doesn’t work?”, or “who am I to suggest such thing when experts in here didn’t think of this?”

 
If these thoughts cross your mind, remember that innovation lives at the intersection of fields, where non-experts tend to play the most.

Try asking instead: “What if it works?”,
“So what if others don’t agree?”, “How is that really affecting me?”, “What if I never get this chance again?”
 
Being afraid is not the problem. It’s a protection mechanism and one should pay attention to this sensation. It helps you stay alert.

Being stopped by this fear is the problem. It holds you back and questions your intuition. It will take a lot of courage for you to get out of your comfort zone and test a risky idea.

But it is worth it.

You are worth it.

Share one ridiculous idea in a conversation today. See what happens.  

Courageously yours,

Randah Taher

bringing ideas from multiple sources

How do you bring in ideas?

We are creatures of ideas.
We pride ourselves with knowing how to think differently and how to solve problems in different directions.
By our very nature, we are divergent.
We seek constant stimuli. We get our knowledge from things we see, hear, touch, feel, taste, or experience. We’re constantly bringing in information for our brain neurons to sort out, decide what to keep in our short-term memory and what to archive. For some, this is a thriving environment and a thrilling lifestyle. For others, it becomes overwhelming at best. This is the first part of embracing being “divergent”.

In your world, how many sources bring in the knowledge you seek and the experiences you enjoy every day? What do you pay attention to and what comes brushed under your brain rug?