Author Archives: John Maeda

Exhibition at Riflemaker Gallery (2007)

Am trying to move things to the Web gradually — one of them is this show I had in 2007 in London at Riflemaker Gallery, with a review here by Alice Rawsthorn entitled “Rethinking Technology and the Digital Revolution” for the New York Times. Around that period, the Apple iPod was starting to catch on so I made a few pieces out of iPods — one was a fish created out of iPod Nanos and a giant spindle of power lines, and the other was an awkward iPod “couple” on the theme of marriage. In addition I built a few pieces out of single board computers and LEDs — which were exotic for the time, but I recognize are now commonplace. Second Life was “kind of” catching on then, so I appeared in Second Life form remotely in London from MIT. At the time my focus was to lead through making art from my post as a Professor at the MIT Media Lab — I had just also completed my MBA through a course of part-time study. Shortly thereafter, I chose to head in the path of creative leadership of institutions and is why I now lead RISD. -JM

Gianpiero Petriglieri: The Aesthetics of Leadership

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I’m inspired this morning by a comment made yesterday by my colleague on the WEF’s New Models of Leadership Council, Chair Gianpiero Petriglieri, on whether we need a new aesthetics of leadership today. Fifteen years ago I created a research group at MIT to examine the aesthetics of computation — so I got excited to start thinking about this question that Gianpiero so timely raised for me. It’s the mating thought I was looking for to the Redesigning Leadership work I did with Becky last year. Thanks for this great question, Gianpiero! -JM

Lisa Randall on Discontinuity of Scale

Lisa Randall came to RISD last year to participate in the Shared Voices speakers series we’ve just started. In my iPhone’s “To-Do” list I’ve literally carried around the desire to comment on Lisa’s talk for eight months or so now, and wanted to get down onto paper the reason why. It has to do with the above chart that Lisa shares at minute 13 — at this point in the talk, Lisa explains the reason why quantum mechanics exists. I’ve never had it explained so clearly to me before.

When you consider how the Eames’ famous film “Powers of Ten” from the 70s makes the concept of scale so seemingly easy to understand, you can see how it’s been easy to lull us all to think that scale is blissfully and always linear. Lisa’s simple explanation shows us how it is absolutely not the case — and we have theoretical physicists to thank for setting us straight on that point.

Watch Lisa’s talk and you’ll see — not with your eyes as it doesn’t make sense, but you will “get” with your mind — what I mean. This concept of the discontinuity of scale is eminently useful for leaders today that are leading through these enormously complex times. It’s a thought I’ve been mulling over, as I write above, for the last ten months. And perhaps for the next eight years. We’ll see. -JM

Remembering My Four Rules (1999)

In 1999 I made these four rules for myself to live by. One of my Public Safety officers at RISD recalled me talking about them on campus three years ago and asked to be reminded what they were — and I had forgotten them, and couldn’t find them on my old websites at MIT. Here they are, unearthed and a little bit dusty, thanks to the archaeology work of a close friend.

I can’t remember what motivated my putting these down to paper — I recall that it was shortly after I became a professor at MIT and was trying to figure out this “leadership” thing. I still strive to live by these rules every day — failing more than succeeding, but I love to keep trying through doing and I don’t intend to give up.

  1. Don’t speak ill of others. It’s human nature to knock the other party down when they aren’t watching as a natural survival instinct. I always admire the people I meet in life who never feel they have to speak ill of others to make themselves look good.
  2. Avoid passive aggressive behavior. Failing to be forthright with what you really want to say can be hurtful. Being honest and respectful is a good way to deliver a difficult message.
  3. Listen broadly, but don’t waffle on decisions. When people depend upon you to make a decision, they’re basically asking you to be responsible for the possible failed outcome. Your decision should be based upon expert opinions culled from your team, but in the end you make the final decision and are the one responsible — you bear the responsibility for the team. If you’re wrong, admit you’re wrong early and things will usually go better that way. If you’re right then consider yourself lucky and pass on the win to your team. Keep moving forward.
  4. When in error — admit, apologize, move forward. I am not perfect. The only way that I can guarantee not making any mistakes is if I were to do absolutely nothing. So by doing anything at all, I risk making errors of varying degree of intensity. When, and I will, make a mistake I will admit the error as soon as possible, apologize for it, and then move forward without being paralyzed.

The Diagonal Mentor

Long ago I looked up to a professor who wasn’t my direct academic advisor. This professor was often more giving of his time than my immediate professor — and knowing this, he once referred to himself as “the diagonal advisor.” I truly appreciated this geometric interpretation of a working relationship.

The other day I had the chance to sit with a friend and his mentor. I gained a great deal from listening to his mentor — a gentleman of 80 years of age — and was reminded of the special opportunity to be “diagonally” mentored many years ago by my diagonal advisor. Some observations:

  • When someone is 80 years old, and s/he says, “I have *many* stories,” you tend to realize the definition of wisdom as related to having enough stories to pick and choose from … that you *might* find the right one that matters with a good enough set of choices. The wise do well on the average with their picks.
  • “It takes time,” is something you hear often from those that are wise. We want everything to happen right now. Especially when it’s as easy as pressing “Publish Post” to get this thought out into the ether. It’s impossible to imagine anything taking longer than a button press. But many things … still … take time. That doesn’t mean that you should sit and wait for something … to … happen. Knowing that “it takes time” doesn’t mean that you are willing to wait forever. It does mean, however, that you’re willing to push for as long as it takes. Until it’s … time.
  • “Life is never easy, so don’t bother lamenting the fact. Be joyful instead.” If you are engaged in challenging work, days that are downers can be expected as the norm. It’s because you’re trying to do something. And the power of feeling lucky to be challenged versus the power of feeling down due to difficulties … well, those powers are quite different.

My 5 minute blogging break is up, so now it’s back to work for lucky me :-) . -JM

Organization Design Links

I keep a running tab of organizational design leadership resources on Twitter and forget all of them (like the visualization links below). Here’s a permanent list I’m starting, and will make it work better over the holidays. -JM

Creative Leader vs Authoritative Leader Chart / JM + BB: http://creativeleadership.com/2009/03/16/characteristics-of-the-creative-leader-versus-authoritative-leader/

Self-Governance / Dov Seidman: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/jobs/a-company-lrn-adopts-collaborative-management.html

Divergence vs/with Convergence / JM + GE mid-execs: http://creativeleadership.com/2012/08/09/bridging-divergence-and-convergence/

Brennan’s Hierarchy of Imagination / Patti Brennan: http://creativeleadership.com/2010/11/27/brennans-hierarchy-of-imagination/

Chaordic Organizations / Dee Hock: http://www.fastcompany.com/27333/trillion-dollar-vision-dee-hock

Redesigning Leadership / JM + BB: http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=4941

Pyramid and the Plum Tree / Gordon Mackenzie: http://gabemounce.blogspot.com/2008/09/plum-tree.html

Systems and Design Thinking / Russel Ackoff: http://www.pegasuscom.com/levpoints/ackoff_a-lifetime-of-systems-thinking.html

Self-Renewal / John Gardner: http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/JohnGardner-RoadtoSelf-Renewal2.pdf

Lego Serious Play, Policy Informatics, Dark Matter book, WEF white paper, …