Ferg's Blog

3G Knowledge Transfer – Dr Annette Boaz, London School of Economics – Lessons for Service Design?

Fergus Bisset — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:18:04 +0000

On the morning of the 7th of December 2010, I attended with Dr George Julian, Director of ripfa, a seminar by Dr Annette Boaz who works in the Health and Social Care Research Department at the London School of Economics. The seminar sought to “draw on Allan Best’s work on the different models of thinking with regard to knowledge transfer. …Describ[ing] ten exploratory case studies conducted in Europe to better understand the approaches that are currently used to assess the impact of research in practice and the conceptualisations of knowledge transfer that underpin them. It…conclude[d] by focusing on some of the conceptual challenges facing us in promoting and evaluating knowledge transfer.”

Whilst undoubtedly related to social care, and environmental policy from which many of the case studies were drawn, I perceive that much of what was covered in this seminar as also of relevance to the issue of Knowledge Transfer within the discipline of Service Design, or perhaps as it was described in the headline of the Nordic Service Design Conference last week, pertinent to those interested in ‘Knowledge Exchange within the field of Service Design’.

Dr Boaz is a specialist in translational research which Wikipedia can tell you more about here. The resonance of such translational approaches and thought to service design should at be immediately apparent, largely for the strong participatory approach that both such research approaches tend to adopt and for the action research perspective that they embody. Action Research in relation to Service Design is mentioned in Sarah Drummond’s recent post on her ServDes experience as indicative of her own designerly training and education, but I suspect her experience is atypical, it certainly is not representative of my taught design education. The point, that traditional ‘basic’ and ‘applied’ research perspectives and methodologies no longer cut the mustard when it comes to supporting responsible and sustainable design practice (and for that matter informing social care and environmental policy) is a point that Don Norman has also recently argued here. Norman’s point being, much like Boaz yesterday and Sangiorgi and Holmlid last week, that we now live in times where previous ways of thinking and previous approaches to professional practice and knowledge transfer are not robust or reliable enough, in the case of design and service design in particular, to respond to the real world challenges they face or knowingly or unknowingly take responsibility for.

No more could this be exemplified than in the case of some of the responses to the conference published so far on Twitter (see the the hashtag #servdes) and here, from practitioners bemoaning the conference being ‘overly academic’ and, as they alleged, an absence of business people and the business imperative to apply the learning from the ServDes Conference. This provoked a healthy discussion on Twitter this afternoon. A discussion that begs the question that Lucy Kimbell and others have begun to address (and here), before now, of how if attempting to facilitate effective knowledge exchange between academics and practitioners, as the ServDes Conference last week was, should future organisers of this conference or any other in a practitioner-centric discipline seek to facilitate effective knowledge exchange? And how do we measure this?

In a bid to start such a conversation, and to continue that which started on Twitter this afternoon, I want to share the mechanisms that Boaz identified as key knowledge transfer activities that she, and the work she references, currently perceives we have out our disposal to implement effective knowledge exchange. They are grouped into the three-generational model of research that underpins the work of Best that she leveraged throughout the presentation:

First Generation Modes of Knowledge Transfer (Linear)

- Seminars

- Presentations

[- I percieve that the ServDes Unconference falls into this category although I concede that as a two-way discussion forum it is closer to a second generation mode of knowledge transfer]

Second Generation Modes of Knowledge Transfer (Interactive)

-Research briefings

-Policy networks

[Social Network (web 2.0) Exchange - I've added this myself but the emphasis in this generational approach is on two-way communication]

Third Generation Modes of Knowledge Transfer (Systems)

-Practitioners and researcher collaboration (joint research)

-Co-locating policy makers and researchers (embedding service design)

So does Service Design as a discipline have any other Modes of Knowledge Transfer at its disposal? Have any Service Design Consultancies entered into Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with Universities or commissioned an academic department to bolster their work with more rigorous approaches? If not why not? By my perception ServDes was far from an ‘academic’ conference and a great effort and achievement by the committed team at Linkoping University, whilst like anything it could of course have been improved in certain areas, it is on the other hand a concern to see and hear that as far as some attendees and practitioners are concerned, it was ‘too academic’. I’m obviously not in a position to defend individual presentations and the first person myself to get frustrated if something is unclearly communicated, as is the stereotype with many ‘academic’ presentations, but the fact remains that Service Design is a discipline that is built on years of scientific and academic research. To give an example, Vargo and Lusch’s Service-Dominant Logic so freely banded around amongst practitioners at ServDes and within the discipline these days was 25 years of ‘academic’ research and rigour to get it to the point conceptually and technically that it now is.

As Service Design as a discipline seeks to explore new areas where it can add value and help address more complex social and ecological problems, it needs academic and scientific research if it is to remain credible and trustworthy. If traditional conferences, and other forms of first generational Knowledge Transfer are (as alleged) no longer acceptable or preferable to practitioners where does that leave us and what, if anything, can the research of Boaz outlined above do to help us structure our thinking… something when you stop and think about it wouldn’t itself have been possible without the academic process which underpins and supports it?

In my next post, I’ll continue my recap of ServDes and further set this debate within the context of established Service Design Research as discussed at Holmlid et al’s workshop on the third day of the programme.

UPDATE: IDEO’s Tim Brown talks about his belief that designers need better checks and balances incorporated into their design process to protect them from systemic failure here and Adaptive Path talk about the challenges of sharing information here, in a way that makes it useful. I think these are useful, design practitioner-centric contributions to the ongoing discussion about Knowledge exchange within Service Design.

Reflections from Servdes

Fergus Bisset — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:15:24 +0000

Last week I spent an enjoyable few days in the company of some of Northern Europe’s leading service design practitioners and researchers, the excuse, the ServDes Conference in Linkoping, Sweden which followed last year’s conference in Oslo, thoughts from which I blogged about here.

There are myriad possible forms a summarising post from these three days of structured and unstructured workshop and discussions on the practice and process of designing for services could take. Rather than attempt to cram too many thoughts and observations into one post I will structure my reflections across a few posts that I hope will do justice to the pertinent themes and challenges of last week.

I’ll aim to cover the unconference workshop that myself and George Julian ran for research in practice for adults (ripfa) on the first day of the conference, which sought to explore the role of evidence informed practice in the design of services, and without a focussed agenda, sought to reflect on the current approaches taken by service designers to evidence their thinking, processes and outcomes. The theme of this session sought also to generate insights that might inform the design of ripfa’s own products and services that support the use of evidence informed approaches, by frontline practitioners, in the provision of adult social care services in England.

This post will be followed by another containing some reflections on a number of the standout presentations from day one of ServDes, set within the context of a workshop run by Stefan Holmlid, Fabian Segelstrom and Johan Blomkvist that led discussions on the future of Service Design Research. I will conclude with a post later this week that reflects on a presentation by the Swedish design consultancy Doberman and Apoteket, a Swedish highstreet chemist who presented together towards the end of day two, on their service design work supporting health outcomes and behavioural change and which in turn specifically relates to my recent research on designing for motivation.

Initially however, and in the subsequent post, I wish to report on an event at London School of Economics yesterday, Tuesday 7th of December, from Dr Annette Boaz that discussed the role of Knowledge Transfer within environmental and social policy organisations. I set this thinking out initially as I believe it sets in context many of the discussions from last week both from our unconference session and from the ServDes Conference as a event for the transfer of knowledge related to the discipline of service design and as a conference with the theme ‘Exchanging Knowledge’.

Mixed Media, Mixed Feelings, Thoughts and Ideas for the (Social) Media Coverage of the Youth Olympic Games

Fergus Bisset — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:17:34 +0000

One of the most interesting aspects of being involved in inaugural Youth Olympic Games and the development and promotion of the Culture and Education Programme which was part of it, was the insight my role provided into the relationship of the media to the Olympic Movement. This is a relationship that is integral to the IOC’s ability to fulfil its principle function of event managing the largest multi-sport events in the world in the form of the Summer Olympiad and the Winter Games. The Youth Olympic Games, brainchild of incumbent IOC President Jacques Rogge is part mission to educate and indite the world’s elite sporting youth into the Olympic Movement, and, part mission to attract a younger audience to the Olympic Games through the media with all the commercial benefits such a lucrative market presents.

Tom Degun from insidethegames interviewing Georgie Harland, GB and Modern Pentathlon's Athlete Role Model for the Youth Olympic Games

If this seems a tad cynical, allow me to express both my utmost belief that Rogge’s vision is first and foremost a personal and, for want of a better word, a moralistic one. The origin of the Youth Olympic Games lying in the European Youth Festivals he devised in his previous role as President of the European Olympic Committees, to bridge the Iron Curtain and the disparities it created in access to ‘fair’ sporting competition and education.

This fact, the ‘business model of the IOC’, according to a representative from the Olympic Solidarity department of the IOC (the department that distributes the funds to each National Olympic Committee and to International Sports Federations to ensure their support and participation in The Games), reinforces how integral a part the media play in sustaining the Olympic Movement.

The IOC is justifiably proud of the fact that it distributes 92-93% (I’ve heard both figures used recently) of its commercial revenue “back into sports development” via the Olympic Solidarity and Olympic Scholarship Schemes. The IOC claim that their model is sustainable, despite the average age of an Olympic TV viewer being something in the region of 40+ years old. Its clear that the addition of some younger audience members would do the sustainability of the IOC’s business no harm at all – hence the Youth Olympic Games.

One of the big parts of my role was to act as spokesperson for the media for the Youth Olympic Games in the buildup to The Games this saw me participate in a number of media days principally organised and managed by PR firm Ogilvie who were acting for Visit Singapore – the Singapore Tourism Board (the host nation, also looking to recoup some of the $300-400M investment it made in staging the Youth Olympic Games).

Anyone, who watched the BBC’s weekly highlights programme from The Youth Games, would have noticed that the programme, fronted by Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton and Newsround presenter Ore Oduba, focussed predominantly on Britain’s 5 key medal prospects for The Games. It was scathing in the idea of the athletes “having to live and eat with 3,000 other people”, described by the athletes themselves as one of the best parts of the experience. The programmes described the Culture and Education Programme, another integral component to the Youth Olympic Games experience as sounding “boring”. Not a sentiment expressed by any of the athletes that I’m aware of.

Hardly, representative coverage then of The Youth Games ambition to be a celebration of the Olympic Values of Friendship, Excellence and Respect, nor representative of the opinions of the athlete’s through whom the BBC team were trying to tell their story. The BBC coverage instead concentrating on the Excellence of little more than a handful of the British team. Not even so much as conversing with many of the athletes on the team who despite being amongst the best in the world and having given most of their youth to reach this point, weren’t fortunate enough on this occasion to stand on the podium or indeed begin their competition on the first day of The Games.

Needless to say, no one was going to bite the hand that feeds them and suggest that the BBC might want to paint a more representative picture of The Games. It was also clear that no press officer was going to advance any story unless it involved talking about shiny bits of metal around athletes neck’s, or bizarrely, shiny bits of metal in the form of pin badges. This doesn’t say much for the BBC’s interpretation of how, in fact, athletes can and do more generally contribute back to society and can offer more practical inspiration to folks back home. Because apparently all we the mere mortal public care about is medals. Incidentally, the IOC were adamant that no official medal account be kept of The Games, was anyone advising or correcting the BBC of this? I highly doubt it. The medals are an important part of The Games, but they are not The Games. Would anyone watching the BBC coverage back home have been reassured of this? Again, I highly doubt it.

“As the Olympic Broadcaster, did the BBC take this unique opportunity to make the wider experience and values of The Games more accessible to the British public who will host the next one, no of course not.”

Model of the Financial and Social Capital of The Olympic Games (c) Fergus Bisset

All of which is a shame of course and something of a wasted opportunity to truly give voice to the stories that all of these remarkable young people can tell and the inspiration they can provide their nation. This might also explain why the IOC is, and should be, seeking to better exploit other channels of communication, that to put it bluntly, enable more representative coverage of the experience of The Games and in the words of Alex Huot, IOC Head of Social Media “connect as many people as we can with athletes“.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Social Rewards of The Olympic Games (c) Fergus Bisset

Remembering something I’d seen on David Armano’s awesome Logic + Emotion blog, which was exploring the role that social engagement can play as part of a broader PR strategy. I was also interested in how this might integrate with the IOC’s presently ‘sustainable’ business model and using a model I co-created with colleagues at the International Olympic Academy in the summer (thanks guys!) explore what new opportunities social engagement offers in terms of more representative and democratic media coverage of future iterations of the The Games, including of course London 2012 and Innsbruck 2012.

How Social Engagement Fits into a Potential Olympic PR strategy (click to enlarge)

What do you think of the coverage of The Games? Does it make you any more enthusiastic about London hosting The Games? What about the role of social media in sport – do you follow any athletes through social media?

Learning for London 2012 in Singapore

Fergus Bisset — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:46:26 +0000

There is an interesting article on insidethegames around what London 2012 can learn from the events out here in Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games. Indeed, for me one of the most striking things I’ve of observed in the past few days, which includes watching GB’s Jade Jones win Gold in the 55kg Taekwondo and Sarah Milne’s inspirationally hard fought and atmospherically electrifying bronze medal final yesterday, is in fact something so obviously brilliant its amazing that it is not a fundamental part of every games.

The activity in question wasn’t directly a sporting event either, but rather as part of the Culture and Education Programme of the Youth Olympic Games a chance for all the young Singaporean primary school kids who, having just watched either Taekwondo or Wrestling could then come and take part in some coaching in either of those sports – most likely for the first time ever in Singapore. Alongside these activities is also a museum showcasing replica torches from previous Olympics and explaining a little bit of the history and values of the Games. This museum, situated as it is in the International Conference Centre in Singapore, is accessible to members of the public who happen to be passing or who might be visiting the adjacent shopping centre. I’m not aware of this sort of thing being integral to the experience of previous Games but it strikes me as something both so brilliant, and in fact so obvious, that any host Olympic city in future, serious about public engagement and ensuring a legacy for the Games, should consider it mandatory at every venue.

Indeed, I think that given that all the athletes from these competitions will be staying in Singapore for the duration of The Games, it would be great to try and negotiate a situation in future where a few of them, or perhaps all of them, devoted a couple of hours post-competition to come and take part in these coaching activities. This would, I think, be a mutually beneficial situation for them at such a young age to get a taste of coaching others, promoting sport and like some of the other Culture and Education activities such as Community Drumming – serve as an introduction to them of getting involved in community work and social development through sport.

Over the past week of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games there have been many highlights and the final week will doubtless contain many more. But for me, seeing this activity and witnessing the potential for activities such as these to become part of the future of the Olympic Movement is as exciting as witnessing the young sports people who in London 2012 and Rio 2016 will come to embody it.

Other Insights...

June 23rd, 2010 -- Olympic Day 2010 – An update from the International Olympic Academy (4)
June 22nd, 2009 -- Design for Change (0)
May 17th, 2009 -- Thinking You Can vs. Knowing You Can? (0)
June 14th, 2009 -- The Logic of Design Thinking (1)
May 17th, 2009 -- Systems That Encourage You To Think You Can (1)
August 11th, 2010 -- Services Supporting Singapore Sporting Success (2)
May 5th, 2009 -- How is this relevant to me? Motivational Design and Public Engagement Presentation (2)
August 7th, 2009 -- Competitive Anxiety – Are Service Design Competitions a Paradox? (5)
September 16th, 2009 -- More on Authenticity (0)
August 15th, 2010 -- Formal and Informal Welcomes to Singapore (0)

Formal and Informal Welcomes to Singapore

Fergus Bisset — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:48:19 +0000

Team GB are greeted by a piper at the British High Commission in Singapore ahead of the announcement of sprinter David Bolarinwa as the flag bearer for last nights opening ceremony.

These formalities where followed by a more informal welcome ceremony for all athletes back at the Youth Olympic Village which was opened by the Young Ambassadors playing in the Samba band we had formed when we participated in the Community Drumming programme during the Culture and Education Programme Seminar back in March.

We’re in the Village People!

Fergus Bisset — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:10:44 +0000

The past couple of days since our arrival in Singapore have largely been spent settling into the Olympic Village. For the coaches this means liaising with their Sports reps and finding out the training times they have been allocated and negotiating transport and other logistical hurdles in order to make sure that the athletes get the best preparation possible and feel most comfortable in the competition environment. For the athletes settling in has involved getting comfortable in their rooms, exploring the Olympic Village and getting used to the competition environment with some light training.

The realities of coping with the time change, jet lag, the heat and humidity as well as the expectations and hopes that rest upon each coach and athlete demand that this is a patient process. At this point it is very much about building a good base, literally in this context, from which we can move forward into the competition period over the next couple of weeks.

Spirits are good in the camp and after the first few days of travelling and living together the athletes are beginning to get to know each other and really experience the first of the Olympic Values, of which the Youth Olympic Games is a celebration, that of friendship.

There is a “Wow!come Session” being held tomorrow, which will celebrate the arrival of all athletes to the Youth Olympic Village – you can watch it live online here.

For some pictures from the Olympic Village click here.

Services Supporting Singapore Sporting Success

Fergus Bisset — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:14:35 +0000

As you might have gathered from some previous posts, I’ve been working as a Young Ambassador for Team GB at the Youth Olympic Games which are due to start in two days time in Singapore. As one of 30 such Ambassadors from 30 different National Olympic Committees – it was a great experience to be part of my own National Olympic Committee’s ‘Kitting Out Day’ on Monday ahead of Team GB’s departure to Singapore. The day consisted of the distribution of the kit to all athletes, coaches and officials as well as lots of media interviews before we got on the plane to Singapore on Monday evening. For an interview with one of Britain’s top prospects for the Games Victoria Ohuruogu you can click here. You can also find a related interview I did recently with another of the members of Team GB Eli Thorogood about her expectations for Singapore a few weeks ago.

Athlete kitbags waiting for collection, Team GB Kitting Out Day, Heathrow

The kitting out day itself was but one facet of the huge number of support systems and services that would be called into play throughout Monday and will yet be relied upon throughout the athletes stay in Singapore. All of these ‘services’ and ‘systems’ are critical to ensuring athlete participation and success in Singapore but are unfortunately rarely seen by spectators or viewers at home.

The kit itself, fundamental to ensuring that the athletes have a consistent and visceral sense of team and national identity, was delivered on six pallets on Sunday morning and sorted by a volunteer team all Sunday into the 75 or so kitbags that accompanied us out to Singapore – that’s nearly 7000 individual pieces of clothing – thanks have to go to Adidas of course but also to those in the BOA Office who gave up there Sunday and who have spent months in the co-ordination of the design, sizing, manufacture and delivery of all this gear.

The athlete's kit - a fundamental touchpoint in the sporting experience

The next major piece of logistics that came into play on Monday was of course transportation – there is something quite amazing about the ability of British Airways and Heathrow Airport to cope with being descended upon by 70-odd athletes and staff, with huge amounts of gear and fragile sporting equipment – in addition to being able to deal with the thousands of other travellers flying in and out on Monday night.

Team GB Checking in at Heathrow

And collecting it all again at the other end...

Needless to say all the kit (and team members) made it to Singapore safely, but it is to me fascinating all the details that go into running a international multisport event such as the Youth Olympic Games – an area for the outsized fencing, pole vault, cycling and kayaking equipment to be dropped off at the airport and taken to the venues for example. Or the hundreds of young Singaporeans and international volunteers between the airport and the Olympic Village to meet, greet and escort athletes and officials through their accreditation and to the accommodation. All of whom must have been trained in the past few weeks and months. All working together seamlessly to help ensure that the 3,600 athletes from 205 different nations can congregate in anticipation of the start of the Games. Indeed, the value of the kit is also affirmed in simply being able to distinguish yourself and your team mates from everyone else in such a high concentration of people, processes and equipment!

If you haven’t sussed it already, the theme of this post is support and there are a few things really that have really struck me so far in this experience relating to the idea of support services. 1) All of the logistics support mentioned above and the tireless – often unnoticed – care and energy that goes into ensuring that the team get from a to b intact and in the right state of mind. 2) The unique relationships and support between parents and athletes and coaches and athletes that have enabled and empowered these talented youngsters to achieve what they have and that continue to help support and prepare the athletes ahead of their imminent competitions. Its also interesting to observe the way the relationships between athletes are shaped by the experience of travelling together and living with each other in the fist couple of days in the Youth Olympic Village – Team GB is taking shape. 3) It’s also interesting the way that the media helps cultivate support for the athletes with the folks back home, on the behalf of whom they are of course competing and 4) the amazing way that Singaporeans have come together to support the Olympics coming to their home city and country and the staggering efforts that have been put in by them all here to shape the accommodation and the competition venues and to make sure they are all running smoothly at Games time.

I’m looking forward to the next two weeks of doing my bit to support the performance of Team GB and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. For latest updates you can either follow me on Twitter or Team GB on Twitter and Facebook. The whole team looks forward to your support.

Other Insights...

March 31st, 2010 -- Simultaneous Translation – The Olympics and Communication For A Better World (2)
August 20th, 2010 -- Learning for London 2012 in Singapore (0)
September 14th, 2009 -- The Lego Universe – Inspiring Designers? (1)
August 12th, 2010 -- We’re in the Village People! (1)
May 5th, 2009 -- Awareness – AEG Decibel Meter (3)
June 22nd, 2009 -- Design for Change ¦ Understanding the technological capabilities (0)
February 15th, 2010 -- A Big Day for British Youth and Winter Sports – An Inspiration For The Rest of Us? (2)
December 9th, 2010 -- 3G Knowledge Transfer – Dr Annette Boaz, London School of Economics – Lessons for Service Design? (2)
June 23rd, 2010 -- Olympic Day 2010 – An update from the International Olympic Academy (4)
September 16th, 2009 -- More on Authenticity (0)

Olympic Day 2010 – An update from the International Olympic Academy

Fergus Bisset — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:10:18 +0000

Well first of all, apologies for my recent social media hiatus, particularly from this blog, I’ve been trying to cut back in an attempt to finish writing up my MPhil dissertation on Measuring Motivation and Engagement, there will be more on that once it’s done. For this past week and for the next, I’ve also had the privilege of being able to attend the International Olympic Academy (IOA) in Olympia, Greece, as part of my work as GB’s Young Ambassador for the Youth Olympic Games. Today, the 23rd June is also Olympic Day, so where better a place to celebrate?

Ahead of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August The British Olympic Foundation and The Get Set For London 2012 Team are marking Olympic Day with a challenge to all school age children to blog about five new things they have done for each one of the five Olympic rings, so within that context I thought I’d let you know five of the highlights of International Olympic Academy so far, and hopefully within that, some interesting reflections on the Olympic Movement. Details of the Get Set Competition can be found here.

1. First new thing must be the 200 new people under the age of 30, from 95 different countries that have descended upon Greece for this year’s IOA, just like the inaugural Youth Olympics coming up in the Singapore this summer and London in 2012 – the Olympic Movement and the Olympic Games wouldn’t exist without participants. In fact that was the subject of IOC Member Peter Tallberg‘s presentation yesterday, which gave an overview of the different ways that the IOC is seeking to open itself up as an organisation, become more democratic and better support it’s athletes. This is with a view to increasingly better support and seeking guidance of members of public and the communities that host The Games. This was a frank presentation that acknowledged that the IOC has plenty to learn in this area. The discussions that followed covered some of the controversy over the coverage of both the Beijing Games and Vancouver protests and what the participants feel the IOC can do differently in future in this respect. The great thing about being part of such a diverse and energetic group of people, as I am here, is that there are no shortages of people to challenge your perceptions, whether in discussing the role of sport in resolving tensions in Sudan or in ensuring gender equality and empowerment all over the world there is plenty to learn from this great bunch of people!

2. The second new thing this past week was attending an open air classical music concert and opening ceremony at the top of the hill of Sphyx in Athens for the opening ceremony of the IOA, it was a stunning setting being overlooked by the Parthenon, various awards were bestowed on eminent Greeks for this contribution to the Olympic Movement, with awards also being made to Sir Philip Craven head of the International Paralympic Committee and to Irena Szewińska who also presented to us later on in the week.

3. The third new thing this week has been visiting the site of, and understanding more about, the Ancient Olympics. The ancient site of Olympia, of which I can’t help but admit I am now mayor on Foursquare, is fascinating and helped us all gain a clearer understanding of the inspiration behind the Modern Games, particularly the ideals of the Olympic Truce which called for an end to hostilities between Greek states during the Ancient Games. This truce is something that the IOC campaigns alongside the UN to uphold every time The Modern Games is hosted. The role of sport in creating global peace is the title of the proceedings of this session of the IOA and the focus of most of our discussions.

Bumball from a2activity.dk

4. The fourth new thing this week been playing bumball, this is apparently a Danish game which involves wearing pieces of velcro on your chest and bum and using them to catch and carry a velcro ball – in effect it is a cross between touch rugby, netball and nothing you’ve ever played before but it’s really good fun and made up one of our early morning physical activities before breakfast this week.

Team Scandinavia on the start line at Ancient Olympia

5. The fifth new thing this week is in some respects not a new thing at all, but rather, confirmation that the Olympic Movement, celebrated today on Olympic Day is far more than the Olympic Games. The Olympic Movement headed by the IOC aims to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace. This was backed up by a surprising statistic from Peter Tallberg’s presentation that 92% of the IOC’s revenue goes to the development of sport worldwide. It has been inspiring spending time understanding what the Olympics and the Olympic Values of Friendship, Respect and Excellence mean to so many young people from all over the world. Perhaps if we all work together, as we have been over the past week, we can all help make the Olympics that little bit better for everyone. Happy Olympics Day!

Visualising Performance; What can Designers and Olympians learn from each other?

Fergus Bisset — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:38:06 +0000

I immensely enjoyed (late) last night’s first episode of Olympic Dreams, which you can catch on BBC iPlayer here and follows a number of young British athletes and former and future Olympians as they prepare for London 2012. The documentary gives a fascinating insight into the balancing act that is the life of an elite athlete, particularly an upcoming elite athlete. I’ve talked often on this blog about some of my own experiences performing this balancing act and a big part of my role as Young Ambassador for the Youth Olympic Games is assisting the members of TeamGB with this balancing act of juggling training and a social life with the demands of education.

These challenges are far from unique to elite athletes however, I’m sure all of us are familiar with the pressures associated with ensuring good performance in either our personal or professional lives or indeed in our hobbies or sporting commitments. For me as someone with fairly a dominant kinaesthetic and visual learning style, visualising performance was always a huge part of ensuring I achieved what I set out to do. I was excited to see Tom Daley talk and demonstrate his pre-dive visualisation process in last night’s documentary and it reminded me of my undergraduate dissertation project ‘Insight‘ a mobile phone and augmented reality environment to aid athletic performance.

Canadian Cross-country skier Chandra Crawford using music to help prepare her performance at the Vancouver Games (c) Vancouver Sun

I’ve often found however, that visualisation (and supporting performance preparation with music) can also be really effective in terms of helping prepare for lectures or presentations that I’ve given, thinking through in my mind where and what I’ll be presenting and how I anticipate the audience to react.

This is an approach that is also increasingly employed in the design world and by service design consultants to help their clients achieve innovative and creative insights or ensure effective service design and delivery. Vocal proponents of these theatrical, role play and embodied approaches to service design include Adam Lawrence (who is well worth following on Twitter, if you don’t already).

Fast Company also covered a related notion a while back, talking about how standup comedy helps design and creativity. As one of the coaches in last nights documentary pointed out – its really about standing up and delivering your performance when it matters – how different they is this to so many other aspects of life? What can the way sports people deal with this pressure do to help us inform our own processes and (quite literally) practice? These principles are similar in justification to why experience prototyping and test-rigs are such effective tools for new product and service development – as just like Tom Daley they allow stakeholders to act our their performances whilst developing them. This process in turn makes those performances ‘more real’ every time they are iterated or evolved – making the experience more realistic every time it is enacted. The outcomes of this aren’t always positive however, and the downsides of realistic training environments and visualisation is something that @georgejulian has blogged about recently.

Prototypes - another form of visualisation (from Ergonomics - Real Design at The Design Museum

One of the big attractions for me of Service Design as a discipline is the myriad ways, tools and processes that it affords practitioners and participants to help people visualise their needs and demands from a service or the complex socio-technological systems and relationships that make up the service. I wonder how Service Designers and designers more generally, might be able to collaborate with sports psychologists and athletes to share practice and experiences on new and creative approaches to visualisation and expression. Would this be of reciprocal benefit – in other words would sports people benefit from more creative and collaborative approaches to preparing for competition?

I also wonder if there is a career pathway or opportunities for athletes to support the design and development of user experiences and the design of products, systems and services after, or in order to support, their careers as full time athletes?

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Why society still needs its sporting heroes

Fergus Bisset — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:21:33 +0000

Plato quotes Socrates as saying at his trial “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Perhaps something that John Terry and Tiger Woods might not readily agree with this weekend. I can’t however help but be impressed this week, to see that this is a sentiment that the Nike marketing department and Tiger Woods himself have chosen to take ownership of with their latest ad campaign: Tiger’s late father Earl eerily challenging him from beyond the grave about what the past five months of press revelations about his private life have taught him about himself. Tiger’s speechless and pensive response indicating that whether this weekend, over the next five months or over the next five years he is going to let his sport do the talking and that he’s a better person for having been challenged and for what the past five months have enabled him to learn.

I was interested but unsurprised to see (via @arnoldbeekes) that not everyone agrees with me on this matter. Alan Webber recently blogging about how little value he sees or places in role models that he doesn’t know and don’t know him – his accusation being that societally we’ve confused celebrity with role model and that our real role models are, and according to Webber, should be our parents and people we actually know. Webber clearly influenced by Tina Turner in the assertion that we don’t need another hero and clearly better endowed with parental role models than John Terry.

I beg to differ; we need heroes (and heroines) beyond our immediate context, family or social groups. For the very manner in which they challenge us either with their sporting, creative or charitable endeavours or, as with Tiger Woods, their ability to withstand scrutiny that I know most of would struggle to cope with. We also need heroes and heroines who make mistakes, so that we, with them can learn from their experiences without having to repeat their mistakes ourselves.

It is interesting that the very ‘crimes’ that it is recorded Socrates was tried for in Ancient Greece are those that many including Alan Webber and Augusta Masters Chief Billy Payne seem concerned that Tiger Woods and countless other sports people before him are guilty of – namely ‘immorality’ and ‘corrupting the youth’. It assumes that the youth are pretty passive and helpless doesn’t it? Socrates was fond of challenging the social conventions and power structures of his time, largely by publicly questioning himself and others about their role within society. Tiger Woods is likewise a role model for his ability to challenge himself and to face up to the responsibilities and realities that then throws up whether on the golf course or off it. Not one us is ever perfect and as Tina says “…I wonder when we are ever going to change…”. John Terry and Tiger Woods recent off field behaviour has as much to teach kids as their behaviour on it. This is a challenging and unpredictable reality much like sport in general and life itself.

I’ve been challenging myself recently not only in exploring Greek History and philosophy but in light of the recent Tiger, John Terry, Michael Phelps scandals thinking how in my role as Young Ambassador for the Youth Olympic Games I might better support the role of young sports people in society and equip and educate young athletes with the tools not only to be able to withstand the pressure and scrutiny public sports figures face but also with the tools for life in general and the reflective capability that life demands of us all if we wish to grow and better ourselves.

Irrespective of this complex question and just as with the Games at Olympia in the time of Socrates and Plato, I don’t think that the off field antics of a few high profile individuals should diminish or distract from the opportunity that competitive sports provide all of us, whether as participants, officials or spectators, to challenge and ask questions of ourselves. Competitive sports enable us to embody the values of excellence and competitive sports people enable us to associate ourselves with, aspire towards and emulate excellence ourselves. By being excellent, they make it possible for us to be excellent as well, in whatever way we might choose. In doing so they also give us the opportunities to make new friendships and to acquire and demand the respect of ourselves and others around us. But as these high profile incidents remind us they also challenge us in demonstrating that we can’t take such acquired values for granted, for me, more than anything about golf, it is this that I think Tiger has enabled all of us to learn.

How do you think we can better motivate and support young people to learn from and avoid repeating some the mistakes of their role models and predecessors?

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