Making Work Work

I was perusing Russell Davies' excellent blog, and saw a piece about what makes a great creative business. The piece is called the magnificent seven and the double-deckers. He thinks there are two ways to start or be a great creative business; either a bunch of experts (the magnificent seven) or a bunch of friends (the double-deckers).

I vaguely recall reading an article by a Swedish professor about measuring creativity in the work place. I will try to track it down. I don't recall any mention of either the magnificent seven or the double-deckers.

In the meantime, I did find a posting of 10 seeeeriously cool workplaces by Chief Happiness Officer, Alexander Kjerulf. Here are my three favourite pictures, firstly of a slide between floors at Red Bull in London:


and secondly, two pictures of the extremely unfactory-looking Volkswagen Phaeton plant, Dresden:





And Alexander Kjerulf's Chief Happiness Site is here. It is very 'happy', in that Danish Junior Senior 'Move Your Feet' way. It also has some pretty useful tidbits.

Understanding USA, Tufte and Napoleon's Retreat

Deep in one of my favourited blogs of the moment, Communication Nation, there is a post about the website www.understandingusa.com/. It is a fantastic visual breakdown of the USA. It would be even better if I could enlarge every page so I could look at it in the detail it deserves.

What is so good about it, is the thinking behind the illustratations; that information can be presented in an interesting way, to make it more meaningful and more engaging. The master of this is Edward Tufte, and in particular his book 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' . Amongst a load of stuff it contains the classic map by Charles Minard depicting the losses suffered by Napoleon's during the 1812 Russian campaign.

It is a little difficult to read above so try here, or just buy Tufte's book. The map, apparently, has six variables plotted - the size of the army, its location on a two-dimensional surface, the direction of the army's movement, and the temperature at various dates on the retreat from Moscow. Tufte claims "it may be the best statistical graph ever drawn".

Shift Happens and XPLANE

You may have already come across this piece called Shift Happens by Karl Fisch. It was originally put together as a faculty presentation on what was new and different in the the Colarado school where Karl worked. This is the updated version. If you haven't, press the play button twice and watch.

If you have come across it, you may not have spent much time looking 'behind' it. A company called XPLANE helped with a redesign. XPLANE refer to themselves as "the visual thinking company". They use visualization to make complex ideas, processes and information clearer, and in turn making better decision-making. Their CEO, Dave Gray, also has an excellent blog (amongst many) called Communication Nation, which is dedicated to helping us improve our communication skills.

Superbowl 42

The gym was packed on Saturday. In the steam room I heard one guy remark that it was so full because it was the Superbowl the next day. On Sunday morning I heard a radio report that demand for beer, chips, dips and salsa had risen 100%. The New York Giants won in a very exciting last 5 minutes thus denying the New England Patriots a season undefeated.

Interesting Data

Some less often used measures of economic performance. Firstly, increasing numbers of part-time workers can be a leading indicator of rising unemployment rates as companies try to shift full time workers into part time hours. Secondly, a rise in the office vacancy rate is also a good indicator for the economy slowing as tenants shy away from taking on new leases.