T shape to M shape to Earthy Designers, and Design Thinking

Toyota wants T shaped people. Factory workers move about to enrich their work lives and to enrich their and Toyota understanding of what’s going on. The T shape in designers is similar. Both include kinds of empathy for the situation going cross the T.  Various people suggest M shape as some people develop depth in more than one area.

Me? I’m trying to design a thingy to teach a teacher, before the teacher is hit with a fixed or routine mindset. Before rubrics become gods in the usual ‘factory’ classroom. (Kids should be learning and the outcome of the learning meets a rubric – learning by the doings. Not focus on results with wimpy learning.)   So I’m going around in circles, fitting in natural patterns. Learn with five senses, all five fingers, five seasons (four plus late summer, specifically to add an emergent keep-going push to keep the system from running down).

I think designers should be like a five phase cycle.

This diagram hints at seasons and processing and trials and ordeals, and it’s dead easy to add in consideration of five fingers, five senses, and etc, into a holistic circle. So there, designers need to be able to wobble around like drunken car tires while figuring out what the problem opportunity is. Looking for local maxima or whatever.

Plus, this five phase thingy naturally weds to feng shui and systems.  Eg the water cycle, and agile versus ‘waterfall’ development. Holistic.

Just pivot the cycle a few times and the cycle/tire becomes a globe, like Earth. Earthy.

I like the hands on aspect of being earthy. It’s akin to ‘go look and see’ or OODA in the plane seat.

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