Since I'm always using my hands, I don't put down my work to pick up newspaper or a magazine. And network news makes me crazy. Therefore, 90% of my news gets to me through NPR and The Charlie Rose Show.
Last night, Tom Friedman was on Charlie Rose. I'll always stop to watch him. Why? Because he's a Great Explainer. Always happy to listen to a clear speaker and well organized thinker. Friedman was talking about his new book The World is Flat.
The crux of the book is that over the Twentieth Century, the world began to go from vertical, heirarchical structure to a horizontalization. Love that word, horizontalization. Things flattened out. As a meritocrat, I love this, because it means that instead of looking to solve a problem within a vertical silo, you look outward to who has the skills. Brain power is everywhere. Brain power is global.
I half-listened last night and then made sure to tune in again today. I did this large scale, real-time drawing.
This flattening has 10 factors, as seen in the graphics.
The Berlin Wall falling (#1) broke down proverbial walls and opened eyes. Netscape going public (#2) and the software revolution in the 90's (#3) connected software and connected people. It was this connecting that facilitated collaboration and factors #4-9 were collaborative extensions of that. The "Steroids" (#10) of VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and Wireless have just started, but have already changed the way we communicate.
The epilogue for me personally, is that graphic facilitation work is the work of a "good collaborator" as seen in the lower right corner.
As facilitators with groups, we are reflecting the conversation of the whole group, horizontally, not just the bosses vertically. We encourage and fuel collaboration by creating the image of a group, project, solution as a whole, including all people. We sort out the pieces of a conversation, organizing and bringing clarity. Onward to more communication, collaboration and horizontalization.
Click here for a larger version of the image above.
Click here for an Terry Gross interviewing Tom Friedman about his book on Fresh Air.
I just started this Frappr Map today just for Illustrators. Any and all illustrators can add their location by being as private or open as they want. Please post and add your location. Just for fun and curiosity of how "flat" the world really is!
http://www.frappr.com/illustrators
Posted by: Jay | January 19, 2006 at 09:09 PM