Artefact #111 - ORDER
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** Artefact #111
ORDER
““Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.” - José Saramago
https://artefactshop.com The first task of the year… writing a new talk
Hello |FNAME|
We hope you are raring to go at those exciting 2020 projects you’ve got lined up, as we sit here thinking about the things we have to do, want to do, and need to do....
So this edition of our occasional newsletter is about order.
It can be a hard week, this one, sitting with the memory fragments of the things you thought you’d try and get done before Christmas, piecing them back together and making space for the new ideas which gently percolate through the fog as you wake up for the year.
Whether it’s the high level ordering of your tasks for this year, or the granular level of working out which order all of those pieces fall into, sitting down with a pack of Artefact Cards for half an hour is undoubtedly a great way to start that process.
And below, you’ll find some ideas that’ll help you think about what to do afterwards…
Enjoy, and Happy New Year.
John & Helen
** THE FLOP
https://www.smithery.com/2017/07/23/the-time-capsule-retrieval-service/ The Diamond Nine
We first learned about the diamond nine from the teachers and pupils at the hugely inspiring School 21 in Stratford, as they help us out with the Smithery project for The Royal Society, “The Time Capsule Retrieval Service (https://www.smithery.com/2017/07/23/the-time-capsule-retrieval-service/) “.
It is a super simple, highly engaging activity for a group to use when going about ordering a set of information. The most important factor at the top, the least important at the bottom, and the rest in the appropriate places in the middle. Read about it here (https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-is-diamond-ranking-strategy/) , and then think about how you might adopt the method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dIQOrVhM5E The Creative Quartet
For years now, I’ve been using John Wood’s idea of the creative quartet to explain what’s really useful about having separate pieces of information on movable objects. Watch his talk here on it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dIQOrVhM5E) .
If you had two cards, for instance, you could find (for argument’s sake) one synergy between them. But add two more cards, and you don’t double the number of snuggeries (two), but instead get six possible synergies. Add four more cards, you have 28 synergies. And four more, 66 synergies. That’s exponential maths magic, that is.
The real trick is to make sure you keep moving them around, seeking new order amongst the chaos that unlocks new ideas. Cardstock II - 31st January 2020
We held the first Cardstock back in late 2019, and kept it fairly low key to see what happened… it was a lovely morning of discussion and discovery, so it’s well worth doing again.
Mark the morning of 31st January in your diary, and we’ll divulge more in the next newsletter. It’ll be in London, near Euston.
And you’ll be asked to bring a card thing, and be prepared to talk about it.
** THE TURN
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http://www.artefactshop.com
Spotted in the Wild
Those lovely folks at Somerset House Shop (https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/shopping) have just reordered more single packs of Artefact Cards, which seem to be flying off the shelves like warmed-through cakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JibxHpXqAfc) . So taken are we with the lovely acrylic box they use to show them off, that we’re planning on prototyping a new display case with some acrylic we have left over from a previous project. Watch this space. https://abookapart.com/products/everyday-information-architecture
From The Library E (https://amzn.to/33mFfUN) veryday Information Architecture by Lisa Maria Marquis (https://abookapart.com/products/everyday-information-architecture)
One I bought in the autumn, but have picked up with intent this week as we start a new project on pulling together a new knowledge base for an internal initiative.
If you’ve only ever thought information architecture was a purist sport for specialists, then this is a great starting point to show you otherwise…
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** THE RIVER
** A random card from our reference library of decks…
This week, a card from a limited run of cards put together by Group-Think (https://www.group-think.co.uk) , a community of strategists in the UK & Ireland.
Just when you think that you’ve got an order sorted, take the time to shuffle and start from scratch. What happens will surprise you… https://www.group-think.co.uk
** Shop now at artefactshop.com
** Thanks for reading me this week. You can chat to a human at any of the below:
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