How design drives process

One way I fight the urge to micro-manage is to head up the slope to 10,000 feet. From there I can see my forest even if the trees are still easy to distinguish. On the trip up I open the car windows, get that great smell of fresh cut grass, autumn herbs and a forest getting ready for the cold season. My Journey into the higher space slows time, resets the lights and reminds me about scents that refresh.

As my earth has been spinning faster and faster I am searching for rocket ship rescue. Some orbital flight options include: pressing the eject button - leaving the scene for awhile (radical change of place); parting the atoms to walk through my walls and spend time in a new room (minor change of place); or morphing into something else (changing self). The more I contemplate a change of scene, the more I find something to distract me in another direction.

But instantaneously changing myself, how will that be effected? This will feel like a game of walk the blindfold, that exercise from childhood where you don a blindfold with a friend who will guide you through familiar spaces and you gain new perspectives on your environment with the loss of a key sense like sight. I propose a design for that process that looks like this.

Big Picture:
- Demarcate a time (aka timeboxing) during which the old self will be placed in an unnamed, secure location for safekeeping (sequestered). Incidentally the true sense of the word demarcate includes setting limits, always a help in the creative process.

Repeated smaller picture:
- Choose a prep or pre-production technique for being ready for an iteration or realization of the new self. Cleanse the mind, access the genie or djin and pluck out an idea. Find props for which to remind the new self of the idea and take a test run. Use "yes and" techniques from improvisation frameworks to build a couple of simple behaviors in the new self. Practice.

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- Within the cycle, assuming multiple cycles within the time frame allowed, set a 'production' period. When will this self be allowed out and what is the target location. Will the self interact with others, will they react? Is this in physical or virtual space? If the physical space is the same as for the sequestered self, how can preconceptions be removed to inject newness? Go forth and produce. It might be an hour it might be 2 days.

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- After the production cycle has been completed allow time for reflection. Gather impressions in a plastic format. That can be in writing, pictures or other media that capture images. A color exercise, an expressive musical or interpretive dance piece can work, if some written notes are also collected.

Repeat cycle (new productions)

Stop and close out the process. At the end of the timebox, gather any bigger thoughts unrelated to a specific production. Review learning from each production. Save and get a good night's rest, it's been a busy week.