Straight Line Thinking Stops Here. Designing business success in a non-linear world

No Straight Lines: Alan Moore
Making sense of our smlxl@
non-linear world sxsw | 2010
image: milan vulpe

http://smlxtralarge.com/
2010/04/20/alan-speaking-sxsw-
podcast/

Audio ﬁle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naum/1639496461/

Straight line thinking stops here!

alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naum/1639496461/

Straight line thinking stops here!
sxsw | 2010 | alan moore

Requiem for Detroit

Designed by legendary industrial architect Albert Kahn and built in 1907, the plant
produced Packards into the mid-1950’s, by which time stagnant design concepts,
executive mis-management, and an ill-advised acquisition of the Studebaker company led
to the demise of the company.

The Packard plant a metaphor as what happens when we fail to adjust to world that
changes around us. We no longer live in a linear world.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10359714@N03/3056979962 alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010


Remote Area Medical (RAM) founded to help people in far flung and hard to get to
places for medical care, now does much of its work in the United States of America.

A society that does not recognise the morality of ‘enough’ will 
see excesses rise which verge on the obscene 

Capitalists, are capitalism's worst enemy ‐ and particularly the 
market fundamentalist tendency which has been in the 
ascendant for the last 20 years. 

A society that does not recognise
the morality of ‘enough’ will see
excesses rise which verge on the
obscene…
http://placebokatz.tumblr.com/page/338


“You judge a modern society, not by what it
consumes but – by what
it throws away”
zygmunt bauman


“Capitalists, are capitalism’s worst enemy - and
particularly the market fundamentalist tendency which has
been in the ascendant for the last 20 years” – John Kay.


This presents many dangers for humanity, but the
for me the key one relates to human identity.

http://www.woostercollective.com/2009/03/fresh_stuff_from_ludo_in_paris_the_boomb.html alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

Our industrial world has
deconstructed humanity
almost to the point of
deconstruction


What we are encountering is a panicky, henry candy 1926
an almost hysterical attempt to escape
from the deadly anonymity of modern
life… and the prime cause is not
vanity… but the craving of people who
feel their personality sinking lower and
lower in the whirl of indistinguishable
atoms to be lost in a mass civilisation.

Mass urbanisation, social mobility
etc., means that we cannot
construct our identities as we did
for millennia and so we go on a
quest for identity, because if we
don’t, we suffer deep pyschological
problems


alexey-titarenko_city-of-shadows-03
In contrast, nowadays, a great many phobias
and depressions are linked to fearfulness of
how to be in the world and whether one is
acceptable or not.

The symptoms include not knowing how to
operate in the world and consequently
increasing numbers become a
ghost army living a vicarious existence in the
machine called life. alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

The hungry Spirit

In Africa, they say there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the
things that sustain life, the goods and the services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need, The
greater hunger is for an answer to the question “why?”, for some some understanding of what that life is for…
Charles Handy wrote, to think that better bread, and a bit of cake to go with it, would make us all content,
because governments and business together might be able to deliver on that contract. The consequence of that
thinking is that money ultimately becomes the measure of all things. We can measure our lives in pound
notes, deutschmarks or dollar bills and then compare our scores. we have all become Hungry Spirits.


Image: http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/camil_t/82015664/

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a
model and set to do the work exactly proscribed
for it. But should be seen as a tree that should be
allowed to grow on lall sides depending on the
inward forces that make it a living thing.

john stuart mill

Humanity is in A&E

It’s saying please check the engine


We are at the toxic tail end of the industrial revolution and
the mass consumer society - we are faced with some
serious challenges

The fight for economic survival
The fight for resources
The fight for talent – and for the best-educated young
The fight for the space of mind of your audience



We cannot afford business as usual,
materially, physically and emotionally

it’s a design problem
the SR-71 Blackbird designed to fly at Mach 5 - consistently

be realistic –
imagine the impossible

The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous
cooperation of free people. woodrow wilson
Convergent forces that require us to think differently about the world we live in. The
Romantics among us focus on the human condition, and the true nature of humanity.
The cynical among you might be more interested in the cost to serve your customers
revenues + profits – the reality is they both count. alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010


The story of Local Motors: founder Jay Rogers is compelled to
tackle a great design challenge, the design, engineering and
manufacture of cars that must meet certain criteria…

what if…

we build the car of your
dreams?

it was green?

we made it in your town?

we listened

we did it?


A community of practice

Make sure you listen to the podcast
http://smlxtralarge.com/2010/04/20/alan-speaking-sxsw-podcast/


A blended Reality of R&D, engineering, marketing and sales –
there is no offline of online – there is only blended reality

When you buy a local motors car you become part of the build process.
It bonds the owner with their vehicle.

Lessons


economics

Fundamentally changes
the relationship to supply
and demand by rethinking
and redesigning the
process from conception
to production

knowledge
Fundamentally changes the relationship to supply and demand

Distributed knowledge
network both
Hyperlocal & Superglobal


legal & innovation

Open Source &
Creative Commons
In one year 44,000 designs were submitted to Local 
Motors, and 3600 innovators have shared their knowledge 
and insights. 


community

In one year 44,000
designs were submitted
to Local Motors, and
3600 innovators have
shared their knowledge
and insights.

velocity and cost

5X faster than traditional
methodologies, and with
more than 100X less
capital
From $200m development
costs to $1.5 

economics & people

Micro-Factories Locally
which provide an engaged
experience for customers 


learning
C 

Constant Feedback loop

aka:
the learning organization


http://www.flickr.com/photos/61871847@N00/2329551886
“The real voyage of discovery is not to
seek new landscapes but to look upon the
world with fresh eyes”

the proust


http://www.flickr.com/photos/16230215@N08/4066005402
This is the century where we learn to help
each other, the technologies we are
evolving reflect that


HOS 
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/05/erika-larsen-for-the-past.php

Human Operating System
George Soros worried deeply that unfettered capitalism was creating a closed society which only one thing
counted – material success. He argued for an open society a new type of operating system that was not
built upon market fundamentalism, dogma and avarice. I would argue this is what we might call a Human
Operating System. This social operating system looks beyond materialism to something greater - to
liberate us from closed systems so that we can all re-engage with the world to feel and be accountable to
each other and experience and enjoy the richness of life

We need to create technologies, businesses and process
that enable us to interface with companies, organisations
and each other without interference

Interface without interference

interactive + connected + human

We need a new language to help us articulate this No Straight
Lines (NSL) approach to what we make and who we make it with


blended reality 
Blended reality



http://www.Nlickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/2723981272/ 
Participatory culture
Everyday creativity is no longer either trivial or quaintly authentic, but instead occupies central
stage in discussions of the media industries and their future in the context of digital culture

shared collective
joy


Wooden pews introduced in Northern Europe to enforce a seated
and therefore compliant congregation

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/9912988@N02/2696483201

read & write
where we demand the
right to participate,
create and co-create
commerce
and
culture


Co-creation
Co-created narrative matters
People embrace what they
create.


“I”
Needs
“We”
to truly be
“I”
carl jung


Craftmanship
Inspiring people to
work better, to commit
to their craft, to be
‘engaged’


craftmanship
We seek a return to the spirit of the enlightenment
but on terms appropriate to the age we live in
richard sennett


People embrace
what they
create

Technologies of co-operation
Technology does not come out of nowhere it is a human
invention in the first place and it succeeds or not to the extent
that it meets fundamental human needs alan moore www.smlxtralarge.com | sxsw 2010

http://www.Nlickr.com/photos/an_untrained_eye/1195966967/ 

Embedded Sociability


Economies of scope

hyper-local & superglobal

Velocity


NSL = Velocity
Lightweight
Flexible
Adaptive
Enabling platforms


creative commons & open source

Nine Inch Nails release their
latest album under a
Creative Commons
License


mashable


People have lived and worked in villages since the dawn of civilization. The corporation, argues Charles Handy, is a
youthful concept, little more than a century old. One could argue, too, that the notion of a lively village — with its
unabashed humanity — is a more appropriate way to look at what the corporation should be in the 21st century
than the constrained and impersonal entity it has been.

Villages are small and personal, and their inhabitants have names, characters, and personalities. What more
appropriate concept on which to base our institutions of the future than the ancient organic social unit whose
flexibility and strength sustained human society through millennia? – Charles Handy

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/krustysplodge/898377791/

The organisation as a village

Thriving markets are conversations
Conversational: markets are conversations, business is a
social science!

Summary watch the video

http://smlxtralarge.com/2009/08/04/no-straight-lines-why-
no-straight-lines/


How will a NSL world look like for
your organisation?

Alan runs workshops, offers mentoring, and
undertakes keynote speaking to help and
inspire companies and organisations to join
up the dots of our non-linear world and
make sense of what those dots mean.

Contact: alanm@smlxtralarge.com

www.smlxtralarge.com
Workshops: http://ht.ly/3dEZP


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