Tag Archives: John Maeda

By the time he was your age…

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John Maeda has just been named the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design.

I’ve only met Mr. Maeda once — unless you count childhood visits to his family’s tofu bakery in Seattle. If you are what you eat, some protein in my bones is the product of Maeda creativity.

Anyway, I’m a tremendous fan of his approach to design and life. He continues to be a role model for embracing new challenges.

Small, Extraordinary Acts

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I posted how Anpanman by Takashi (嵩) Yanase (柳瀬) is my role model. Turns out John Maeda has similar sentiments.

What a noble aspiration to act under the belief, “That if you had more you could always get by with less.” One I find very hard to live up to.

Anpanman by Eric I.E.

In the workplace, I hate to assume responsibility for decisions I did not make. I’m not talking about anything illegal. I’m talking about the daily harms people inflict on others — particularly those over whom they hold power.

There is an industry around how to confront such situations but let’s admit there are people and events we cannot change.

Having no participation or influence over the decision, I want to stay out of it.

But as a human being of good will I have to acknowledge harm and live with my action or inaction in the face of it.

So what can you do when you have no means within your role or recourse to outside authority?

Consider the person and respond as an individual. Give of your personal time and resources.

I aspire to this and very often fall short. But I am challenged and inspired by an absurd and beautiful Japanese children’s character.

I am also inspired by the actions of others including my wife, Kathie, my former employer, Peter, and my friend and co-worker, Luke. Small, extraordinary acts of good will by good people.

Managing and Leading

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John Maeda on leading and managing and the need to do both.

The manager sets up the win with perfection for her team; the leader executes the win with passion.

The word “perfection” conveys discipline but the agile practitioner in me bridles at it. As John Maeda says, “a manager never manages alone.” Community defies perfection.

I do resolve to do better. Do by committing myself to action employing the most appropriate knowledge and tools at hand. Better by using the hard lessons of success and failure to make my actions more effective the next time.