Category: The daily blog – For Engineers (and Other Humans)Page 1 of 3

My daily blog on creativity, regenerative design and practical philosophy drawn from across my teaching, writing and collaborations. Sign up for my weekly digest by clicking here and choosing the appropriate button.

Slow-growing ideas

Some ideas are an instant hit. Some don’t stick at all. And some—ones you thought hadn’t stuck—are simply taking a long time to grow. Today, I’m running training…

Juice the brief

Juice the Brief is one of my favourite techniques for uncovering the possibilities hidden in a design brief. It’s a simple yet powerful way to stimulate creativity, generate…

Imagining the wood from the trees

This week, I’ve been writing about observation as the starting point for regenerative design. Today, I’ve been working with colleagues at Hazel Hill Wood to envision a year-long…

Begin design with observation (Part 2)

Yesterday, I wrote about how starting design with observation allows us to take a broader, more holistic view of the systems we’re working within. Another reason to start…

Begin design with observation (part 1)

We often think of design as starting with a design brief—a set of requirements outlining what we want. But when seen through a regenerative lens, design begins differently….

Re-inventing the wheel(ie bin)

Yesterday, I wrote about improving how we manage poo at Hazel Hill. One particular challenge our staff face is dealing with three of our most “productive” toilets. These…

Story of poo

Some context. When people started visiting Hazel Hill Wood for respite and educational weekends in the early 1990s, there were no buildings. I believe the first structure to…

Free body conflict/a vector joke

A final thought on conflict. This time, how the different modes of conflict (competition, accommodation, avoidance and collaboration) can be thought of as free-body collisions. Avoidance – the…

Clunch

You read that right. No it is not an abbreviation of pack lunch. Clunch is a type of limestone, and one of the wonderful pieces of vocabulary I…

Conflict and collaboration

The fourth mode of conflict is collaboration. In this mode we are interested in the other person but also keen to assert our own view. I want you…

Avoidance

My job today is to convince you that avoidance is a mode of conflict, alongside the others we’ve considered this week: competition and acceptance. I could try to…

Acceptance in Design

This week, I’ve been posting about conflict in design. By conflict, I simply mean two people with different perspectives. What happens next, when they discover their differing views,…

Dealing with competition in design

In this series of posts, I’m exploring conflict in design, which, for these purposes, is what happens when two people have different views on a subject. In each…

Approaching conflict in design

Some people like conflict. Other people stay away from it.Some people attempt to engage constructively in conflict. The opposite is also true. For me, conflict is simply when…

Sleep on it

Having spent his whole professional career performing and recording symphonic music, my father, Nigel Broadbent, is a font of knowledge about composers’ creative methods. For engineers (and other…

Design loop the loop

Design is a continuous, looping process. It is a loop that begins with observing a situation, then establishing a brief for your work, developing ideas, and testing those…

Kinetic versus thermodynamic conversations

Some conversations go quickly.  Some conversations go better. I wrote on the 21st October about the difference between a kinetic and a thermodynamic product in a chemical reaction….

Indistinguishable from magic

The renowned scientist fiction writer and futurist Arthur C Clarke said “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.  I think the same can be said of well…

When WhatsApp is great for design team communication

Lowest common denominator design team communication

Imagine a system of design team communication that supplies the right level of information and enables the appropriate level of understanding within a suitable timeframe. A way of…

COP29 x World Quality Week

This week, world leaders are meeting in Azerbaijan for the COP 29 climate negotiations. Meanwhile, in the construction industry, we are marking World Quality Week.  What is world…

Beware of sunk-cost fallacy

I suffer from sunk-cost fallacy. This is the phenomenon whereby you remain committed to a previous choice because of what you have ’sunk’ or invested in it, even…

Standardising decision-making in design

Standardising decision-making enables companies to save money. A standardised process allows more junior staff to make decisions without needing to consult a more senior member of staff. Why…

Frank Auerbach

I am fascinated when artists manage to capture something of the world-building of construction. One such artist is the painter Frank Auerbach, who died this week. He is…

The subjective in the objective

An objective decision is one that is independent of the decision-maker, as long as that person knows what they are doing. A subjective decision is one that is…

Framing Design Decisions

Shall we go to the Italian or the Mexican restaurant? Shall we go to the Mexican or the Italian restaurant? Shall we go to the Italian or the…

Playing poker by the rules of noughts and crosses

This week I am writing about how we make decisions in design. I’ve written before about David Snowden’s way of describing systems using a games analogy (see reference…

Design decisions – who decides?

Design is full of decisions. Which client? Which supplier? Which materials? What location? Whether to build or not to build? Which idea best suits the brief? Shall I…

Mullions to Overton’s Window

I heard these six words yesterday on Seth Godin’s podcast to describe the way that ideas become accepted in political discourse. Ideas can shift from being unthinkable, to…

Setting learning goals vs. seeing what happens

This came up in a recent training course. I always ask people what they want to get out of a training programme. To set themselves some learning goals….