Tailored Courses for IT and Business Professionals

Effective Conceptual Communication and Infrastructure Design

A 2 day Tutor-lead workshop with integrated hands-on IT sessions

Introduction

What does designing intelligent infrastructures have to do with effective conceptual communication?

The fundamental assertion of this workshop is that these are inextricably linked.

And it turns out that this isn't just a matter for philosophy.

Effective conceptual communication amongst the employees in a business, and the intelligent business infrastructure that is both supported by that, and supports it, can make big differences to bottom line profitability and employee satisfaction

DAY1 - The location of understanding

The day explores "where" you are understanding concepts. Examples of possible places are: in your head, on paper and displays, in conversations with others, in computer systems.

Display-aided Thinking (DAT) - thinking "in the world"

• Whiteboards
• Flip-charts and wall displays
• Magnetic kits - eg. hexagon kits
• Data projectors
• Interactive electronic whiteboards
• Paperpads and TabletPCs

Computer-aided Thinking (CAT) (please bring a subject)

• Using Visual Thinking Tools
• Mind-man TM, Inspiration TM etc. (Mind-mapping tools)
• Visio TM, Flow-charter TM, UML
• Hexagons (eg. IdonTM, HexThinked TM, etc)
• Excel TM, Powerpoint TM , Outlook TM and Word TM (yes, believe it or not these CAN be used as thinking tools)
• 3D visualisation – Autodesk Revit TM, Alias Maya TM, Direct3D TM – more of this is coming your way!

“People” skills

• Misunderstanding, disagreement and conceptual investment
• Dealing with “conceptual blocks”
• Being able to “think Anything”
• Being able to “understand anything” (Aside on “understanding paths”)
• Being able to “study any Subject” – balancing interests and self-edutainment
• Being able to “research anything” (+Aside on Real-time Spider)
• Being able to “teach Any subject” (Aside on showing vs. telling)

DAY2 - The application of understanding

Day 2 of the course takes real world examples provided by course delegates and uses them to demonstrate the capacity to "explain and understand anything"! This foundation is then used as a spring board to being able to design intelligent business infrastructures

Application of conceptual frameworks to real-world projects (please bring a project)

• Economic Frameworks
• Business science frameworks
• Computer science Frame-works
• Scientific Framework
• Mathematical frame-work: continuity, game theory, complexity and infinity
• Artistic, architectural etc. (“creative”) Frame-works
• Physical disciplines
• Philosophical frame-works
• Psychological Frame-work

How to roll your own framework

• Identifying the existing framework and the places where it is failing
• Bringing artistry to the framework itself - not just the content within it

Concepts about concepts

• Hierarchies vs. Networks
• Wholes and parts, scale, contexts and drill-downs
• Analytic thinking - splitting wholes into parts - "Distinguishing"
• Synthetic thinking - combining parts to make wholes - "Connecting and grouping"
• Information as a linguistic phenomenon
• Linguistic (English) grammar and Visual grammar
• Coherence, assumption and implication
• Godel and Incompleteness
• Wilber and Integration
• Un-learning, detachment and discovering how to know nothing

Designing and building intelligent business infrastructures

• What is an inteligent infrastructure?
• Business Processes and Human Beings
• Managing the existence of business processes using IT Infrastructures
• What is "good" documentation?
• Creating documentation about documentation