KN-003: Bacteria, breastfeeding and balance

KN-003 took place on Nov 10. In the next week we’ll be finishing our coverage on the last 2 workshops, 1 seminar, and 3 Kennel nights – Yes, we’re a little behind!

How much of your body do you know? This third Kennel. night, Ravi took us through his personal journey of discovering the unique balance of his own ecosystem, and the reason why many times it bodes well for us to actively develop our own solutions instead of turning to the medical establishment. Suffering from an unknown condition that doctors puzzled at and repeatedly administered only antibiotics for, Ravi took matters into his own hands, studied the patterns of his own ailings, read up on the various sources and symptoms that he was experiencing, and experimented with his own solutions to alleviate his condition. Fast-forward to today and we find Ravi writing his own book about health, with theories conscientiously backed up by rigorous correlations and research. He is adamant that we all know less than we should about our own bodies, and that science is only a tool for us to achieve the balance we all need for healthy wellbeing.

Balance – clichéd but true, considering the fact that each of our bodies are an ecosystem unto itself, where we share space with bacterial and viral microbes that most of the time, remain benign. Only 10% of our cells are uniquely human; hence, what we recognize as good health is a continuous biological balancing act with parts holding value we may not now be able to explain. What Ravi means is this – if you’re doing something that feels good for you but can’t explain it, it doesn’t matter; science only goes so far and is often playing catch up. Keep doing what you need and what you feel keeps your balance. For example, it’s a truism that being outdoors and gardening makes you feel happier. But rather than the cause being sunlight or the colour green, Ravi’s groundbreaking research finds that it is a microbacteria in the soil that stimulates serotonin production in us. We should all stick our feet in buckets of mud.

Balance – it’s not about being ‘dirty / clean ‘, it’s about achieving just the right amount of both. If we live in too sterile an environment, our system, with nothing to fight, will turn inwards and fight itself. What however constitutes that suitable balance is something everyone needs to figure out for themselves – Jade, for example was amazed when she started breastfeeding about the big differences that tiny adjustments made in her diet – having a son and experiencing her body change in an ongoing experiment of what works and what doesn’t has made her understand the importance of ‘you are what you eat’. And so each shared about the tiny adjustments we have learnt to make in our daily lives to keep ourselves going: running while listening to music / encouragement / being around people you like / keeping yourself busy / turning to spirituality / shouting in the morning / giving gratitude when you wake up / giving blessings for all that you have / the stillness of dawn / being in greenery – all these prevent the mind from wandering and cleanses it at the same time.

So we started with bacteria, discussed breastfeeding (for longer than you might think – did you know that breastmilk is essentially modified sweat?), and ended up sharing individual philosophies on balancing life. Sometimes its about a pie-chart like division between ambition, family, physical and mental efforts, or about actually preferring some chaos, such as in Arif’s case where imbalance denotes being out of his comfort zone and thus growth. Whatever the case, as Hanna puts it, we all each find our own rhythm of struggle and rest. Missy encapsulated this spirit best, talking about the need to create opportunities to collide with unusual experiences and people. Diversity breeds richness and living in silos of sterile isolation turns us against ourselves, like Ravi’s analogy of the Roman army and our immune systems.

An interesting and full life is essentially a journey of collisions, where we find balance in that diversity. In order to find that balance, sensitivity, responsiveness, curiosity and experimentation are just what the doctor ordered.

KN-006

all in good cheer

It’s the last week of November and the carols are starting to follow us everywhere, with glass ornaments, red mistletoe and reindeer popping up in every corner. We at Kennel. are celebrating with our last Kennel. night of 2011 – this first day of December – before we go into the winter month of hibernation. What better way to usher in this month and the end of the year than an evening about tradition, craft, and the balancing act between past value and future potential?

Expect an evening of good cheer, laughter, learning, honest connection and storytelling. Or, expect nothing at all and come surprised.  This Thursday, 1 December – same time, same place.

 

KN-005

sustaining passion

Tonight we talk about the sustainability of passion – how do you sustain passion, belief, optimism and drive in the face of unrelenting adversity? How do you adapt to the ever-changing context of the opportunities and challenge that surround you, and relate that to your mission, if you have one?

This thinking Thursday our mystery speaker echoes a vast and deep specialist experience in areas which concern all of us, both in our internal and external landscapes. Join the conversation.

 

 

Think outside the marshmallow box

never say never

Dave took us through a workshop that felt like it was going back to school, with a big part of it being about building the highest possible structure that could sustain a marshmallow.

This one is a little hard to extrapolate learnings applicable to all. You would have to have been there. Below are just a few things we did and learnt:

1. Draw your life story

-       You’d be surprised how you visualize your life until now and your self identity can fit onto an A4 piece of paper

2. The importance of learning

-       Our education is not about learning. Unfortunately, most times its been about putting ourselves into a socially agreed type of box

-       Cue the flying horse example: 99% of adults draw a flying horse the same way, i.e. Pegasus. Kids draw all kinds of flying horses, e.g. a horse on a flying carpet.

-       Our box is the flying horse

3. As your grow up, your neurons grow old

-       The pathway between your neurons are forged when information becomes knowledge

-       Learning goes down as your habits go up

-       One needs to actively go outside one’s established mode of thinking in order to forge new pathways

4. The nature of Innovation 2.0

-       Is nonlinear and about cross-pollination

5. Many things can be learnt from some pasta and a marshmallow:

-       The nature of teams. Watch the TED video: http://marshmallowchallenge.com/TED_Talk.html

-       Start with the end in mind first: prototype, refine, iterate

-       Question the task , break it down and use your own approach

-       A combination of skillful facilitation and specialized skills wins

-       Combine other ideas instead of rejecting them completely

-       Peer leadership and facilitation builds the horizon

6. You have a second brain in your gut.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain

If you’re really interested, find out why we’re coquivores, not omnivores

http://clatl.com/omnivore/archives/2010/10/25/the-munching-second-brain

7. Different people have qualitatively different thinking attributes, which influences their role in a team situation

-       Emergenetics identifies 4: Analytical, Structural, Social, Conceptual

http://www.emergenetics.com/about-us/faq

8. Mindfulness of the team process and one’s own thinking attribute, and the existence of diverse others, greatly increases performance.

The average marshmallow challenge height is about 20inches. We made it.

KN-004

see no evil, speak no lies, hear no noise

This week there are a few things going on – focus feasts on Wed and Friday, a workshop on creative thinking patterns tomorrow – but sandwiched in between there’s always our favorite Kennel. night.

Authenticity has always been a big driving force between what Kennel. is about and what we love. A small word that’s been used in many ways (mostly to describe cuisine), but for us it’s about being genuine with other people and true to yourself, even if the latter means wandering a little bit and exploring various passions.

Ando so, what does authenticity mean to you? What does it mean to be real? What if that’s unconventional? Are we all uniquely different or kind of the same? How do we carry authenticity over to our businesses and translate that to the people we serve? Why do we care if something is real, as long as we like it?

KN-002: I expect respect = FAIL

One of the best things that happened at KN-002 was hearing the way it was described, as people explained why they were here. The two phrases that stuck were: a collation of wisdom; and, a modern day social salon. We’re starting to realize that a meaningful conversation is actually quite hard to find, and the space and time to allow for that seldom exists between the urgent ticks of our daily routines. That’s why people come to Kennel nights; to share and be heard, to listen and learn, to meet and wonder.

This thinking Thursday the theme was Human Leadership, in the context of the times we live in where methods of communication, ideas about democracy and individual power, and qualities of leadership are changing at the same pace as the technology that facilitates or challenges it. We wonder, are the questions the same regardless of the context?

And so this Kennel. night, So-Young went back to the basics of what it means to be human, sharing her journey and raw story about what it means for her and in her role as the founder of a leadership and business consulting firm. She spoke about coming out into the world as a glossy person – shiny on the outside, perfect. Compartmentalising herself – the self she was with her colleagues and people that needed to be impressed; the self with her family, who she allowed herself to be with her friends, and who she was when she was alone. We all develop blocks of dysfunction over the years, and these blocks pile up one after the other to build walls around us. Something happens that hurts us and in order to deny that vulnerability, another block goes up on this neverending wall.

So what’s this got to with human leadership? Leadership is not about one’s vulnerabilities, its about recognizing others’ weaknesses and strengths in relation to your mission and knowing how to manipulate them to a desired end. Right? Wrong – that’s management. Leadership is about a conscious recognition of values that requires one to clear all those boxes away and have a clear view, to see others not just for their behavior, but for their heart. Human leadership requires one to lead oneself first before leading others. And so we have to take down those boxes of dysfunction and break them down, open them, reconcile them and be aware of them, before we can continue.

Why does leadership take so much inward effort? Perhaps because we all need a leader that we can relate to, albeit in different ways – we do however need to view a leader in his or her multidimensional humanity in order to develop our own particular connection to them as a follower. Janie, a veteran in the fashion industry and familiar with the hoipolloi describes how the people at the top are often the most authentic and real – they no longer have anything to prove. Dennis commented that the basic most fundamental thing about a leader is that they simply care. LKY had no compunction about his boxes, dysfunctional or not; he did however, convey to his constituents a deep sense of caring.

Compare that definition to another opinion that in this day and age leadership must be crowdsourced and earned; any expected respect, fails. No need to cite any spring to demonstrate the point that technology, social media and the empowered new generation demand to be heard and accounted for. Leadership is about inspiring, emotionally connecting, knowing how to respond to others in different situations – situational and context driven, rather than the old school of trait theory. Was Steve Jobs a good leader? He was inspiring, drawing people into his famous ‘reality distortion field’, but did he care about those following him? By all accounts the guy was not a great boss. But is he a great leader simply by virtue of having incredible impact, because he transformed the way we live? Has he transformed the way we live?

A leader must have, besides charisma and conviction, a moral compass. Sanjay tells us about IQ, EQ, PQ and SQ – the last one being spiritual quotient. It’s the same as being aligned with your values – nothing to do with religion, more to do with how one relates to the world, and determining meaning and purpose in relation to one’s life.  This is what fuels conviction, convinces others to follow, and is a relentless source of energy, motivation and optimism.

At the end of the day, Severin brought us a little back to reality, opining that direct democracy is all well and good, but it doesn’t work everywhere. Thailand, for example (where he lives). Crowdsource your knowledge all you like, but at the end of the day a leader also has to make unpopular choices and get things done – it’s hard to argue with that.

What does this all mean for those aspiring to become leaders in their own right one day? Mom tells it like it is (Mom is Dennis’ mom, who brought her to Kennel night. We love that) – there is no one definition. It depends. On the situation, the people you want to reach out to, your timeframe and goals, the cultural context, yourself. So, be the leader you want leading you. That’s the most real choice we have.

 

 

 

Focus Feast: Wed and Fri

focus feast

Akin to all other things that we do in Kennel., this focus group is a little different. Rather than gathering a random sample of 30 over participants in a room, we just want a handful of people to meet over a meal and contribute meaningfully to a project that hopes for global impact. Quality, not quantity. A platform to give your opinion and be exposed to new ideas… why not? If anything, the free food should suffice.

Dave Lim: Think Different / Out of your box

Our next workshop (third in the series) continues along the lines of ideation, creativity, and thinking – but this time analyzing thinking patterns and their potential complementarity in teams:

Many famed innovations have been attributed to the brilliance of individuals, but no matter how insanely great ideas are, they can only manifest when great talents come together to make them happen.   Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Apple’s success built by Steve Jobs alone.  Did you know that Edison had a staff of forty people?

To transform the gems of ideas into real value, you need numerous and diverse skills, talents and additional ideas, beyond what any one person possesses. Drawing from neuroscience, the workshop explores how each person’s creativity works (and does not), and then draws on practical techniques and approaches to get yourself or your team ‘out of your box’ to generate fresh ideas and completely new perspectives.  Contrary to popular belief, discover why “Great minds do not think alike”, and learn how to assemble diverse talents of different thinkers to successfully bring ideas into reality.

YAL Mashup

connect, circulate, collaborate

Architects are a great bunch. They’re always involved in so much more than what their profession dictates – designing buildings. Today’s architect (at least the ones we know) take the responsibility of being a QP (qualified person) far beyond building codes and safety regulations, and even aesthetics of space. They’re always searching for meaning and purpose, for beauty intertwined with functionality. For a physical space to tell a story.

And so Kennel. presents YAL Mashup, happening this Saturday in our space. It’s a platform for what architects do outside the office, and a space for you to get involved and share your view.

Here is the lineup:

Let’s take a walk at the FIVEFOOTWAY

Adib Jalal & Justin Zhuang

A magazine about Asian cities, FIVEFOOTWAY is the epitomization of a new breed of design publication, one that is embracing new publishing models and talks about architecture not through its buildings but through its people.

The presentation will see Editor-in-chief, Adib Jalal and Editor, Justin Zhuang share some of the ideas that are being experimented with at FIVEFOOTWAY and also presenting the  “Instant Asia” series, a regular feature in the magazine that was conceived in collaboration with Prof. Thomas Kong.  Through short interviews with a cross section of people living, working, studying in various Asian cities, the series explore ideas about the inclusive and open city where plurality and differences are recognised and accepted via a bottom-up process of continuous negotiation, adjustment and accommodation.

FIVEFOOTWAY will bring this series to Kennel by inviting visitors to write their own reflections of their city on the walls of the room and also contribute to a mega graffiti sketch where we will all collectively explore what the future Asian city could be.

What’s the MacPherson ID(ea)

Jan Lim & Mizah Rahman

What’s the MacPherson ID(ea)? is an exploration of the relationship between architecture and participation, in the context of public housing communities in Singapore. It began on the premise that everyone has a fundamental right to shaping the built environment, and having a say in the processes that affect him or her.

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) estate of MacPherson forms the backdrop of this study. By experimenting with and developing a range of tools and techniques for participatory design, and engaging the various stakeholders of MacPherson in the process, we sought to arrive at design solutions that reflect the collective aspirations of the MacPherson community.

Eventually, two design proposals were borne out of this year-long experiment in community participation. Methodologically, this project is also an attempt at critiquing and improving upon existing participatory processes adopted in the design and planning of public housing in Singapore.

Hub-to-Hub: Connecting creative public spaces

Dr. Chong Keng Hua, atelier | small, Minus x Artists, Tan Sock Fong, Ong Sheng Hua

Hub-to-Hub is a public urban art programme, organized by ReallyArchitecture [re:ACT] with sponsorship from the AUDE programme under URA. It brought together creative talents in Singapore and around the world, to provide alternative ideas of public space to enliven the city’s forgotten urban spaces. Artists, architects, designers, and professionals across diverse disciplines collaborated in developing 7 temporary installations in Bras Basah and Bugis. The project stems from the idea of interdisciplinary investigation of the urban public space of Singapore, particularly in the area of BrasBasah and Bugis, to develop recommendations for a sustainable transformation/ revitalization process and for new models of collaborative, temporary interventions in public space.

Enter the Y.A.L.

Mark Wee

Mark, a council member with the Singapore Institute of Architects will share more about what the Young Architectural League (YAL) is about, what it hopes to be and how you can be a part of it.

KN-003

an apple a day

A lot of what we know about health comes from an elite establishment that authorizes what qualifies. Doctors, researchers, universities, pharmaceutical companies – all these form a tight ecosystem of domain experts that tell us how to respond to our own bodies. Today, however, the medical establishment is no longer as unified as it tries to be – with the democratization of information and the introduction to alternative theories of health and wellness, we are much better equipped today to deal with our own issues. It might seem like a departure from our normal themes – previous Kennel. nights feature failure, optimism, and human leadership – but it kinda jives if you think about it. We’re talking about new discoveries concerning concepts of wellness, and how each of us can take control of your own healing. We’re talking about the familiar experience of stress, and balance, and proposing that we can do more than the doctors say.