Okay, just by show of hands. How many of you are here because this is the coolest room in the building? And if that's the only reason just try to keep your disruptions to a minimum and I just like to point out that I'm already married, so I can't have a proposal during my presentation However for to keep the engagement high at the end of the presentation after the questions angel and I will fight to the death Okay So so we're here for To talk about constraints and capabilities systems thinking and idealized design If you are going to tweet about this in an affirmative way, please use sys think if you're going to say something negative just use somebody else's hashtag and The thing I wanted to start off with is This photograph here, which I don't know how many of you how many people here are London London area Okay, have you seen this before? It's familiar. So why why did I put this photograph up here? Does anybody have care to venture a guess? Okay, I didn't think you'd know that's why I wrote notes up here So this is a cleanup crew here that organized themselves Using Twitter to go and clean up One of the tube stations. I believe it was clapping one of the clapping stations there several and organize themselves over Twitter and The thing about this that I found somewhat interesting was you see that none of these is wearing the that lovely reflective jersey That indicates that it's their job to do so What they did was they brought their capabilities into a system that was not functioning well right because of the riots there were not enough people on staff to do these various things and They went beyond The artificial constraints that said you're not responsible for cleaning up the tube station and They went ahead and did it anyway, and they made the system, which is the society Work better so that's kind of the idea that we're going to talk about here But we are going to try and make it somewhat applicable to the world of Drupal. I Just wanted to make a link with what we heard this morning We were talking about a system a design system and the ingredients of that were a grid a Typography a hierarchy, but what we're going to talk about today. We're user experience people and We exist because it's not just about flat design. The web is transactional. So there's more to it That's not enough. That's not going to get you to good design There's a whole band of activities and research stuff that you have to do beforehand To allow you to plan the journeys to plan the functional needs and to get people to their destinations And that's where user experience people come in like us Okay, well, I'm I'm Angel Brown and I'm you extractor at Digitas Health. I've been there since January I've been involved in web design since pages were gray Thousands of years ago. I remember finding out tables. That's how we can do things I mean, that's a long time ago, but I'm I'm really a designer, but I'm a geek as well to a certain extent I had my own agency for 10 years and I had to run all the tech teams So when they couldn't solve problems, I had to do it because the buck buck stopped with me So I'm pretty savvy and I like looking at code I like understanding how things work and I particularly like Drupal Digitas does a lot in Drupal and I've been working on it since I joined and it's gonna talk a bit more about how we relate systems thinking to Drupal And my name is Dante Murphy My primary professional achievement has been being smart enough to hire Angel as As the leader of the global experience capability I tend more to think sort of conceptually and try to establish frameworks So all of the high-minded things that are going to be said today are are probably going to be said by me And an angel is going to help give you guys some context for how to use them But together I think that we're coming from the same the same perspective. I was a I was a coder before the web Yeah, my my first program that I worked on was actually written before I was born in 1964 It was written on punch cards In in cobalt anybody here a cobalt programmer Love for you back there love Okay, so yeah, and I haven't written a line of code since then And and I I don't miss it a lot Design is where I belong so Moving on so what all right, so how many people in this room are our designers? Lovely lovely. How many people are developers? How many people raise their both their hands both times You are the most wonderful people in the world because you understand it You understand that that development is a design activity and I think that's that's why you're in this session probably What what is it that we strive for in design who would like to just call out some things that we strive for in design? Simplicity, okay, that's great. What's another one? Organization, okay What'd you say? Beauty, okay, it's good clarity over here clarity excellent Usability good one. Yes Functionality is important as well. Yes Yeah, one what he said Delight, yes Yes, okay, so now you're geeking out a little bit Well, I'm glad to hear that that several of the concepts that we're going to talk about are included Specifically well these first two were definitely mentioned. So do we have anything else to add on this slide? Well, we were going to talk about it. So oh the it's all right. So does everybody yeah, that's what this is Who drives one? I didn't think so. So I won't offend anybody This is one of the most epic failures of design and one of the reasons for that was There was a lot of design energy that went into it. It wasn't for lack of trying It was for lack of vision and a lot of the decisions that were made that that went into this car some technological advances that were They were quite revolutionary like putting The controls for the the gearbox in the center of the steering column. No one had ever done that before Probably because it wasn't a very good idea, but they went ahead and did that And there were a variety of other things adjustable brakes and the way this pedometer worked and this hideous orifice here in the front and A lot of it they just did it because they could and they didn't have a sense of things like Simplicity and and beauty and well, maybe they were thinking beauty Don't want to know what they were thinking when they put that on there So some of these ideas came from a perspective of just well we can so let's and And I think that in the immature days of technology. We've seen a lot of that I mean who's plugged in a module just to see what it would do Right. I'll put my hand up to Yeah, so so we've all kind of done that, but I think that we're starting to learn a little better So one of the first things that we talk about is function has anyone read this book Sign of everything's or any any of Don Norman's books Actually, if you read his books in order you get to see an interesting evolution of design principles So it's it's really important that a Thing not only has the attributes of functionality such as a handle and a spout and a lid Would anybody care to pour this cup of tea? Look carefully right, you know, not unless you were wearing a Nomek suit They have to work together it has to be a considered effort towards design in some cases Especially when technology products are immature the functions become the design in that sense Applying focus to the functionality helps the products mature and become more meaningful to their users I think we all know about form versus function the design principle Everybody man on the street knows about it. Obviously here, you know, these things aren't going to work What do you would have been great? Show somebody else mentioned simplicity has who's read this one? laws of simplicity It's okay. I don't know that I give it a glowing endorsement conceptually. I love the idea The specific laws of simplicity that that might have uses here are okay Would anybody care to tell me what simplicity means? Who said simplicity when somebody called that out? So tell me what you meant by simplicity Including the smallest amount of things on the screen to get done what you need to do Right, so it was it was what you need to do Does anyone think that simplicity means unsophisticated for that was a leading question wasn't it? Yeah, it's It's subtraction might have says it's subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful and there's a reason why that quote is up there but it's it's putting in the things that are necessary or Evocative or exude one of those affirmative principles that you guys talked about like beauty and delight other, you know other words for engagement Usability often means taking things away And that's what we're striving for when we're talking about simplicity Another key and I didn't hear anybody say it specifically, but I'm sure that You'll all agree when we're when we're designing is we're thinking about efficiency How can we get done the most? with the least effort not necessarily because We don't want to put the effort in is anybody in here lazy besides me that is oh my goodness too honest But it's but but realistically I think what we're we're trying to do is we're trying to get the most done on this Initiative or project or product so that we can move on to the next one so that we can continue to do great things or make great money or whatever it is that we want to do and When we're thinking about efficiency one of the ways as said in the quote here is That you use the things that are around you the things that are available rather than creating things of your own I think in many ways. That's the essence of Drupal, right? So that you have a framework that does a lot of the heavy lifting for you And then you can apply the unique aspects of your design as you go forward So we want to talk a little bit about how these attributes of design these affirmative attributes of design are also ways of describing a System because that's what we're talking about today systems thinking and it's difficult to characterize one part of a website We're talking perhaps a block as efficient if the navigation is incomprehensible or the login is unresponsive We're talking we need to think about it holistically Therefore we want the system to express those desired attributes of of being navigation to be Comprehensible and the response of the login to be responsive So but within the domain of systems thinking we need to explore this a little bit. What is a system? So what are some kinds of systems that we work on? Let's hear them You don't have to believe that one out We are experiencing technical difficulties. Yeah Please stand by I think this is yeah, okay So who would like to call out a system besides the system of swearing into a microphone that I've just so ably demonstrated What kinds of systems? public transport Nicely read anyone else Operating systems, right? So that's a framework for technology. Yeah design system. We had There there are political systems. There are economic systems. They're ecological systems. They're all different kinds And I think that in the Drupal context yet Well, we can think about it in terms of the technology itself. We've got our core. We've got our modules We've got our themes, etc But you can also think about it in terms of the system being the project that Takes a group of people and a technology through the process to the end So therefore all the moving parts are made up of subsystems And that's the systems thinking way of looking at it with information flowing in between the subsystems And they're all of those kinds of systems are very complex Many moving parts many dependencies When we're talking about something as finite as a project or something as broad as a government Yeah, or a client, you know, the client wanting it to be blue. This is something that's significant There is nothing nothing more complex and more of a moving part than a client. Yeah, okay So here we have an example of Thinking about the functions What is the function of this system? Which many of you are familiar? What is the function? What does it do? So moving people move but not just moving people like you can move somebody from here to there This system doesn't allow you to move somebody from here to there So why is that important because the the limits of the limits of the technology? The technology is limited in what it can do this System that we are able to create and control is limited in what it can do thinking about in the broader context If I want to go to a theater over here I can get off this system and apply my own capability of Walking there and I can get there in that manner or having someone fetch me at the station or taking a bus or Whatever else and part of that is understanding what the relationships are within the capabilities that we control So these help us to understand what's possible at any given moment the relationships between these capabilities And we were talking about simplicity earlier from a UX perspective each block each thing you put on the page Communicate something to the users and in my own experience. I've had evidence where users sat and saw oh There's a login there in a prominent position. Ah, I'm not going to go to this site because it's a community I don't want to invest time in this. I don't want to have to build Profile etc. So just by making it there in the default spot It's communicating something if you move it to the top small link. Ah, maybe I'll engage with the content Ah, okay. This is the type of site for me. I will make the investment then these are small things But every everything is significant and they all contribute to an efficiency Right so achieving your goal without having to put all those extra things on or putting them in the correct context There's also external influences that control the way a system functions such as an Industrial action anybody here not from the UK or not from Europe Okay, I Love the term industrial action because it sounds so positive Like I wish that in the States we had industrial action I would feel so much better about it and then I find out what it is and I'm not so chipper about it But this is one one of many ways that external factors can influence how this system behaves and the system has to be Designed to account for that what happens when there's heavy snow what happens when there's an industrial action What happens when there's a bus strike and there's an added amount of people onto it These are the things that we have to account for Another factor is what else does the product do so if I'm thinking about designing a train station well, what do I need there I need some track and you know a roof would be nice and Perhaps some signs that tell me which train is where But wouldn't be nice if there was a place to go and get a nice fish and chips Also, and why would I want that? Has anybody here ever purchased food in the train station? Come on has anybody here ever purchased food in the train station? All right, so it's not because you thought The the the pinnacle of Oat cuisine is going to be at Waterloo station No, that's not what you were thinking. It's that it was convenient because it was part of some other activity I just wanted to talk a little bit about simplicity again and avoiding bloatware as techies We all know performance is a key aspect What we would try and think about when we're making a decision to put another module in what does it bring with it? How much is this going to slow it down? But what the way I like to think about the users and in terms of their attention being almost like a performance metric So if you've got lots of things on the page their attention, then it's difficult for them It takes too much effort too much cognitive effort. It's a bit like don't make me think So you find that these features can create barriers and they get exhausted and they leave consider the first the first Mobile phone you had that had a camera in it I Don't know how many of you thought that that was a wonderful idea at the time or if it was just like well It's there or if that's the reason you went out and got that specific phone But at the time it was an option. It was a feature. It was something that not many people opted for now My neighbor works For an aerospace company where you're not permitted to have a camera on the premises So he had to go and find a mobile phone without one as Difficult as it was to find one with one 15 years ago And that ancillary features now become a de facto requirement, but it's taken time It took time for the context of use to demand That it was that that was something that users expected He keeps talking as he resets the presentation There are also emotional drivers now I don't know how many of you would choose which tube station you get on based upon the quality of the musician who's playing in the hallway You would have to be either fantastically good or completely awful and I've experienced both in my life But we can think about this also in a digital services context how does Emotion play a part in decision-making or in workflow and sometimes it's relevant And things that you wouldn't expect such as a banking site We were talking earlier about mint and just the way that you use it it actually get we're thinking of gamification Aspects of that. It's actually fun to use fun And even in a context of say a banking site or maybe a news site It's it's not something you would normally put at the top of your priority list However, it drives the engagement Who here has heard of gamification before? Quite a few of you. How can anybody think of an example that that they have used where gamification Has has played a part in in their decision. Yes, sir You're linked in profile the more the more you complete the more full it puts a bar at the top of your profile And it keeps that profile that bar there percentage bar until it's got you to fill Everything in and then it'll vanish. You don't have to fill everything in but you log in and see it Feel compelled to do it It's passive-aggressive It's slightly irritating but it depends on how obsessive-compulsive you are For those who are not necessarily obsessive-compulsive, is there anyone who can think of something that's fun. It's fun That's functional. Yes achievements on websites and point systems. So where as you've completed your profile, for instance Proceed to be aggressive The four-square badge concept. Yeah, that's one. There's a reputation points on boxes and arrows who's old enough to remember that I didn't turn around because I don't want to know So that's that's one of them You said you're a bit I did yes, I talked about emotional factors. We're on the next side So we already talked quickly about the idea of offline capabilities You know, we could have that tube map actually go everywhere But that would require not only a lot of digging But it would also slow that system down because the tube would have to stop every hundred meters Instead we have a system that's designed for long-range transport Let's see. Can you remember how to do this? All right? I'm teaching a skill here today as well. So we've got the tube system is designed for longer distances and then we have an Ancillary function or a related system a parallel system of buses that are designed for shorter journeys Yeah, and you know, we're talking about blows again Another key factor to think about is the environment in which your device or system is going to be used In some cases that environment is physical in some cases that environment might be service oriented How does your tablet device work when it's not connected to a network or a projector much like our Device is not working right now Or or how how does it relate to noise levels? Or your emotional anxiety that you may be that you may be undergoing One of the things that that we deal with a lot in ours in our work is people who are getting bad news about their health and It's very important that somebody understands the implications and the options when they hear the word cancer But when you say the word cancer The next 50 things that you say to that person. They don't hear Because they're playing a movie of their life in their head. They're either playing the movie of what's happened Or what's going to happen and That's a reality. So when you design your system of communication Understanding the environment in which that communication is going to take That cognitive environment is extraordinarily important Because you can't assume that they're going to remember anything that you've said Another critical factor is time now clearly on the tubes Time is very important so you know when the trains are coming and how long it takes to get from one place to another It's possible that your system Is not necessarily as time sensitive as a transit system But one thing I can bet you is that the people who are using it are time sensitive No matter what it is they're doing whether they're doing a sudoku puzzle on their on their phone Or whether they are filling out some sort of they're booking a holiday They've got other demands on their time So we have to be sensitive to that and thinking about all of these things as functions that we need to account for in Achieving that simplicity and that efficiency that makes our design good And the last thing is appearance so we know that appearance Whether it be you know something grid based and typography based or whether it just be the way It's presented around other things can trigger trigger a functional reaction when they established when they Sorry What they see first establishes a context of their experience the example that you were giving about the login blocks That becomes the appearance of the site the meant the mental model the way that somebody pictures something and it impacts how they use it I just wanted to talk about that historically people used to say Drupal sites all look the same I think we've changed that a lot. It was because people would just do out of the box. Okay, there we go Let's theme it. We're not going to think about design. We're just going to theme it But it's different now theming is not the same as designing If you look at Drupal museum calm I had a look at it the other day and I thought it's we've come a long way The sites are looking fantastic these days and designers are obviously involved UX people are involved So but taking mental models as a starting point we use I'm going to tell you a bit about how we do this now We use constructs like experience principles So we come up with a set of ideas that define the experience how we want it to look how we want it to feel and We share this with the project team with the client. Do we all agree? These are the principles for the for the design of this system Can I do it on my own as well as Dante? No, I can't We get there. Okay rich user profiles. What do we do? We build personas. You've heard of these things They need to contain the detail that allow us to make a decision on should we add a gamification Attribute here. It's got to have we've got to ask those questions when we're going out to research They need to be rich. They can't just be this user is this age and you know uses a mobile phone Sometimes we need the detail there mood boards benchmarking. These are things you as designers will know But these are tools that we do we use and we're going to show you something about mental models in a minute But we need the developers at the table because they provide the constraints and I'm working very closely with with my Lead developer on the project right now and I say give me give me the model Give me show it show it to me in action Then I'll go away and I'll work out what we need to hide or how we need to change it Fasted search search for example is one we just did the other day I was thinking I don't like the usability of how you add your facets and remove them on that example What are the constraints? How far can I go with this? Could it be a checkbox? These are the conversations we have and this is what makes all the difference I think because it's not that accessible to us as Designers to know what the modules will necessarily put on the page. It's not these often have have examples But not always this is something I really struggle with and then we need to work together Right and one thing that I want to point out is when Angel said the word constraints What was what was somebody who who considers himself primarily a developer? What was your reaction when you heard the word constraint anyone? What'd you think about that? Did it feel like that was a good thing or a bad thing? Good Are you saying that you're just guessing? It's a good thing. Tell me why I Did not pay him to say that Nor will I but that's right. That's or at least that's my opinion and I have the microphone so each system Each of these system elements becomes an attribute of the customer's mental model all the things that we talked about Functions appearance time all of these things play a part How many are you familiar with mental models? Has anybody heard that term before? Yes, okay. Does anybody want to explain? Lucky you. Yeah, here we go. Here's an example. This is from a site. We did Epilepsy epilepsy advocate. So what we do here? I mean this is complex stuff trying to understand a mental map of the way someone Understands the situation But what we do is we break it down into areas get support from others like me at the green at the top there Express my thoughts and share my experiences Participate or host an event. These are the types of things we get this out of the research These are the key areas. They're almost like if you're used to working in agile epics, perhaps Okay, then underneath that. Let's see. What are the key tasks now? I'm starting to think about the journeys that I can map out which then I can test on the site Connect with others like me find a friend can talk to about epilepsy feel like someone knows how I feel I mean this is kind of an intangible thing, but it's significant feel like I'm not alone be inspired by others like me Read about someone who has also as epilepsy. I'm not going to read the whole slide But I think you're starting to get the idea. This is how we break them down and provide a vocabulary and start a starting point for scenarios and user journeys and At the bottom we also put down things around content. So we're starting a content strategy at the same time It's a map. It's quite easy to do and the reason why you would document it is to get the project team around it signed off Okay, this is the next block. Let's move ahead Easy to do is probably a relative term It it's there's nothing about it that any of you can't do it does take effort The process is generally that you look at what people's tasks or goals are you can get this through Ethnographic study basically following them around another word for it is stalking That's the creepy word Or you or you can just ask them straight up to tell you tell you what they're interested in It depends on whether or not you think they're going to give you the real answer Because people don't always know how to answer questions truthfully and then down here. That's that's a research truth Down here. We have content where we're talking about content. We're not always talking about Articles or words that people are going to read or things that they're going to consume We're also talking about tools that they might use and in some cases. This is color-coded It's a bit washed out for you But there are some things here that we're saying that we're gonna do and there are some things that we're saying We're not gonna do and we're gonna explain why about that in a few moments When we're applying the mental model to our project What we're trying to do is we're coming up with both functional and experiential requirements so One of the one of the goals that our customer Put in there a person suffering from epilepsy was I want people to understand me Well, that's awfully difficult to do Functionally we have to do that experientially so that's one of the things that that we tried to use as a basis for creating our system and We can have these things as These can become the targets that we designed for it's almost like a requirements document. That's not technology based It's people based and part of this is mapping capabilities to the documented customer tasks and goals essentially so The next step then is yeah Very much so very much so and if you have an opportunity to see Indy speak Lovely person and you know you'll book her for a half hour and she'll stay for three days So very accessible if you have a chance to see her speak. I recommend it highly It's a very fast read to and what you'll find I'll caution anybody who reads the book You'll read the first chapter when you go. I'm done. You're not Keep going keep going all the way through because it's the iteration and the unfolding of the process. It's not Cognitively complex But actually doing it and reinforcing the concepts. It's not It's not that familiar to everybody so I would encourage you to to read to get it and to read it and certainly to read the whole thing So when we're talking about this what we want to do is think about all of those things in the mental model in terms of How can we how can we create? enable or activate capabilities that will help Our customers achieve their goal It's not just about what our system is going to do it's about what's going to happen within the environment So what can the product or service do for its users? We've got these enormous wheels There's a reason for those as they they go and they do these games and it's part of the engagement of it There's a reason why they're big. They're not functionally because it goes faster What can they do for themselves in the context of Drupal what we're talking about functions themes content in the data model essentially What is inherent in Drupal that that delivers before we start layering on? functionality map to the users needs right and it includes the things that are go around it like the governance model and the partnerships and When we talk about community, we're not just talking about the technology component But what are the people doing offline? We're you know in the meat space and and what are the regulations that are that are in some ways Constraining what we're able to do how we're able to communicate something that we feel very dearly in health care And then of course one of the most important things is what customers will do for themselves Because they want to What this often becomes is a dichotomy or a conflict between what customers want and what the business wants? The trick is finding the confluence in the overlap So I don't necessarily want to spend a lot of time talking about the capabilities of the product that we create Because I think that you guys all know enough about how to do that You know how to take a requirements document or a creative brief and turn it into a product What what we want to talk about is what users can and will do for themselves and why?  Can you think of stuff that? You could you could buy it pre-made, but you make it yourself Like food like you can get food out of a machine. Do people here cook? You cook okay, right? Does anybody here have a bike? Okay, can those of you have a bike. Can you afford a car? Yes or no some some can I don't want to denigrate anybody who can't That's fine, but there are reasons why you have these things. What are some of the the reasons that we might? Have these these objects or these things do things for ourselves That we don't have to do for ourselves. Anybody call one out What was it? Health or health benefits true. Yes sense of achievement great higher quality and Tribal associations, okay. All right. That's not how I would have said it. Thank you for explaining it Tribal associations mean something else to me Joy right, okay, so I'll read my list which overlaps. I think you know expression oh Like painting you know you could go and buy art at the posters shop or you could paint your own That's your way of expressing yourself Personalization is making it your own Right, so you could you could get the the fish and chips down at the pub and carry out or you can make it your own way With your own spices and things Pride sense of achievement. I heard challenge cost availability of resources innovation So it doesn't exist The way you want it These are all different things that that make us want to do things on our own And it's no easy task to to get from there to deciding what blocks are we going to put on the page? But that that is what we do So if we think about High-rise office building, why are there stairs in it? Well clearly there's a fire code That requires that they're there And it's a redundant design in case the lift is broken but there's also They're also faster than waiting for the lift especially if you work on the 48th floor of a building Which I don't anymore, but I have and Or perhaps as somebody said earlier, you just want to stretch your legs. You want to get some exercise So there's a sense of self-sufficiency. I don't want to rely upon other things. I want to be able to do it myself There's also collectivism people coming together to do things For instance In the Amish community raising a barn so the whole village comes together to build a barn now one person could certainly not do this themselves they could of course go and buy one But that's not something that that they do. It's part of creating and building and energizing the community And as web designers the pool of functions and features is often the same I want to talk about social for a moment We've seen with privacy things, you know Google fell foul with Buzz last year or two years ago Was it now but in my own experience with health? We build trackers so that people can track for example I have all sort of colitis and I want to track how many good days I've had so I can then have a relationship with or to send this information to my doctor I also might want to be involved in a community, but do I want them to see how many good days? I've had mmm, maybe not But maybe I could surface the goal that I set to give the sense of a shared purpose in the community These are these are decisions we have to make on the other hand another project I was involved in London cycle challenge people going out cycling on the weekend. Yes I've done 50 miles. That is definitely something that I want to share in the community I want people to see my achievement badge and I want to tweet it out to Twitter subtle distinctions here Complex world, but but the the end game is great if you can build community through the use of these tools and for those of you who May not believe in the value of community in a business context Just keep in mind that earlier this year Google floated ten billion dollars towards Twitter billion Another thing that that people do for themselves is try to change the world Right, so when we think about what is the confluence between self-sufficiency? Wanting to do things for yourself and coming together as a community what we have is activism. I Don't know how many of you are students of the American civil rights movement. I'm not sure what the corollary is here in Europe But I like to think how would this have changed with Google plus? All right, to me it's a fascinating experiment just to to envision that know who's where what their capabilities are being able to organize on the fly respond instantaneously It's a fascinating mental exercise for me and hopefully for you as well So we talked a moment ago about constraints and how these are a good thing understand the capabilities That exists beyond the the product boundary Whether those are real or perceived can both create and destroy constraints. We can create constraints that give us clarity and This becomes part of our focus for design efforts and resources. We can also Eradicate constraints by thinking about what are the alternatives when we think about what people are capable or willing to do for themselves So how do constraints help us when we think about answering this question? The first thing we want to do is identify. What are the self-imposed constraints? I can't do that and Get rid of them right because you can You can do it. You just may have to think about doing it a different way If if we think about who can think can anyone think of an example of a self-imposed constraint artificial constraint that you've overcome in your own experience Anyone self-imposed deadline Right. Well, I mean that can be motivating though sometimes What about? Thinking like there there is no module for that Is that a self-imposed constraint? Can has anyone in here ever ever contributed to or created a? Module or a theme? Yeah, okay, so you could just as easily have said well, there's no theme for that Would and that would not have been a great outcome, right? So I think that hopefully hopefully you're getting what I'm saying here If a constraint is not helping you By giving you focus or helping you to identify an alternative Go right through it Just get around it some way so either identify actively identify an alternative or remove it Eradicate that constraint So if we take the example of a camera you are trying to reduce the cost of taking photographs The natural assumption would be to reduce the price of the camera or perhaps the film But if you challenge the assumption that there even has to be film Then you can eliminate it and you can eliminate a major recurring cost Then all you have to do is the relatively trivial task of inventing the digital camera, right? That was straightforward wasn't it? so I think we've covered most of this here the constraints give us focus and the next artificial constraint is That cameras can only take still images So if you're looking at something and you want to see it not moving Have you ever had a situation where you thought to yourself? Gosh, I wish I could see that moving Like your kid is doing something adorable and sure it'd be great to get the snapshot But really what's adorable about it is how they're stacking things together or how they're playing with the cat So anybody here have kids or cats? You must know what I'm talking about, right? If you have kids and cats you definitely get it. So so now you can get a camera that looks like this But takes video. Does anyone have one? Okay, a couple couples and that's an evolving capability beyond the artificial constraint How many people have a camera and a separate video camera? Don't don't be ashamed All right, your dinosaurs soon It's going to happen right because when when you're going to be someplace where you're like I only want video Unless you're a professional videographer, it's pretty unlikely So we think about that and then we think about what's another constraint in Order to take pictures. I need a camera No, I don't In my case in order to take good pictures. I need a camera because this is a blackberry But you don't you don't need a dedicated camera device in order to take pictures This illuminates one of the unspoken nagging problems of agile that is always additive one of the most important things a designer can do and I think we've We've talked about this a bit and by extension the developer that instantiates the design is to take things away So take away all those devices By activating the capabilities of other things What this can help us to do is to prioritize So if we introduce certain constraints that give us focus on who we're designing for Are we designing a camera for professional photographers or for hobbyists and people who have cats or children or both? That gives us an opportunity to really focus our design Can we simplify some of the features and functionality maybe reduce the quality of the image but enable things like video? Or make it so that it's fits into your pocket These are the things that that are really important and this provides the focus Which is one of the key attributes of successful systems Has anybody here ever heard the concept of a flow the psychological concept of flow flow Anyone wow you guys are smart All right, can anybody here pronounce the guy's name? His name is completely unpronounceable if you want to know it just email me and I'll send it to you I wouldn't even know how to start Some sort of Slavic thing with lots of shapes and letters He has this theory about flow being this mental state that you enter where you are completely Focused on what you're doing because it's both enjoyable and challenging What is the challenge doing? Activating your capabilities so here it's activating your capabilities of attention and reflex It would be much easier of course to have a nice big sedan with You know cruise control and and power brakes and steering But I can tell you that this person would not enjoy that as much Right part of it part of the thing that makes this process of getting from point a to point b is The journey the flow state that this person is in while they're doing it And it's a way of embracing the constraints of what a motorcycle can do and making them a Positive attribute of the design so all of these things that we think about when we think about what the the the idea of Constraints and capabilities and systems thinking all of these things if we bring it together Enable the concept of idealized design has anyone here ever heard that the the the term idealized design before? No, I stumped you finally okay, they're There there was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania named Ray Ackoff ac ko ff I'll post that on our site too Who has advocated? Idealized design. He's written a book about it It's a bit dry, but it's a great read because it gives you a vocabulary for understanding the different types of Design that you can apply to any sort of problem The first one is to say Not my problem Who's who's ever heard that I won't ask you to say who said it, but who's ever heard not my problem? Only there's anybody here who's not heard that Okay, just nudge the person next to you if they're not if they're sleeping That's absolution someone else will solve this I'm the developer. I can't be bothered with design. I'm the designer I can't be bothered with technology There's trash on the sidewalk someone should really pick that up One of the reasons that we culturally abhor laziness is Because it represents a failure to make an affirmative change beyond what you're expected to do And instead activating what you're able to do Now there might be a Marxist undertone to that and we'll talk about that on the break, but but the idea is When we talk about well, I'll let you say this Well, the successes of a society depends on people solving problems beyond their assigned role like we saw at the very first slide Beyond their own self-interest That's why we applaud grassroots volunteer efforts because they demonstrate the triumph of capabilities over Self-imposed constraints to achieve a common goal, right and not my job is one of the one of the most insipid Self-imposed constraints if you find yourself saying it, please check and make sure if there's a way you can get beyond That self-imposed constraint the next the next highest order of dealing with the problem is resolution And it's a common way and the most obvious way to attack a problem is to deal with the symptoms but focusing on the symptoms only Neglects an opportunity to address the underlying cause So in here, we've got the problem is how do we ride a scooter in the rain? And so that the answer they've come up with is to carry an umbrella But maybe riding the bus would have been a better better idea as we eliminate the constraint that says oh We have to do it on a scooter We can propose then that the customer might buy a car if they have the money or go on the bus So we're not only solving the immediate problem, but making it impossible for the problem to re recur Right which brings us to the next level which is kind of a root cause thing which is solution What my many designers strive for is the opportunity to understand the cause of a problem and address it before the problem can manifest So this this requires an understanding of how a product or a service is used and we've talked about ways to understand this through research through the ethnography We might have a study of reported defects and some creative problem solving and how to avoid Recurring situations the investment is worth it if you look at it in terms of differentiating from Competitors or delivering a more efficient operation. You've got your bottom line at stake here So if we take a look at this railroad crossing, it's we can definitely understand how there might be The possibility of a collision occurring There's no no blinking lights. There's no gate that will come down And we could put those things in there and treat the symptoms, but is there a better solution? Can anyone think of one yes a Bridge right what if the what if the tracks and the road did not have to intersect? If there was some way to do that So looking at the root cause that these two pathways intersect in an uncontrolled manner and then addressing that and Many of us feel or many of us have not experienced a higher order of problem-solving than Solution so absolution resolution is treating the symptoms Solution is going to root cause Dissolution is the highest order way of doing it and this is thinking about how can we change the entire system What if we were to create? Society in which there were no cars then we'd never have to worry about Trains and cars colliding So it this requires pulling the camera back and looking at the larger scene Not just looking as a railway operator at okay I'll elevate my tracks at this point But thinking about how can I create a railway system within the city that never crosses a road? That never encounters this this but still meets the needs of people Is there a is there a different way and? Looking and addressing it systemically in web development. I just wanted to talk about agile. How many of you are working within a agile? Half I've spent last year working in agile and as a UX person. It's very difficult because I found I was always a sprint ahead of the developers the developers would put in time based on the things They had to deliver and they would say sorry I've got no time to think about these sort of holistic System-wide sort of things that you're thinking about I wanted to solve the problem once so then the user doesn't have to Readdress the same problem in different ways But I couldn't get their time and this is common with user experience So but I like the idea of agile There are problems with thinking about it in a waterfall way up front and trying to specify the whole system Produce lots of documentation that immediately goes out of date No, it can't be that way, but we have to reconcile these two I'm calling out to you because you need to help We we need to do this together. We need to build an agile way But we need to be able to think system-wide as we go Maybe it's as simple as just building in time in a sprint to consider something. I Know it's always very tight. You've got to deliver something as well, but this is the way it has to be And one of the other things that we're talking about and the graphic here you probably can't see the line This is a set piece right so Corner kick Is that you can operate within the flow of the game and and try to do the best that you can But when you have some guiding principles When you have some ways that you know that you want to try to Achieve your end goal in the larger context it gives you the capability to work within an agile framework so that understanding as Some of you as developers as designers how to work together within a sprint, but with a systems view Thinking about things like constraints and capabilities Simplicity efficiency focus when we think about those concepts in everything we do and apply them as guiding principles Then we're doing a better job of Idealized design. We're not thinking about some pie-in-the-sky notion that well maybe in phase 4.7 we'll get around to that and the budget never comes. Does anybody here believe in phase 4? Anybody? I didn't think so. You're all too smart for that. So What we have to do instead is we have to focus on the near-term win, but not disable the long-term achievements So using these principles that we've been giving you Are meant to enable you to do that to achieve idealized design within short-term bursts Because you have an understanding of how to how to think about the system and the activate the external capabilities and energize your users and respect what it is that they want to do for themselves If you think about something like a marathon, there's no perfect run No matter what you do whether you win or not Some day some young buck is going to come along and do it faster But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try your best, right? It doesn't mean that you can't do something great The tool these the tools that we've given you today are meant to help you win each marathon that you run Even though they're called sprints. They ever feel like a marathon Sort of like getting through this presentation without the slides cutting out So we're back. Okay So you may not come close. You may come close to perfection. You may never achieve it. It's like a vacuum Something like that But you can certainly get a lot closer than you would if you just focused on the near-term and focused on the symptoms and Focused only within the boundary of your system and the technology that you had So that's that's really the lesson for today is thinking about the constraints letting them give you focus focusing on the capabilities of people outside and Using them to achieve these goals That's it. Okay ready Thank you So we've we've got a couple of minutes again if you want to tweet about us We hope you will sys think are there any questions questions anyone? Yes in the back you have to speak into the microphone because they're taping it I'm maybe went over this side a little bit late from above but you spoke about doing research from users and What they say they want or how they express, you know, they're their goals Maybe you do observational, you know, some type of different research methods What people say they want and what they what they actually do ends up being different. I mean, how do you differentiate between those two things? Okay, that's a much bigger question to answer I'll give you the short version is I don't ask them I put them in situations and watch them and I try to make those situations as realistic as possible Most of what I do these days is I primarily do activity oriented research So if you want to stick around for a few minutes, I'll fill your ear until your head explodes, but That's basically the idea is there are certain things you can trust people and ask them You can ask a commercial airline pilot Whether he would like to have the altimeter here or there and he will give you an honest and trustworthy answer Because it is his profession and he's trained in that skill and he has thousands of hours of time invested in it As a parent of a teenager, can you ask a teenager anything and get a straight answer? No, I know this so you have to know what kind of research you're doing when you're talking about people who are casual users of things people in social networks or People who intermittently use systems you can ask them things and be like yeah, yeah, I'd use that Sure, I would go to a bank that offered foot rubs Like but would they really you know, it sounds great you go to the bank you get your feet rubbed But nobody when they go to the bank they don't have time for that they need to get on to the next thing They're there on their lunch hour or whatever it is And maybe the guy at the bank kind of looks a little weird and you don't want his hands on your feet I don't even know why I'm talking about this, but you have to understand what kind of things what kind of questions You're asking and what kind of audience you're observing Okay, does that answer your question? anybody else I'm just thinking in terms of constraints and capabilities The the point of view that with Drupal You know, you'd often think almost everything is possible given sufficient amount of time Resources so the constraints very often in a Drupal project budgetary So I'm just wondering whether you can give us any examples of how that constraint can be Positive in any way because it's sometimes difficult to see how it could be I Can answer this well, I Think that comes down to the prioritization process. So we've built our mental model We understand what's most important to the users. We've also we've got a business here who's got some needs It's got to deliver something we match those two together and we often Collaboratively with the client because the client has clear ideas about what they want come up with a scope and and at that point We have to all agree and it's it's got to be, you know It's goes without saying we can't have everything we already know the scope of what they would want I don't know Give an answer that's a little closer to home and it's I'm somewhat fictionalizing here to protect the innocent Suppose you work for a company that creates diabetes medications and the audience is for that There are physicians who treat diabetic patients and there's many of them There are diabetic patients themselves and there's many of those Then there's a smaller group and a very focused group dieticians or diabetes educators people who are not doctors but are Educated in ways to help diabetic patients Control their diet in such a way that they don't make their disease worse If we have a small budget on a project from our diabetes Manufacturing client we might say well we can do something and you know maybe Move the needle so much if we go after one of those large audiences or we can go after this small audience Really focus on them so that same 30,000 pounds or whatever it is that we would spend doing doing something sort of ineffectual and You know half good With with the physicians we can really focus on this audience and maybe go to the conference of diabetes educators and augment it Through an offline thing and then an online channel that are integrated now. We're doing a system-wide Idealized solution on a narrow audience Now will your clients say yes to that that I can't promise you but it but it gives you a framework for saying I can either use constraints That diminish the quality of my project or I can apply those same constraints in such a way that I can do the better project Right does that answer your question? Do we have time for one more? One more anyone? No, all right. Well, thank you very much for coming. Hope you had fun


University of South Shrinapurva, respected Dr. Oruji Choudhury, my colleagues from the University, colleagues from other colleges of Dwokati and student friends. Today I consider it a very sacred occasion, sacred because of three reasons. Firstly, because I am standing here to deliver a lecture at the prestigious Krishna Kanta Phadikoi University, named after the illustrious son of Assam. It is a, as you all know, a very upcoming university and I can see the progress. I am very happy to see the progress of this university. I am standing here to deliver a lecture at this place. Secondly, this university is celebrating the World Philosophy Day. The World Philosophy Day is actually on 19th of, also 19th of November, which is supposed to be the birthday of Socrates. But due to some technical reasons it is celebrated today. It is a very auspicious occasion. And thirdly, because the lecture is on the relevance of Gandhian philosophy, the father of the nation, and who is the most prominent personality of India. Mahatma Gandhi, so famous, not only in India but abroad, throughout the globe. He was not a very intelligent person. He himself said that he was not a very brilliant, he didn't have a brilliant academic career. Neither he was physically very strong. Neither he was a great professional person. Neither he was a very handsome person. But he was the most charismatic person of the world. A person clad in a dhoti up to his knees. The question is, what makes this person such a fray-looking person so very great? And indeed, there are answers to this question. It is known that Mahatma Gandhi was chiefly known in our country and abroad as a person who is responsible for bringing about the independence of India, freeing India from the yoke of the British. But that is not the only contribution of Mahatma Gandhi. His contribution, I feel, is particularly for his character. The ideas, the thoughts that he gave to the nation as a whole, to the people of the nation. We must know the fact that though Gandhi is often described as a politician, it is not the politics that made him great, but it is the spiritual outlook behind all the activities of Mahatma Gandhi, be it in the political field, be it in the economic field, be it in the social field, and so am I and so forth. I will take the relevance one by one. First I will deal with the spiritual aspect of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi's faith in God is well known. To quote Gandhi, I will be quoting Gandhi now and then.   You may cut off my hands and arms, but I will still continue to live. But blast off my belief in God and I am dead. So it is this belief in God, the belief in the spiritual outlook, that has given the strength to all the activities of Mahatma Gandhi. It is the spiritual outlook which is always at the background. His ideas of Swadeshi, his ideas of Brahmacharya, his ideas of Ahinsa, his ideas of Swaraj, all are from the background of the Hindu religion. But he himself claims that it is not only the Hindu religion that has influenced him, the religions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, were all at the background of his ideas. Gandhi said, I have nothing new to give to the world. What I say is as old as the hills. The politics, well, I say uniqueness of Gandhi. If all that Gandhi said is found in the Vedas and the Upanishads and the Bhagavan Gita, where lies the uniqueness? Where lies the readiness? Gandhi himself gave answer to this question, that the only thing that I did was to apply these universal principles to the day-to-day activity of the people. So Gandhi was the most practical philosopher, I should say. He was the philosopher. Yes, he did not give us anything new. We find them in our scriptures. We find them in the Bhagavan Gita. We find them in the Upanishads, in the Vedas, in the Quran, in the New Testament, and so on and so forth. But he was the first person, maybe there were other person, but never did a person strongly enforce or strongly apply these spiritual principles to the life of a day-to-day man. It is not only the individual man that has been influenced by the spiritual outlook. It is the countrymen, the people as a whole, because Gandhi believes that the Swaraj of the individual is the Swaraj of the people, is the Swaraj of the sum total of all the individuals. Because it is the, basically it is the grassroots, the individual, which is important. If one individual changes, the world can be changed. Because he can influence his neighbor. He can influence his students, if he is a teacher. Parents can influence their children, and so on and so forth. So the grassroots, the individual, is very, very important according to Gandhi. Gandhi did not try to find religion in some, in some solitary place. He said, in search of God, I did not go to the Himalayan cave or to the forest. Because Gandhi believed that God can be found amidst humanity. That is why he found the cause of the poor people, the Kibharayan as he called it. His Dharma is known as Mano Dharma, because religion lies amidst the people. If we serve the people, we serve God. So that aspect of Gandhi is very, very important to make religion practical, to carry religion to the people at large. And in all his activities, two important spiritual principles of Gandhi were very, very important, truth and nonviolence, as we all know, Satya and Anishina. Taking the case of truth, Gandhi denoted the sentence, the sense of God. He said that God is truth. Now this important sentence, God is truth, has a far greater significance than is ordinarily thought to be. Because when he said that God is truth, truth is something which is applicable to everybody. There may be nonbelievers in God, but there cannot be any nonbelievers in truth. Truth is universal in character. Truth is universal. And even the atheist who does not believe in God believes in truth. So he gave a secular outlook to this concept of God. It is not the God of Hinduism which he prizes. It is not the God of Islam or any particular religion that he prizes, but it is the universal truth to which every religion leads. And when he says God is truth, he gives a secular outlook to the whole concept. Coming to nonviolence, Gandhi converted this nonviolence as a special meaning for Gandhi. It does not mean that nonviolence means only doing non-arm or non-injury to any living being. That is the ordinary sense in which we use the word nonviolence. But according to nonviolence, it has a far broader meaning. Nonviolence is nonviolence in thought, nonviolence in word, nonviolence in deed. So the word nonviolence has a far greater significance. And this nonviolence and truth are the foundation of Gandhi's great building on which Gandhi has built on these two great foundations, truth and nonviolence. Now this nonviolence also has certain exceptions, no doubt. Now the question is, the most common question is, as Professor Sheena Garwa has already pointed out, how far is this nonviolence applied today? Is it relevant today? Now Gandhi also has certain answers to that problem. He has certain answers, how far is the concept of nonviolence relevant? Because physical life that we are living today, that we are alive today, also involves certain violence. We are thriving on non-mediterranean food, which means that we are indulging in some form of violence. We take meat, we take fish, we take certain things.    So our very existence entails some amount of violence. And Gandhi too admits that. And Gandhi too says that the law of nonviolence, which is a great law, has certain, definitely has certain exceptions. For example, the lady, the lady who was gang-raped. Gandhi said in such cases, long back years back Gandhi said that every woman who is assaulted has the right to defend her honour, even by applying violence. She has to save her dignity at any cost, even if it means by killing the person who is trying to rape her. For example, an animal which is living in pain, which is living and suffering from a disease which is incurable. We have every right to end the life of that particular animal. So Gandhi gives certain exceptions where non-violence as an ideal can be violated. Can be violated. And there was a comparison between non-violence and cowardice. Gandhi said, if you ask me which alternative to accept when there is a conflict between non-violence and cowardice, Gandhi said, I would definitely prescribe violence than prescribing cowardice. In other words, cowardice is even worse than violence. Gandhi mentioned does not mean physical injury.  My non-violence must find expression in love, in positive love. So love towards everybody, not only towards human beings, not only towards my neighbours, love to even the meanest of creation, the animal kingdom, Gandhi fought for clout against the slaughter of cows. But it is not only the cow slaughter that he prohibited. It is in a broad sense the prohibition of the slaughter of animals, doing violence to animals. So it is positive love towards every creature on earth. And this concept of non-violence, Gandhi said, is based on the essential Advaita principle that is aham brahmashmi. That is, I am the Brahman. The whole creation is one because it is the creation of Brahman. Brahman sattva jagat mitya jiva brahmayi brahmabhara. So everything is identical, that is the unity. And this principle is the background of Gandhi's philosophy of truth and non-violence. But coming to the political field, let us come to the political field. Gandhi gave us the important concepts of Swaraj, Sadeshi, and so on and so forth. Now, one important fact must be noted here regarding politics. People generally believe that politics is a dirty affair, and therefore it is to be avoided. Gandhi said that politics is as sacred as any other aspect of human life. In a famous book, Mahatma Gandhi, 100 Years, the famous writer, Tewin B, has given us an expression, he has written in that book, Mahatma Gandhi, 100 Years. He compares Gandhi to Buddha, Ashoka, Muhammad, Jesus, and so on and so forth. And at last comments that Gandhi excels all of them. Ashoka, Buddha, they were born beings. Buddha ran out of politics. He just ran away of politics. Ashoka did become a king. But after the famous Kalinda battle, he gave up warfare. He was seen only in name, but he was more interested in the Buddhist principles and the philosophical or spiritual principles. Jesus and Muhammad, they were, they indulged in politics due to the need of the time. During Muhammad's time we know how it compelled Muhammad to take some part in the political affairs of the country due to political unrest. But Mahatma Gandhi himself became too part in active politics. This was because Mahatma Gandhi purified politics. There was a political mud as we find today. Political mud, political impurities, even in those days it was there. Though it is more today, the political corruptions and other things, though it is more today, it was prevalent even in older times. The story of Mahabharata, we see that dishonesty, deceitfulness were so much present, were so much prevalent even in that age. But Mahatma Gandhi died his best to purify politics. He waded through the political mud and purified them himself. He stayed away from the political sluggishness, from the political mud, from the political impurities and showed to the world, presented to the world that politics can be sacred as any other aspect of human life.  A society without a state, but this I should say was merely an ideal. How far it is relevant today, it is a question. No doubt there cannot be people without a state. But Gandhi himself said that it is only an ideal. It is only an ideal because people should be there, try to govern themselves. And you believe in the principle that that government is the best which governs the least. Because political interference, too much of political interference saps the freedom and the creativity of the people. If you have the fear that somebody will interfere with your freedom, somebody will interfere with your acts and what you do and what you do not do, then like Communism, the creativity will be lost. He has strongly had that feeling. And therefore ample freedoms should be given to the people so that each person can rule himself. Suraj, what is the meaning of Suraj? Suraj essentially is a word which was not coined by Mahatma Gandhi. It was a word found in the Territory of Kanisha. In the Territory of Kanisha we find a beautiful sloka which says, Pranara mana anandam shanti samvindham Swarajya. So what is Swaraj? Swaraj is a state, a condition of mind actually where there is peace, complete bliss and happiness. Pranara mana anandam, that which gives ananda to your mind. Shanti, peace, samrithi, samritham, Swarajya, that is Swaraj. So Swaraj is actually the rule of the self. Gandhi believed that if I am ruled by my own self, self means not simply my body, my individual self, but the spirit within me, which is so pure, which is so simple. If I am ruled by that self, it is used in the spiritual sense, in the philosophical sense, not in the ordinary sense. If I am ruled by myself, then I will rule myself in such a manner that I do not need any external interference. So that government is the best which governs the least. Yes, government is necessary, a state is necessary because without a minimum interference of the state, mind will become right, we will go back to the ancient state of a lawless society, a society without law. So certain ideals, it is a kind of utopia, it is a kind of ideal. Ideal may not be always actualized, but definitely it points out to a condition which should be our aim, which we should strive for. Gandhi's idea of Swadeshi, Swadeshi is something that we should keep our wants limited to a particular place. And Gandhi spoke of the principle of minimization of human wants. Again here he was influenced by the Isha Upanishad, Isha Vaishya Midam Salma, Yatkin Chha Jagatyaam Jagat, Tena Taktena Bunjita, Mahagrita Kassa Siddhanam. He said that we must first renounce, you have the right to enjoy, but enjoy only by renouncing, by your sacrifice, which is not seen in today's world. Today the ideal is only to earn and earn and earn, earn for whom? For myself. Do I care for others? Not at all. This is the scenario of today's economic life, today's political. I am earning for myself without being concerned about my neighbor, for anybody. My only ideal is, my only worry is to amass the huge amount of wealth for myself, which was against Gandhi's idea, which was against the idea taught by our sages and steers long back from the ancient times. So that very ideal of the Isha Upanishad, that you must first sacrifice, you must first renounce in order to enjoy. The basic minimum economic comfort is a must. I have to eat and live. I have to eat, drink and live. I have to clothe myself. I need a decent house to live in. These essential things are necessary. I need proper education. I need proper medical facilities, no doubt. As Swami Vivekananda said, you cannot teach philosophy and metaphysics to a hungry man. But the only thing that a hungry man needs is invigorating food. Yes, the minimum economic necessity must be fulfilled. But beyond that amassing the huge amount of wealth is a crime. Crime not only to myself but crime against the society. So Gandhi gave us the wonderful concept of trust-ship. Trust-ship is a method invented by Gandhi, discovered by Gandhi. And what is the other? I should keep for myself only as much as I need. And the rest of the property should be used for the welfare of the society. Does it happen? It is a very, very relevant thing for today's India. India which is described as a socialistic pattern of society is not at all socialistic. Is this neither socialistic nor democratic in the true sense of the term? Though India has been described as socialistic democracy. It is neither democracy nor capitalism. Because everybody is running after wealth, abundance of wealth. So this is the greatest crime of which we should try to get rid of. And trust-ship is the beautiful principle which if it could be practiced could have solved many of the problems of today's India. But the most often quoted question or given question against trust-ship is that is how far is the concept of trust-ship relevant in today's India? Because this method of trust-ship must also be implemented according to Gandhi by means of nonviolence. We cannot coerce a force of person to give up his wealth. I cannot use violence to compel a person to give up his excess wealth and then also I have to apply the method of nonviolence. If I apply the method of nonviolence, then when a person give up his wealth then the honesty of the trust-ship must be assumed. I have to assume that a particular person is honest and he will declare that he has so much of wealth, he has kept for himself this much of wealth and he has given that excess wealth for the measure of the society. Are the people that honest? We have to assume it. This is a question, a thoughtful question that I pose to this house. Coming to the other aspects of Gandhi's economy, he gave us his theory of production, he gave us his theory of consumption, he gave us his theory of distribution. Production according to Gandhi should be production by the masses, by the masses and he was against, as we all know, against large-scale industrialization. He was always for the, for the betterment of the society, he wanted to set up fortage and small-scale industries. He encouraged it. Because he pointed out many reasons why he was in the famous book in Suraj, Gandhi gave us many of the reasons why he opted for small-scale industries rather than large-scale industries. Because large-scale industries lead to many problems, problems of overcrowding, problems of exploitation, problems of pollution, atmospheric pollution, problems of exploitation of one class, the labourer class, by the capitalist class and so on and so forth. So these are some of the problems of large-scale industrialization and Gandhi did not want to encourage large-scale industrialization. But there also he gave us certain exceptions because it is obvious that certain things cannot be produced locally or by means of small, cottage and small-scale industries. For example, certain medicines, certain drugs that are used for the saving of human life. It must be imported from other countries. Electricity, shipbuilding, etc. The examples he had given in those times, nowadays there are so many items that we need and we cannot do without it. So I think this part of Gandhi is a bit irrelevant in today's society because in the present age of globalization, we cannot always implement the concept of solidarity and excessive influence, excessive importance to cottage and small-scale industries only ignoring the large-scale industries. So I think this part needs some amount of revision of Gandhi's ideas. I have to point out certain revisions that are essential also. I cannot say Mahatma Gandhi is 100% relevant in modern India or in today's times. So that part I feel that emphasis on industrialization, that's too much emphasis on industrialization, leads to certain problems even in present times because it leads to the problem of unemployment. The work that is done by a machine replaces the work done by 100 people. So the work done by machines is needed because it is more faster, time-saving and it saves a lot of money also. But it leads to the problem of unemployment and in dealing with the solution in trying to solve the problem of unemployment, the emphasis on cottage and small-scale industries has to be divided. That part is important because now we have come to a position or a condition in India where so many youths are unemployed and the government we know is going back to the Gandhian policy of helping the modern youth to set up certain small-scale industries be farming, cultivating a small plot of land, growing vegetables and fruits within their limits and weaving cloth in their own house and so on and so forth. So many such avenues are pointed out by the present government by giving loan and other facilities. But it has to go further in order to solve the problem of unemployment. Then regarding the concept of distribution, Gandhi pointed out that the maximum of equal distribution that is, it preached the concept of economic wealth. Everybody should get equal amount of wages, equal amount of things. Gandhi prescribed that whether it is a farmer or a doctor or an engineer or a barber or a cultivator, he should get equal wages as far as practicable. But this getting of equal wages, how far is it practicable in today's society? Is it practicable? With the getting of equal wages, a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, a scavenger, a daily laborer, can they all get equal wages? In this concept of equality, Gandhi said that we have to take into consideration the need of the people. How much do I need? A bachelor definitely needs much less than a person having 10 members in his family. Because he gave an example in this aspect, he said, an elephant needs a thousand times more food than an ant. The amount an ant consumes and an amount the elephant consumes cannot be made equal. Similarly, a person having 10 members in the family cannot be given equal wages as a person having 2 members in the family. Moreover, there are other considerations that one should take note of, whether he has small children, whether he has elderly parents. Because elderly parents need more care, they need medicine, they need medical facilities. And younger children, small children need education and other things. So it differs how much he or Gandhi himself pointed out that these considerations must be taken into account. But as far as practicable, I am quoting Gandhi, as far as practicable, we should try and should be a maximum to give equal wages to all. Now here also I pose a question. Let the audience, let everybody think, is it possible to give equal wages as far as practicable? Now regarding consumption again, we come back to the concept of minimization of human wants that we should keep our wants limited as far as practicable. Now there have been so many other concepts of Gandhi in the economic field, which needs to be re-evaluated. We have to see whether they are applicable in today's society or not. In the social aspect, Gandhi was against the prevalent custom of untouchability. Gandhi gave so much importance on untouchability that he even forced his wife to clean the toilet of an untouchable for establishing equal rights of all the people in the society. And he was the person responsible for elevating the status of the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribes. The preamble of the Indian constitution to establish justice, social, economic and political, liberty, fraternity and equality of status and opportunity, promoting welfare of all, these are some of the issues which have been enshrined in the famous constitution of India. Article 45 and 46 of the Indian constitution gives right to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. Now these, this is the fruit what we have in the constitution today. The fundamental rights and the directive principles of state's policy enshrined in the constitution are the fruits that we have reaped due to the Gandhian ideals. But how far there are with so many amendments in the Indian constitution? You will know how many amendments in the Indian constitution that have taken place. But I feel that there should be further amendments so that the ideals do not remain near ideals. Yes, if you go to the court, you file a suit. If you are not given justice, if you are not given justice, you go to the court and file a suit. But you know the system, legal system of today, years and years pass by and people do not get justice. Yes, it is very much there in the constitution, but does it happen practically? Do people get real justice? Many a times we see that people simply die without their cases being solved. So, promptness, promptness in judiciary is a very essential factor. It is not enough that I write something in a book and just keep it as a scripture. But I must be able to implement what I believe in. This fact of implementation is something that we are lacking in today's India. Ideals, Indian ideals are beautiful, Gandhi's ideals are beautiful. We have beautiful ideals. Even in our scriptures we have beautiful ideals. But how far are we implementing those ideals? In the true sense of the term, the delay, the delay in receiving justice is a very important matter that we should think about. Gandhi's ideals are such that it prescribes certain important things. Gandhi says that there should not be worship without word. There should not be trade and commerce without morality. There should not be politics without principles. There should not be economics without justice. Yes, morality must be very much there. It is not enough that we secure, we strive for a good end. Gandhi discussed this question about means and ends. Most of the cases what we see are ends are noble, we have noble ends. The means that we employ to secure that end is important. He gives us a beautiful example for this. That a tree, tree bearing fruits of poison cannot give us nectar. If the fruit is poisonous, then the nectar from it will be poisonous. The means must be so yearly differs with Karl Marx and Lenin. According to Marx, the end justifies the means. But to secure social equality, to secure unity and brotherhood, according to Marx we can employ him in violence. But Gandhi does not prescribe to that view. If the end is good, the means employed must also be good. In other words, the means employed to secure a good end must also be a non-violent means. So if you want independence, if you want to have our rights, if you want justice, we cannot go and simply kill people for the sake of justice, for the sake of equality. We have to win it by method of non-violence and he prescribed the great idea of satyagra, non-cooperation movement. And the Indian War of Independence was secured by that powerful weapon, the weapon of satyagra. Not only here, even in South Africa, people imitated it. In the West, people imitated the mass of Savarva, already parted out. Even in the West, Gandhi is a morgon. Of course, again, it's a debatable fact that Gandhi did not want to use the word ism for his philosophy because he has not said anything new. But for our workers, we call it Gandhi's, or we call it Gandhian. Gandhism or Gandhian philosophy is more implemented in the West as he pointed out. And so many countries in the West have imitated Gandhi. He is praised and we have the statue of Gandhi even in the famous museum in London. Everywhere he is worshipped. But in India, the relevance of Gandhi, which is so very important, is not practiced in the way as it should have been practiced. Violence, confusion, intolerance, exploitation, murder, killings, so many facts. As we see in today's India, they are growing and growing and people live in fear, in the grip of fear, everywhere. And we should always try this, when this fear is within us. No, I'm reminded of the famous poem by Rabindranath Tagore where the mind is without fear. Where Rabindranath pointed out that the condition of our country should be such that there is no fear, any kind of fear. Spiritual fear is the greatest hampering factor to our development. We should have our condition in a society where the society is not broken up by narrow domestic walls, Rabindranath's language. So we move about when we go out at night, ladies go out at night, we are always in the grip of fear that we move about. Even after so many years of the Indian independence, people are not safe. People's minds are not without fear. People are always thinking of what will happen to tomorrow, whether I'm going to live tomorrow or not. Corruption is so rampant today that I cannot trust even my near and dear ones because people are so full of corruption. So I feel that in order to solve the present-day problems, Gandhi is the only alternative. True, Gandhi is not relevant in certain cases. For example, Gandhi and I don't know if Sadeshi may not be able to implement Sadeshi to the extent Gandhi wanted. Today we cannot have the idea or grammar of Gandhi's times. Because Ram Raja is a condition where all will have enough to eat, drink, he will be happy, he will be in... there will be no misery anywhere. It is just a condition of heaven. It is a condition of heaven which we cannot expect to have in today's society with so much of population everywhere around us. Population is a great barrier. Gandhi spoke at a time when there was so... the population in India was much less. So there may be certain deficiencies in Gandhi. He is not a God. He was an ordinary human being like all of us. So every ideology has a plus and minus, has both a good side and a bad side. There may be certain drawbacks. He gave us a system of education. He gave us a system of education where he preached of education, imparting education in the mother time, in one's own mother time. This was a very noble idea. What we see today, our own... I am ashamed to say that even my own sons, they cannot speak as a means properly in the sense that they do not know some of the words. My own son, when he was young, he used to ask me, what is that word called... Certain Asami's words, which we don't understand, which we often use, what is needyatom? I was so ashamed that I could not teach my son what needyatom is. What is onukham dhan? These are some of the words which I could not teach my son when he was very young. Now, of course, they know. But that was the reason why Gandhi said that after a certain age, one should get education through the medium of one's mother time. English is a must. We have become slaves to English. We cannot get rid of it very soon. We go around the world and see German people do not know how to speak English. French people do not know how to speak English. They are all European countries. But English is not their medium. English is not their medium of instruction. They have beautiful books in their own language. We are slaves to English. We cannot get rid of it soon, no doubt. But at least some emphasis can be given to our mother time. There can be good books in our mother time. And Gandhi spoke about all-round development of education, of a person by means of education. So this all-round development means development physically, mentally, spiritually in all aspects. University degrees or college degrees does not mean simply offering a degree. But the all-round development of a child, all-round development of a student is very, very important. And especially emphasis should be given on character building. So these are some of the things which we think are, which appears that it is not something great. But they are very useful. They are very useful for the present-day society. And we should take note of all those things. So if our society, if India has to be a good, a real India, if our society has to be a good society, we have, there is no alternative to Gandhi. We have to follow the Gandhian method, only with certain modifications. So if we want that untouchability should go, then we should have faith in the maxim that all men are mothers. If we want that this proportionate wealth and income should go, then we should have faith in the principle of minimization of human bonds. If we want to have a proper education, we should have faith in the ancient system of education which gave more importance to spiritual upliftment rather than economic upliftment. So Gandhi is very, very relevant today. And he was a person who gave us, who gave us the beautiful ideals, who gave us beautiful structure and how far we implement them. It depends on the individuals who form the society because it is the individuals who are going to implement the Gandhian ideals. And with these remarks, I conclude my lecture. Thank you.


Do you enjoy your job? I mean, really enjoy your role and your organization, because if you don't, today I'm going to give you six reasons why I think you should leave your job. Hey, meeting planners and meeting partners. It's Leanne from leancolderwood.com. I have recently left my job of 11 years, and before we start to talk about today's topic, I want to give a huge shout out to my clients. I can't thank you enough for all of your support and words of encouragement over the past several weeks. Your big picture thinkers, and I appreciate the trust you're putting in me to create bigger and better resources for you. So more to come on my next move, but thank you so much for sticking it out with me and I will see you all very soon. Now, when I went down this road to eventually leaving my organization, I asked myself a lot of questions and wondered if people also asked themselves these same questions. So I want to outline six things that really resonated with me in I guess what pushed me to look for different opportunities in my life. So I'm going to outline six reasons why I think you might need to leave your job. Number one, it is time to connect with new people. They say the number one reason that people leave their jobs is because they have bad bosses or bad leadership. But what I think those stats are missing is sometimes it's not necessarily about a bad boss. It's just that people need a new leader. So they're looking for new leadership ideas, new people to connect with and even in some cases new colleagues to learn from. So if you're looking for new ideas and leadership and mentorship, it might be time to find that in a different role. Reason number two, it's time to grow. If you are finding you are stagnant in your position, you're not feeling challenged day to day, maybe you're not exercising your strengths. And if you want to learn more about strengths, I have a video and blog post that you can access here, then maybe it's time for you to find a new role or a new organization to exercise your strengths. It's such a waste of your human creativity to not fulfill your potential. And so it might be time for you to fulfill it somewhere else. Reason number three, you need to be fair to your organization. Regardless of what you think of the current organization you're working for, they deserve the best version of you. They deserve 100% of your energy and your passion. And if you're not in a place to give that to them, then you need to be fair to them to find someone who is going to fulfill that role with energy and passion and bring their 100% to that role. So it is a selfless act, being fair to your organization and moving on to allow them to fill your role with someone who might be a better fit right now for it. Reason number four, be selfless. So like number three, if you are in a roller position and you're not feeling energized anymore, there are a ton of people out there who would kill to have a chance at your role or to have a chance to work for your organization. So you need to give them that opportunity. You need to vacate that role so someone else can come in with their new ideas and their new passion and energy and give it their 100%. If you find you're not giving 100% to your role, it might be time now to be selfless and move on. Reason number five, it's fair to your clients. Again, in the same way that you need to be fair to your organization, your clients are expecting the best of you. And if there's something weighing you down from giving it your all and your best to your clients, you need to find a place where you can do that. And that's kind of where I was. I need to find a place where I can do more for my clients and create new things. And that's why I'm moving on. There's a plethora of reasons why I'm doing it, but certainly this is one that resonated with me is I'm actually doing it so I can be a better person for the people who need me the most. And finally, it's fair to your family and friends. Now, our family and our friends, they are gonna support us no matter what decision we make, no matter where we work as long as it's legal, but they wanna see us happy. And if we are not happy, it becomes a drain on them as well to lift us up out of that funk. So be fair to yourself, be fair to your clients, and more importantly, be fair to your family and friends by finding a place and a job that energizes you and makes you supremely happy. If you find yourself now questioning your role and your organization and wondering, is this the right place for me? These questions are normal and natural throughout your job. I am not condoning job jumping if you all of a sudden have a bad day at work. These questions come up as a culmination of things that have probably happened over the past months or years being with a role. And if you find yourself here and you feel comfortable reaching out, will you email me? Reach me at leann at leancaldorwood.com. I'd love to hear what your struggles and your frustrations are. And more importantly, how we can find a place for you that's just a better fit for your strengths. I am so excited about the next adventure for me. I am really, really stoked about what lies ahead. And more importantly, the blog is not going away. I'm going to be continuing to create content and put up videos for you. So please subscribe to my video channel below and so you can make sure that you don't miss a video week to week. And please stay in touch with me over at my blog at leancaldorwood.com. I'll be posting updates about my journey there as well. If you find yourself questioning about whether or not this job you're in is the right job for you. You're not alone. There's lots of us who have done it.  Thanks for watching today's video and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.