Put wheels on it

Nothing counts until you put it out into the world. Ideas are good, but action matters most.

The “put wheels on it” phrase raises some interesting visual images when applied to property (a house on wheels anyone?), but the point remains the same:

• If you care about energy efficiency, how have you reduced your energy consumption this year?

• If you care about tiny houses and living simply, what have you done (or not done) to reduce your consumption in the last month?

• If you care about connected living, how many more people do you live with?

Do something. Turn ideas into projects, into actions, into something that gets done. And remember that done doesn’t mean perfect, but it does mean available.

Trial and Error v2.0 is called Action/Reflection

How often do we pause to take stock at the completion of a project? To reflect on the process, the people and product. To search for lessons to learn. And then embed those lessons in the next project.

How often do we change?

Making time to identify, solve and implement opportunities for continual, incremental improvement is critical if we want to try and keep pace with the world. And it's even more critical if we're seeking to make a difference, to deliver something new, to do something better than the status quo. To do more than meet spec, we need to challenge and improve the specification itself.

This is not a case of trial and error. We do this by design. We do this on purpose. We do this because we know we've never nailed it. Because there's always more to learn.

Trying is necessary, because otherwise we'll just talk. 

But reflection is necessary, because otherwise we're wasting our try.

Building bump spaces

Bump spaces have been around as a concept for a while, so if you're new to the idea, a quick google search should bring you up to speed. Or you can jump to this article I found written by a local public property genius.*

There's a general acceptance that micro-collisions between people and the connections that result are what makes up the 'net' in a community network.

Small, simple, spontaneous interactions are both a fruit of, and a creator of, connection. 

So in a community seeking to grow connection, we're caught in a catch-22: How to make bump spaces work without a culture of connection, while trying to use bump spaces to build the culture by creating connection.

The answer, as often happens with many organic people-systems, is to do it deliberately, intentionally, and with purpose, for a while. And eventually, it'll just be what we do around here.

Don't wait for the Council to redevelop the local park. Go and sit on the seat with a cup of tea every Sunday morning at 10am.

Don't wait for the local cafe to set up outdoor seating. Start buying fish and chips every Friday night at 6.30pm. And don't order over the phone.

We don't need to wait for the Council, the Urban Planners, or the Parks Department to make these spaces for use. We can use the ones that are there, and create our own on the dirt we can control.

Cut down a section of the front fence and make a bench seat. And sit on it sometimes.

Set up a book swap fridge next to the letterbox.

Set up a herb garden along the front fence. Or in front of the front fence.

Do any of these things at the local park. Or school.

And perhaps along the way we might figure out how to get bump spaces put into city planning public space design, or a requirement for new subdivisions.

*Disclaimer: This is my own definition based on judgements from a distance. I don't know the guy and I've never met him, although I'd like to.