An article in Seedmagazine made me think about an important aspect of Interweaving and Architecting practices that work with communities, enterprises, buildings, or systems. An analogy came into mind, the consideration (the careful thoughts) of Uniformity - Diversity. This particular consideration is bifocal and is part of the foundational knowledge base available to Interweavers and Architects.


seedmagazine.com/content/article/in_defense_of_difference/

The article covers what the trend towards Uniformity (from diversity) does to the world.


"SCIENTISTS OFFER NEW INSIGHT INTO WHAT TO PROTECT OF THE WORLD'S RAPIDLY VANISHING LANGUAGES, CULTURES, AND SPECIES."


"The way Maffi tells the story, she was interviewing Tzeltal Mayan people waiting in line at a medical clinic in the village of Tenejapa when she met a man who had walked for hours, carrying his two-year-old daughter, who was suffering from diarrhea. It turned out that the man had only a dim memory of the "grasshopper leg herb" that was once well known as a perfectly effective diarrhea remedy in the Tzeltal ethnomedical pharmacopeia. Because he'd nearly forgotten the words for the herb, he'd lost almost any trace of the herb's utility, or even of its existence.

This was when the full impact of current global trends dawned on her, Maffi recalls. It's not just species or languages that are vanishing from the world. The world is losing knowledge, too, of the most useful and precious kinds. If the world was losing local knowledge, what else was slipping away?"

What does this mean for interweavers and architects?
First of all, it suggests that the spectrum of Uniformity-Diversity is something that must be considered and carefully thought of.

Secondly, this will generate a lot of questions: 

    •    Should we offer standardised products? 
    •    Does the people in our innovation and development teams come from the same background? 
    •    To what degree should we diversify our organisation and teams? 
    •    Are standardised better (best) practices something desirable? 
    •    What do we do with organisational knowledge and learning? 
    •    Can the organisation stand against time and chocks if analysis and decision-making are made uniform?
    •    Do we need to separate general knowledge from specific knowledge to avoid depleting our languages?

The Interweaving Body of Knowledge consists of several knowledge-oriented languages and catalogues. One catalogue consists of Considerations (careful thoughts) that interweavers and architects should be aware of and use. Uniformity-Diversity is a bifocal consideration, and Meaning, Symbolism, Balance, and Trade-offs are others.

These catalogues and languages contribute to living, vibrant and knowledgeable Interweaving and Architecting practices that can survive at a high capacity level over time, replicate and evolve over successive generations.

Enjoy!
Anders W. Tell
Strategic Interweaver