Lydia the Cat Herder

Current Focus
Lydia is working very hard on an initial kick-off date in Houston.

We're working on developing some role definitions for the team. Rex met with Rob today to discuss his strenghts and interests. Rob shared his recent profile taken on the http://www.strengthfinder.com/ website. Rob is a good fit as a creative catalyst and ideation champion. Rex has used the book Now Discover Your Strengths and the test as a valuable tool for building team structure and roles.

Let me introduce you to a member of the team. Randy Thompson, senior director of program management for Cushman & Wakefield. He is also a public speaker, writer and innovative thinker.

Randy Thompson was quoted in the January 26th edition of the Dallas Morning News. You can go straight to the article through the link above. Cables in the ceiling can be a hazard and a hidden expense to the tenant.

I like the article because it supports our focus on High Performance Work Space where data and cabling go under a technology platform - NOT - in the ceiling.

Check out updates on the Mindshift Innovation site.

Week 2 Recap - Off and Running

Mabel received an encouraging voice mail from Dick Haworth expressing Art Gensler’s enthusiastic support for the project.

Lydia is working on a date for an initial meeting between the different partner companies. Gensler has provided 2/27 as an opening for their team.

Bill Black is submitting a presentation for Metrocon (like Neocon SW). The topic explores design trends and new value propositions.

We’ve save several domain names for consideration when we launch an official website.

Rex is working on team role definitions and initial communication tools. Take a look at some of the links and offer feedback.

• Mindshift Innovation focuses on the innovation process; people, products and ideas.
• Mindshift Books will provide excerpts from materials related to our efforts.
• Mindshift Plan explains the marketing plan.

Project Mindshift - Dallas Recap

This is a secured weblog providing a useful tool for initial conversations organizing our thoughts and efforts for Project Mindshift. I will use this to summarize meeting notes and list the actionable steps for follow up. This will also allow those on the project team to comment.

We may shift this to another tool like Basecamp.

The two actionable steps from today's conversations are:Determine a date for our partner gathering in Houston (end of

February/early March - Lydia Knowles will report with the date options and coordinate with Rex to discuss with Gensler).

Determine the list of members we wish to invite. At the moment we have commitments from:

1. Gensler Houston (Marilyn Archer & Dean Strombom), Gensler LA (Jim Oswald - facilitator), Gensler SF - (Loree Goffigon), Gensler Dallas (Paul Manno).


2. Cushman Dallas (Randy Thompson).


3. KPMG Houston (Jabir Al-Hila).


4. Turner Dallas (Lance Charriere).

We would like to add the following members:

1. GSA - Kevin ? - Who owns this one?


2. Developer (Hillwood or Beightler) - Who owns this one?


3. U of Calgary - Brian St. Claire (Bill Black owner)


4. DEGW (Kate North owner)


5. Fast Company or Metropolis (Mabel Casey owner)


6. Turner - to find someone with a national perspective (Lydia Knowles owner)

Where would a firm like NowWow or Future of Work fit into this? Does this overlap with DEGW?

We discussed developing a second team with Perkins & Will as a key member and keeping this team smaller and more strategic. This team should include a GC and probably a developer.

End User Group: Bill Black, Lydia Knowles and Rex Miller will develop a list of potential end-users with the thought of forming a separate forum and either integrate that knowledge into the two core teams or to introduce one or more members into the core teams once they become established.

Some of the names mentioned include:

• Larry Fees with Compuware


• Alan Witsen with Squarefootage.net


• Calamos.

We may also want to discuss forming local dialogue groups based on the location of some of the different Haworth project members; Dallas, Calgary, LA and Grand Rapids.

The initial Haworth team members for Houston include; Mabel Casey, Bill Black, Franco Bianchi, and Greg Bobyn.

Add your comments and ideas.